Admin Decision on the Banned Six

[Jansen]

I think people are just tired of fighting, Syrus. This isn't an ideal situation. No one is claiming that. It seems that many either just want to move on from this situation, or are sufficiently satisfied that some progress is being made by the Admin team. I would expect that not even individual admins are thrilled about this solution. But, at some point, a decision has to be made and usually the one you come to is one in which nobody is satisfied.

A question I have regarding this final warning is this: After the Final Warning, there is still going to be a ban vote after a month? While this would eliminate the suddenness and shock of a ban announcement, unless the violation is better stated than the violations committed by the six previous, the player under warning will be doomed to fail a ban vote because he will be unclear as to what behavior needs correcting.

There will still be a vote after that period of time, the idea behind this is to give people a chance to change their behaviour before the banhammer drops. If they want to use it, is up to them.

ONE public warning regarding what has been seen as problematic

This also includes mentioning what we think as problematic as clearly as possible

Why would I argue with someone who puts himself above me from the very beginning, think about how a player feels when they read your post. It comes over as if you are on a moral highground, but until there's need for "admin actions" both of us are just people of the same community. Or is that already the admin speaking, dangling the sword of "justice" above my head?
In all honesty, is that a way for an admin to act? Yes, you have the facts, the evidence, but that is part of the problem: we don't. We're left in the dark. We just got rumors to work with for some and that's not a good point to start at with such serious matters. Sanctions of such severity need to be very clear on what caused them, both as an example and to stop any discussion dead in its tracks - unquestionable evidence or at least a clear description. (A ban for someone cheating can obviously just state that the person was cheating, no need for extreme details there.)
For most of the banned we can (somewhat) see the reasons (and I would have agreed to a few on that list), but of some others ... overall it just feels inconclusive to just dish out a perma-ban with no prior warning. This overall, this is what makes the whole thing wrong, and this is why everyone deserves it to be undone.
Besides, it feels like it could hit anyone at any minute just as the admins feel like doing it with the lack of proper knowledge for "what exactly deserved a PERMANENT ban". We are not talking about a small thing here, this is pretty much the "death sentence"-penalty for Disco. The "non-plus-ultra of a sanction" available. It should not be thrown around.

You made a mistake and then complain that it backfired heavily. You have the chance to undo it.
The only right choice would have been to unban all of the six and restart the whole matter with this being considered as their last warning, would that not have been the easiest choice to make, and probably the one that'd have put all sides at ease? It would have given you every justification necessary for a ban in a following incident, yet you chose the "not half, not full" option, with a very surprising outcome to any "normal human".


(And yes, there are biased people on your team; for some it might be obvious, but I won't be the one pointing fingers.)

You do not have to see the evidence to accept this decision and you are not entitled to see it either, neither you, nor Jack, nor Faction Leaders or anyone else that is not directly affected by this. The previously banned people that have asked for evidence themselves have gotten it and this is essentially all you have to know about this.

Here's my opinion.

I moderate a forum for a different online game. On our forum, making all evidence public is mandatory, but that surely does not stop people from spreading rumors anyway. Granted, having the evidence hidden makes more rumors appear, this is obvious. But they would not be staff if it they were abusive or the dictator-types. Sure, some of them might be a little biased, but do you have any idea how rare it is to find anyone who is 100% fair in all situations, not biased and at the same time worthy of being on the staff team? Well it's pretty hard.

They are the admins, we are the players, we have to trust them to do their administrative duties - which they did, when they admitted they were wrong the first time and corrected the for second time.

The big problem with public evidence, is that it can easily lead to harrassing, trolling and general witch hunts. If someone made a mistake they should be given the chance to improve, which I think, is not possible in some cases, if the evidence has been made public previously. Especially newcomes make mistakes, that could make it hard for them to be allowed to join some factions,... if the evidence is available for everyone, as faction leaders could just reject the applications, because "OH LOOK THATS THAT DUMB GUY, NOPE" would become a very easy thing to say.

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