Ban-Appeal Ideas

1/ Maybe the most obvious advice -> A "how to post a ban appeal" post like the posts you have for applying for moderator can help prevent players from forgetting needed info. Do most appeals have a good structure?

3.1/ Do staffmembers take screenshots to get proof of the ban? If not this may be a good implementation. Let someone post that proof as one of the first posts (preferably the second post). This way all mods/admins/... know and see what happened from a non altered perspective.

4/ Make the post invis for the poster untill most of the deciding has been done (3.4 , 3.1 and 3.3 should be present in the appeal). Afterwards send a message with the conclusion of the tread so that the poster can respond to that instead of the actual tread. I feel like this would prevent long posts.

extra: discussing in teamspeak/... could speed things up. (without the banned member). (I do however know this can't always be done considering people have lives )

I do not know how a real tread looks like so I'm sorry if this isn't helping or makes absolutely no sense.

 

One improvement I can think of would be to make it so the link to the ban is on the post like on co-admin apps. Would prevent the need of someone to post the link there.

 

3.1: Yes, Staff members are required to take screenshots.

4: Bad idea. If the person forgot to include something, we can't ask them about it, nor can they respond even if they realized that they left it out, themselves. These are ban appeals, we expect people to work to prove they're worthy of returning, not make one post and then twiddle their thumbs.

E: Teamspeak is a good idea, but not all staff members use it. An easier program for us to use, that we in fact do use, is plugged into the servers, so even those who don't download the program get access to it. If a discussion on anything is needed, it can, and probably does get handled in one or both of the programs.

 

How do you usually determine if they are worthy? In other words, How do you know they regret it?

 

It's a back and forth discussion between various staff members and the person trying to appeal their ban. There are several factors that go into gauging them, though I'm not sure if I should post what those factors are, here.

What I can say is that the following are important if you wish to be appealed:

• Why did you get banned? If you don't know this, it's harder to accept your apology, unless the ban report clearly didn't give a reason.
• Why did you commit that crime? Understanding why you do something means you've accept that you did, and helps you learn how to avoid making such a bad decision in the future.
• What's changed? Obviously, if you're sincere about desiring an appeal, you're sorry for what you did, but if that's the only change, there's no real reason to unban you, as you would likely get upset and do it again.
• What will you do to make it up? Obviously, there's not a whole lot you can do, but it's the thought that counts. We want to know that people are willing to make amends.

 

having some of the most experence with this system and making ban appeals on the server, i'll throw in my two cents, ok, first off, there should be a guide on what to include, as some people unlike me or anyone else who has done this before, have absolutely no idea what they did wrong in earnest and no idea how to make an appeal, and the rest seem to be a fairly good system, as if the player is an )&*( to the playerbase, it's opinionated twoards not letting him play more, as the community just won't survive with him here longer which is why that in general opinions are good, and if you're a good debator, you can show your side and change minds, because if you're banned other people think that it must have been done for a reason

 

I do agree that it might be useful to give people making an appeal some basic guidelines about what is expected so we don't get people making appeals with very little details and then having to ask for those extra details in one of the first replies, however the more detailed those guidelines are the more likely that people who don't necessarily deserve to be unbanned will be able to game the system by writing the ban appeal that they think we want to hear rather than making an honest appeal from the heart, for that reason I think the current free-form style when posting an appeal works well.

I think the biggest improvement to the appeal process is time, I've seen a number of people posting appeals for 1 day bans who's appeals end up taking longer than that to get to the bottom of rendering the appeal redundant in the end, so I think it would be great if we could try to make sure that all appeals are replied to as soon as possible, and where appropriate the user unbanned as soon as possible.

 

1 day ban appeals are almost never going to be taken care of before they expire. Ban appeals are usually discussed and reach a quorum before being reduced, unless a grave error was made in the first place.

 

This tread seems to develop the same problems the actual ban appeals have.

 

I would like to see a form submission similar to applications for user to fill out. That links the ban thread automatically and BanManager for previous bans. Would be nice for a poll type option for staff that requires a reason when you "vote" or give an opinion rather than someone having to chase down staff. This gives a nice clear picture and easy work flow process.

 

I actually kinda like that "Ban-Appeal" is the only thing they know. It puts them in a kind of stream-of-consciousness mode that makes it pretty easy to tell if the player is *actually* remorseful. This isn't a process, I think, that would do well in a structured, factory-form kind of environment.

"Ahh i've been through there, just put this, this, and this for fields A, B, and D and be all like 'omg i is so soz! i accidentally the entire base and can i haz playtime back nao?"

 

I'm thinking basic information and a mini test (Please provide link to rules, XX, XXX, XXX, etc) then a big space with explanation. Not so much a rigid form for them but handy links like we get with apps.

 

I think you are allready doing it, but there are sites that keep ban of tracks. Could help to identify the bad guys fast in the process. Of couse there are many "childish admin" bans, but usually the numbers still speak

 

Ahhh ok, i gotcha now lucid. I like that idea, then XD

I think it should stay admin/manager/director/founder though. part of the process, as I understand it, is that the ban appeals is impartial, and the party who banned the appealing player isn't a significant part of that process.

 

If you're referring to external ban aggregation sites like fishbans, yes we do check them sometimes, and there have been several occasions were a player was going to be unbanned until a keen-eyed staff member happened to come across a ban they had from another network which we then take into account.

 

Here is my opinion, I believe many will go against the main idea behind it but I would hope it can be given actual consideration.

Separate the Ban Appeal section from the Private Complaints and Bugs and make it entirely open to the community. Within this section create two official posts preferably posted by either yourself or Willi.

The first thread something along the lines of: "Ban Appeals, how to" this thread should be aimed directly to those who have been banned and address the process of the ban appeal. Stating that by making the appeal they acknowledge it may be read by the community and their peers may share input upon their ban. The thread should not be an instruction manual to create a Ban Appeal, I feel the free and open creation of a ban appeal gives more information about the player. Showing their organizational skills and through the appeal it also displays the effort (whether good or bad) they gave to create it.

The second thread should be directed towards the community, it should be titled something such as "Ban Appeals, post rules" the goal of this thread should be to address the general responses deemed fit to be posted in an appeal by a player and moderators. Something such as guidelines to responding to an appeal and rules to follow if participating in the appeals section. It should be made clear any posts in response to a ban appeal that are trollish in nature or without contribution to the thread may result in consequence.

Here's a fancy list of the pro's and con's I can see from this suggestion.
Pro's:

• It promotes more openness within the community.
• It allows for the community to voice their opinions and add to the thread with possibly further events/evidence.
• It may eliminate that single sided back and forth game, with a third voice in the mix.
• Banned players will have to openly confront the community about their offense.
• This could make the "regularly appealing" card fall short due to community opinion which would add to the question of whether they seem genuinely sorry.

Con's:

• It could bring about many trolls or useless comments to the appeals section.
• It is a rapid change from the idea of privacy MYM has given banned players. (However from what I've seen much has changed and this might be one of the better changes.)

Between's:

• It openly displays our staff team here at MYM. It could promote a showcase of our staff team's professional performance at the job. Or it could also show the occasional self destructive response to a player who has done wrong, especially were it to them.

While I attempted to cover each side of the suggestion I know I've fallen short. If anyone else would like to contribute to my list just post so below with the Pro/Con format.

Cheers, Auvreaeath​

 

A Pro would be that players that would deal with them each day could also let us know if that player is worse when staff are not looking, or if they have been accused of things in game by their peers.
however... a con is the messiness and overall clutter that this would also ultimately bring.