[Pixie Soldier]

Maybe instead of being rude to staff who are trying their best to handle a situation that’s being made worse you could use the admin chat or give them time to sort things out. Read though our guidelines which you will find here on the forums. There have been times where players have thought someone’s hacking but actually when we look into it they have a huge amount of time on a another server and know all the maps. We can never assume that someone is cheating. We have to watch them and record them. Also not all ranks of staff can use all of the commands. Maybe get a bit of knowledge about how things work before reporting someone for a gag. We are only volunteering here to help the server and we do what we can, no one needs to be yelled at by any player, it’s unnecessary. 

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[§4Zack]

The only thing he did was wrong was the gag all command but if there was a lot of people talking about the Ghosting/hacking then he had the right to lol but i can't say because i was a sleep at 2am so i wasn't even on :p

[TheUltraFish]

So since it's the topic in question, how long was everyone gagged for? It was not in the evidence video.

I do see that a gag all was placed as well as hacker evidence being gathered and that a successful ban request put in. I just want more detail on what Abdel said to everyone after he ungagged himself and the situation surrounding that.

[Abdel]

I gagged everyone for like a minute and explained that I couldn't ban him yet cause his name kept changing and I didn't want to ban the wrong person. Few were arguing why I wasn't banning him, others yelling that he was clearly hacking. It was a quick thing letting them know that I needed to gather evidence and explain why I couldn't ban straight away.

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The only thing he did was wrong was the gag all command but if there was a lot of people talking about the Ghosting/hacking then he had the right to lol but i can't say because i was a sleep at 2am so i wasn't even on :p

Gag all isn't wrong when more than 5 people are on an uproar about the same thing

[VolfVoss]

Offender's Name: Abdel

Offender's SteamID: STEAM_0:1:53483447

Offender's Rank: Test Mod

What They Did: Gagged every one instead of banning a cheater. He was able to play for 5 prop hunt before he was banned. After banning the cheater, He got spoken to by some of the server players. He said he would mute anyone who said anything bad about what happened ( Vocally ).

When They Did It: 1/26/20 3:10 AM ish

Potential Witnesses: Any one on the server at the time.

Proof: Here is the screenshot when he gagged every one 

https://gyazo.com/44be11bb4fcb2f5924fe7e81aad3e939

And here he was, Spin botting away while every one was gagged / muted 
https://gyazo.com/6d1ff410ec63175b39e8112ecfa596dc

Other:

In an effort to educate you on how we do things in this PH SERVER here's the PH Staff Guidelines for you to look at. 

Evidence is VERY important before banning someone. Why you might ask? Because EVERYONE who is banned can make an Unban Request, and if there's not sufficient evidence for their violation (just like in the real world) the sentence/ban is then lifted. 

Now to your Abuse report.

I can see that it is indeed lacking by many aspects. 

Your proof is only of the fact that the whole sever was muted, doesn't show how long which means it could have been for 30 seconds or less. Nothing wrong with taking a moment to explain a situation at hand. 

Your witnesses are not even stated beyond " Any one on the server at the time.", yet we have 2 witness accounts from Izzy and Puraga that state what the situation was. They being in favor of what Abdel did. That's 2 against your 0.  In the future if you decided to have witnesses, be sure to state who they are.  

Right now you're 0:2

Let's continue though.

What they(being Abdel) did, now I love this part most of all, that's why I saved it for last.

Are you ready?

"Gagged every one instead of banning a cheater. He was able to play for 5 prop hunt before he was banned. After banning the cheater, He got spoken to by some of the server players. He said he would mute anyone who said anything bad about what happened ( Vocally )."

Let's break it down a little.

"Gagged every one instead of banning a cheater.." Alright so you're saying that Abdel gagged everyone to explain the situation and so that he could gather sufficient evidence (before the cheater left) in order to ban an obvious cheater. I see nothing wrong here.

"He was able to play for 5 prop hunt before he was banned." Oh look! Sufficient evidence was gathered and the Ban happened. Good Job Abdel on gathering enough evidence to ban the bad guy!! 

"After banning the cheater, He got spoken to by some of the server players" This is very common for staff members to get spoken to by members of the community that don't know/understand how to staff a server or they haven't been educated on the procedure we follower here. I attached said procedure for you above so that you can be educated and hopefully educate your fellow players. 

He said he would mute anyone who said anything bad about what happened ( Vocally ). Mmm I love me some accusations without proof, don't you? Now the problem with what you said here is that MUTE stops text function only. So if he said that he would MUTE anyone that said what happened that would be just silly as they could continue to talk about it vocally.  Alas, there's no proof to back up your statement. 

At this point you're probably wondering why I went through all this effort to point out your flaws. This is simple, there were so many flaws in your report that I couldn't ignore it. If you're going to file an abuse of power report, at least put some more effort into your report and into educating yourself on how things are done on the server you play on. 

Thank you for Reading my Voss Talk

Have an Educated day!!

[§4Zack]

I gagged everyone for like a minute and explained that I couldn't ban him yet cause his name kept changing and I didn't want to ban the wrong person. Few were arguing why I wasn't banning him, others yelling that he was clearly hacking. It was a quick thing letting them know that I needed to gather evidence and explain why I couldn't ban straight away.

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The only thing he did was wrong was the gag all command but if there was a lot of people talking about the Ghosting/hacking then he had the right to lol but i can't say because i was a sleep at 2am so i wasn't even on :p

Gag all isn't wrong when more than 5 people are on an uproar about the same thing

Not what nuru told me she said unless it was "extreme" then you should be using the command gag all. if it's not extreme then you have to do it 1 by 1 *menu works better*

[RussEfarmer]

I completely understand how you feel, the way staff works can be incredibly frustrating to an outsider sometimes. As others said, there's a way to do things PROPER to make sure they don't mess up what they're doing, and while it may be a slower process than just throwing the ban hammer, it eliminates risks of banning the wrong player or getting some part of the process wrong. I wasn't on the server at the time, I don't know EXACTLY why everyone was gagged, but I do know that this server gets REALLY LOUD, and trying to focus on a task with 8 people screaming in your ear is pretty damn hard.

Staff procedure can be annoyingly slow or move like clockwork; it all depends on how the person in question operates under stressful situations. I personally have a dedicated efficient procedure for gathering enough evidence and throwing the hammer quickly, but benefit of the doubt, said process is very stressful and requires all three screens on my desk. A lot of people don't the luxury or dedication to a VIDEO GAME to do all of that.

TL;DR staff are humans, this server is loud and stressful, sometimes things don't happen like you want them to. Abdel's intents are not malicious, and I can trust he made his best judgement in that particular situation, even though other people including yourself may have wanted it done differently.

Gag all isn't wrong when more than 5 people are on an uproar about the same thing

Not what nuru told me she said unless it was "extreme" then you should be using the command gag all. if it's not extreme then you have to do it 1 by 1 *menu works better*

Same thing applies, some people manage things much differently. I can't speak for Abdel, but Nuru has a lot of experience being staff both here and elsewhere, and I've seen her throw down on a full server by herself. I don't like the idea of gagging everyone, but as I said, being staff is stressful as hell, sometimes it's necessary to make sure you have a clear head when making a decision to ban. Fucking up a ban is typically a one way trip to this subforum, and NOBODY wants to have an abuse report made on them because they had a stress reaction.

[§4Zack]

I completely understand how you feel, the way staff works can be incredibly frustrating to an outsider sometimes. As others said, there's a way to do things PROPER to make sure they don't mess up what they're doing, and while it may be a slower process than just throwing the ban hammer, it eliminates risks of banning the wrong player or getting some part of the process wrong. I wasn't on the server at the time, I don't know EXACTLY why everyone was gagged, but I do know that this server gets REALLY LOUD, and trying to focus on a task with 8 people screaming in your ear is pretty damn hard.

Staff procedure can be annoyingly slow or move like clockwork; it all depends on how the person in question operates under stressful situations. I personally have a dedicated efficient procedure for gathering enough evidence and throwing the hammer quickly, but benefit of the doubt, said process is very stressful and requires all three screens on my desk. A lot of people don't the luxury or dedication to a VIDEO GAME to do all of that.

TL;DR staff are humans, this server is loud and stressful, sometimes things don't happen like you want them to. Abdel's intents are not malicious, and I can trust he made his best judgement in that particular situation, even though other people including yourself may have wanted it done differently.

Gag all isn't wrong when more than 5 people are on an uproar about the same thing

Not what nuru told me she said unless it was "extreme" then you should be using the command gag all. if it's not extreme then you have to do it 1 by 1 *menu works better*

Same thing applies, some people manage things much differently. I can't speak for Abdel, but Nuru has a lot of experience being staff both here and elsewhere, and I've seen her throw down on a full server by herself. I don't like the idea of gagging everyone, but as I said, being staff is stressful as hell, sometimes it's necessary to make sure you have a clear head when making a decision to ban. Fucking up a ban is typically a one way trip to this subforum, and NOBODY wants to have an abuse report made on them because they had a stress reaction.

I mean I get that but if it's only 8 people or so there a menu for a reason don't get me wrong I love the staff they put work into the server and if staff is so stressful why won't they take a break?? or retire if they or someone can't handle the stress it's 2020 everyone has stress online or Irl but using that as an excuse to gag everyone is just false hope, but Like you said it was for the better so it can be quite I wasn't on at the time so i really can't say much about it but I do think Abby Made a right choice. *went with his heart*

[Lt. Star]

Just gonna put in my two cents here to what Zack said, this is off topic I know, but to say its ONLY 8 people is not really understanding the situation. In that case I would gag the entire server. The menu is very difficult to work with cause it has no order and even when you sort it it gets reset every time a new player joins or leave. Its temperamental and hard to find 8 people while also getting a hacker. Now the menu is in your way of the recording. What I would do in that case is gag the server, give a big warning, ungag than proceed to gag one by one as they became talkative again not using the menu. I find that to be a very effective way of handling it. Also to say to basically leave every time a stressful situation comes up is wrong. There are isolated situations that become stressful, any staff can agree on that.

[RussEfarmer]

I mean I get that but if it's only 8 people or so there a menu for a reason don't get me wrong I love the staff they put work into the server and if staff is so stressful why won't they take a break?? or retire if they or someone can't handle the stress it's 2020 everyone has stress online or Irl but using that as an excuse to gag everyone is just false hope, but Like you said it was for the better so it can be quite I wasn't on at the time so i really can't say much about it but I do think Abby Made a right choice. *went with his heart*

Honestly, you would have to be the most efficient man on the planet for this game to NOT make you stressed. People don't retire because they love doing it and they feel the need to stay because people need them. The fact that Abdel responds to an on call staff ping nearly every time he's available shows how much dedication he has to this line of work, and on a game as toxic as garry's mod, that's a hard thing to hold on to. This line of work is inherently stressful, but that doesn't warrant quitting. I'm just thankful that he knew what needed to be done to get a clear head and finish the job instead of acting on an impulse and throwing himself into the wrath of his peers.