Good Morning / Afternoon / Evening
During last events of the 11th of April 2024 some behaviour was displayed that does not align with the morals of the community. Some of the behaviours displayed include, calling out people as paedophiles without any proof, harassment, encouraging harassment, inappropriate comments, toxicity and bullying.
These are not behaviours that are welcome in the dinks community, it was greatly disappointing to see both staff and regular players engaging this way, especially in the discord.

Some context around 2 of the bans:
Batton’s ban was in relation to further evidence provided past this event, not purely based on the evidence proper provided.

J@ck’s ban is also based of further evidence from people reaching out post this event.

Apologies for the delayed response time on these issues, but there has been a lot to go through / evaluate. A consensus has been reached and the following punishments issues:
dgcza / Cazz / john ling: Community Ban
J@ck XDDD: All server ban (appealable after 6 months)(Demotion)
Battons: All server ban (appealable after 3 months)
Wende: All server ban
Trundler: All server ban
Alichay: Discord Perma Ban
Proper: Discord Perma Ban
Hong 1-Month Discord ban
Pisca: 2-week Discord Ban
Noire: 2-week Discord Ban
Mikyle: 1-week Discord Ban
Bab: 1-week Discord Ban

If you have any questions about anything, please reach out to an admin.

Hey chat,

Reputation System
After a discussion with various staff members about recent events and the overall state of the forum's environment, I decided to remove the reputation system from appearing on "serious" forum sections, which are the Appeals, Donor/Staff Abuse, and Unban Requests sections (The discord report and strike appeals sections count too). Huge thanks to @Ryan722 for his work on the backend for setting this up. This means that rep cannot be given, added, or even shown in these sections. I am not including the staff applications sections (for now) because I believe rep can still be helpful there. But, if it becomes an issue there I will remove that too.

For context, I have said multiple times (and Battons has too in the past) that if the reputation system becomes a nuisance, such as becoming a vehicle for toxicity or is detrimental to fostering a positive environment on the forums, the system will be changed. 

Rep gets taken too seriously sometimes, that is a fact. They are fake internet points and nothing else. If anyone was afraid to comment because of caring too much about rep or losing rep, then I believe that is their own fault. But If it's creating an environment where it's becoming a problem and defeats the purpose of why the forums is used then it's not worth keeping rep around in those areas if it's doing that. It is probably better for all of us to have civil engagement if reputation is just taken out of the equation for these sections so we do not have to worry about being repbombed for posting an opinion or addressing a situation.


Personal Thoughts on Using "Serious" Sections
Now on a more general note, I'd like to paraphrase (and plagiarize) some words from @EpicGuy in 2018: The forums have been a dumpster fire. This needs to be addressed and it needs to be fixed immediately. Nicky said it the best, this isn't high school. You may be in high school, but this is a GMod community. Stop screwing around in serious areas on the forums. Stop brigading and derailing threads. Stop mass-downvoting. Just stop. No one is better than anyone else. You don't have to like everyone. You don't have to respect everyone's opinion. But you have to respect people. Start treating people like you want to be treated. Get a grip, and get a grip quickly.

As someone who has been an Admin in this community on and off since 2019, I have seen countless forum dumpster fires and dragged-out drama. Please, please, please, stop adding fuel to existing fires if everything has been addressed or is going to. I am not calling anyone out specifically, this is just a general sentiment. Creating new threads to fan the flames becomes mentally exhausting and people get tired of rehashing the same arguments and debates. As a consequence, people stop taking threads seriously and they either become shitpost fests or the actual context of the incident becomes distorted. If someone says it is a serious thread and tells people not to shitpost, the opposite happens. Threads like this are not productive and lead nowhere. I suggest we take advantage of reaching out to Admins (or a trusted staff member who can relay it to the admins, if you wish) to report any subsequent issues that do not need to turn into public dumpster fires. A lot of admins say "If you have any other concerns, reach out to me/us" and we say that for a reason. That way, there could be proper actions or public/staff discussions to implement changes. Then, once those changes or actions are done, suggestions to improve them could take place on the forums. Again, just personal thoughts. 

Thankes