[RussEfarmer]

Good evening Dinks Gmod,
               I want to start off and apologize for ungagging myself a few times. As an admin I understand that other donors see this and then think that they can do it themselves but I did this for a few reasons and this is the only way I can get the point across. First off, staff shouldn't be gagging players just because they use a voice changers. There are players that want to disguise their voice because they have been bullied before just by talking. I have also seen players targeted all because they are a female and then player just stops talking. Voice changers help hide the innocent as well as are fun to use every now and then for a good laugh. My second point is staff are quick to use their power against players. I should be able to join a server and goof off a little and not have the book thrown at me. The point of staff member is to have some one there to herd the players and protect them against trolls, hackers, and players straying far from the rules. The rules are set in place for guide lines. They are there but are meant to be bent so that people can still can have fun. I myself do not get on the servers because I am an admin, I play because its fun and I want others to have fun and enjoy themselves. I conclude with this, I think the rules should be revaluated and voice changers should be allowed as long as the player using is not spamming/singing in the mic. On the staff side off things I believe the staff should lighten up and relax like Dinkleberg post not to long ago.
                                                                   Thanks, Dirty Daniel

I can agree with staff laying too hard with rules, staff being quick to punish has been a problem since the beginning of time. In an ideal scenario, staff members would be able to use their intuition to determine whether or not something breaks the rules or they should punish for it based on what's actually happening and what that person is doing.

However, that's an ideal scenario, and realistically, this cannot work on a server network with as many staff members as this one. Intuition is completely subjective, and identifying rule breaks and serving punishments being based completely off of a subjective factor causes confusion and frustration with both users and staff members when the numbers get big enough and everyone has vastly different styles of staffing. Having a solid pillar for users and staff to fall back to and reference (ie the staff guidelines and rules) gives a reflection of what should be happening, and gives users a lever to go against unfair actions made by staff.

I agree that some rules are tight and I have suggested them be changed before, but it's a slippery slope. Staff may seem hard, but all of their power comes from that rule page and staff guide page. I've seen many cases on other popular servers where staff reaction varies WILDLY from staff to staff, with all the same policy that "I'm just making the server more fun." Having a more sturdy set of rules and a definite guideline for staff takes away the situations like this where someone micspams: staff A does nothing, staff B gags him, and staff C bans for 12 hours. Cases like that is what makes people frustrated and leave, even more so than strict rules.