[Cyrus]

Piggybacking off Henry, I was recently Permabanned (on my first ban) from a thread that Jesse had created. I have no issue with Jessie and have actually resolved any issues regarding that, but in the process I noticed a few things that I think are fundamentally wrong with this server moderation wise. Again, Jesse, or if anyone else is reading this, I am not attacking you and I do not intend to put the blame on you, because, well, it isn't your fault. Anyway, I take issue with the fact that a permaban is generally the first and only ban issued for players reported on the forums (regardless of what happened, whether staff members saw it). It seems that this server is superbly biased against those who have not played for an extended period of time, and rules/bans do not necessarily apply the same way. Should I have been banned for what I did? Yes! Should I have been permabanned though? Probably not! I spent the last few days before being banned contributing to the server as a player, and yes, some RDM did occur, but I still had the intention of playing and contributing positively to the server. Yes, I made mistakes, but should that be permbannable? I don't really view it that way because I have been banned to the same extent as someone who joined the server, rdm'd 7 people, then left. I think ban escalation is a huge part missing from this server, especially considering the server culture. Many regulars, donors, etc, can consistently rdm, grief, minge, and are slain or get away scot-free, because moderation tends to be very lax. I'm not saying these people should be banned permanently like I was, but I'm saying that I think that it will continue to drive away new players if the general server culture and how experienced players are treated is not consistent with new players. I think there should be more lee-way to new players, especially those that still would like to change and play on the server if they have been banned. Ban escalation is widely missing from this server, and instead of a system like 1-3-7-perma day bans, or 1-7-30-perma, (etc), it seems that if someone files a report, players are permabanned with no real hope.

It's also strange that , from what I heard on the discord (I was told to post this here instead of this discord) there is a moderation team of 10 people for banning, and only 2 for unbanning. That doesn't really make sense when initial punishments are permabans for players, and it's not that I'm saying there should be more staff in the unban committee, but that there really shouldn't be permabans for initial players if there are too few players to handle unbans.


Again, the point I want to drive home isn't that I shouldn't have been banned, and it isn't that I'm attacking anyone. It's that I think that this server is very fun and enjoyable to be on, but it is far too harsh to players who want to join the community and it FUNDAMENTALLY has issues regarding how moderation is handled and there are major inconsistencies. Instead of a three strike system, or really, any effective system at all, new players are permabanned at a far higher rate and are punished much more than players who, for example, have donated or spent a large time on the server. It's especially misleading for new players such as myself, because I observed significant rdm, revenge rdm, propkill, etc ocurring from players who played a large amount of time on the server go unpunished, however, because my specific instances of grief were reported to the forums, my punishment was permanent ban, instead of a 1 day ban, 7 day ban, etc, to encourage me to still play on the server without griefing.