What to do (and not do) when someone gets banned.

[Garrett Jax]

After today's round of bans, I felt it necessary to post some suggestions on what to do if you feel you, or someone you know, has been banned unjustly.

What to do

Remain calm. Just about anything can be reversed. If someone have been banned, they can easily be unbanned.

Request evidence For faction leaders and the accused (if possible). We are more than happy to provide you with the evidence leading up to the ban.

Post counter arguments here. The main goal for us is to make the right decision. To be candid, we don't always accomplish this, no matter how much we try. It's just part of being human. Please know, however, that no matter what decision we make, it's always with the best interests of the community at heart.

Posting in Players Request accomplishes a few things. It gives the community member a chance to pause and collect the facts. It gives us a rational (hopefully) viewpoint we may not have considered. Also, it gives all Admins the opportunity to review the arguments in a centralized location.

When posting, state facts, not feelings. For example, we don't care how long you've known this person. We don't care how nice he is. We do care if the evidence is misleading in someway. We do care if there are other facts pertaining to the case we have not been shown.


What Not to Do

Freak out Anything done, can be undone or fixed. Raging at us on Skype about how (insert swear word) we are, is not going to help you, or your friend/faction member. Personally, I will tune you out if you start swearing at me. I'm 45 yrs old. I volunteer my time to do this, and I'm not about to endure being sworn at by a teenager. I don't think anyone on the Staff will.

Post your arguments on the Sanction Report. Asking for evidence is fine. Arguing with us about it is not, at least not on the Sanction thread. Post your arguments in Players Request and we will review it again. We want to make the right decision, not create a scene that helps nobody. If you are told to stop posting on the Sanction Report, you better stop. It doesn't matter if you are 100% correct and we are 100% wrong, you will get banned.

Post a thread stating your arguments. You have already been judged as breaking a rule significant enough to warrant a ban. Do you really think your helping your case by breaking another and posting with an alt? If you feel the need to state your case, do so in Player Request, or get a friend to do so for you. Posting a thread with an alt, in order to garner community support, tells us you have little regard for the rules and we were justified in banning you.


Conclusion

We understand that much of the attraction of this mod is the friendships we develop over time. When we see one of our friends get banned, it angers us. We want to be thoroughly convinced that the ban was justified, and if we aren't, our sense of justice is outraged.

Please know that the staff is not evil. We do not rush to ban anyone. In fact, it could be argued that we don't take enough steps to ban troublesome members of the community. Also, if we realize after reviewing the Players Request, that we were unreasonable, or didn't consider all the facts, we will be happy to reverse the ban and apologize. If there is reasonable doubt, we will fall on the side of the accused.

Hopefully, this will help all to remain calm and give themselves, or their friends, the best chance at a fair hearing and possibly a reversal of their ban.

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