TL;DR rules need to define clear punishments for admins to follow for violations. (Proportionality Principle)
I personally do not like it that spamming racism/sexism/*ism and naming yourself “AnotherPerson” could in theory be punished the same. they most likely wont because there is a person and spamming racism would get you a indef/perma. and name changes would probally be a AHelp if that (someone is LOOC could remind you and give a suggestion). but a more realistic example. would be how I as RD used syndicate contraband and then got a permanent ban from all Command, Science, and Silicon roles. which I believe is a bit much for a 1st offense and something that could have very easily been handeled IC (I would be able to joke about how my contract is suspended, but that might violate ANOTHER RP rule in that dont refrence events of previous rounds).
as mentioned. those are guidelines. and the very first (i) is.
Administrators are not required to follow the times suggested by the banning guidelines when placing a ban, but bans placed within the guidelines are presumed to be of an appropriate length.
which means that they are not enforced. I want enforced guidelines. and for those guidelines to be included with the rules at Server Rules - Space Station 14 Wiki and preferabally in-game.
(also under these guidelines my personal example does not follow the guidelines). and it may also fall under
Admin intervention Any reduction, including to nothing, may be applied for any offense which is plausibly the result of admin intervention.
as a admin did spawn the syndicate contraband at a person’s feet. but it was still my choice to use the emag.
ban appeals yes. but the process of banning someone does not. you can get banned for a 1st offense of RDM and be forced to make a ban appeal when under the guidelines a RDM is a 12 hour game ban.
if you look it also has a little subscript 12 which leads to multipled by number of victims. so if you do big RDM you get big time fast. But I do see your point here. it seems the guidelines might not reflect the realility anymore or be out dated.
also upon reading a bit more. I believe that Role Bans and Department Bans should have seperate labels even on the guidelines. that way it is even more specific what the punishments are for your actions.
That is a very good question indeed. even with my 750 ish hours there are things I am still learning to this day. like I didn’t realise shades prevented you being mind washed by a recruiter until it was brought up in the power gaming thread ealier today as im not a SEC player.
i- isn’t that in the guidebook? (then again I binged https://www.youtube.com/liltenhead upon my first day of playing. and even before getting rev pulled up the vido on revs)
The requirement for straying from the guidelines outlined by the banning policy is that the decision must be justified. See:
Admins are humans, just like you, just like me. They all have lives and jobs, and are here entirely as volunteers. Expecting them to be able to memorize every possible ban length, by requiring that they be strictly adhered to, would be a monumental ask from 'em.
One of the primary functions of appeals is to allow punishments to be re-evaluated by uninvolved parties, which is especially relevant in cases where a stricter punishment was given than what the guidelines dictate.
The appeal process is where that requirement for justification comes into play, and is where dialogue between the banning admin, the banned player, and the rest of the admin team, can take place.
not expecting memorization. having the guidelines open even in another tab would be enough since they could then refrence it. it may increase the "give me a moment"s when asking “how long will my punishment be”. but if you aren’t allready having to consider how long the person is banned for based on evidence you are allready failing as a admin in my opnion.
the downside of appeals is that the appeal takes time which in some cases is longer then what the guidelines state should be the maximum punishment. but is understandable since the appeal is a dialog between the admin team, banning admin, and the banned.
also reading the guidelines. Multi-keying is a ss13/14 exclusive term and should be replaced.
Major and Minor failure to folllow silicon laws need definitions on where the line is. Cooperating with known antags needs clarification/exception for RP. eg: IC bribes. Round stalling I didn’t even know you could stall in this game. would need examples.
interesting idea would be to rewrite the guidelines like the spacelaw table. thatway they can be grouped and punishments easier defined.
or even sorting into a table in general would be nice.
I can give you a round stall example and a good one at that.
Say your Nukies, you’ve killed command and all of sec and you have put there bodys into a weilded locker and flung it into space (or made them unrevivable in other ways) you’ve recalled the recall shuttle, have the codes but then you dont blow the nuke. you go hunting, or you mess around at cargo spending the money. the rest of the crew have no way to put you down as you have sec lathes, and they have no way to recall and force you out but you just wont blow them up. That would be stalling.
is there any way for any other antag or role to stall… because also I believe that in this nukies case. the 55% dead ghost vote would kick in VERY quickly and put a stop to it (still stalling but it woul not last long. and nukies wouldn’t greentext if the round gets voteended iirc).
Depends how many crew they also killed. just sec and command wont make 55% in a crew of say full server 80 sec and command might make up 15 of the 44 dead needed. so did they kill 29 non-command non-sec to get to the restart ammount?
i mean they dont even need to direct kill.
you are forgetting the dumb people who die to artifacts/anom due to sci. the angry bar fights and the escelation with sec. the scavengers who died stupidly trying to salvage wrecks. and then all the people who die after the “initial impact” because lets be honest. when nukies break in atmos+power is going to get fucked an theres only soo many EVA suits and tanks on the station.
also you forget the plan that many nukies will end up bombing/razing med for either supplies or to take out the respawn center of the station.
the admin team has in place guidelines on what punishment may be appropriate for most offenses that may be committed in game. They are expected to follow them.
That being said, a policy is unable to preempt every single situation as due to the nature of the game it is not always possible to predict how impactful an infraction will be on a round. In those cases admins are allowed to use discretion to both reduce or increase a potential punishment if they deem it appropriate. Admins are expected to be able to justify their actions and abuse of this privilege may lead to disciplinary action inside the admin team.
That being said we trust our admins to use this discretion appropriately and we have no plans to strictly bind them to the banning policy as this would be to the detriment of the players if an admin is unable to respond to a problem simply because a piece of electronic paper said so.
This is reflected in our very first rule on our servers:
These rules are not perfect. The rules attempt to clearly communicate what the admin team intends to be allowed and prohibited, but there are likely loopholes or other flaws that can be “lawyered”. Don’t attempt to manipulate the interpretation of the rules to suit your personal goals or to degrade the experience of other players. If you are unsure of something, follow the more restrictive option until you are able to ask an admin and get clarification.
Admins can override rules if they deem it in the best interest of the current round, server, and/or community at large. Online admins are able to make final interpretations of rules during a round. Even if you disagree with how an admin interprets a rule, you must still follow the interpretation they provide for you. Admin actions and interpretations of rules can be contested through staff complaints. If admins believe that you are an overall negative impact to the community or rounds, you will be banned. Admins will be held fully accountable for their actions if they exercise this privilege.
If someone is subject to a unfair punishment such as a ban then they are free to pursue a ban appeal, or (where appropriate) a staff complaint against an admin.