The Great Christmas Unbanning

Here's the problem though.

Sometimes, there can be multiple minor offenses built up to another minor offenses.
For example, sometime people can continuously propsurf to unreachable area (which is against our rules), which can build up and potentially lead to a warning and then 1 day toxicity ban. That 1 day ban can be easily considered small offenses compared to grander scale of things. 1 day ban is nothing compared to 4w hacking ban.

Or sometimes, we would ask admins for discretion to warn people for things like ghosting or sprays if it's suitable, and the person failed to take that into consideration. Thus, we ended up banning them for failing to heed to warnings.

Or another thing would be a person got forgiven for an RDM offense through admin discretion, and then rdm'd again and left the server.

These shows failure to learn from their mistakes even if the punishment is a minor offense.

Unfortunately, it, like many things in life, is not entirely black and white as people would like to imagine.

While the idea can look good from community side, there's just a whole lot more to take into consideration than what's at the surface.

 

Great comparison my dude, people banned from an online gaming server are exactly the same as murderers and rapists. I never thought of it that way.

 

People deserve a second chance.

I am probably the oldest community member out a good chunk of people - minus TeeZy, DieKasta, etc.

I have seen this community go through generation and generation of players - for good or for worse. I have seen the staff team fully interchange like an all-working hive mind that is run on old steampunk era machinery.

All of my time here I have done nothing but provide and provide for the community - in terms of time, attention, dedication, etc.

Out of all people I would be the one to tell you that this is simply what I would want to happen, but, this isn't a fairytale - as much as I want to sit there and agree with you @Nelson Spudela .

All I wish to see is the good in people - throughout our history as human beings we focus on the betterment of either ourselves, and/or the advancements of our civilization.

But, sometimes we can't see the forest for the trees.

We have a Statue of Limitations places on certain bans for a reason. This in turn is a pardon of said offense, as to ensure that a player that has been on good behavior for "x" amount of time is not punished harsher for such good behavior, as well as gives them leniency for an offense so happen they commit it again - god forbid that people go back to their ways - or simply make another mistake.

I wouldn't agree with pardoning every single player's current offense, as that simply would be unnecessary in my opinion. People with such minor offenses are already pardoned for their offenses (most of the time depending on the behavior of the player and sometimes the staff themselves, as the ban appeal is up to them and perhaps their superior).

As for the permanent bans -
What do you think of those that post Child Porn? Should they be pardoned?
What about those who have caused nothing but toxicity, drama, and constantly rule breaking/loopholing? Those who have gone too far to show that they are capable of change - why should we pardon those who have not only gotten out of their grave, in this case a ban of some sort, only to hop back into it. They claim it as their own. This is what they have done to themselves.

Now, this doesn't mean that people aren't able to appeal in some way - it's just that it takes a little more and maybe a pm or two to the right people. We aren't going to deny them the right to appeal a ban, as it wouldn't be fair.


I won't speak for those who have been perma banned - for their actions and words speak for themselves, and to be honest, unbanning them before we as a community are aware of how they will act is too much of a risk per se. We are unsure as to whether or not history will repeat itself - for if we are unaware of our history we are doomed to repeat it.


Please don't take any of my words to heart, Spud, for I too wish for a better world, but this isn't the way to do so. Start from within. Show through your actions and words that we as a community can unite for the better.


Warm Regards,
Husky

 

These are some excellent points. Consider this; what if, instead of unbanning everyone, there was a webform or forum post wherein banned users could apply - not the same as an appeal, as it'd be much more accepting and offer higher levels of clemency. But that cuts down on work by ensuring it's only users who wish to participate and join in and also active members of the community who would see it rather than random people browsing Gmod servers.

 

Seeing as it is decently difficult to get a permanent ban, I'd have to shoot that Idea down.

 

Apparently it's decently difficult to properly read and comprehend a thread too.

 

Every person has the ability to appeal there ban in the appeal section. Every single person reading this thread is also aware of this. If a temporary section or forum were set up to appeal only this one-time-only Christmas leniency, by the time it was set up and things were being processed, Christmas would already be over. One of the things that makes SGM so popular, in the general sense, is it's attention to detail and understanding of nuance. You are asking to either throw that out the window or slack on it, cause hours of added work to the staff team, and risk the gameplay of rule-abiding players, just so a tiny handful of players can join in before their ban is expired.

Let me put things into perspective for you, if t his was implemented, just to show how many people it impacts:
An appealed player must:
- Be logging onto the forums while they have a ban in place
- Even notice this thread or the announcement
- Make the appeal
- Be available the during the time they are unbanned (Which, I might remind you, is Christmas day)
- Have their appeal be accepted (Most of the time, after already being denied)
How many people do you think this would apply to? SGM doesn't ban people willy-nilly, and if there is a staff member who does that, they are usually dealt with pretty fast. People who have committed small offenses don't have a global ban: They have several servers to pick from.

And then onto Perma's: Something I don't think you realize is that perma'd members usually fall into two categories:
1. Someone absolutely nobody knows who immediately starts causing enough trouble that a perma is necessary. That kind of person simply isn't welcome.
2. A long-standing member who has many other members on their steam account, almost always at least one admin, and often a lead admin as well, or the ability to add said lead admin. This makes it so they can appeal their perma ban.

And then there is the fact that, for one day, appealing a perma is, in the grand scale of things, pointless. They will never gain any long-benefits from the Christmas even, and if their friends are that important to them to play with during the event, they can do it in another server or another game.

 

You completely contradict yourself. You say that it'll take staff hours to process all the applicants and that it'd take days to set up then go on to say that it wouldn't be popular because not many banned people will even see it or care to participate. That means the few who do care enough about the community to still participate and want to join back.

 

I said that not many people would be unbanned as an end result, after the appeals were processed. Just about everyone who is banned will likely try and appeal, if they notice it. And there is still the fact it will take awhile to set up, should we do it like you mentioned.

 

Unban hello my friend and wompzilla
They did nothin wrong

 

You guys and staff team chill
Its just a gmod community
Who the fuck cares
Someone get perma doesnt mean his criminal nigga u stupid wierd ppl​

 

I mean, to be quite literal, some people get perma'd because they did something criminal.

 

I cant believe this is still being discussed seriously when it’s a logistical nightmare and just garbage bad bad bad idea.

Yall waste time trying to flesh the logic of this thread out when u can do anything else

 

I can't believe you're still replying if you have no valid reasoning to discuss on this suggestion.

Spoiler: for you

 

I think this is a pretty clear indicator that this isn't going to happen. I agree with robo, not sure why its still being discussed.

 

fuck christmas and feelings

 

Because we'd like to discuss all aspects of this topic, whether or not what Helix said, it's possible to change peoples' minds based on widespread opinion. or atleast it used to be.

 

It's a dumb idea. I'm only still here because I am stubborn about not ending an ongoing discussion if there is something left to say

 

*sigh*
Why are you like this...