DevvyVR
Active Member
Recently, while looking at Ban/Mute Appeals and disputes, I have been conflicted on how transparency and proper decision making go hand in hand with each other when it comes to how it's being applied across all forms of moderation on Loka
Some specific posts I have been confused with are
In Fa1c's appeal, he was muted for saying "Fck You" to an apparent friend of his. His reasons for the mute were left to speculation because curse words like "F*ck", "Sh*t", and others are used in everyday local chat, across-town chat, public chat, alliance chat, whispers between players, and so forth.
Now I don't wanna throw LancerSquid under the bus because of a poor decision, but seriously, the idea of muting someone because of a curse word is absurd. I don't wanna say Loka has gone "soft" because it sounds a bit immature, but Loka isn't a PG Server anymore(nor has it ever been one ever since I started playing in June 2021). If Fa1c was muted for this, then the whole server should be muted. I have listed a screenshot showing how many players have said the word "Fk" in the Discord, which was taken by a user named Arkron. I believe Fa1c's mute should be reevaluated by staff, but I have another point to get to.
In Daqniel's ban appeal, a lotta things happened. No hate to anyone on either side, but the appeal turned from a normal appeal to a political cesspool of conflicting arguments and even included a poor decision by Cryptite, in which he leaked a report made by Daqniel about alleged antisemitism by another player to contradict an argument that they made. I'm not here to argue about politics since that is a really messy topic that I don't wanna get into, but Cryptite revealing that report opened up, which involved a harassment complaint(which should always be taken seriously), opens up a whole can of worms about how staff is keeping player conflicts private, while blatantly leaking a confidential report. This also brings up another question on transparency with staff.
If players aren’t given clear reasons for their bans or mutes due to confidentiality, why are staff still able to share or reference player-submitted reports in other situations? From a player’s perspective, this seems like two different standards for what is considered confidential, and it raises the question of how the rules around transparency and confidentiality are actually being applied.
Berdb makes a really good comment on this situation when he said, "There's evidence of you doing bad things, and with your recent chat history, we do not think you deserve to speak in our community; however, we cannot share this evidence"
I believe staff should start being more transparent with players rather than leaving them in the dark, but make exceptions for some really bad cases. If staff were to start being more transparent with players who are punished, then it can create a leeway for players to start learning from their actions, and if appealed and accepted, could become a better version of themselves for the Loka Community. Leaving players in the dark creates confusion and brings up questions just like this forum post is talking about.
This isn't a post criticizing staff, as some of my friends are on the staff team. I just want to make sure that the staff team is making the best decisions within the community, and is properly able to build trust and transparency between players and staff.
Some specific posts I have been confused with are
In Fa1c's appeal, he was muted for saying "Fck You" to an apparent friend of his. His reasons for the mute were left to speculation because curse words like "F*ck", "Sh*t", and others are used in everyday local chat, across-town chat, public chat, alliance chat, whispers between players, and so forth.
Now I don't wanna throw LancerSquid under the bus because of a poor decision, but seriously, the idea of muting someone because of a curse word is absurd. I don't wanna say Loka has gone "soft" because it sounds a bit immature, but Loka isn't a PG Server anymore(nor has it ever been one ever since I started playing in June 2021). If Fa1c was muted for this, then the whole server should be muted. I have listed a screenshot showing how many players have said the word "Fk" in the Discord, which was taken by a user named Arkron. I believe Fa1c's mute should be reevaluated by staff, but I have another point to get to.
In Daqniel's ban appeal, a lotta things happened. No hate to anyone on either side, but the appeal turned from a normal appeal to a political cesspool of conflicting arguments and even included a poor decision by Cryptite, in which he leaked a report made by Daqniel about alleged antisemitism by another player to contradict an argument that they made. I'm not here to argue about politics since that is a really messy topic that I don't wanna get into, but Cryptite revealing that report opened up, which involved a harassment complaint(which should always be taken seriously), opens up a whole can of worms about how staff is keeping player conflicts private, while blatantly leaking a confidential report. This also brings up another question on transparency with staff.
If players aren’t given clear reasons for their bans or mutes due to confidentiality, why are staff still able to share or reference player-submitted reports in other situations? From a player’s perspective, this seems like two different standards for what is considered confidential, and it raises the question of how the rules around transparency and confidentiality are actually being applied.
Berdb makes a really good comment on this situation when he said, "There's evidence of you doing bad things, and with your recent chat history, we do not think you deserve to speak in our community; however, we cannot share this evidence"
I believe staff should start being more transparent with players rather than leaving them in the dark, but make exceptions for some really bad cases. If staff were to start being more transparent with players who are punished, then it can create a leeway for players to start learning from their actions, and if appealed and accepted, could become a better version of themselves for the Loka Community. Leaving players in the dark creates confusion and brings up questions just like this forum post is talking about.
This isn't a post criticizing staff, as some of my friends are on the staff team. I just want to make sure that the staff team is making the best decisions within the community, and is properly able to build trust and transparency between players and staff.
