Why Staff Issue Punishments
If you ever feel a certain staff member has treated you unfairly, feel free to make an Admin only ticket and Asaii will be happy to hear you out. You can do that in #smponline-info in the Discord.
Punishments are not intended to be any kind of personal attack or otherwise aggressive gesture by the issuing staff member. We try to stick to lesser punishments when possible (warnings, verbal warnings, mutes). However, some situations arise where a player needs to be removed from the server temporarily to either defuse a situation or provide time for the individual to reflect on their own actions. Access to SMPOnline is a privilege (even if you're paying!) and temp bans serve as forced breaks to remind folks of that.
We often issue permanent or long tempbans *hoping* for individuals to appeal so we can have a dialogue with them. Dealing with community issues is often complicated and it's better if we can have discussions with the banned user in a consistent environment. It's even more important that it's along side of other staff members so that we can discuss and make the most appropriate decision going forward. It's much easier to make the right call when things have had time to settle and everyone's weighed in. An appeal doesn't have to be an *appeal*, you're allowed to simply have a discussion with the team about your ban if you'd prefer. Though, please be honest upfront. It goes a long way.
And, of course, a permanent ban is not strictly, truly permanent in all cases. We do make exceptions - we like to see people improve themselves.
While we understand that some users feel like some matters are easier solved with a "chat" in game rather than a punishment of any kind, please recognize that (1) our staff team are chill people volunteering in their spare time and don't have a vendetta against you, and (2) incorrectly issued or poorly justified punishments of any kind can be appealed and removed (our staff can make judgement errors, after all). We're not issuing "punishments" as a put down or because we don't like you, it's just our way to clearly signal to you that we're serious and want your behavior to change. We're trying to avoid repeat issues for the community as well.
If you're ever unclear on what's allowed, please simply ask in a ticket for a clarification or don't do it. We're issuing punishments in hope that you'll be more mindful in the future and understand the expectations from staff, not to piss you off, so please just ask us in a ticket if you legitimately don't understand a warning or anything else. Pestering staff in game about a punishment will only cause issues. Don't drag it into the public chats, in game or here. Nobody likes that.
Our top priority as a staff team is to ensure that we're maintaining an inviting and fun atmosphere on SMPOnline. We sometimes will temporarily, or permanently, remove users from the community in an effort to maintain that. We've even temporarily muted or banned individuals in the past before to give them time to "cool off."
As far as I'm aware, our staff team has been pretty accurate in making justified punishments, though sometimes we get the severity or punishment length a little wrong. Though, it's hard to recognize problems if they're not reported to us. Please let your thoughts be heard as individuals in tickets if you feel we should do something differently or made a wrong call somewhere with you.
If you ever feel a certain staff member has treated you unfairly and would like to privately report it out of view of anyone outside of Asaii, feel free to make an Admin only ticket and Asaii will be happy to hear you out. You can do that in #smponline-info in the Discord.