Issuing Punishments

Often there will be times where you see potential rule breakers and will need to respond accordingly. This guide aims to help you understand how to deal with a wide variety of situations that call for Staff intervention.

Our Philosophy

As a staff member on DemocracyCraft, you hold a position of authority over the other players. Whether you are a Trial Moderator or a long-term Administrator, players will always look to you for your guidance and support.

It is your responsibility to provide that to the best of your ability. This article is a guide on how to use your Staffing abilities, but it is also our detailed philosophy (and policy) when it comes to using those abilities and interacting within the community.

You are community leaders, and so must embody our values at all times while interacting with other players. You will be held to a much higher standard than regular players and may have restrictions placed on certain actions (i.e. self regioning) to ensure there is no staff bias or unfair benefit being received.

A huge thanks to Wilven at Dominion for authoring this philosophy, being a server Owner for several years now, I don't think I could have said it any better. - Tech

Important to know

• Only punish via /punish <username> <type> <duration> <reason>
  • Each field is tab completable, however for warnings skip the duration by entering a space. This is because warnings do not take durations, and by specifying one you risk it getting included in the warning reason.
  • Use a pre-set punishment reason (tab completable) when you can.
  • Each punishment issued via this command is anonymous and comes from the server ("Richard").
• Make sure to check a player's /history before issuing any punishments, this provides you with context regarding:
  • If the player is a repeat offender or been problematic to the community in large.
  • If they player has already received punishments for the same behaviour(s) exhibited.

Punishments

Proportionate, equitable, and measured are three focus points of this guide. Try to refer back to these words when you are making a disciplinary related decision.

• Equality means giving everyone the same resources or opportunities.
• Equity goes the extra step by recognizing that every individual is unique. Being equitable means accounting for varied circumstances and allocating the exact resources and opportunities to each person needs to receive an equal outcome.
• This is a guide only, ultimately discretion will always lie with you, the Staff member!

1. Respect

Verbal Warning/Warnings

• Typically given for player’s first offence.
• Inappropriate messages written in books, signs, renamed items.
  • Remember to /trash or destroy the above.
• Inappropriate builds.
  • Remember to destroy the above.
• Attempting to lie or intentionally mislead staff.
• Impersonating another player.

Mutes

• Given if player continues breaking rule. Typically, 1 hour is enough.
• Extend mute when necessary. 12hr, 24hr, and 3d are some examples.
• Low-effort trolls. Typically a 1hr mute is enough to dissuade them right off the bat.

Temporary Deportations

• Continued rule breaking despite previous warnings/mutes.
• Player has inappropriate skin (keep deport until skin is changed).

Permanant Deportations

• Continued rule breaking despite previous warnings/mutes.
• Player has inappropriate skin (keep deport until skin is changed).

Permanant Ban

• Player has inappropriate username.

2. Chat

Verbal Warning/Warnings

• Player spamming in shorter bursts/variations of the same message.
• Recording voice channels without obtaining explicit consent from all parties.
• Player spammed, but no staff were online when it occurred.
• Player speaking excessively in public channels when under the effects of drinks in-game.
  • Advise the player to put ** around their texts or use /l
  • In this case forcing the player into local via /staff-force-local is fine.

Kicks

• Player spamming commands, such as /afk.
• Player spamming logins/logouts.

Mutes

• Player keeps breaking rule despite previous warning (whether verbal or not).
• Spamming is too quick for warn to be noticed or effective.
• Extend to a permanent mute if absolutely necessary. Otherwise, you can also extend the mute.

3. Advertising

If the content of the spam falls into the Respect category, use punishment reasons from there instead.

Verbal Warning

• Mentioning server names.
• Misusing /ad.
• Advertising non-DC related servers on any platform

Warnings

• Issued when there is continued rule breaking of the above.

Mutes

• Similar to warn, used if player is spamming advertisements instead.

Temporary/Permanant Deportations

• When a player is knowingly using DemocracyCraft platforms to recruit for other servers, typically happens when players start competing servers.
• Escalates to permanent depending on severity (i.e. multiple players advertised to).

5. Lag Prevention

Verbal Warning/Warnings

Remember to destroy all instances of these once you find them.

• Creation of redstone clocks.
• Automatic farms.
• Excessive item frames displaying vanilla items.

Temporary/Permanant Deportations

• Continued rule breaking of the above occurs, and prior punishments have been ineffective.

6. Fair Play

Verbal Warnings/Warnings

• Player misusing government job commands. Can also be punished by the player’s respective department.
• Any form of exploitation using bugs, /cosmetics, etc.

Mutes

• Any form of chat exploitation.
  • These are rare, but include...
    • Using Discord channels to use coloured chat.
    • Special non-English characters etc.

Kicks

• Player AFK avoiding.

Temporary/Permanant Deportations

• Continued rule breaking.
• Player using unauthorized client modifications (freecam, flying, teleport, etc.)
• Escalating to permanent deportations usually happens when:
  • Exploit is game breaking and affects the server as a whole.
  • Still continued rule breaking.

Bans

• Only for alternative accounts, or compromised accounts.

Hope that helps!

This guide can be contributed to by any Staff member, just let your mentor or an Administrator know beforehand.

• Contributions can include examples of punishments; more detail to the guide or rephrasing.

There is no definite right and wrong, if you think it is useful or needs correction, feel free to contribute!