Moderators are very important to the community. They help make the server more playable by preventing rotten apples from ruining the gameplay experience for other players. I'm writing this guide because sometimes some mods forget their purpose and then just dish out punishments at every opportunity if it fulfills their checklist. Moderators are supposed to be kind and fair. Their job isn't to punish players, but to help the community. Moderators have to be kind, patient, and helpful. Not some automatons that seek out people breaking the rules and instantly issue the most severe punishment for the rule they break. I think there should be a level of forgiveness and leniency of punishments when it comes to more dedicated veteran players. I guess people won't be as scared to break the rules? and that's bad. But at least no one will quit because pmed their friend a server ip and got a lifetime mute for it without warning. We have to issue punishments that are fair, they will prevent people from breaking the rules in the future. At the same time they should be lenient so people don't feel mistreated and helpless. So there should be three levels of punishments. Low - This is for known players that have been playing the server for a long time Medium - For people that at least participate in playing the server High - For people that have brand new blank accounts without scores, or kills, or factions. Basically someone who just joined the server, and are breaking the rules, and came to the server to break said rules. For example a brand new player, probably an alt account, spamming a server ip. Rules to be enforced: Posting Ips Advertising Flood Spam Hate speech Hacks Messaging people's private info in chat Real world trading Profanity Ban evading Mods shouldn't be seen as power abusing tyrants. Try to always give the lowest punishment possible in order to stop the rule breakers. Don't let your feelings and personal preference cloud your judgement when administering punishments. If someone is breaking a rule perform the following 1st offense warning 2nd offense final warning 3rd offense tell them to stop breaking the rule in the kick message. 4th offense mute for 10 minutes 5th offense mute for an hour 6th offense jail for an hour 7th offense mute for a day 8th offense jail for a day 9th offense talk to surge Exceptions: If a brand new player gets on the server and starts advertising quickly and constantly, mute for a day without warning. Staff demotion, How it happens and how to avoid it. Basically if someone files a staff abuse report where a moderator is seen to be delivering a crazy unreasonable amount of punishment, or serious punishment without warnings. That staff member can be demoted. So just warn every time you carry out punishments and you should be fine.
