This guide outlines various procedures that should be followed by admins and mods.
Disciplinary action
There are several types of disciplinary action that can be taken:
/mute player reason
Prevents a user from speaking. Use this on users who are only being disruptive in chat (spamming, annoying other users, etc).
/kick player reason
Best used when a user needs to be given a stern warning to stop their unwanted behaviour, especially if they are ignoring the moderator in chat.
NOTE: I think jailing is broken at the moment.
/jail player
/permjail player
Gives a user "time out" in jail and physically prevents them from causing trouble. A mute may also be applied if needed.
Jailing is appropriate for minor offences by an untrusted user, or for use in any situation where a mod/admin needs to stop someone who is "caught in the act" and find out what they're doing. Users are returned to their previous location when unjailed.
/demote player
Removes Trusted status from a user.
Users may be demoted for a variety of reasons. It is best used in a situation where a Trusted user has proven that they can no longer be trusted (stealing, minor griefing, subversive acts, etc). Please be aware that when demoted, a previously-Trusted user cannot modify anything they may have previously built in the Trusted area, and will be unable to access their own chests there. This makes it a strong incentive to rectify their behaviour and gain Trusted status again.
Temporary demotions are not automatic, the user needs to be manually re-promoted when it is felt that they are worthy of the status again
/ban player reason
/ban player for time reason
Temporarily bans a player. Defaults to a 1 week ban.
For more major events such as more serious griefing, stealing or disruptive acts, a temporary ban of an appropriate length should be issued.
Tempbans can range from a few hours or even minutes to a maximum of 40 days for the most serious offences. Beyond this, a permanent ban should be considered instead.
/permban player reason
Permanently bans a player.
This is reserved for the following:
* Established players who have received tempbans in the past, but returned without changing their behaviour.
* New players who are only here to grief, troll or cause trouble.
* Any player who is found to be underage, or who is reasonably suspected of being underage.
[IN FUTURE:] Moderators cannot issue true tempbans. If placed by a moderator, this ban will appear to the end user as a permanent ban, but will expire after a week unless approved by an admin, in which case it will become truly permanent.
Also consider situations where more than one action is appropriate, e.g. a short tempban to "cool off" combined with a longer-term demotion.
Appeals process
Immediately after taking disciplinary action, or as soon as possible after, the moderator or admin should visit the forums and post a thread in the Ban Appeals section. The title should contain the user's name, type of action, and a brief reason. Examples:
- furrymindfreak permabanned for griefing.
- furryrabbit5 demoted for stealing from CoolSilver's chests.
The body of this post should contain evidence of the deed, such as links to screenshots of LogBlock output, or an explanation of who said what.
If the affected user chooses to appeal, they need to reply to this particular post. If they post an appeal anywhere else on the forums, they should be notified of the correct place to post via PM and the post should be deleted.