well then have you considered the case whereby a player breaks the rule once and is reported several times such that it made him look like he broke the rules several times? It could be reviewed by multiple admins and Admin A giving a warn doesn't guarantee that admin B wont give the player another warn in response to another report. That way, the person being reported gets multiple warnings.
A TAX DOES THE BEST ATTACKS ON UNFAIRNESS.
Based on personal experience, I was removed from a gang because the admin who handled the report was the gang leader, and he found me reporting a gang member for vulgarity. The admin has since been removed, but not after my ordeal. If this could happen, I do not rule out the possibility of bias on the part of admins handling the reports. When a player is constantly picked on, whatever small mistake that he makes will subject him to punishment. I don't think any player should deserve such "special attention" or surveillance when an opponent gangs up against him/her by virtue of the person's gang.
I recognised that the report system is to ensure a safe playing environment, but I think its enforcement of rules should be fair. If a player is subjected to unneeded scrutiny because of his gang, then how would it be fair to him/her if the opponent gang members are not subjected to such a treatment? As far as i'm concerned, its not about the mistakes being made here, but rather the extent of surveillance one is subjected to because of an opposing gang's teamwork in reporting him/her. I shall not rule out the possibility that under such a treatment the player's likelihood of being punished - both as a result of his wrongdoing and the opposing gang's conspiracy - is higher. The report system in this case would not be to keep the playing environment safe, but rather as a means for opposing gangs to get back at their targets. To use the report system in such a way therefore constitutes abuse.
Take for example if a help hotline is set up for people to seek counselling. Calling the hotline to seek help is well within its use, but to call the hotline to test out my new telephone would constitute abuse. We judge abuse based on the intent of use.
A TAX DOES THE BEST ATTACKS ON UNFAIRNESS.
That isn’t true at all. I’ve never jailed somebody solely based on how many times they’ve been reported, their history, or their gang, and almost all PRs (that are still PRs or haven’t been warned before) can say the same thing. We’re not allowed to warn or jail anybody without proof that we’ve witnessed ourselves of the accused person doing something wrong. It’s not a matter of “convincing” us that the person is worth punishing. It’s either they broke the rules or they didn’t, we saw it happen or we didn’t. Whether the punished person realizes it or not, or likes it or not, is beyond that. And we’re aware that quite often reports tend to be false/exaggerated. We still try to look into them as much as possible and take every one seriously. But we aren’t idiots, and it’s obvious when somebody is gangong up on somebody else or lying.
That’s not how the report system works despite misconceptions. Main reason players lie on reports is because they think we listen to and believe everything that’s accused and instantly warn accused players consequently. I could understand that but I want to clear that up.
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Just saying, we can see when a player gets a warning by another PR so we don’t do it again, plus the server doesn’t let us give multiple warns in such a short amount of time. That’s just not how this works. It may have happened a handful of times but said staff likely are now no longer on the team or have been warned for doing so. The huge majority of the time this never happens.
Yes... Yes...
However, what we are talking about here is on the abuse of the system.
It constitutes abuse when our intent of use is not what it is meant to be. I've said earlier that when warring gangs use the report system as a means to attack one another it would constitute abuse - even though the person being reported broke the rules.
We are talking about intentions here.
Staff merely issue punishments based on hard evidence of violations but they are functioning as a result of an abuse of the system (by gangs to get back at one another). Case in point - euthanasia is utilised in some parts of the US but application of it is only allowed only for the alleviation if suffering. It constitutes abuse if the intention is to end life. Regardless of intention, death will occur but in the former case death is a side effect to the intended effect (which is to alleviate suffering).
So, that said, it would be abuse if an intended effect is to get back at one another while the side effect would be to punish the player for breaking the rules.
The person who started the thread is right about concerns regarding abuse as warring gangs do use the report system as a weapon against their enemies.
If we are to let this abuse continue, then admins and the system will just help to exacerbate the estranged relations between gangs. We have already seen examples. There was a war between Grim Reapers and obsidian before when admins from grim reapers were accused to jailing obs members when GR members worked to report several of them. It took a while for the war to end, but it is sufficient enough to show that abuse of the system in such a way only goes to prolong unnecessary conflicts between gangs. The admins role is to enforce the rules but I doubt they should be used as a weapon in gang wars - it's not their responsibility to fight on behalf of gangs when they deal with reports as a result of abuse of the system.
I strongly think that if there's a way to resolve this dilemma it would be a wholesale intervention by admins on the warring factions to seek to end the conflict rather than just deal with minor violations. Afterall, in a war both factions are at fault of something.
If not, then there should not be any intervention.
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A TAX DOES THE BEST ATTACKS ON UNFAIRNESS.
If the player is doing something wrong, cursing, being racist, whatever they're being reported for, they're going to be punished. They should think before they act/talk if they want to avoid that being used against them.
They may use it as a weapon but if they don't want it to be used against them then they can stop full on breaking the rules (not talking little curse words here and there, but flat out rule breaking, cursing others out, threats, etc). It's a choice. You can't blame staff for doing their job without bias, like in what you're implying (despite what you previously implied).
Spamming reports is report abuse but reporting somebody who is purposefully in the wrong, even though it may have been out of specific intent, is still a valid report. And if the person who reported somebody else is also in the wrong, they'll be punished too. It's petty tit for tat. But it's handled based on right from wrong, not gang from gang or how many reports are sent in.
You were blaming the staff earlier which is why I brought up what I did, I'm very aware of what the thread is about though.