PSA: I'm not saying the staff team is bad. I only want to suggest some solutions which would remove some of the biggest headackes for players and staffers in CCNet.
CCNet staff has been around the center of numerous controversies since i've been on the server, and that is completely normal, except some of them could be solved by making a few changes to the system.
1) Clearing up the rules
There are many rules that are extremely vague and left up for interpretation by each staff member, leaving a lot of "grey areas" that sometimes get banned and other times don't.
Example: gimabis dies because WitherV unclaims chunk in Iceland, ticket gets made, closed for not illegal. Gqldn dies in vestfold because Indomabile unclaims chunk, four people get 2 weeks bans for exploiting.
Example: The_Dole_City existed for 6 months claimblocking 4 towns in Scotland, various tickets were made and all closed, then 80% of Warsaw's northen part which bordered by 5 chunks with a town on top gets unclaimed for "claim blocking". The claim blocking rule is the most vague of all, leaving each staff have their own interpretation, which shouldn't be the case and this rule should be completely rewritten specifying the minumum distance between towns and when and where the rule applies, not leaving it up for interpretation.
Example: 2n6_ gets banned for stealing an unlocked zeppelin using rule 1.1 (Later was unbanned, but still holds the point)
Example: Unwritten rule of "evidence should be submitted in under 3 days"
All of these edge cases / gray areas within the rules should not exist, and once found should be added and specified into them, making clear what is and isn't legal, not putting up rules for singular staff member interpretations.
2) Specifying ban times
Each staff member has their own interpretation of ban times. Some are more soft, some are more strict. I suggest that every rule should have a system of strikes in place, for example:
Toxicity rule:
- 1) Verbal warn
- 2) Plugin warn
- 3) 3day ban
- 4) 1 week ban
- 5 or more) Higher staff's decision
3) Creating a more open discussion for punishments
Forum ban appeals are good for edge cases like permanent bans or very long bans (1month+), for everything else, even if you think the ban is unfair, forum appeals are completely useless as they take atleast 2/3 days to get answered and leave little room for a direct and fair discussion with staff. Each user should have the right to discuss his punishment, because even if 99% of bans are fair that 1% is gonna stick for the rest of N2 history. Thats why I propose to remove unban appeals for bans that are less than 1 week and instead switch to tickets or voice chats to get a more direct confrontation with the executor of the punishment. Obviously, if the punished abuses this right and starts screaming / insulting etc, this opportunity should be permanently removed from him without any possibility to get it back.
Example: 2n6_ was banned for 2 weeks for stealing an unlocked movecraft craft, which the punisher tought fell into rule 1.1. This was a case where direct confrontation worked (even tho the wrong methods were used to get it), because after getting the staff attention the error was sorted out quickly by talking with the punisher and the situation ended up without any controversy / bad taste left in people's mouth.
Example: While Warsaw's claims where being removed, the punisher gave a "deal with it" response to the mayor, that left a really bad taste in his mouth and didn't make clear the reason of the punishment. (Doesn't justify what he did after that, but still this kind of things should be explained and resolved peacefully instead of getting everyone angry and stressed, including the staff member)
4) Giving more perms to lower staff or promoting more people
Right now, 90% of the tickets existing are for admin+ problems (towny permissions, refunds, name changes, nation-specific rules enforcements etc)
There are only two active Admin+ staff members, which can't deal with a 500-600 people community alone. (And that also leads to 90% of the problems listed above, because we are all humans and we all get exhausted after some time). Thats why I propose to give more perms to helper & mods, or promote them to get more admins.
Let me know your opinions in the comments and second PSA: I don't have anything against the staff team and especially the people in it, I tried to keep this the most vague ever to prevent "biased" comments etc because its not the truth, this suggestion aims to solve the complicated relationship between staff and users, because the problem isn't the people, the problem is the system itself that needs a change.