Before you start reading this post - no, I'm not going to criticise the way bans are handled, I'm not going to talk about the countless protocols that are followed when someone is banned, and I'm definitely not going to talk about the rules page.
What I want to talk about is the message that players get when they are banned. Currently, this message looks as follows:
There are 2 things in this message that I would like to talk about: The [reason] part and the message itself.
1. Reason
There are plenty of reasons why players can be banned. However, simply naming the rule that was broken usually doesn't do a good job at making a player understand why they were banned. A few examples:
If a player is banned for "swearing", it helps to say "You have been banned for breaking the "no swearing" rule 3 times", rather than saying "You have been banned for swearing". Adding a bit more context, e.g. saying "swearing in housing chat", also helps to make a player understand why they were banned.
I've seen cases where [reason] was "breaking your unban conditions". This is in no way a clarification as to why a player has been banned, because unban conditions usually consist of the single sentence "if you break any of the rules, you'll be perm banned again". In other words, it could have been any rule. If the relevant player wasn't even aware of breaking the rule (which can happen in some cases!) it is completely unclear why this player was banned.
2. The message itself
I think there are a lot of things that could be improved about the message itself. First of all, I've seen a lot of players who, after getting banned, simply don't know what to do next. They have questions regarding the situation that has lead to their ban and questions regarding their next actions. However, the ban message has nothing to point them in the direction of the right places to ask such questions, which often leads to players asking those questions in places where they're not welcome - in fact, places where they're against the rules. It's like a self-fulfilling prophecy.
So, when it comes to that, I think it's necessary to add some sort of indication as to where players can ask questions about their bans. I'm assuming this would be a link to support tickets. If players are directed to support tickets through their ban appeals, it decreases the chance of them asking questions about their bans in places such as the PW discord, which leads to less moderation being required...
Right, sorry, back to the topic at hand...
Next up, we have the last 2 sentences of the ban message: "Unfairly banned? Appeal at [link]"
I think the wording of these sentences could be improved. Right now it seems to suggest that players are only allowed to appeal if they have been unfairly banned, but I've seen plenty of cases where players were fairly banned while still succesfully appealing their bans. Think of situations like:
Player has been banned for a long amount of time -> ban was fair, but in most such situations, the player gets unbanned through an appeal as there's been plenty of time to self-reflect and learn from past mistakes.
Player was banned permanently, but after the appeal, the ban was shortened to a temp ban -> again, ban was fair, but the staff team decided that, given the situation and the details of the situation that the player gave through their appeal, it was fair to decrease their punishment.
All in all I think there's enough reason to change the wording of this sentence. I think it should just be one sentence, something like "You can appeal your ban at [link]" as this doesn't imply that players can ONLY appeal if their ban was unfair. But that's just my idea, if anyone else has another idea, I'd love to hear it.
3. Empathy
Okay, so I said at the start that I was going to talk about 2 main things regarding the ban message. I've done that now, but there is a third (and final) point that I would like to talk about in this forum post, which is about the way staff communicates with players when it comes to bans.
I've seen plenty of conversations between a banned player and a staff member, and in all those cases I feel like there is a lot of empathy missing from the staff member's side. Right now, staff members are trying to come off as "professional" by talking to banned players in a very unpersonal manner. The situation at hand is treated like an ordinary situation, as for staff members, bans are just one of those things that happen on a daily basis. Nothing changes from their point of view, they just answer a player's questions and call it a day. But for a player, they recently lost acces to a server that usually means a lot to them: it is their escape from reality, their place to make friends, hang out with friends and just generally have a good time. More often than not this causes an unusual amount of stress for a person.
What I propose is that, when talking to a player who has been banned, staff members attempt to be more empathetic towards the banned player by indicating that the player is in an uncomfortable position, while also maybe giving some tips or tricks to help the player deal with the situation.
TL;DR
1. Ban reasons could be a lot more detailed.
2. I think the ban message template should change, including a link to website support tickets if players have questions and omitting the "Unfairly banned?" question.
3. I feel like staff members could be a whole lot more empathetic towards players when talking about bans.
Thanks for reading!
What I want to talk about is the message that players get when they are banned. Currently, this message looks as follows:
There are 2 things in this message that I would like to talk about: The [reason] part and the message itself.
1. Reason
There are plenty of reasons why players can be banned. However, simply naming the rule that was broken usually doesn't do a good job at making a player understand why they were banned. A few examples:
If a player is banned for "swearing", it helps to say "You have been banned for breaking the "no swearing" rule 3 times", rather than saying "You have been banned for swearing". Adding a bit more context, e.g. saying "swearing in housing chat", also helps to make a player understand why they were banned.
I've seen cases where [reason] was "breaking your unban conditions". This is in no way a clarification as to why a player has been banned, because unban conditions usually consist of the single sentence "if you break any of the rules, you'll be perm banned again". In other words, it could have been any rule. If the relevant player wasn't even aware of breaking the rule (which can happen in some cases!) it is completely unclear why this player was banned.
2. The message itself
I think there are a lot of things that could be improved about the message itself. First of all, I've seen a lot of players who, after getting banned, simply don't know what to do next. They have questions regarding the situation that has lead to their ban and questions regarding their next actions. However, the ban message has nothing to point them in the direction of the right places to ask such questions, which often leads to players asking those questions in places where they're not welcome - in fact, places where they're against the rules. It's like a self-fulfilling prophecy.
So, when it comes to that, I think it's necessary to add some sort of indication as to where players can ask questions about their bans. I'm assuming this would be a link to support tickets. If players are directed to support tickets through their ban appeals, it decreases the chance of them asking questions about their bans in places such as the PW discord, which leads to less moderation being required...
Right, sorry, back to the topic at hand...
Next up, we have the last 2 sentences of the ban message: "Unfairly banned? Appeal at [link]"
I think the wording of these sentences could be improved. Right now it seems to suggest that players are only allowed to appeal if they have been unfairly banned, but I've seen plenty of cases where players were fairly banned while still succesfully appealing their bans. Think of situations like:
Player has been banned for a long amount of time -> ban was fair, but in most such situations, the player gets unbanned through an appeal as there's been plenty of time to self-reflect and learn from past mistakes.
Player was banned permanently, but after the appeal, the ban was shortened to a temp ban -> again, ban was fair, but the staff team decided that, given the situation and the details of the situation that the player gave through their appeal, it was fair to decrease their punishment.
All in all I think there's enough reason to change the wording of this sentence. I think it should just be one sentence, something like "You can appeal your ban at [link]" as this doesn't imply that players can ONLY appeal if their ban was unfair. But that's just my idea, if anyone else has another idea, I'd love to hear it.
3. Empathy
Okay, so I said at the start that I was going to talk about 2 main things regarding the ban message. I've done that now, but there is a third (and final) point that I would like to talk about in this forum post, which is about the way staff communicates with players when it comes to bans.
I've seen plenty of conversations between a banned player and a staff member, and in all those cases I feel like there is a lot of empathy missing from the staff member's side. Right now, staff members are trying to come off as "professional" by talking to banned players in a very unpersonal manner. The situation at hand is treated like an ordinary situation, as for staff members, bans are just one of those things that happen on a daily basis. Nothing changes from their point of view, they just answer a player's questions and call it a day. But for a player, they recently lost acces to a server that usually means a lot to them: it is their escape from reality, their place to make friends, hang out with friends and just generally have a good time. More often than not this causes an unusual amount of stress for a person.
What I propose is that, when talking to a player who has been banned, staff members attempt to be more empathetic towards the banned player by indicating that the player is in an uncomfortable position, while also maybe giving some tips or tricks to help the player deal with the situation.
TL;DR
1. Ban reasons could be a lot more detailed.
2. I think the ban message template should change, including a link to website support tickets if players have questions and omitting the "Unfairly banned?" question.
3. I feel like staff members could be a whole lot more empathetic towards players when talking about bans.
Thanks for reading!
