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Bans & Appeals

AdvancedBan

All Minecraft bans are handled through AdvancedBan, a plugin which logs their ban to a database that our servers connect to. This means any Minecraft ban applies to all the servers within our network, such as Survival, Creative, and any other short-lived servers such as Modded.

AdvancedBan also allows us to set temporary bans, which vanilla Minecraft commands do not support. This reduces the likelihood of staff forgetting to lift a temporary ban.

Disclosure

In general, we do not share ban information or divulge many details about bans, other than confirming or denying whether a member is currently banned. This policy exists for several reasons:

  1. To respect the privacy of the member
    The member may not wish others to know what they have done, particularly if they are remorseful, and in most cases, we have no reason to expose their mistake to others.

  2. To avoid speculation and public drama
    We are interested in keeping the peace within the community. Bans can become a controversial topic, and information spread through word of mouth can be twisted into a completely different meaning.
    This can still happen if the member chooses to discuss it openly or to their friends, particularly if they are being dishonest or scapegoating the staff team, but this policy helps keep these incidents to a minimum.

  3. To protect our sources
    Sometimes we receive anonymous reports from members in the community, and divulging information provided by them can lead to them being discovered by others and retaliated against. To protect their anonymity, we are sometimes unable to divulge information crucial to our decision.

We recognize this also has several downsides, and we may divulge limited information on a case-by-case basis. Given the rarity of bans our infrequent need to enforce this policy, we remain open to revisions of it in the future.

Standardized Punishments

In an effort to enforce our rules consistently, we have created a document of standardized punishments for common infractions on our servers, with differing levels of punishment based on the severity of the infraction. If we find ourselves unsure between two severity levels, we assume the best and go with the lower severity.

Standardised Punishments Spreadsheet

We reserve the right to make modifications to the standards, as well as to make exceptions if we believe the situation warrants it. Any infraction not covered by the document is handled on a case-by-case basis.

Appeals

All punishments can be appealed by DM'ing a member of staff. Good tips for an effective appeal request include:

  • Being polite
    If you resort to insulting or attacking members of staff, your appeal will likely be declined.
  • Engaging in honesty and good faith
    Lying, refusing to take accountability, trolling, etc. will likely cause your appeal to be declined. If you believe staff made a mistake, explain so respectfully and truthfully.
  • Having a positive history in the community
    Staff will be more inclined to trust a member with a good history in the community (following the rules, being polite to others, etc.) and to offer them more leniency under the presumption of good faith.
    • If a member has a history of causing problems, breaking the rules, or repeatedly skirting along the edge of what the rules allow, staff will be less inclined to show leniency toward them.

In general, ban appeals are brought up to staff to be discussed as a whole. Staff will reach a decision, and the decision will be relayed back to the member in question.