A discussion about the server's strictness over the years.

[Exnem]

I don't want this thread to turn into a massive fuckfest, so keep insults out of this, and especially mentions.

Allowing the server's population to go from being allowed to break several rules in the name of banter so long as nobody is affected, to a degree (2014-15), to a super strict server where banter isn't allowed (2016-18) is just not something that can be done over a couple of years. At this point older players are having a difficult time trying to adjust, and as a result, are punished by warning or a lengthy ban for something they thought was just fine since it previously was.

You cannot expect an immediate change, because the way the server used to be moderated was far different from the time now. Not only that, but I always find myself ending up in a situation that is solely based on banter that I know isn't allowed, but I'm stuck with because I'm so used to it. I constantly find myself disliking a staff member in the moment due to the conclusion they came up to, then going back on themselves with a double moral standard and doing almost the same thing as the older member they just punished, did. And this can range from just a few days to months between the punishment happening, and the action by a staff member taking place.

Multiple times has this pattern repeated itself, and each time it was reported in some form of way either by videos in their respective sections, or an AR on another player and an open admittance to submitting a staff complaint.

But it's not even worth making a staff complaint in my opinion because when one is made, it takes a long time to get processed, and the reply is usually "We'll talk to them".

I will NOT name staff members or ex staff, and neither will I mention players, this is a discussion, not a thread to roast people.

What do you think of this? Did you experience anything like this?
I'm not looking for an immediate change, since the server is fine where it is at the moment, there's no point fixing something that isn't broken (yet) anyway. But I really want some of you guys' opinions.
I might just be the only one who has a little bit of difficulty adjusting to the change over time, or not.

I don't want this thread to turn into a massive fuckfest, so keep insults out of this, and especially mentions.
I won't say this again, you're providing nothing constructive to the thread by doing that, even if you do provide a little bit of an opinion alongside it to avoid a warning for a non-constructive post.

Because at the end of the day, this is a thread to post your opinion on how the server was ran before and after, and definitely which one you preferred.
In my case, I preferred the time I joined at, because that's what I got used to.

 

[Daigestive]

No consistency in the staff team. Hopefully this is addressed by the booklet that's being made. How can you excpect the community to know if locations are in the view of public if your own staff have different opinions? Staff had different opinions on the Beach a few days ago. At one point we were not allowed to mug at docks but now we are.
Personally, I believe we should be aiming for minimal staff discretion and set guidelines. Because staff seem to disagree a lot lately which shouldnt happen. With banter and mingery, I only believe something is wrong as soon as someone is negatively affected. As much as I've said this I think they work hard and offer a lot of spare time to maintain the server.

 

[BooingBison]

With all due respect but I think you are very wrong. In my opinion the server has become less strict.
Just check out my ban and warning record. You used to get banned for running across the intersection, now it is just a verbal warning.
Maybe you are just breaking the wrong rules at the wrong time if you're getting banned for it.
Dom recently warned me because I walked into a shootout with a camera for PLN. Well deserved, I definitely broke 3.4 by that and deserved a warning. I don't hate him for it, he's just doing his job...

 

[Exnem]

With all due respect but I think you are very wrong. In my opinion the server has become less strict.
Just check out my ban and warning record. You used to get banned for running across the intersection, now it is just a verbal warning.
Maybe you are just breaking the wrong rules at the wrong time if you're getting banned for it.
Dom recently warned me because I walked into a shootout with a camera for PLN. Well deserved, I definitely broke 3.4 by that and deserved a warning. I don't hate him for it, he's just doing his job...

But that's exactly the situations I don't get in trouble for, it's the dumb ones that matter the least like a minor policy break in the PLPD (which isn't controlled by staff, but it holds the same strictness as if).

 

[Feras]

I think that they should make a Template about bans, let me give you an example

RDM first time offence 1 day ban| 2nd offence of RDM 5 day ban ETC.
3.4 first time offence 2 Day ban | 2nd offence 5 day ban ETC

You get the picture...
and no this is not a suggestion this is an opinion please don't yell at me

 

[rogue]

its better now woo

 

[John Daymon]

I disagree with your statements in this thread completely, the reason for this is simply because of the fact that, there is not much of it that is correct to the history regarding of how strict rules have been in the past to how they are now.

So firstly I'd like to break down the history of how rules were before, if you were one of the players that played back in EvoCity you'd know that the rules were not as strict in one way but they were very different, they were slightly more open as in where players could use the rules and essentially bend it where they could do whatever they'd enjoy doing, but that also let people to buy the whole of subs and simply just say

oh we own this place so we can do whatever we want

doesn't really work out, aswell as there being a lot of trolling going on, if you think some of the trolls we have today are anything close to what we had then, you're completely wrong.

During the times of 2015 the server was packed with people, literally you had to queue for a slot in the middle of the day which obviously was amazing, but it also brought some hard times for the server, we had very strict rules that were supposed to be obeyed from point a to point b, simple as that, there was no chat about how the rule worked or how you could bend it, the rule was the rule you were supposed to follow, and I think one of the reasons that worked so well with the community back then was simply because of the fact that everyone were on equal terms regarding on how it all worked, but there's obviously a catch to this, even if you sometimes broke a rule you got left with it because of the fact that we either didn't see it that serious where a ban or a warning would be necessary, there were other situations where people violated the rules in a much more serious way, or simply we just felt that a verbal warning would be enough. Now this is something that @nickjedl already brought up in the thread, he was someone who was effected by this quite heavily as of the facts that he was simply punished for small stuff when he was here back then.

Now GMod as a game in general has kind of lost some of it's players and there are a lot of people who have left the server for good or will come back, the point is; we've lost a bit of players and the server isn't as populated as it was back then, this means that we decided to do a mass unban because we knew that firstly, there were people who wanted to play on the server who we believed could come back as they actually sat through their bans for that long, when these players were unbanned we in the staff team came to the agreement to be quite lenient with our punishments as we knew firstly that there were gonna be a lot of players who just came back to the server and obviously have to shape up with the rules that they've missed out on the last couple of months or even years, we also decided to be lenient on bans because of the player population.

We are still in the state of being lenient, we are still trying to be very careful with our punishments and yes sometimes we can hand out punishments that are quite long for what actually happened, usually we note that within the staff team and contact each other regarding it and have a discussion about it, take @Dom and @Cole as an example the other day, Dom essentially explained to Cole that the guy had been quite good with following the rules the last year or whatever (the time is not the point) and Cole decided to decrease the ban, which quite obviously is a working system in my eyes. We work as a team.

I think that the reason why you see it as us not being so lenient on bans is simply because of the fact that you've been affected by it, you've been affected by someone ruining your fun, and I know how annoying that can be but it's simply how it is when you realise that your fun is over, you get frustrated because you want it back.


Also I don't think that you should go ahead on a thread and say "I don't want to cause a fuckfest with this thread" or whatever when you're literally stirring shit against the staff team, it's quite obviously in my eyes what you're trying to do, and that "we'll talk to them about it" isn't just "we'll talk to them" it's them being brought in a channel, getting spoken to about their actions, getting essentially put in an uncomfortable situation, because there's really no one who wants to be on the end of that, no one (yes it's worse than an admin sit lol)

I think that one of the things that I feel about perp is simply the fact that people never wish to resolve stuff between themselves anymore like we used to in 2014-2016 were we seriously just could sit for hours on rooftops discussing situations because no one wanted each other banned, now I feel as if the server gained toxicity because of one certain user, if that user reads this they will probably understand it's them I mean lol, after that user joined the server and got into it completely they were quite toxic in general and got the server to be that way.

I think that they should make a Template about bans, let me give you an example

RDM first time offence 1 day ban| 2nd offence of RDM 5 day ban ETC.
3.4 first time offence 2 Day ban | 2nd offence 5 day ban ETC

You get the picture...
and no this is not a suggestion this is an opinion please don't yell at me

No, this doesn't work simply because situations aren't the same at all, we've been through this so many times in administrative meetings and staff meetings that we should have something like this but we always came to the conclusion that it doesn't work simply because of the fact that no situation is the same, thus punishments can't be the same.

 

[Askasta]

From my experience as junior member i still sometimes break the rules with other people but you wont get punished aslong you dont ruin someone's RP and none makes a F6.

So you basicly just have to watchout with WHO or towards WICH PERSON you do this to. When its friends or known people you can have fun with them by breaking small rules. If its people you dont know and they dont know you or if you break a rule wich pisses them off because you ruin their day/RP then you will get punished for it

As yesterday me and Osama gatherd up some bunch of players at bazaars and ended up randomly killing a cop because he was arresting someone but it was minor so it wasn't basicly allowed but the cop was fine with it because he had his fun shooting some of us and we had fun attacking the cop.

very fun experience we made.