04-04-2020, 06:36 AM
(This post was last modified: 04-04-2020, 06:59 AM by Grimm_Wolfe.
Edit Reason: Broken Links
)
Heyo, Denizens of HomeTown. As much as I dislike having to write these, some things have come up over the past two weeks that should be addressed. The sole purpose of this document is provide some degree of understanding between the staff-team and the player-base. Please, read thoroughly--this will be split up into multiple parts for ease of reading. Blue-lettered words are hyperlinks to imgur or other sections of the forum. If none or this interests you or you don't care, I still implore you to at least read the final segment titled "A Personal Address".
"Why are the rules so strict?"
When I first joined back in 2014, the only rules we had were /rules & /rules 2 in the server chat. That was it. The wording may have changed over the years but the spirit has stayed the exact same. That begs the question, how did /rules & /rules 2 become this rulebook? There are three main reasons:
- The community asked for an expanded rule-book for in-depth descriptions, self explanatory.
- Some of the more unsavory members who found themselves banned attempted to pin staff by using "It wasn't in the rules, so it's allowed" as an appeal approach. They lacked any sense or empathy to decide that--maybe--they shouldn't engage in morally questionable, destructive behaviors on the server. So their actions got listed in a rule-book.
- I was insane enough to accept the undertaking and all the pains of having to keep up with it.
The rules are strict because the community has evolved to the point where it is necessary to be strict. This server started small. Back when I joined, 24 online members was an absurdly high-traffic day. /rules was all we needed, but we also had a former staff team that on occasion would call a troublemaker a slur for a homosexual male in global chat and then ban said person. Thankfully, that team has all essentially quit. These rules weren't arbitrarily pulled out of the air either. They have been collected from incidents requiring staff intervention. If you all would like to blame anyone, look no further than some of the offenses people post about in the ban appeals section of this forum.
"Freedom of speech!"
Here's the deal, we're not a nation--simple. We're a privately owned Minecraft server, not a governing body of elected officials. Assuming you have a job, go up to your boss and call them a string of the most relevant slurs you know until they fire you, cite freedom of speech as a legal argument, and let me know how well that goes over. We may be a community, but we're more a business community than anything. You passed an application (our tutorial quiz), you have access to /rules and a rule-book (your employee handbook of expected conduct), and you're asked to follow it or get banned (employment terminated). That's almost any server, and most of your real-world experiences. If you can't abide by that line of thinking, https://minecraft-server-list.com/.
We don't discriminate with our censorship, either. We don't care about your race, belief system, sociopolitical opinions, etc. What we care about is allowing people to just be able to play Minecraft for a couple of hours without the usual real-world topics sparking arguments in global chat. We've been called liberal for censoring a right-wing player talking about "the sins of homosexuality". We've been called conservative for censoring a left-wing player's tirade against Trump. We've been sent "educational materials" from both parties to educate us on the evils of the opposing parties. If you all can't realize that we're here to play a game and relax with friends, then you've missed the point of playing here.
"I don't agree with staff seeing my private messages on the server!"
Tough. Private messages will only ever be private from non-staff members. We legitimately don't care about 95% of the stuff you all talk about. Some of the things we do care about are the few--often new--players who discuss griefing builds, x-raying, pedophilic scumbags creeping on players, talk of "inferior races", instances of player harassment, etc. in PMs. This is the stuff we want less of on the server. Even if we didn't see your PMs directly, they would still be logged in the console for those with access like any other server. Nothing you say is ever, truly private. Get over it.
Also, to all of you people who talk of staff "banning people for bad opinions", feel free to stop anytime you'd like. We see you talking in PMs, we see some of the pejoratives you use, you're still not banned, and you all know who you are. We may not appreciate your choice in diction at times, but people are entitled to their opinion. You are, however, wasting your time trying to justify a misguided opinion. But if you take it way too far, we may call you out on it. If you don't want us to see what you're talking about, take it off the server to your preferred method of communication. That being said, if you publicly act uncivilly towards a staff member, your PMs may be brought into question if deemed pertinent.
All of these reasons, though pertinent, are pale in comparison to this one: we try to save people. Look at this. These are the oldest pinned messages in the staff-chat on Discord. Number one is the suicide hotline. Some members in this community suffer from severe depression and suicidal ideation. Some of the PMs we have seen are players talking about how they want to die because of how bad their life is, their intentions to commit suicide, or mails being sent to friends telling them goodbye. We step in. We send them that phone number and talk with them. When they log off, we hope they come back so we know they're okay. We've done this before, and we will continue to do it when it happens. If that's not a good enough reason for any of you, then you have attitude to adjust.
"The Incident with Kitten"
I've heard this has been talked about in hushed tones, so here's the deal. First and foremost: I will not allow any of you to publicly disrespect a staff-member, period. Prior to her ban, these are the events that led up that incident:
3/21 - Kitten requested aid in reporting a staff-member in the HT Discord's get-help section 3/21/2020. [Admin] Melaniebeedot responded, which--funnily enough--was the the staff-member Kitten wanted to report. In summary, the issue she was having was that she felt Mel was ignoring her and her friends, and that Mel wasn't enthused about helping any aforementioned persons [ 1 , 2, 3, 4, 5 ]. (This will become relevant in a bit)
3/22 - Kitten got into an argument with staff over therapy she was offering chat for $100 a session. The staff-members involved informed her that she couldn't do that. During the course of this argument, it became known that the initial encounter was a joke between Kitten and her brother. It should have ended there. However, it evolved into a different argument when Kitten was made aware that PMs are only private from non-staff players, and the existence of rule 2:A;1 of the HomeTown Rulebook. She and her friends disagreed with that rule's existence and us seeing their PMs, which is a "deal with it" situation given that I've explained above.
3/23 - Kitten and her friends get into yet another argument with staff over PM privacy, which [Admin] Star spent over an hour talking with them with.
3/25 - Kitten requested to report something to staff, which resulted in her publicly talking about a difficult to track exploit. Mel suggested that next time she finds an issue of a similar nature to report it in PMs to a staff-member, so the whole server wouldn't know about it. Kitten, rather than acknowledge she made a faux pas, decided to sass Mel because she didn't think Mel was a satisfactory staff-member. Following all these events, I decided to address the issue which led to her and her group being banned. [ 1 , 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 - IP address was redacted].
In summary, Kitten was argumentative, disruptive, disrespectful, and unapologetic. She and her friends engaged in multiple arguments with the staff team after having things explained to her multiple times. Her decision to sass Mel was the final straw. I told her friends to stay out of my business with Kitten as it wasn't any of their concern, but they decided otherwise and took the punishment for it, too. They're not permanently banned, but they will have to answer for their actions should they decide to return.
Mel is one the nicest [Admin]s we have. I do encourage you voice-chat with her if presented a chance. She's chill.
Even while I was banning Kitten, those banned still went after Mel though she never raised a finger against any player involved. Another [Mod] and I banned them all. That goes to show how deep-rooted their misconceptions of Mel ran.
The staff-team are not a bunch of uncaring robots looking for reasons to ban people. We're also definitely not service-industry team-members some people justify walking all over. We are people behind your screens. Because we are people, we are subject to all human faults, moods, and emotions. We're not perfect, we can only hope to do our best. We help the community because we believe it's worth it and enjoy helping--that's our sole payment. If you believe otherwise and treat us uncivilly, then you accept the consequences laid out for you.
"The gods are angry!"
Stop calling us "gods", please. We're just players entrusted with running this server. Contrary to some opinions, we don't need our egos stroked, we're not power-tripping, and we're not looking for a reason to ban people; aside from keeping the server free of cheaters, griefers, etc. Why would we want to look for an unnecessary workload? We'd love to just play, make things for you all to do, and relax. That would be ideal. However, it's not, and we have to balance staff work with playtime.
Thanks to the other members of the staff-team for reviewing this document for approval, and special thanks to [Guardian] misspotatohead1 for offering their editor services.
"A Personal Address"
This is unrelated to what all was written prior and never reviewed by the staff-team, it's not even staff-related. I'm speaking to you as a community member--a simple player, a person. Please, be kind to one another. Now is not the time for strife, grudges, or ill-intentions. Within the past four months, the world has changed for us all. The road ahead of us will be long, dark, miserable, and perilous. We must take it step-by-step. We are all worried and scared about what may come, however we don't have to be alone. We are HomeTown, a home away from home. Everyone here is everyone's neighbor, so keep an eye out for one another. Love your friends, forgive your enemies; let's make it through without figuratively killing one another.
- J
"Why are the rules so strict?"
When I first joined back in 2014, the only rules we had were /rules & /rules 2 in the server chat. That was it. The wording may have changed over the years but the spirit has stayed the exact same. That begs the question, how did /rules & /rules 2 become this rulebook? There are three main reasons:
- The community asked for an expanded rule-book for in-depth descriptions, self explanatory.
- Some of the more unsavory members who found themselves banned attempted to pin staff by using "It wasn't in the rules, so it's allowed" as an appeal approach. They lacked any sense or empathy to decide that--maybe--they shouldn't engage in morally questionable, destructive behaviors on the server. So their actions got listed in a rule-book.
- I was insane enough to accept the undertaking and all the pains of having to keep up with it.
The rules are strict because the community has evolved to the point where it is necessary to be strict. This server started small. Back when I joined, 24 online members was an absurdly high-traffic day. /rules was all we needed, but we also had a former staff team that on occasion would call a troublemaker a slur for a homosexual male in global chat and then ban said person. Thankfully, that team has all essentially quit. These rules weren't arbitrarily pulled out of the air either. They have been collected from incidents requiring staff intervention. If you all would like to blame anyone, look no further than some of the offenses people post about in the ban appeals section of this forum.
"Freedom of speech!"
Here's the deal, we're not a nation--simple. We're a privately owned Minecraft server, not a governing body of elected officials. Assuming you have a job, go up to your boss and call them a string of the most relevant slurs you know until they fire you, cite freedom of speech as a legal argument, and let me know how well that goes over. We may be a community, but we're more a business community than anything. You passed an application (our tutorial quiz), you have access to /rules and a rule-book (your employee handbook of expected conduct), and you're asked to follow it or get banned (employment terminated). That's almost any server, and most of your real-world experiences. If you can't abide by that line of thinking, https://minecraft-server-list.com/.
We don't discriminate with our censorship, either. We don't care about your race, belief system, sociopolitical opinions, etc. What we care about is allowing people to just be able to play Minecraft for a couple of hours without the usual real-world topics sparking arguments in global chat. We've been called liberal for censoring a right-wing player talking about "the sins of homosexuality". We've been called conservative for censoring a left-wing player's tirade against Trump. We've been sent "educational materials" from both parties to educate us on the evils of the opposing parties. If you all can't realize that we're here to play a game and relax with friends, then you've missed the point of playing here.
"I don't agree with staff seeing my private messages on the server!"
Tough. Private messages will only ever be private from non-staff members. We legitimately don't care about 95% of the stuff you all talk about. Some of the things we do care about are the few--often new--players who discuss griefing builds, x-raying, pedophilic scumbags creeping on players, talk of "inferior races", instances of player harassment, etc. in PMs. This is the stuff we want less of on the server. Even if we didn't see your PMs directly, they would still be logged in the console for those with access like any other server. Nothing you say is ever, truly private. Get over it.
Also, to all of you people who talk of staff "banning people for bad opinions", feel free to stop anytime you'd like. We see you talking in PMs, we see some of the pejoratives you use, you're still not banned, and you all know who you are. We may not appreciate your choice in diction at times, but people are entitled to their opinion. You are, however, wasting your time trying to justify a misguided opinion. But if you take it way too far, we may call you out on it. If you don't want us to see what you're talking about, take it off the server to your preferred method of communication. That being said, if you publicly act uncivilly towards a staff member, your PMs may be brought into question if deemed pertinent.
All of these reasons, though pertinent, are pale in comparison to this one: we try to save people. Look at this. These are the oldest pinned messages in the staff-chat on Discord. Number one is the suicide hotline. Some members in this community suffer from severe depression and suicidal ideation. Some of the PMs we have seen are players talking about how they want to die because of how bad their life is, their intentions to commit suicide, or mails being sent to friends telling them goodbye. We step in. We send them that phone number and talk with them. When they log off, we hope they come back so we know they're okay. We've done this before, and we will continue to do it when it happens. If that's not a good enough reason for any of you, then you have attitude to adjust.
"The Incident with Kitten"
I've heard this has been talked about in hushed tones, so here's the deal. First and foremost: I will not allow any of you to publicly disrespect a staff-member, period. Prior to her ban, these are the events that led up that incident:
3/21 - Kitten requested aid in reporting a staff-member in the HT Discord's get-help section 3/21/2020. [Admin] Melaniebeedot responded, which--funnily enough--was the the staff-member Kitten wanted to report. In summary, the issue she was having was that she felt Mel was ignoring her and her friends, and that Mel wasn't enthused about helping any aforementioned persons [ 1 , 2, 3, 4, 5 ]. (This will become relevant in a bit)
3/22 - Kitten got into an argument with staff over therapy she was offering chat for $100 a session. The staff-members involved informed her that she couldn't do that. During the course of this argument, it became known that the initial encounter was a joke between Kitten and her brother. It should have ended there. However, it evolved into a different argument when Kitten was made aware that PMs are only private from non-staff players, and the existence of rule 2:A;1 of the HomeTown Rulebook. She and her friends disagreed with that rule's existence and us seeing their PMs, which is a "deal with it" situation given that I've explained above.
3/23 - Kitten and her friends get into yet another argument with staff over PM privacy, which [Admin] Star spent over an hour talking with them with.
3/25 - Kitten requested to report something to staff, which resulted in her publicly talking about a difficult to track exploit. Mel suggested that next time she finds an issue of a similar nature to report it in PMs to a staff-member, so the whole server wouldn't know about it. Kitten, rather than acknowledge she made a faux pas, decided to sass Mel because she didn't think Mel was a satisfactory staff-member. Following all these events, I decided to address the issue which led to her and her group being banned. [ 1 , 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 - IP address was redacted].
In summary, Kitten was argumentative, disruptive, disrespectful, and unapologetic. She and her friends engaged in multiple arguments with the staff team after having things explained to her multiple times. Her decision to sass Mel was the final straw. I told her friends to stay out of my business with Kitten as it wasn't any of their concern, but they decided otherwise and took the punishment for it, too. They're not permanently banned, but they will have to answer for their actions should they decide to return.
Mel is one the nicest [Admin]s we have. I do encourage you voice-chat with her if presented a chance. She's chill.
Even while I was banning Kitten, those banned still went after Mel though she never raised a finger against any player involved. Another [Mod] and I banned them all. That goes to show how deep-rooted their misconceptions of Mel ran.
The staff-team are not a bunch of uncaring robots looking for reasons to ban people. We're also definitely not service-industry team-members some people justify walking all over. We are people behind your screens. Because we are people, we are subject to all human faults, moods, and emotions. We're not perfect, we can only hope to do our best. We help the community because we believe it's worth it and enjoy helping--that's our sole payment. If you believe otherwise and treat us uncivilly, then you accept the consequences laid out for you.
"The gods are angry!"
Stop calling us "gods", please. We're just players entrusted with running this server. Contrary to some opinions, we don't need our egos stroked, we're not power-tripping, and we're not looking for a reason to ban people; aside from keeping the server free of cheaters, griefers, etc. Why would we want to look for an unnecessary workload? We'd love to just play, make things for you all to do, and relax. That would be ideal. However, it's not, and we have to balance staff work with playtime.
Thanks to the other members of the staff-team for reviewing this document for approval, and special thanks to [Guardian] misspotatohead1 for offering their editor services.
"A Personal Address"
This is unrelated to what all was written prior and never reviewed by the staff-team, it's not even staff-related. I'm speaking to you as a community member--a simple player, a person. Please, be kind to one another. Now is not the time for strife, grudges, or ill-intentions. Within the past four months, the world has changed for us all. The road ahead of us will be long, dark, miserable, and perilous. We must take it step-by-step. We are all worried and scared about what may come, however we don't have to be alone. We are HomeTown, a home away from home. Everyone here is everyone's neighbor, so keep an eye out for one another. Love your friends, forgive your enemies; let's make it through without figuratively killing one another.
- J
![[Image: MlZF3GH.png]](https://i.imgur.com/MlZF3GH.png)