Why Player Reports Should Be Public

[Iron Logic 910]

Currently, there are a few problems with the player reporting system.

1. Reporting players via discord is still acceptable,
2. Only Staff and the reporting player can see a forum based report.

Discord reports are a huge problem, they are often only viewed by a single staff member and thus only one point of view. This opens these kind of punishments to being inconsistent and often unchecked. 
There is also an issue with logging these punishments. From my time viewing punishment logs that used screenshots from discord, the links included link to the specific discord private message attachment, something only the player who posted it can actually see and those screenshots aren't backed up, so if the reporter removes them, the evidence is also lost.
The fix for this is simple and is something the staff have already agreed upon multiple times in the past, they should no longer accept any player reports that aren't submitted on the forums. 

A bigger issue is that fact that in the player reports section, you can only view reports you have made, in the past we actually had these being public, but for some reason it was reverted.
So why should they be public? 

1. It allows players accused of something a chance to offer their side of the story and to defend themselves. A huge issue I have with the staff team is that they act first and ask questions later, there are a lot of incorrect punishments/arguments that could have been avoided if they simply reached out to an accused player like I did. 
   Making these public allows players a platform to defend themselves.
                 - "But this will just cause fighting and spam from players not involved"
                    So make an additional forum rule somewhere along these lines. 
                    "Players may only comment on a report if they are directly involved in the situation, have evidence that may incriminate or absolve an involved party or                         have additional incite to the situation".
2. It will prevent players from making flimsy or otherwise false reports due to the fact that the community and more importantly the reported player can see the report.
3. It will give the community valuable incite as to what actions may get them punished in the future by viewing reports and seeing which ended with punishments, the type of punishments and what rules were broken.
4. Lastly, it allows the community to keep punishments in check. If all reports are made on the forums and the community can view how they turn out, it will eliminate any possible bias or sweeping under the rug. It also allows punishments and decisions to become standardised, the community will be able to see if 2 players that break the same rules get the same punishments etc.

 

[stickeyd 18]

idk why the ever went away from letting the community see the reports.  Those were some of the best threads on here.

 

[Paimon 6]

As i do agree with the reports made public. I'm kind of iffy on them being only accepted via forums since I myself am not well knowledged on how to make said reports forums wise and they are easier to do using Discord. I also do agree that being sent via Discord will only be seen by a single staff member and as you said, be seen in one persons point of view. Maybe if we add a #report channel to the Discord server to allow members to send their reports there instead of just throwing them in whatever channel they decide to put them in.

[Iron Logic 910]

Just now, Paimon said:

As i do agree with the reports made public. I'm kind of iffy on them being only accepted via forums since I myself am not well knowledged on how to make said reports forums wise and they are easier to do using Discord. I also do agree that being sent via Discord will only be seen by a single staff member and as you said, be seen in one persons point of view. Maybe if we add a #report channel to the Discord server to allow members to send their reports there instead of just throwing them in whatever channel they decide to put them in.

Discord reports are reports sent to a staff members personally. 

If the section was made public again, we would be able to also add in the post containing the proper format to use, making it easy to construct a report.

[Paimon 6]

Just now, Logical said:

Discord reports are reports sent to a staff members personally. 

If the section was made public again, we would be able to also add in the post containing the proper format to use, making it easy to construct a report.

Well, if there is a proper format given when submitting a report I don't see any problem with receiving reports only by forums then
I'm just not that great with the whole forums side of things so i tend to stay away from it.

[MrCypher 36]

+1 100x over

[twitch 92]

100% +1 i don’t know why it was taken down in the first place. Being able to see reports and appeals should be brought back.

[James 288]

I'm just writing here to say my views on why my answers are what they were.

Making the report section public again:

The only reason I have said yes, is if the player that was reported is able to view the report on him/herself, so that they can defend themselves or explain there said of the story.
Not so people can look at the reports and have a chuckle at the things people have/haven't done.
But then again, I agree with it shows people what they can or cannot be punished for.

Discord reports:

I agree with Logical with the discord reports; we should be using the forums more for reports because the evidence then cannot be lost.

I will speak to other staff members regarding this post and see what they all think.

Thanks for making the time to make this post @Logical.

[Nat 20]

Snitches get stitches. Don't report people. 

[oops 63]

I believe the reports should be view-able by everyone, because if someone is being toxic you dont want that in the community. But with that being said people will always have their friends comment on it saying "this was a one time thing hes a good kid plz unban"