There have been many people complaining about certain rules and how strict DG is compared to other servers. And to be honest, I agree. I often am afraid of getting banned if I say something wrong or it gives off the impression of me disobeying the rules. The strict rules has also been a turnaway from many players taking interest in DG. For example, the antispam filter has been many times complained about, and I myself find it unnecessary, hindering more than it helps. It doesn’t even catch the N word or other racial slurs. Something needs to get done about this.
Also, if people have a bad reputation for something that is not bannable, reporting people cursing at them is a way to get the good eggs banned. Many times have people been banned at this rule, and there needs to be a fine line for clarity if it is a joke or a threat. It should be moreso be put into a harassment clause, and removed from this.
I’m not saying delete the rules, I just feel like they need to be less strict and harsh, and maybe make some types of bans not permanent, like maybe a week or month ban. It’s basically a warning and permanent ban, no inbetweens. It would be nice to have a lesser ban that is not permanent.
I would also like to see a less harsh rules on impersonation, if it’s obviously a joke and they are not impersonating someone else and claiming to be them then it should be fine, and not bannable. Like if I wanted to make a joke video like the presidents play terraria meme, and making jokes and such, it should be allowed.
Also, some sections (like the illegal item modifiers, statues in survival, dev sets) have rules in place that are no longer applied due to updates, so maybe remove those as well.
The current ban system is the way it is because it essentially forces the banned user to actually read the rules. Even if they don’t, they have nothing to fall back towards if they find themselves getting banned again because they’ve technically already said they’ve read the rules and will follow them.
(it’s been ongoing for far longer than “recently”).
Cursing at someone is toxicity. If those people get reported, regardless of who it is they’re cursing at and said persons reputation, they aren’t exactly good eggs.
Fair point. If they only do it once, it’s one thing. If it is multiple times, it’s harassment.
Many other servers do this as well, and it is a relatively successful idea. Maybe have a way in-game or on discord to do it as well? Registering for a forum account, going to the website, appealing your ban, and then waiting for (often) long periods of time is lengthy and tedious. If they already have a discord account, they just need to join the server and maybe DM a bot that allows them to appeal bans (aka talk to a mod on why they were banned and how to prevent. In any case, it seems like a constant fight to get back-in, and 99% of people don’t appeal whether by the process or by choice, it means less and less people joining the server and not becoming members and not getting money to fund the server.
Alright, let’s address some more points and things, since this post is kinda unclear, missing a few clarifications. (Note: I will be covering both ingame and Discord rules, since both needs a rework)
Spam
On the spam section INGAME, it’s ridiculous how some people got banned for bypassing the new antispam. Someone got banned due to saying r and a few numbers to bypass the system that keeps muting you for saying the same message and also short messages. This isn’t just a rule that needs a rework, but also a system that requires a particular look into to make it more community friendly.
Now, onto Discord spam section, chaining is something that doesn’t even occour often, why enforce such a harmless thing? People are just interacting with themselves, and what happens? They get kicked, muted, warned. This feels like a ditactorship on an online server. For the love of the community, please either rework this rule in a way it’s more community friendly, or even remove it, or leave up to the moderating team to decide when the chaining is disrupting the chatting. Also, if the moderating team is deciding whenever the chaining is disruptive or not, then certify if this mod is capable of looking at the situation so they don’t warn and ban players at a point where it feels scuffed. A moderator on a community isn’t something to be strict at the extreme, certain occasions NEEDS to be judged so people can chat more freely without the fear of getting banned, which haven’t been happening lately.
Chatting Rules in General
I’ve seen many players get banned for joking with stuff that weren’t even hurting people in general. Someone* just went and reported them because it was on the rules saying strictly that X is not allowed. Not to mention that there weren’t even an warning for them. On this part, it really needs some lenience to avoid regulars getting banned, consequently avoiding the community getting lower in players. A method to avoid this, would have an universal warning system, that after 3 warnings on a certain period of time, the player would get banned.
* With “someone”, I would like to point out that normally it’s only ONE person. And that person in particular is always looking the chat via phase to get the right moment to report a player, not only making the environment feel kind of toxic, but proving how strict and exploitable the rules are. And of course, they report without even judging the situation properly nor being part the situation at all.
Impersonating
Now onto impersonating rules ingame, let’s talk about a point that atleast I have never seen being brought to the table. If there’s something that I never understanded was people get banned for impersonating while the affected player were fine with it. Really, what’s the point of banning someone if the other player is fine with the joke? Therefore, we should have atleast some judgment process to make the ban more fair. 3. Impersonating those outside of the community when not considered malicious or fraudulent, and therefore for entertainment purposes, is permitted. ← this section should also apply with members if they’re fine with it.
By the way, ironically most of the situations also happened because of someone that was regularly stalking the chat and reporting every single player that would break a rule once.
I think I’ve addressed most, if not all, the points that needs a rework to atleast let this community try to revive. Those set of rules have been a huge factor on reducing the amount of players, and now it’s just putting an end to what remains of what once was a community.
I agree that in the rules there should be a harassment paragraph. At the moment if people are harassed without the use of profanity, mods have to resort to S0#4 as a reason which is “making other’s experience bad”, something abstract.
There could be a warning system implemented with:
/warn (user) (reason) [points]
if points is not mentioned then it defaults to 1
and if they have 3 warning points then they are auto banned
E. g.
/warn SonGoku Spam
/warn SailorMoon “NSFW text” 2
To the rules rework:
Somehow there is no caps filter in zombies but the caps filter blocks also messages like OK even though they are allowed
This should only apply if you don’t abuse that for malicious intent
Prefixed armor is blocked iirc, and iirc prefixed ammo is blocked too.
I think that that got fixed or at least made so that it very rarely happens
This can be abused via: all people online agree, suddendly someone comes in says “No teaming!” and then not all agree
These should be merged to “Buildings that break the chat rules like profanity, racism, controversal topics or advertising”
There should be an exception if the account has been completely lost like decribed in the acount management guide.
S9#1 and S9#3 fall under S5#1 and S5#2 and S9#2 is outdated because the lobbies are separated
This command is blocked anyways so S9#5 is redundant
/buff is blocked in survival anyways
The rule should be that only chaining disrupting normal chat flow should be actionable
I will write a rework suggestion of the rules both ingame and discord and will then watch for feedback.