ToS Too Strict

This server has a good system of law enforcement, including a forum section dedicated to ban appeals. But sometimes the punishment for first offenders is too harsh. Let me use a recent ban appeal as an example.


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This person was banned for account sharing. There is no mention of how long the account was shared, but I'm guessing it was not a long time. The punishment for a first offense is a 30 day ban, which is reasonable. Account sharing is unfair for everyone else. However, in the Terms & Conditions, there is some additional information about account sharing:


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If someone shares their account over a longer period of time, a permanent ban is warranted. I think everyone can agree with that. In the case of shnigglefraz, it was a mistake - and the first time. She provided context in her ban appeal, but the permanent ban stayed.

MapleRoyals has a small playerbase, which is why I think the Terms of Service should be more forgiving for those who make mistakes.

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If you think that's bad try reading the ones where players are deemed guilty until proven innocent (such as that Crowley dude).

 

It's not that sinister- sometimes people look/do very suspicious things and it's in the best interest of the server to ban before they can potentially cause damage/RWT/Etc. It's no ones goal to ban innocent people, and I think the take away here is that if you're innocent, any investigation should reflect that (as was the case with his).

 

As applies in the real world too. A dude walking around a neighborhood at 2 AM wearing all black and a hoodie is suspicious, absolutely, but you can't just arrest him and tell him to "prove his innocence or else stay locked up and face the penalties". You must actually catch the individual breaking the law (or have credible proof such as video or surveillance footage/accusations under oath) in order to arrest/punish/prosecute. There's a reason we've adopted the innocent until proven guilty approach in modern day civilized societies--remember when somebody merely suspecting you of engaging in witchcraft got you killed?

Please don't get me wrong though, I'm 110% in support of permanent bans for people who are proven to the breaking the rules, absofuckinglutely, and even for the 'smaller' stuff like 'minor vote abuse' or 'robotic play' fuck that shit keep em all out. I don't want any of those hackers/cheaters on the server and I'm sure a large portion of other players feel the same way...but I'm not okay with legitimate players unnecessarily getting caught up in the crossfire when there is a simple solution available in just banning proven rule breakers rather than suspected ones (but by all means do extensive research into the suspected ones, and if definitive proof is found then ban ban ban).

Yeah, if you're innocent you only have to remain banned for 2 months, get told you were being dishonest, and put through a fucking interrogation about random (and often irrelevant) details because some person wrongfully thought you broke the rules...and get no compensation or apology from the staff member after the fact. No biggie!!! It wouldn't be far more fair to just not risk banning innocent people by actually banning based on supporting evidence rather than thoughts and suspicion, noooope

tl;dr: I think that bans should be based on what we know rather than what we think. Use what we think to find definitive evidence to turn said suspicion into certainty.

 

I was also wondering about those banned for vote abuse. Instead of permanent ban is there some way to wipe the account of nx? I feel sorry for those who have multiple players in a household.

 

I agree the rules here are very strict in general. Whether some are lightened or not, there could at least be more done to give new players a fair warning.

One solution could be adding a mandatory T&C quiz in Maple Island. For example, when you talk to Shanks right before going to Lith Harbor. Can call it "Wake Up Call Quiz" or "MapleRoyals T&C quiz" lol. Or cooler but less effective, edit the Beginner Guide etc. item to be "Royals Guide" with a different color and put the rules and other important info in there.

 

no one uses it lol

 

no one uses it.... UNTIL NOW!



maybe just do a T&C quiz or do nothing :^)

 

What she said was PRESS A BUTTON while she get pasta how is that taking turns to level? I feel that it's way to harsh since its only 1min~ of so called "helping"

 

Honestly I don't think its not that people didn't read the T&C's, but they THINK they won't get caught.

 

It's so easy for you to judge her after it happened. We are human, we don't always make the best decisions. The reason I wrote the post is to show how important context is. She didn't ask her friend to start playing on her account, it was a temporary situation. She also shows remorse in her ban appeal.

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It is the whole perma ban I have a problem with. Hackers, fine, ban them to hell and back, but you got these other situations where I find permanent bans to be extreme. Maybe ban that single offending account but allow them to reroll on another one? It is punishment without breaking a foot off in their ass.

 

A permanent ban on anything short of hacking or repeatedly abusing the rules is extreme. I think more along the lines of account bans to be more appropriate. Don't ban the user. People screw up, they learn, and hopefully they get better.

 

That's the trade off.

To play on this server u gotta suck it up to the rules and accept that there's little to nothing u can do about it. I personally think some of the rules are too strict but....we are minions playing this nostalgic game to have fun. Drawing the line between not bannable and bannable is not within our power. I highly doubt that even with a 99% petition to change the rules on account sharing will the admins or Matt be convinced by the slightest bit. The only possible rule modification is on scamming and that is in itself very reasonable as compared to acc sharing...tho it's taking forever to implement

 

I recall back then when you acc sharing its straightup 30 days ban. Idk why you gotta make it so complicated. Like vote abuse, it used to be straightup 14 days. Now its like minor offence or major. How do you even define minor offence?