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allbymyself87 Game profile

Member
832

May 10th 2024, 14:11:09

When players get purpled in the game, they always face the same issue:

1) No clues which rules they have broken or violated.
2) No clues who should they contact to reinstate their country.
3) Sometimes it takes forever to appeal as not all game mods are around 24/7. So, might end up losing quite some valuable time/turns while waiting for mods to check/reply/reinstate.

Suggestions:

1) Can we enforce for game mod who handles on the country deletion to at least send a private message to the player to inform/explain which rules he has violated and results in deletion?? It's better than let the player himself to have a wild guess on his own?

2) Add an "Appeal" button or link for player to click and fill up proof or reasons to speed up the entire reinstate progress? Better than having to let players to find game mods on their own and sometimes they might find the wrong mod for the server which end up have to look again for the correct mod for the server. And sometimes all the mods not responding, that's the most frustrating part. =/

Edited By: Slagpit on May 11th 2024, 15:39:35
See Original Post

Slagpit Game profile

Administrator
Game Development
4853

May 10th 2024, 15:27:27

Can you clarify where this feedback is coming from? I don't see any deletions on your game account over the past five years. We already have an ingame appeal workflow built into the game. Players should use that instead of trying to hunt down game mods. Is this not working?

Turtle Crawler Game profile

Member
621

May 10th 2024, 16:39:30

The real issue is rouge mods or the entire mod group going rogue and deleting people without rules violations. Restore should never be necessary.

allbymyself87 Game profile

Member
832

May 10th 2024, 16:42:39

It's not for myself.
It's for a SoLer - Faithful Sinner (#11).

He is purpled in game but he has no clue which rules he has broken/violated.
He mentioned that his appeal is denied with zero communication.
Can help investigate what happened?

Turtle Crawler Game profile

Member
621

May 10th 2024, 16:53:56

Deleted along with 522

Primeval Game profile

Game Moderator
Mod Boss
3081

May 10th 2024, 20:21:27

Originally posted by allbymyself87:
When players get purpled in the game, they always face the same issue:

1) No clues which rules they have broken or violated.
2) No clues who should they contact to reinstate their country.
3) Sometimes it takes forever to appeal as not all game mods are around 24/7. So, might end up losing quite some valuable time/turns while waiting for mods to check/reply/reinstate.

Suggestions:

1) Can we enforce for game mod who handles on the country deletion to at least send a private message to the player to inform/explain which rules he has violated and results in deletion?? It's better than let the player himself to have a wild guess on his own?

2) Add an "Appeal" button or link for player to click and fill up proof or reasons to speed up the entire reinstate progress? Better than having to let players to find game mods on their own and sometimes they might find the wrong mod for the server which end up have to look again for the correct mod for the server. And sometimes all the mods not responding, that's the most frustrating part. =/


1a) I agree with the issue but we are challenged by the method of communication.

1b) Not all players have their game profiles linked to their forum handle and the linked accounts are not displayed in a way to make it easy for moderators to easily make a connection for direct contact. Further, not everyone has information in their game account that might identify who they are. Some players do not use their known game/forum handle in their username, email, country name, etc.

I have previously requested that the general reason for the deletion be available for the moderator to select to be viewed by the player and I still think that is a good change for the admins to make. Something general for a moderator to select and be displayed for the player like coordination on solo non-clan game server, multiple accounts, game bug abuse, etc. The current system gives a player that feels they were incorrectly deleted to submit an appeal but often the appeal notes are simply them asking why they were deleted. There is no way for a moderator to reply to their appeal other than approve/deny and players often do not give contact details for correspondence. Even if we were to use the email listed on the account, players rarely check this in my experience (assuming the email is still even in use). A reason given upon deletion would eliminate the extra step and give the player the opportunity to respond to that reason initially. Admins could even force the appeal to include a preferred method of contact.

2a) There is a link to appeal when there is any deletion and a section for the player to provide feedback. The appeal will be viewed the next time a moderator is available. Contacting them outside of this method is not necessary for the appeal to be processed and reviewed.

2b)The person they could contact is typically not just 1 person, but there isn't anyone that a player "should" contact directly. A player can contact any person listed as a moderator for that game server if they choose but immediate reply is not guaranteed or expected from the moderator team. Game mods have access to different areas and I believe these are listed on each forum section. Players can also escalate things to me or Martian as needed if they aren't happy with an appeal decision - Martian and I have access to all game servers as Mod Boss. Admins should generally not be contacted for these matters and will usually defer to the moderator team (should you be lucky enough to get a timely reply from an admin.)

3a) This is relative and the definition can vary from person to person. A moderator replying to an appeal in 8-12 hours might seem to take "forever" to some players, but I might say that is a reasonable amount of time for a reply in most cases. However, this has more impact on game servers like Express so the expectation would likely change. On the flip side, the consequence of the some lost turns in non-Express game servers is not as critical for me personally since players, contrary to claims, are often not deleted for absolutely no reason. An appeal may determine that a deletion should be overturned in some circumstances, but generally something was done by the player to put themselves at risk.

Edited By: Primeval on May 10th 2024, 20:36:26

allbymyself87 Game profile

Member
832

May 10th 2024, 23:50:39

Primeval, can pm me info for deletion of Faithful Sinner (#11)?

Slagpit Game profile

Administrator
Game Development
4853

May 11th 2024, 15:41:16

I plan to change the "Your country was destroyed because it was deleted for rules violations." message to include information about the suspected rule violation. That should make it more efficient for players to communicate with moderators on their appeal if they feel that the deletion was done in error.

Primeval Game profile

Game Moderator
Mod Boss
3081

May 11th 2024, 16:07:28

Originally posted by allbymyself87:
Primeval, can pm me info for deletion of Faithful Sinner (#11)?


This country was restored last night. PM me if you need further details

allbymyself87 Game profile

Member
832

May 11th 2024, 23:56:31

Originally posted by Slagpit:
I plan to change the "Your country was destroyed because it was deleted for rules violations." message to include information about the suspected rule violation. That should make it more efficient for players to communicate with moderators on their appeal if they feel that the deletion was done in error.


Thanks for making improvements! :D

allbymyself87 Game profile

Member
832

May 12th 2024, 3:50:49

Originally posted by Slagpit:
I plan to change the "Your country was destroyed because it was deleted for rules violations." message to include information about the suspected rule violation. That should make it more efficient for players to communicate with moderators on their appeal if they feel that the deletion was done in error.


If possible, include short descriptions on which rules they have violated?

Something like:

"Your country was destroyed because it was deleted for rules violations : VPN usage detected."
"Your country was destroyed because it was deleted for rules violations : using same IP for different players/countries."
"Your country was destroyed because it was deleted for rules violations : usage of inappropriate/vulgar words in game."

allbymyself87 Game profile

Member
832

Jun 20th 2024, 8:51:47

Is it possible to improve the response time for appeal?

We have another SOLer FAFO2 (#607) getting purpled suddenly on last day of the reset and now he can't play his last turns on last day of the reset due to the appeal takes time (set might be already ended before mods reply him).

I believe he has never been purpled in his entire life playing this earth game and it should be something to do with the VPN thing again.

Can we do something about the VPN rules?
It keeps purpled valid players (with no history of cheating) suddenly just because they are using VPN at home/office.

Requiem Game profile

Member
EE Patron
9181

Jun 20th 2024, 13:07:50

After all has been discovered, I feel like a deletion should be the final action. Even if restored, damage is done by losing turns, etc.

Maybe a soft delete is needed that disables a player from logging into their country, but it's still alive, etc, for a bit until any reasonable clarification is obtained.

Slagpit Game profile

Administrator
Game Development
4853

Jun 20th 2024, 13:49:39

#607 was deleted for sending inappropriate ingame messages.

Slagpit Game profile

Administrator
Game Development
4853

Jun 20th 2024, 13:50:12

Originally posted by Requiem:
After all has been discovered, I feel like a deletion should be the final action. Even if restored, damage is done by losing turns, etc.

Maybe a soft delete is needed that disables a player from logging into their country, but it's still alive, etc, for a bit until any reasonable clarification is obtained.


I think it's better for them to be deleted so they can't be attacked during the appeal?

Requiem Game profile

Member
EE Patron
9181

Jun 20th 2024, 15:09:51

That is a valid point.

Can they be placed into a soft delete state, which could be like a vacation mode in which you do not lose your turns?

If innocent, then no damage has been done.

I'm just trying to mitigate someone being deleted and then reinstated without causing them damage if they are deemed innocent of whatever violation was being investigated.

EDIT: The only reason I am bringing this up was it has happened to me before. Get deleted, talk to the mod about it, figured out I shouldn't have been deleted in the first place => mods reply is "its reinstated no big deal" but in reality losing turns is a big deal to the player.

Slagpit Game profile

Administrator
Game Development
4853

Jun 20th 2024, 15:34:21

How did you lose turns? Because you ran out of room for stored turns?

Requiem Game profile

Member
EE Patron
9181

Jun 20th 2024, 15:45:16

No, when you are "deleted," you do not accumulate turns anymore, so you lose every turn until they re-activate you.

Slagpit Game profile

Administrator
Game Development
4853

Jun 20th 2024, 15:48:04

You just ruined my weekend plans :(

Requiem Game profile

Member
EE Patron
9181

Jun 20th 2024, 15:49:27

LoL– I don't think it is such a high priority to ruin weekend plans :p

It was just my grievance that I wanted to make you aware of!

allbymyself87 Game profile

Member
832

Jun 21st 2024, 3:33:18

Originally posted by Slagpit:
#607 was deleted for sending inappropriate ingame messages.


Okay, noted on that part.

By the way, am curious, whenever an ingame msg is reported, does the mods check on the msg history (including deleted msg) from both parties before taking actions OR mods will take action based on the content of a single reported ingame msg?

Edited By: allbymyself87 on Jun 21st 2024, 3:37:11

Primeval Game profile

Game Moderator
Mod Boss
3081

Jun 22nd 2024, 23:45:47

Originally posted by allbymyself87:


By the way, am curious, whenever an ingame msg is reported, does the mods check on the msg history (including deleted msg) from both parties before taking actions OR mods will take action based on the content of a single reported ingame msg?


Game moderators can see all messages from both sides and yes, I do review the exchange when I'm the one reviewing.