Evidence, assessment and decision

Evidence

Generally, the things that carry the most weight in an investigation are good evidence. Moderators can see or find many things in the server's logbook, and they are considered extremely strong evidence. Other elements that help with the evidence are witnesses; the more, the better. In some cases, it involves piecing together where a player has been, what has been built, what has been torn down, sold, or said.

Each of these individually may not be sufficient as evidence. Still, together, one can conclude that everything likely indicates that a specific player has committed a certain act. Depending on the nature of the suspicion and how many players have been affected, the penalty will vary, or the player will be completely acquitted.

Generally, a crime that affects many players, an entire town with many members, or involves a lot of money will be handled more carefully as the penalty is usually harsher. There are not enough resources to handle all cases simultaneously, so some crimes are prioritized more than others. The goal, however, is that this difference should be as small as possible to create a more fair and consistent approach. To succeed with this, sufficient resources are needed, primarily in the form of moderators, but considering this is a voluntary task, resources vary over time.

Moderators decide - not players.

Moderators are the only ones who make assessments and decisions if someone breaks the rules. As a player, one must respect that not everything is black and white. People sometimes (often) have different opinions and perceive things differently. Decisions should generally be based on facts, i.e., evidence, and those with the most facts normally have access to the logbook and other evidence factors; in other words, the moderator makes the decisions.

Just because a player does not perceive an act (their own or someone else's) as a crime does not mean a moderator is obliged to mitigate or acquit. The same applies conversely; if a player deems something an obvious violation of the rules, a moderator is not obliged to impose a penalty.

Never demand a penalty.

As an appeal to all players, we ask you not to call for penalties or comment on whether someone should be penalized. It is not the player's task to judge. If you have an opinion about someone's behaviour, you report it to support; you do NOT shout or call out a moderator in the chat, pleading to ban or warn someone, regardless of the act.

However, we encourage calling a moderator DURING an ongoing crime or upon suspicion of a crime to gather evidence. This is done via /msg if you know that the moderator is online or present not openly in the chat channel. If you do it openly in the channel, the perpetrator will likely stop, and we lose the opportunity to catch someone red-handed.

TIPS: Gather evidence yourself as well. Take screenshots or record what happens. It helps the assessment, and it usually goes much faster to gather evidence this way.