Removal of the Probation Scheme

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Surreal
Retired Administrator
Retired Administrator
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Joined: Thu Aug 21, 2008 4:19 pm

Removal of the Probation Scheme

Post by Surreal » Sat Nov 19, 2016 10:57 pm

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Hello all,

We have decided to remove the Probation Scheme that we currently run as a process for banned players to "earn" an unban on the server after breaking the rules in severe ways. The scheme has changed hands more and more over the years from a staff perspective and this removal has been at the back of my own mind for a while. In most cases, serving out a ban and then being unbanned with various conditions (such as not breaking any rules under any circumstances) is a suitable enough punishment for most people, and the probation scheme is unnecessary. I have never been a personal fan of the scheme and it is the opinion of many that it is a demeaning process for the probationers, generates forum spam and the requirements do not suit every single candidate that enters the scheme. It is not a one size fits all scenario.

Some of the people who get banned and caught up in the Probation Scheme are not always bad people and could contribute meaningfully to the server with good role-play. Some people make mistakes that they regret and unfortunately get caught up by the server rules. Some are genuinely malicious people. Those banned players who are bad eggs can easily be weeded out from the crowd and kept away from the server whether or not the Probation Scheme exists.

To the staff members (past and present) that have contributed to running the probation scheme: thank you for your dedication and voluntarily putting in the effort to help banned players achieve an unban. Whilst the Probation Scheme was a valuable addition to help tackle the large ban appeal workload in the past, I feel that the time and effort you spend on Probation could better be spent elsewhere and be more rewarding for both yourselves and the server.

Those of you who are currently serving in probation: please create a ban appeal in my ban appeal section so that I can review you for an immediate unban, depending on who you are and how you have broken our server rules. This is a tremendously lucky opportunity for you guys - my advice is not to squander it or take it for granted. Please ensure that you list your ban reason, ban date, probation entry date and time spent in the probation scheme when posting.

Those of you who are currently waiting in the probation requests section: I will review your ban appeals (as they are already active/exist) and decide whether or not to immediately unban you following this notice.

To banned players, past, present and future: with the removal of the probation scheme, ban evasion will be treated very seriously. If you ban evade then the clock will be set back to 0, and you will serve a longer ban.

Thanks for reading,
Surreal
Thanks to those of you who made my time here unforgettable. You know who you are. It was an absolute pleasure to meet different people from all over the world and spend years building and enjoying a mutual experience together. However, all good things must come to an end, and that time for me has finally come. Best wishes.

2007 — 2019.

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