I hate this server

Hey Kyle,

I'm sorry that this is what you've experienced, but I'll try to respond to it as well as I can. First off, I think you raise some valid points. I agree the staff team still has training to do in many aspects, the way things are handled, the speed of which it is handled, the way people present themselves on the server, and so on. I would however say it has gotten better, we have diligated some tasks to different staff members to deal with, and I'll take the blame for the feedback process not being optimal in regards to that. In terms of the situation you mention when a hacker flew to you while I was in ref mode, I can't but apologize for missing it - usually in ref mode, especially in the situation you're referring to, I multi-task with dealing with NB-related things in discord. This situation was one such, where a lot of communication was going on on discord, thus leading to missing things in-game, which is my bad with being slow.

I agree with you as well, there are problems going on with the current active playerbase, such as not playing zombie, leaving when you're zombie, and such, as you mention. If you have ideas for how to solve it we're all ears, but complaining about it won't do any good unless you have something concrete to bring with it. Whilst it is a problem, it's not an easy one to resolve, especially with time constraints in development. 

In terms of other players of a "certain group" that don't behave great - a lot of players are new to the server, newer players get more benefit of the doubt as they may not understand rules such as disconnecting as the only zombie, etc. For players that spam, or harass other people, and so on, on the server, the punishments are always the same, along with the punishment structure that goes with it. If staff members deviate from said structure, you are free to report it, as it's not what's supposed to be happening.

I would like to comment more about the situation concerning zLegqcy and xenerty_, but unfortunately I'm not quite sure how much context I'm allowed to reveal in regards to it. I would hope it can be publicly revealed as much as possible, but I'll let an admin get the go-ahead before I step into that territory. The original time zLegqcy got banned was for mass evasion of a mute, which usually goes quite quick. The situation from last week was quite deep. I won't go into things specifically discussed in staff chat, but as this is public in IRC: gyazo.com/acfd982950870ce0c90d9ce0ea812daf is at least some context behind it. I'll also say, this was by no means handled perfectly. The situation was quite unprecedented, and we definitely had a lot of things to learn from it. 

Obviously this is in response to your mute appeal getting denied again. I'll try to give as much context as I can to it all, and hopefully you understand our perspective. Prior to getting permanently muted, you had broken the rules, had a negative attitude on the server, and been harassing players for a while. You even made a post about bettering yourself (https://newbloodcommunity.boards.net/thread/1547/apology-server), after which you continued the behaviour you said you would improve upon. In order to receive a permanent punishment, you must receive eight punishments in ascending severity, in which you even received more, and were treated more leniently than players should be. It's not easy to receive a permanent punishment, it requires a player breaking the rules a lot, and showing that whilst receiving punishments on the server, said player isn't improving from previous mistakes. A permanent punishment isn't a slap on the wrist that you can just get rid of - it's permanent. No one is owed to have it removed within a certain amount of time. A lot of games don't even offer opportunities to appeal something permanent, since a player has been well aware about what they're doing. Despite that, we offer it, but only when we are confident that the player actually has improved and won't repeat what made them get permanently muted or banned in the first place.

As you had prior to the permanent mute showed a long history of breaking rules and not learning from mistakes even when you said you would, it doesn't provide a great foundation to get unmutde from. Regardless, if you take your time to think about what you've done, refrain from repeating any of it, and then write a good appeal, you have great chances to get relieved of the punishment - however, you didn't do this either. You immediately tried to blame the mutes on others, writing out an appeal as soon as you have the chance, without letting the punishment rest, and letting us know that you're clearly taking the time to think about it. Simultaneously, you repeated the same negative behaviour that got you muted on the discord, leading to a mute on there. You then repeated it again in private chats and on a test server, after which you almost immediately made an appeal claiming to have not repeated it, and claiming to have improved from it, which we clearly had evidence against. So those 2 months of behaving, really haven't been 2 months of behaving, as you've showed a lot of the same behaviour that got you muted. You've also continued to make negative remarks about players' skill, and included it in appeals which have made them also end up lackluster.

If you would have stayed away from all of that after your permanent mute, it's not impossible at all you would've been unmuted by now. But you didn't do that, which has lead to the situation we're in now. I understand there's a lot of emotion after the latest declined appeal, that has also gone into this post, so it slipping through here can be forgiven, but hopefully you can understand why we decided to continuously decline your appeals - we don't feel confident you actually have improved from the behaviour you said you would leave behind. Active notes aren't really relevant anymore as you haven't been able to repeat chat offenses on the main server, so they would go away by default. I will however say, your appeals haven't been handled the best when it comes to time. It's something very regretable, and realistically they, along with all appeals / applications, should be dealt with faster, which is something I hope to improve upon.

Regardless - I'm hoping you understand the perspective I shared on some of the issues you had, and I definitely agree with some things that need to be bettered. Hopefully as well, you understand all the context behind your situation in regards to the mute, and you understand why the events that transpired did occur. Trust me when I say this - taking a bit of time, thinking through the entire situation, will do you good. When you fully understand why you got muted, first then will you actually know not to repeat the behaviour, and first then will that honesty be clear and transparent in your appeal, and that'll give you the best possible chances at an unmute.

In addition, I would like to add, we aren't against these types of posts. I for sure am not, as I evidently have made a fair few of these myself. Criticism is the way to move forward and improve on things, so for that this post is very appreciated. I'm hoping in the same way, you will take what I wrote in the same way - as criticism, and work on that in the same way we will work on what you've mentioned here. As long as all parties take things in a calm manner and discuss things together, things will resolve themselves much better, as is with everything.