I think this sounds like a smashing good idea for everyone. It would make things much more clear for all parties, those posting the bannings know it is up there for all the mods and users to see, the mods enforcing them have a point of reference, and even the people who are banned, who can be tagged in the town ban notice and search to see if they are banned in any towns easily. It's not that I don't think the mods are not smart enough to figure it out, but why do things the hard and confusing way? Especially when there already is so much confusion around it with the posted town bans that already exist being treated with mixed answers.

There is an official forum place for everything else, it actually seems quite weird to me that this doesn't already exist. If mayors and town owners have the right to ban people from their town, then there should be a protocol for that that no one is confused about. I don't think it would be very much work to set up and I think it would save time and confusion.

 

I think that this could be a good idea, although I do think that there is a significant difference between evictions and this. You talk about making it easier for staff to handle complaints and collecting evidence. Ultimately, the only way that town bans would ever be enforced is when a town mayor asks a staff member to remove someone from a town. At that point, there is no need for evidence as the town mayor is entitled to request this for whatever reason. In particular now that staffs /warns/notes are permanent, I don't necessarily think that this would add that much.

My one concern is that these threads would serve as a way of trolling and public defamation, ultimately leading to arguments. With the right rules regarding replying to town bans, and strong incentives not to use them in bad faith (although how you would determine this, I have no idea) then it perhaps may be ok. These issues aside for a second, I still see this as a possibly nice thing to have, but not necessarily 'useful'.

 

+1
They shouldn't go in complaints but there should defo be somewhere that you can put this kind of information with proof that you've told the user rather then just leaving it to the note system that not everyone can see.

@Dewsy92
Could the forum be made so that no replies can be made to the threads, that would stop flame wars within threads, as for the trolling via the original post, it can be reported and if people misuse it, they can be dealt with?

 

I'm not sure unfortunately. I don't know if you can differentiate between starting a new thread and being able to reply to threads permission-wise. I'm sure someone with more knowledge of xenforo would be able to help ;)

 

Why would you need to "ban" a player from your town?

While I can sort of see why you might want to I really don't see how having these would be beneficial. All I could see is a forum for these being clogged up with these notices which mostly are people's petty ways at getting back at each other for minor issues and disagreements.

The fact of the matter is that this is something that can quickly and easily be handled in game. Handling it on the forums just seems to make it unncessiarly complex as we would need to develop specific rules and policies regarding these. And just imagine if someone forgets that they've been banned from a town and enters it - these threads appear to give a reason for the town owner to act with prejudice and not handling the situation with civility.

 

It wasn't long ago, you're correct. It has however, stopped, because frankly there is no reason to do so. This is actually no longer something that can be requested simply as it is pointless - you would need to be in game anyway to notice a player violating this request, and as you can have a non-member player removed from your town upon a simple in game request of a staff member (no reason or prior documentation ia requires for this) what would be the point?



I really don't see how this can be aptly compared to evictions as evictions are necessary. These are not.

 

There are players I have encountered that I have had an issue with. The easiest way to keep them from bothering me in my town, aside from /ignore, is to ban them from being there at all. I can leave global, but not local, so keeping them out of my local keeps me happy.

It's not a frequent need, but to have somewhere that there is an official record of it that everyone can see at any time, ensures that an in-game mail, or just in-game chat, can't be ignored or deleted and there not be any record that I had made the earlier request.

So, I can totally see the point of this suggestion, and if there is no way to have a specific place to put it on the forum, then it should at least be suggested to put it in a town thread, under the details of your town.

 

Okay, I suppose that all makes well enough sense but the whole thing should have probably been communicated with everyone so that everyone was on the same page about all this being only handled in-game now. Because certainly recently this type of thing was accepted and noted on the forum as a common enough thing and I believe pretty much everyone thought it was handled in complaints but then it changed suddenly with absolutely no notice which led to a lot of confusion. I mean I don't think moderators should have to explain themselves or anything, but it would be best to keep everyone abreast with current policies about how user disagreements are handled.

 

-1 unnecessary

 

Yeah, to be honest I'm deeply bamboozled here. And many hours after you posted the first thread about this I am only more deeply, deeply unsure of what is going on. Why? When? I think it would be clearest and easiest to have the darn sub-forum but I guess what do I know? The only thing I do know is that this could have been a lot clearer from the start and that I still don't understand the sudden change.

If you hadn't made that thread I would have forever believed that if I wanted someone to stay out of my town that I should file a "ban" for them in the complaints as I have seen done before.

 

Things change - The changes had to take place someday, as changes recently took place regarding this. The administration obviously thinks that now it's unnecessary, so they removed it, quite recently.

If you really don't want someone in your town, you may request a moderator to have the player removed - No need to have an entire section on the forms for something that can be easily dealt with ingame.

 

Well yeah, that's fine. But how was anyone supposed to understand what change exactly had happened? Consult our psychics and mediums lol?

I get it, it's just maybe food for thought with future changes that people will confused if they are entirely undiscussed. That is all. I am absolutely certain the mods probably know better than me how to handle these things and that if it is less work for them to do in game, that that is best.

 

I guess it would've been nice to have an announcement related to this. The administration should be informing players on recent changes in the way moderators handle things and such.

 

Something like this?
https://www.ecocitycraft.com/forum/threads/status-report-4-3-15.121477/
Showing whats changed, rules etc.

Game Admins could easily do this as Nicit did this when he was a GA before he got busy...