Appeals and Reports

[Lil' Pudin' Taters]

Why are staff able to deny/accept/close a report or an appeal that is either a report on them, or an appeal about a sit they handled? I feel this doesn't make a lot of sense at all as a justice system. It lets staff emphasize their own bias on a situation. 

It's like if a supposed rape victim is the only juror in the court trial of his/her own rapist.
Examples:

 

 

Edited September 19, 2020 by Lil' Pudin' Taters

[Walter the Assaulter]

If your appeal is wrongly denied, your recourse is to create a report against the staff member who closed it which cannot be closed except by a different staff member usually of higher rank, depending. If a staff member wrongly closes an appeal, they can be demoted. The admins team also regularly check the forums and I personally go over most appeals/reports after they're closed to make sure nothing is obviously out of place.

 

Notice that in all 3 cases you supply none of the people who made the appeal were able to prove that their punishments were false, and in fact all admitted to wrongdoing but believed themselves to be above the rules. The point of an appeal is to prove that your punishment was falsely given and should be lifted, and I've not seen a report of a falsely closed appeal accepted in quite a long time.

 

If the appeal itself was valid and should have been accepted, all that a report like that would require would be a link to the appeal for us to look over.

Edited September 19, 2020 by Walter the Assaulter

[Rubik]

The Smods+ regularly check and review ban appeals and reports. If they see something is mishandled it will be reopened.

Very rarely is this the case so we do allow staff to decide on their own reports and appeals. They are the ones that are actually involved in the situation and can provide the most accurate information / facts of the case. 

[Rubik]

@mcdonalds wifi makes a good point. Staff should wait for multiple staff responses before deciding on it. In fact this is usually covered in training from T-Mod -> Mod. Unless the case is cut and dry where there is either enough evidence to support the ban or zero evidence provided to the contrary, an appeal or report should be left open for some time.

 

If you see a specific staff member who has a pattern of swiftly denying their own reports or appeals where there is a valid case of misconduct or a false ban, you should notify a higher staff member. 

[Lil' Pudin' Taters]

7 minutes ago, Rubik said:

@mcdonalds wifi makes a good point. Staff should wait for multiple staff responses before deciding on it. In fact this is usually covered in training from T-Mod -> Mod. Unless the case is cut and dry where there is either enough evidence to support the ban or zero evidence provided to the contrary, an appeal or report should be left open for some time.

 

If you see a specific staff member who has a pattern of swiftly denying their own reports or appeals where there is a valid case of misconduct or a false ban, you should notify a higher staff member. 

This makes a lot more sense and looking back at my examples some were definitely written with almost no effort.

[Succ The Zucc]

As a former admin I will be first to say Rubik and Walter are right in the way it is handled within the staff team, that said I have always been one to talk about the formalities in terms of what looks good versus bad on appeals. A staff member should be given the opportunity to accept a report or an appeal on themselves if talked to an SMod+ as for reports against them they should never deny it, it should be handled by someone else ALWAYS. It just looks bad on the person the report is against and makes the person writing it feel like they didn't get a fair shake.

 

As for appeals I have said this. Wait for others and gather an opinion. Sometimes we allow the staff member to decide on things if it's their call entirely. As for denials that may have 2 sides to it whether they feel the punishment is too harsh for what was given or it's possible they legit didn't know. It looks bad on the staff member involved to just up and deny it on the first or second reply in the thread.

 

Personally I do understand why we allow it, because it frees up time for admins and SMods to help people with rules and other things. BUT do note there SHOULD be a way of doing it where it works better than this, I have seen too many complaints because of this type of thing in particular because of the way it is handled in the wording or at the very least the harshness of the denial.