Guide to Complaining, aka, why this forum seems blank

[JoanRisu]

"Wait, so, what's the point of a complaint forum if I can't post here?"

Read everything and you'll understand.

1. Please do not worry about being banned.
   
   • Admins will never ban over complaining. Provided, we might get sick of hearing the same problem over and over again, but that doesn't mean we'll ban you over it. There have to be other issues to cause a ban, such as harassing other players or calling the admin a "stupid cunt" or something when you complain to them.
2. Please do not worry about being banned.
   
   • I'm serious. What kind of idiots would we have to be to ban people who bring up legitimate concerns about the community? If that starts happening, the community is screwed anyway.
3. Please do not complain in this area about in-game things, bans, or about the broader community.
   
   • Game complaints are for the Suggestions, Feedback, and Troubleshooting forum, and general community criticisms go somewhere in the General forum depending on the subject. If this complaint involves you being banned, then it belongs to the Ban Appeals forum. This area is for you to complain about a specific person, be they admin or a regular player.
4. Please do not complain on behalf of someone else. Ever.
   
   • Encourage them to make their complaints known themselves. Otherwise, you slow down the whole process and we won't listen to you anyway because your information is unreliable compared to its source. E.g. "This player is being a jerk to me lately" gets corrupted into "ADMIN HALP THIS PLAYER WAS GRIFIN MY BFF!!!!!"
5. Please do not bring up problems that are over 2 weeks old.
   
   • Unless they are relevant to the problem you are currently having--like, the original problem was never fixed and is still ongoing, don't do this. Otherwise, this just gets repetitive and annoying.
6. Please do not gossip about your complaints.
   
   • That doesn't fix them and you generally look like an idiot when they do get fixed and you had been telling your friends how horrible we are for not fixing them.
7. Do not rant in public.
   
   • That falls under rule 6 of the global rules. If we find you ranting on a blog somewhere or someplace else visible to the public, that will get you banned.
8. Please be prepared to break anonymity.
   
   • A lot of problems can't be resolved without telling the offending party who is involved. We can only help you so much if you're unwilling to let yourself be named. Understand that we punish revenge tactics harshly if the other person doesn't like what they hear.
9. Please try to address your problems directly with the offending party first.
   
   • This isn't required, but you usually get a lot more done a lot faster if you at least try speaking to the other person first in a respectful way. This is the first thing I ask if someone complains to me about someone other than myself.
10. Please forgive and get over things.
    
    • I'm not asking you to forget, but at least forgive. Everyone makes mistakes, so forgive them when they happen. Otherwise, we just look like a bunch of whiney furries and vorefreaks crying about a badly coded Byond game.
11. Please be prepared to admit fault.
    
    • There tends to be two sides to every story so before you come complaining to us, try to recognize anything you might have done to contribute to a conflict, even if you didn't cause it, and even if your intentions aren't bad in your eyes. Most conflicts are just a simple misunderstanding of intentions.

Now that you understand all that, let's talk about how to submit the complaint itself.

There are two ways you can submit a complaint; Our Discord Modmail (@Violet's Desk) and through the forum PMs system. We've migrated our primary complaint system to Discord Modmail so we can interact with users in realtime. However, there may be times where Discord is down or you are just too unfamiliar with Discord, so it is perfectly appropriate for you to use the Forum PM system to submit a complaint. Just be aware that you may not get a speedy response depending on the circumstances of your choice of message delivery system.

Below are the instructions for each message delivery method. To save on space, they are hidden behind spoiler tags.

Discord ModMail:

[+]

To compose a ModMail message on Discord, you just need to start a DM with our ModMail bot, @Violet's Desk. This can be done by right-clicking on @Violet's Desk and clicking on "Message" in the context menu. Once you have the bot's DMs open, you're ready to format your message to us.

Before you write to us, make sure you write the draft of your complaint on Notepad.

Your first line is your subject line to us and should contain the following:
Your byond username [The offending party's byond username] brief description of what they are doing.
Examples:
SnackCakes12 [CrazySnowflake666] RPs like he has magic powers
OllieMcGriffs [StanryRoo] Overly harsh admin
NostalgiaCritic [JerTheAce] THE EVENT STORYLINE SUCKS
SadClown12 [WankerSonOfJerkin] Unfunny asshole

As for the message its self, it is recommended you follow this simple format.

Code: Select all

**Brief summary of the ongoing issue:**

**Have you spoken to the offending individual?:** Yes / No

**If so, why do you still feel the need to come to us now?:**

**If not so, why have you not spoken to them yet yourself?:**

**What specific date was this last a problem?:**

**Brief summary of most recent incident:**

**If you can provide specific logs of that last incident, post them here:**

**Now tell us EVERYTHING else you want to tell us about this!:**

**How do you suggest we fix the problem at hand?:**


Forum PMs:

[+]

When you are composing a message, add either the specific admin(s) you would like to complain to using the find member list or select Game Admins in the groups section and click the "Add" button to send the message to all admins. It all depends on how you would like to submit your complaint.

Then your subject title should be something like this: Your byond username [The offending party's byond username] brief description of what they are doing.
Examples:
SnackCakes12 [CrazySnowflake666] RPs like he has magic powers
OllieMcGriffs [StanryRoo] Overly harsh admin
NostalgiaCritic [JerTheAce] THE EVENT STORYLINE SUCKS
SadClown12 [WankerSonOfJerkin] Unfunny asshole

As for the message its self, it is recommended you follow this simple format.

Code: Select all

[b]Brief summary of the ongoing issue:[/b]

[b]Have you spoken to the offending individual?:[/b] Yes / No

[b]If so, why do you still feel the need to come to us now?:[/b]

[b]If not so, why have you not spoken to them yet yourself?:[/b]

[b]What specific date was this last a problem?:[/b]

[b]Brief summary of most recent incident:[/b]

[b]If you can provide specific logs of that last incident, post them here:[/b]

[b]Now tell us EVERYTHING else you want to tell us about this!:[/b]

[b]How do you suggest we fix the problem at hand?:[/b]


The paperwork going on here is annoying but there is a point to all this. This helps us organize and understand your thoughts. However, you are allowed to deviate from the accepted format as you see fit so long as it is readable.

We strongly encourage you to criticize things you do not like in the community and ask you not to be afraid of doing so. The only way we'll ever resolve our problems is by knowing them first. It is preferred you address these concerns to the people directly involved, but if that ever fails, then we have this section to help you out.

Also if it's the host you want to complain about, and you're seriously afraid to contact them, contact any other game admin. Sometimes the host can be stubborn or annoyed, so you have to get 1 or 2 other admins telling them "I agree with this person" but please at least tell them first if they are doing something you dislike. The same is true for all admins and players.