What are the issues with public ban logs?

[___ 361]

It feels like players are constantly lying about what other players have done in an attempt to push people away from them, and while trying to fact check a few people's claims regarding the ban reasons for different players, I found that all of the report info on it was hidden away from the general public. I don't understand why anything that isn't on the level of ERP chat logs should be hidden from the playerbase. It makes it easier for players to spread misinformation about other players, and it makes cliques more rigid because most people view anyone belonging to another clique in a bad light due to false information. On top of this, ban logs would make it much easier for people to see whether or not bias played any part in whether or not a player was banned. If we held people accountable for stuff like this, maybe it wouldn't be so commonplace on the server. I don't really see any downsides to it, and it's standard practice in a lot of places. That's just my take on it though.

Edited May 5, 2025 by MythicalAxolotl

[Cheese 8883]

Grapevines are really fun though and I like gossiping :(

 

But in all honesty, I do think it's important. Many years ago there was a player who was TOS'd and nobody told me, so while I had thought they had quit, I continued to talk to them (and I was literally like 15 at the time). While I was very thankfully informed before I could be properly groomed or otherwise hurt, I do think players are owed some transparency, especially in regards to PCV/TOS bans. There is a discord for safety announcements (which I'll link here just because I think it's really important to have and not everybody is in it), but without knowing why people are banned, it's harder for players to both trust the staff and be safe.

 

That being said, even if reasons are shared, it's probably for the best that logs themselves remain private. There's some foul shit that goes on behind the scenes that not everybody should see, especially if it involves victims/witnesses who deserve to have their privacy protected.

[Mescaffier 6197]

Legal reasons, unfortunately. Idk about regular bans but people can and probably might have actually tried to file a case for ""slander"" because of people calling them nonces😔

[Samler 1565]

I believe the reasoning is to make it so banned people don't get judged and in case of TOS, to avoid potential slander lawsuits. . .

That said, a list of 'mc name - reasoning' should totally be made. To avoid people mistakenly interact with TOS players and to allow much needed transparency which is ever felt needed.

[SethWolf 2340]

It's just generally not any of our business. All this 'misinformation' stuff you brought up and the gossiping is just part of being on a Mongolian basket weaving forum.

 

I'm not certain if this is what you mean by 'ban logs', but as someone who was once a mod, making all information and evidence relating to someone's ban public information will end up 'outing' players who may have discreetly given proof/evidence of misconduct - which is generally how most bans outside of public player reports happen (or atleast this is how it was back when I was a blue tag), and make them a target for harassment. This is yet another reason why bans/evidence are generally kept private, and the decision to make such evidence public is up to the discretion of the player providing it.

 

I'm not sure that's exactly what you meant, but you mentioned 'proving/disproving bias' as one of the stated reasons for such a needed change, and I'm not sure how that would be possible without actually being able to research the circumstance and evidence that led up to their ban.

[Jihnyny 5233]

slander lawsuits? yall telling me LotC or anyone else doesnt attempt to report the person to proper authorities? 😭🙏 letting them pedophiles roam goddam

[___ 361]

I’m pretty sure you would have to prove that the defamation has damaged you financially in order to win the lawsuit. I doubt anyone attempting to sue the server for slander would be able to do that. Additionally, in cases where the information is true, slander doesn’t apply. If staff are required to post evidence anyway then I don’t see why anyone would try to sue LOTC knowing that they can’t win and they’re just wasting their own money.

 

Regarding the harassment, I don’t see why it would be allowed on the server to begin with, and it should be relatively easy to collect evidence and report it. Maybe if there were actually consequences for bad faith actions, bad faith actions wouldn’t be the norm on the server.

 

I personally think the pros outweigh the cons for something like this, and I doubt it would take much effort to implement.

Edited May 7, 2025 by MythicalAxolotl