This isn't EA, Noble.

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I was planning on making a suggestion thread about this, but I felt it was too sensitive to bring up, but now seems like a good time. This will possibly end up getting deleted or moved or something but I’m just gonna leave it here for now bc it feels relevant to the thread. I had an idea that maybe words like “suicide” or things of that nature could be somehow detected in chat and a red exclamation point could appear at the beginning of the message (right after the username) acting as a trigger warning, so people who are offended or triggered by certain words can notice the warning and be sure to either not read it or read it carefully, etc. I think it would solve the issue of whether it is kid friendly or not to talk about these things because the red exclamation point (or whatever would be better if ppl have ideas) would signal to people that the following chat message contains a sensitive topic.
more often that not people are drawn to an exclamation mark before a message, therefore players may use this to their advantage, etc etc, though its a neat idea. maybe an option to opt out of certain words appearing on the chat? i don’t know since it’s a lot of hassle but it’s like the opposite of the suggestion where you can pick words to highlight, you could pick words in messages you don’t want to see
 
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Well since this is a useful thread and I have many experiences of my own I wish to share.

In about 2016 I was banned for xray. I was so confused as well I believed in rules and justice. Now I had to convince the person I didn't hack which was a bit annoying. My appeal was denied yet the conversation continued in pm. I don't have any troubles with this but wish the appeal system was a little better.

Now my story about being banned for the second time because of "xray". Now the first time I understood as it was completely possible, yet this time was different. Very Different. I was in f5 mode on Oasis? sorry haven't played murder due to obvious reasons. Anyways f5 to check both my left and right. Now it was hard to get a position that would work. With this position I was looking at a wall. I believe the fact I was looking at at a wall was the reason I was banned. Any who I appealed thinking it was a misunderstanding and no the appeal was denied in 5 minutes! Like biased much.

So my point here...
I understood why I was banned yet both times it was just one scene over analyzed. Now for the punishment "xray" I would think more evidence would be needed. This isn't relevant as this was before the change. Still I would like to voice my opinion on this as Amount of Evidence should be more for xray as its hard to completely confirm.
...
My own opinions besides from my Story:

Leadership needs to be more defined and shouldn't need to feel to act a certain way. By this I mean leadership should have a line for every rule. This line should be identified by a set of ideas such as profanity would have a list of pg-13 or what not words that shouldn't be used. Now this isn't the best idea but just a example. And my final note "act a certain way" I don't know how it is for staff but it feels a lot better than a while ago where most mods and helpers rarely talked and it felt like they didn't voice there own opinions yet the administration's opinion. I like the fact talking to mods and helpers seems normal and if they don't have time or don't feel like it they voice they don't wish to. Before I rather avoid them do to personal dislikes and just seemed shifty.

Thanks so much Noble(and others not listed) for the new changes it is certainly a miracle for this server.
1] The reason for why we do not punish players who are discussing the topic of suicide is because it can generally be beneficial to their health by talking about how they feel. In one way, it's reaching out for help and knowing someone is there to talk to. I have had this discussion before. Some players may not feel comfortable to go to their parents or reach out to a suicide hotline number/website in the case that they may feel embarrassed, neglected, or misunderstood. By having a general audience that is around the same age to speak to, especially one that may be going through a similar rough patch, can be comforting and helpful. This, obviously, includes my personal view on the matter. Others may agree or completely believe differently, but I think this is what I would say a for a lack of better words, on the "general pro-idea" on this topic would be. Nevertheless, thank you, as this will definitely be considered in the future.

◉ However, I will say that in the cases which it is severe and detailed suicidal conversations [ i.e graphic ] or abuse, that is dealt with accordingly as obviously in that scenario it would not be appropriate.

◉ If it comes to the point where a player doesn't feel comfortable and they state it with a staff member or in global chat, the members speaking about it will be asked either publically or privately to tone it down and/or asked to take it into a private conversation. Staff will take crucial steps to protect both the players and the communities' wellbeing.


We can't force a player to get the necessary trained help, but we do strictly advise it in serious scenarios.
It all depends on the severity, topic of discussion and who is involved.


2] In leadership, we are currently working on a way to tone it down from global chat. I wanted to let you know that this is currently being seriously considered, and we appreciate the fact that you added this.

It can be extremely frustrating to get punished for doing something like this, but on the other hand,
see the staff doing it. We're working on a way to correct this.


3] We have a new punishment system, where leadership members who are enrolled to certain staff members will respond to the appeal, avoiding bias and perhaps tamper with evidence. If asked, or not provided by the player, the staff member will respond with evidence. In the case the staff member does not have evidence, or the evidence given by the player proves otherwise, said punishment would be revoked.

I suppose your suggestion would be somewhat beneficial, but we already support a system similar to this. If a player has any inquiries regarding a punishment they received, they can privately contact a staff member about their punishment. If need be, the staff member should respond with an explanation to why they were punished and how they can get their punishment revoked, the staff member can also show the evidence if the player who was punished requests it.

This applies to both prior to and after appealing. Players can input their own evidence if they would like to.

◉In the case the staff member does not have evidence against the player who was punished, or the player proves otherwise with their own evidence, the punishment would then be lifted.

If I misunderstood anything, don't hesitate to clarify as this is a lot to read, process and reply to.
I hope I didn't come off as harsh, I really personally appreciate this thread and feedback as it is extremely beneficial and crucial to the development of the network, community, and staff team.
I am so glad to hear this <3
 
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Well since this is a useful thread and I have many experiences of my own I shall share.

In about 2016 I was banned for xray. I was so confused as well I believed in rules and justice. Now I had to convince the person I didn't hack which was a bit annoying. My appeal was denied yet the conversation continued in pm. I don't have any troubles with this but wish the appeal system was a little better.

Now my story about being banned for the second time because of "xray". Now the first time I understood as it was completely possible, yet this time was different. Very Different. I was in f5 mode on Oasis? sorry haven't played murder due to obvious reasons. Anyways f5 to check both my left and right. Now it was hard to get a position that would work. With this position I was looking at a wall. I believe the fact I was looking at at a wall was the reason I was banned. Any who I appealed thinking it was a misunderstanding and no the appeal was denied in 5 minutes! Like biased much.

So my point here...
I understood why I was banned yet both times it was just one scene over analyzed. Now for the punishment "xray" I would think more evidence would be needed. This isn't relevant as this was before the change. Still I would like to voice my opinion on this as Amount of Evidence should be more than for xray as its hard to completely confirm.
...
My own opinions besides from my Story:

Leadership needs to be more defined and shouldn't need to feel to act a certain way. By this I mean leadership should have a line for every rule. This line should be identified by a set of ideas such as profanity would have a list of pg-13 or what not words that shouldn't be used. Now this isn't the best idea but just a example. And my final note "act a certain way" I don't know how it is for staff but it feels a lot better than a while ago where most mods and helpers rarely talked and it felt like they didn't voice there own opinions yet the administration's opinion. I like the fact talking to mods and helpers seems normal and if they don't have time or don't feel like it they voice though don't. Before I rather avoid them do to personal dislikes and just seemed shifty.

Thanks so much Noble(and others not listed) for the new changes it is certainly a miracle for this server.
Personally, I think they should screenshare for stuff like x-ray. It's much harder to tell if someone is x-raying or just using a glitch
 
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wait crabs in your nickname are banned? what happened about them?


also, i agree entirely about this post.
basically somebody spammed the crab emoji in discord and because the staff said that the crab emoji is allowed in your nickname, i told people to put one crab in their nickname. that got me permanently banned. since after two permanent bans you cant appeal (even if it's false), i can't even try to argue about this with a staff member without getting told i can't appeal

I can only assume this is in relation to certain groups that formed out of a few people being banned. While that in and of itself isn't an issue, what is an issue is when said group does any of the following (not exclusively):
  • Raids the Discord, server, or website
  • Causes trouble in and around with Discord, server, or website
  • Intentionally tries to disrupt the Discord, server, or website
  • Presses staff or leadership about x person/people being punished for y punishment
In the end, if this outside toxicity makes its way into PZ, that's the only time it becomes our issue. If it stays away from PZ entirely, you're free to do as you wish.

if thats the case, why was my toxicity outside of pz (mainly me pointing out why i didnt like a certain staff member) a factor in my first permanent discord ban? might i add that i never picked on that staff member on the discord. im not saying that that's the only reason i was banned because its not, but why was that a factor?
 
i told people to put one crab in their nickname. that got me permanently banned.
That is honestly the dumbest, most insanely unfair punishment I've ever heard. You got banned for telling people to put a harmless, innocent emoji in their name?
 
I would like to point out that this was a while ago and the leadership team is not the same as it once was.
I think most players here now have given feed back on what they see as unjust or not liked as we too are included by these "new rules and punishments". It's nice to have all parties included instead of just the administration deciding where to go. I'm glad to see that change ^^.
 
That is honestly the dumbest, most insanely unfair punishment I've ever heard. You got banned for telling people to put a harmless, innocent emoji in their name?
yep. the staff member who banned me, after telling others that i should just dm them, couldnt even be bothered to accept my friend request so i could ask further questions
 
I would like to point out that this was a while ago and the leadership team is not the same as it once was.
That seems to be the main... "excuse", I guess. Yes, times changed, but the leadership hasn't changed much. Not saying it is down to this staff members, but, from now to (gonna pick a random month) September 2018, Iruu is still admin, Kate is still Sr.Mod-Admin (was Sr. Mod til November.), Noble is still Admin-Owner (was Admin til November), need I go on?
 
As much as Noble should be involved in these serious situations, sometimes he's not, as well sometimes the people who should be there to make these decisions aren't there either as there are occasions where we genuinely need an answer in the moment and often the right people might not be there but it may be the best solution. It's a mistake and without them, we'd learn nothing. We can't expect everything to run perfectly, you cant expect no mistakes to be made, everyone here is merely human and to make things better, we need to make mistakes. Sometimes miscommunication happens, and as much as we avoid it, and honestly has been getting better in different aspects, these things happen and unfortunately things spiral from the original point. Frankly, when these things happen, it teaches us what not to do in the future and makes its clear what really needs improvements.
We do certainly want this sort of criticism, we can't just get rid of people who are genuinely trying to just start a conversation that needs to happen anyway, can't just prevent it because we're scared we'll get in trouble or demoted or whatever. If you're trying to be civil, honestly it's grand. Like mentioned, it's only when it escalates things need to change. We can't avoid these conversations, otherwise nothing will improve. We can't improve things if we don't know what to improve. What's the point of deleting every single comment that in the great span of things is a concern that they want to be worked on and tells us honestly how players are feeling. We're not mind readers and unless someone speaks up, things might not change.
There are a lot of things players can't see, and even things some staff can't see, depending on their position on the team. Maybe we as a team need to start reaching out to you all a bit more, at least in my opinion. Obviously not revealing punishments or something like that, there are reasons we don't disclose those matters, but there's a lot players genuinely haven't a clue about, that wouldn't completely harm us or others if we happened to share it with you. This is a close community, and maybe sharing with you all what is going on could be helpful. Not everything we do needs to be secret, I honestly can't give a complete example from the top of my head at the moment, but honestly thinking more about it, I highly doubt it'd be hard to find somethings that just don't need to be hidden from everyone.
I grew up in this community, it was tight and although there were always matters or issues, things improved, but improvement takes time and sometimes improvement requires change. Obviously no one wants to lose the original feeling which PartyZone gave us for so long, and I mean, that's what we're trying to do. But if we keep doing the same stuff over and over again, what good as that? We're not doing anything useful for anyone. There are ways to bring change and keep the core practices. If nothing changed, that'd be boring, if improvements weren't made, things would be poor. I mean the network was never capable of even handling the player counts we used to get, but thanks to Noble, it'll be able to and updates can become easier as well as new implementations.
Honestly, it's been a long time since I've seen the owner so interactive with the community, and although I've enjoyed working with all the previous owners, Noble is hardworking and he is an incredibly kind person. He's done a lot already and things have really shown improvements since he took over as owner. Honestly, I'm glad he did. We've had excellent owners, but it's nice to see change coming, adjustments being made and just a new perspective on things.

That seems to be the main... "excuse", I guess. Yes, times changed, but the leadership hasn't changed much. Not saying it is down to this staff members, but, from now to (gonna pick a random month) September 2018, Iruu is still admin, Kate is still Sr.Mod-Admin (was Sr. Mod til November.), Noble is still Admin-Owner (was Admin til November), need I go on?
Honestly leadership members didn't need to specifically change to show genuine change in how they work in general as a group rather than the people in it. It's not an excuse. A lot of changes players can't personally see at times, and honestly it isn't their fault. Leadership have mostly been focusing on staff and changing our system for better communication with each other and the general community. There's also been other changes which are coming around the community which haven't been revealed as they're not exactly like that type of change we can describe yet as it's still a process. Obviously can't go into to much detail, but maybe in the future it's something we could talk a little bit more about.

yep. the staff member who banned me, after telling others that i should just dm them, couldnt even be bothered to accept my friend request so i could ask further questions
You can message me on discord about this by the way, friend me if needed. I might have your tag. Just ask for mine if you need it. I'll pass on a message if needed and try deal with things if I can. Or even just start a conversation with me on forums.
 
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You can message me on discord about this by the way, friend me if needed. I'll pass on a message if needed and try deal with things if I can. Or even just start a conversation with me on forums.
its been taken care of as of now, but thank you for actually trying to reach out and help
 
better communication with each other
Seriously, still? (This may be different but,) If I recall correctly, when I joined the DC staff team back in September, all of the meetings, discussions, etc. seemed to be about communication. It's all I heard. Communication this and communication that, and, once again, if I recall correctly, that had been going on for months before hand. When I left, still going on about communication. (idk if I'm allowed to say this but oh well) The day I left, there was a meeting ABOUT COMMUNICATION.
 
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Seriously, still? (This may be different but,) If I recall correctly, when I joined the DC staff team back in September, all of the meetings, discussions, etc. seemed to be about communication. It's all I heard. Communication this and communication that, and, once again, if I recall correctly, that had been going on for months before hand. When I left, still going on about communication. (idk if I'm allowed to say this but oh well) The day I left, there was a meeting ABOUT COMMUNICATION.
That's how a company work (to my knowledge) to be honest. Most meetings are pretty boring and it can take a while to get a really good system going.

As I am a vice president of a robotics club we talk about better communication all the time and people always working on something rather than just sitting there on their phones.

This is more small scale stuff but same concepts apply.
 
Seriously, still? (This may be different but,) If I recall correctly, when I joined the DC staff team back in September, all of the meetings, discussions, etc. seemed to be about communication. It's all I heard. Communication this and communication that, and, once again, if I recall correctly, that had been going on for months before hand. When I left, still going on about communication. (idk if I'm allowed to say this but oh well) The day I left, there was a meeting ABOUT COMMUNICATION.
That was the discord staff team and that had its own battle with communication. It takes a long time to master and as much as I wish a few meetings or words helped, it doesn't always gaurantee it. New members come and go and things get messy and somethings things get lost. Just because we said thing held meetings, doesn't mean we've perfected it. These things take time and effort. Mistakes happen, and in many scenarios even happen more than once. One mistake doesn't mean total improvement, it tells you what needs to be improved and worked on. The discord staff team still needs to work on this, although it's gotten a lot better with time going by. Not saying it's perfect, time is still required, but we're doing the best we can, and so are network staff.
 
Seriously, still? (This may be different but,) If I recall correctly, when I joined the DC staff team back in September, all of the meetings, discussions, etc. seemed to be about communication. It's all I heard. Communication this and communication that, and, once again, if I recall correctly, that had been going on for months before hand. When I left, still going on about communication. (idk if I'm allowed to say this but oh well) The day I left, there was a meeting ABOUT COMMUNICATION.
I have to agree that a lot of meetings were about communication. But you have to understand that improving our communications skill won't happen overnight. While I was a Discord Manager, the Management team usually tried to come up with ways to improve it and share our ideas with the team, in order to gain insight about what the team thinks is best. Since I left, I don't know what's the communication been like, but I still do believe that even though the communication skill isn't fully improved, it is bit by bit via the meetings, the discussions etc.
 
if thats the case, why was my toxicity outside of pz (mainly me pointing out why i didnt like a certain staff member) a factor in my first permanent discord ban? might i add that i never picked on that staff member on the discord. im not saying that that's the only reason i was banned because its not, but why was that a factor?
Again, I don't know the details about specific punishments, particularly ones in the past. I'm not talking about any specific instances but rather as a whole. As I've said, I'm not involved in the decisions made for the vast majority of punishments.
 
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nice to see that the appeal system has changed
side note nice to see that this has reached 3 pages in a few days time.
 
Noble, I'd be happy to discuss this further in DMs if you want to hear more. I would prefer to discuss this on discord, and if you're fine with that, my discord is Kankson#0958

The reason for why we do not punish players who are discussing the topic of suicide is because it can generally be beneficial to their health by talking about how they feel. In one way, it's reaching out for help and knowing someone is there to talk to. I have had this discussion before. Some players may not feel comfortable to go to their parents or reach out to a suicide hotline number/website in the case that they may feel embarrassed, neglected, or misunderstood. By having a general audience that is around the same age to speak to, especially one that may be going through a similar rough patch, can be comforting and helpful. This, obviously, includes my personal view on the matter. Others may agree or completely believe differently, but I think this is what I would say a for a lack of better words, on the "general pro-idea" on this topic would be. Nevertheless, thank you, as this will definitely be considered in the future.
I know I did talk about this, and my wording was bad

I don't mind people talking about suicide, abuse, etc. But as you said, having the talk about detailed conversations about traumatic experiences are punished accordingly. I feel the rules around this should be more strict, because I still see a lot of players walking on the border of this rule. I don't know about everyone else, but some of the stories I hear make me upset; I know it's helpful to talk about it with a community, but it can trigger something in another person. I do agree with you though.
 
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To people who have pointed out how is leadership any different if the members in it haven't changed much,

Since late last year Noble took over, which is was a huge change in terms of direction for the network. For leadership specifically, since early 2019 old main leader of PZ leadership stepped down & I have been working alongside @Iruu to mentor her & work with the rest of leadership to have a more open dialogue than an iron fist.

There's already been about 5 instances of me contacting people directly, having a conversation & sorting things out that way that in the past leadership would have responded very differently.
 
im gonna be honest, i read like less than half of the first page worth of text then i skimmed and everything seems somewhat redundant in the rest of the responses. i apologize if im repeating anything, but the title alone is what drew me to this and made me reply

1. ea paywalls their games FORCING you to make additional purchases to have full access to their games, partyzone and all EULA-compliant servers cannot do that. the purchases are almost entirely cosmetic. the fact that you called the owner "money hungry" for having,,, cosmetic donation rewards,,,, is comedic. especially considering partyzone is probably a money hole right now with its current state. also, the server is a financial investment for noble so obviously he's gonna want some form of profit. to me, though, it seems like he's trying his best to revive the server and make the players genuinely happy. the edgy 16 year olds on the forums just want something to complain about,,,,, because they claim to not care about partyzone but yet still watch and 'criticize' everything that goes on here

2. it looks like the staff team and how its run as a whole needs a rework. you guys said you're open to player feedback and listening to suggestions? well here it goes:

i've been lurking the forums for a few years now, haven't really played since 2017(?). i don't really remember, it was after my old friend got demoted from senior mod (if you know who, that's great). what i found out was the old staff team was a hot mess. there was drama everywhere, people got promoted based on how popular they were. there was literally a staff member who couldn't do their job correctly ever and only caused drama but yet the staff team hesitated to demote them because "they were too popular with the playerbase." like???? that isn't how it should work? but okay. it was just one big circle of drama and favouritism.

not sure if that's still going on, but it wouldn't be too shocking if it was. what i can infer from what people in this thread are complaining about is that you guys act like this is more than just a minecraft community. it isn't that serious, i promise. it isn't necessary to ban someone over a crab emoji, but the fact that numerous players have to point that out is a joke. how do you justify it? i'm baffled that it happened in the first place. stop taking your already overly strict rules and enforcing them to a T. use common sense when punishing. i can already feel the 15 quote replies from helpers saying "we do!1!!" but you don't. it's a constant complaint, often times very valid complaint, about unjust punishments from a staff member. the discord ESPECIALLY seems to have a generous amount of complaints. use your common sense. it seems that you guys punish players for things that aren't even harmful. is a crab emoji going to offend someone? no. can it cause spam? maybe, but you're staff. you should be able to deal with that situation in the event that it DOES come up. no, that doesn't mean permanently banning someone. a simple t@purge or just restricting nickname perms and adding a chat filter is much more effective. and god forbid people have their own personal discord server. let's ban them because they're anti-pz! it seems so redundant and pathetic that i'm not the only person to say this, but it happens so it needs to be said. maybe the staff needs to grow up or maybe the leadership needs to stop telling them to enforce these rules so harshly. don't know, don't care, but obviously there needs to be a change. the owner himself doesn't even know that this is happening, probably because he assumes that the staff has enough common sense to punish within reason.

also, drop the family friendly rules. or, at the very least, make the rules less rigid. i promise you, allowing players to freely discuss topics, is so much better than people thinking that they have to literally filter every word they're saying. pz has always had this mindset within the staff team that players can't be trusted with what they're going to say. it'd shock you guys to realize that people aren't horrible. conversations won't ALWAYS be toxic and harmful. loosening the rules would just make the atmosphere less tense in chat. if the chat gets out of hand then that's what staff is MEANT for. redirect the conversation, or end it. that doesn't mean people need to be banned. banning people should be a last resort. i bold that because you guys seem to give out bans like they're candy. people will listen, and if they don't then punish them accordingly. once again, with common sense. it really isn't that hard. i was a network administrator for a server with a playerbase of about ~1000 players across three servers and this worked just fine. people aren't horrible. topics won't always be nsfw and harmful. stop acting like it. like, seriously, i wonder if there's a ban quota that every member needs to meet sometimes.

typing this was probably a waste of about ~15 minutes of my time because i've said these things so much that i feel like a broken record, but i might as well give it a shot. i eagerly await the replies of staff members who try to justify the ridiculous punishments that are given. tbh, i know almost nobody on the current staff team personally so this isn't an individual call out post. if you guys choose to actually listen to player feedback, then that's great. if not, cool

EDIT: it seems like the crab situation or whatever is something more, but to that i raise another concern. why are players feeling like they're being punished for something small? the punishments that take place should be very clear and shouldn't cause confusion.

also, i understand that the players in not just this situation, but any of the aforementioned ones, can be exaggerating or underplaying the actual event. wouldn't surprise me necessarily, considering this community and their,,, history. but my above criticisms can be applied beyond this thread.
 
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