hi im bored heres a threado like and subscrizzle
One of the things that truly confounded me when I was a Moderator, was the ratio of good-to-bad appeals. It seemed that for every good appeal I came across, there were literally hundreds of bad ones. In fact, I only recall a couple of them ever convincing me without any further thought to remove a punishment in a span of over a year. So, he's a guide of sorts on how to write a good appeal.
What staff look for in an appeal
What is looked for in appeals differs depending on the staff member reviewing it. Some staff are more lenient, others not so much. Though, the things that matter most in an appeal are honesty, detail, politeness and remorse and past offences.
Staff will ask themselves two questions when reviewing appeals. These are 'Is the punishment justified?' and most importantly, 'Will they break the rules again (assuming they're guilty)?'
What staff don't look for in an appeal
There are a few things that staff either don't want to see, or don't need to see. For example, they don't want to see lies nor excuses, and they don't need to see irrelevant details and good grammar. In fact, grammar is rarely - if ever - assessed. This is Minecraft; children play it, and children are less capable of writing a flawless essay for an appeal. Staff know this, and so will not penalise you for things such as spellign erors, so long as it's clear that you have tried.
Honesty
Dishonesty is the fastest way to get your appeal denied. You want to be as honest as possible, because lying only suggests that you're not sorry for breaking the rules; you're sorry you got caught breaking the rules. Dishonesty is, after all, synonymous with rule-breaking. Keep in mind staff probably have evidence of your misdeeds, so lying is often a death sentence for your account. I denied pretty much all dishonest appeals with no second thought, and so will most other staff members. Even if you think a little lie or two will increase your chances, it won't; do not go there.
Detail
The appealing stage is a very useful opportunity to explain as much of the incident leading up to your punishment as possible; do not waste it. You can only appeal once, so if your account matters to you even a little bit, you should put some effort into it instead of cracking your appeal out in sixty seconds. Simply saying "please unban I didn't do anything wrong smh?" will earn you a ticket to a denied appeal. If staff don't think you care about your account, why would they unban you? If you don't care after all, you're more likely to break the rules. Also, recounting information accurately demonstrates that you're being honest.
A few details to include are:
-Reasons why you broke the rules. Distinguish between a reason and an excuse - Don't just say "Somebody was hacking so I did it too", or "They swore at me first", because these are excuses, not reasons. At the very least, own up to it and apologise. Do not shift the blame onto somebody else, it's your appeal, not theirs!
-If falsely banned, the activity you were doing at the time and any possible reasons for why you may have been wrongly banned (i.e. clicking too fast, lagging, perhaps the game glitched out or you got stuck inside a block)
Politeness
Whether you were wrongly banned or otherwise, politeness is essential to getting unbanned. If you cuss out a staff member for banning you, they're not going to be offended. No, they're going to laugh at your appeal, deny it, and probably share it with their co-workers so that they can enjoy it as well. If you're all fired up at the time of writing your appeal, then go to sleep and write it tomorrow instead.
If wrongly banned, don't insult the staff member who banned you (which will be the staff member who receives your appeal. Oh, another reason not to lie). Honestly, the number of 'SUPERxSNAP wrongly banned me pls demote them' appeals was truly astonishing. Even if the staff member is in the wrong, they'll feel more inclined to remedy their mistake if you show a little patience and understanding with them. Which do you think sounds better, 'Please lift my sanction. No hard feelings, mistakes happen', or 'You terrible mod either unmute me or sleep with one eye open'? Staff are human, mistakes happen. Yes, it's inconvenient to be wrongly muted/banned, but politeness and cooperation will result in a much faster resolution than if you go and do the thing you were wrongly punished for in your appeal.
Remorse and past offences
Remember when I said the most important question the staff ask themselves is 'Will they break the rules again?' Well, if you don't seem remorseful then they're going to conclude that you might break the rules again, and so will not unban you. Something that might be a problem in this regard would be excuses, such as the aforementioned "They swore at me first" example. Staff are unfortunately still human (though the age of the AI is drawing closer), and will understand if you swore or cheated in the heat of a really tense game, because mistakes happen. But, you have to take responsibility for your actions and emphasise that it will not happen again.
Though, remorse will only take you so far. I recall a popular PvP player who I won't name, that I muted for swearing. Sure, they seemed extremely remorseful, going so far as to message me months afterwards on the forums. Just one problem: they had thirteen previous sanctions, I believe six of which were mutes. So, 'Will they break the rules again?' Probably. This is a factor that's actually completely out of your control. Staff can access all your former offences with a single click, so the only way for your past offences to not be an issue is to not have many in the first place. In other words, if you don't break the rules often, you'll have an easier time being excused when you do break the rules. One or two previous punishments is probably fine, but any more than that and there's probably a very good reason you've been punished, and it's best to keep it that way.
Irrelevant details
You won't necessarily be penalised for including irrelevant details, but consider this: Some staff check hundreds of appeals at a time. If 80% of your appeal is irrelevant to the case in question, said staff member will probably just skip over your appeal, leaving somebody else to do it. This makes the process of having your appeal checked a lot slower than it needs to be. They've just done 176 appeals, you really think they want to read about what you had for breakfast this morning?
Good grammar
So long as your appeal is coherent, your grammar really doesn't matter too much. Still, having good grammar is a way to show you care about your account and are remorseful, for it shows you've put unnecessary effort into getting its punishment lifted. But again, don't worry about your grammar too much.
Hopefully this "guide" is useful to you. Better yet, hopefully it doesn't apply to you and never will, because that means you're a well-behaved snapling. If any section is lacking or incorrect, please say so and I will correct it :)
One of the things that truly confounded me when I was a Moderator, was the ratio of good-to-bad appeals. It seemed that for every good appeal I came across, there were literally hundreds of bad ones. In fact, I only recall a couple of them ever convincing me without any further thought to remove a punishment in a span of over a year. So, he's a guide of sorts on how to write a good appeal.
What staff look for in an appeal
What is looked for in appeals differs depending on the staff member reviewing it. Some staff are more lenient, others not so much. Though, the things that matter most in an appeal are honesty, detail, politeness and remorse and past offences.
Staff will ask themselves two questions when reviewing appeals. These are 'Is the punishment justified?' and most importantly, 'Will they break the rules again (assuming they're guilty)?'
What staff don't look for in an appeal
There are a few things that staff either don't want to see, or don't need to see. For example, they don't want to see lies nor excuses, and they don't need to see irrelevant details and good grammar. In fact, grammar is rarely - if ever - assessed. This is Minecraft; children play it, and children are less capable of writing a flawless essay for an appeal. Staff know this, and so will not penalise you for things such as spellign erors, so long as it's clear that you have tried.
Honesty
Dishonesty is the fastest way to get your appeal denied. You want to be as honest as possible, because lying only suggests that you're not sorry for breaking the rules; you're sorry you got caught breaking the rules. Dishonesty is, after all, synonymous with rule-breaking. Keep in mind staff probably have evidence of your misdeeds, so lying is often a death sentence for your account. I denied pretty much all dishonest appeals with no second thought, and so will most other staff members. Even if you think a little lie or two will increase your chances, it won't; do not go there.
Detail
The appealing stage is a very useful opportunity to explain as much of the incident leading up to your punishment as possible; do not waste it. You can only appeal once, so if your account matters to you even a little bit, you should put some effort into it instead of cracking your appeal out in sixty seconds. Simply saying "please unban I didn't do anything wrong smh?" will earn you a ticket to a denied appeal. If staff don't think you care about your account, why would they unban you? If you don't care after all, you're more likely to break the rules. Also, recounting information accurately demonstrates that you're being honest.
A few details to include are:
-Reasons why you broke the rules. Distinguish between a reason and an excuse - Don't just say "Somebody was hacking so I did it too", or "They swore at me first", because these are excuses, not reasons. At the very least, own up to it and apologise. Do not shift the blame onto somebody else, it's your appeal, not theirs!
-If falsely banned, the activity you were doing at the time and any possible reasons for why you may have been wrongly banned (i.e. clicking too fast, lagging, perhaps the game glitched out or you got stuck inside a block)
Politeness
Whether you were wrongly banned or otherwise, politeness is essential to getting unbanned. If you cuss out a staff member for banning you, they're not going to be offended. No, they're going to laugh at your appeal, deny it, and probably share it with their co-workers so that they can enjoy it as well. If you're all fired up at the time of writing your appeal, then go to sleep and write it tomorrow instead.
If wrongly banned, don't insult the staff member who banned you (which will be the staff member who receives your appeal. Oh, another reason not to lie). Honestly, the number of 'SUPERxSNAP wrongly banned me pls demote them' appeals was truly astonishing. Even if the staff member is in the wrong, they'll feel more inclined to remedy their mistake if you show a little patience and understanding with them. Which do you think sounds better, 'Please lift my sanction. No hard feelings, mistakes happen', or 'You terrible mod either unmute me or sleep with one eye open'? Staff are human, mistakes happen. Yes, it's inconvenient to be wrongly muted/banned, but politeness and cooperation will result in a much faster resolution than if you go and do the thing you were wrongly punished for in your appeal.
Remorse and past offences
Remember when I said the most important question the staff ask themselves is 'Will they break the rules again?' Well, if you don't seem remorseful then they're going to conclude that you might break the rules again, and so will not unban you. Something that might be a problem in this regard would be excuses, such as the aforementioned "They swore at me first" example. Staff are unfortunately still human (though the age of the AI is drawing closer), and will understand if you swore or cheated in the heat of a really tense game, because mistakes happen. But, you have to take responsibility for your actions and emphasise that it will not happen again.
Though, remorse will only take you so far. I recall a popular PvP player who I won't name, that I muted for swearing. Sure, they seemed extremely remorseful, going so far as to message me months afterwards on the forums. Just one problem: they had thirteen previous sanctions, I believe six of which were mutes. So, 'Will they break the rules again?' Probably. This is a factor that's actually completely out of your control. Staff can access all your former offences with a single click, so the only way for your past offences to not be an issue is to not have many in the first place. In other words, if you don't break the rules often, you'll have an easier time being excused when you do break the rules. One or two previous punishments is probably fine, but any more than that and there's probably a very good reason you've been punished, and it's best to keep it that way.
Irrelevant details
You won't necessarily be penalised for including irrelevant details, but consider this: Some staff check hundreds of appeals at a time. If 80% of your appeal is irrelevant to the case in question, said staff member will probably just skip over your appeal, leaving somebody else to do it. This makes the process of having your appeal checked a lot slower than it needs to be. They've just done 176 appeals, you really think they want to read about what you had for breakfast this morning?
Good grammar
So long as your appeal is coherent, your grammar really doesn't matter too much. Still, having good grammar is a way to show you care about your account and are remorseful, for it shows you've put unnecessary effort into getting its punishment lifted. But again, don't worry about your grammar too much.
Hopefully this "guide" is useful to you. Better yet, hopefully it doesn't apply to you and never will, because that means you're a well-behaved snapling. If any section is lacking or incorrect, please say so and I will correct it :)
