I am not directly looking for support in this matter; the support forums just seemed the best fit - feel free to move the thread if it is better suited elsewhere!
I would like to share my concerns over the possible unfair treatment punished players may be receiving due to the lax regulations covering time of report and evidence submission, which may arise by innocent or malicious means of the reporter.
After a rule breaker has been banned (by staff, sentinel or a player's successful report), and the duration has expired, a different player who gained evidence of the original perpetration, but didn't submit it at the time, could do so once the cheater is allowed back on the network. If the moderator handling the report does not recognise the piece of evidence submitted as being at the same period as the original evidence report (which is quite likely if it's evidence from a different game), the cheater may be banned again, this time unfairly (and with an incremental duration).
The offences with the shortest ban durations are most likely to incur this problem as there's a greater possibility a player with evidence won't have gotten round to uploading their report before the ban is over, so it'll be accepted as though the cheater committed another offence after their punishment had expired. Therefore the 1 day teaming ban and 1 week sentinel ban are the main issues here.
Of course, the cheater should appeal their 2nd ban, claiming the evidence to be outdated (before the initial ban occurred). However, I don't see how moderators would be able to distinguish genuine victims from those who cheated once more after their ban expired and are lying in their appeal - unless they could contact the player who made the report and they conceded that their evidence was indeed outdated. I am unsure if moderators have this ability, but if they could look back through the cheater's games played on which maps and at what times, then if they didn't play the map featured in the evidence after the ban expiry date, the 2nd report could be denied.
As for players purposely reporting cheaters once again after an initial ban (with a different piece of evidence from the same occasion), there seems to be no way to stop them doing this. The current age limit for video evidence is 2 weeks, after which it becomes invalid. This is obviously much longer than the 1 day and 1 week bans, and also there is really no way for moderators to work out when the evidence was recorded. Therefore it is all too easy for someone to delay their report in order to potentially permanently ban a player from the network.
If anyone can suggest a fix for this exploit (the only idea I have is to reduce the maximum age of a piece of evidence), or can see a fault in my logic and understanding of the current system, please reply with your thoughts.
Also, if anyone does know if moderators have the ability to look back through a player's games to validate evidence, that would be helpful for understanding just how easily this issue could occur either purposely or accidentally. I fully respect that this may be confidential, so no worries if you can't say!
I would like to share my concerns over the possible unfair treatment punished players may be receiving due to the lax regulations covering time of report and evidence submission, which may arise by innocent or malicious means of the reporter.
After a rule breaker has been banned (by staff, sentinel or a player's successful report), and the duration has expired, a different player who gained evidence of the original perpetration, but didn't submit it at the time, could do so once the cheater is allowed back on the network. If the moderator handling the report does not recognise the piece of evidence submitted as being at the same period as the original evidence report (which is quite likely if it's evidence from a different game), the cheater may be banned again, this time unfairly (and with an incremental duration).
The offences with the shortest ban durations are most likely to incur this problem as there's a greater possibility a player with evidence won't have gotten round to uploading their report before the ban is over, so it'll be accepted as though the cheater committed another offence after their punishment had expired. Therefore the 1 day teaming ban and 1 week sentinel ban are the main issues here.
Of course, the cheater should appeal their 2nd ban, claiming the evidence to be outdated (before the initial ban occurred). However, I don't see how moderators would be able to distinguish genuine victims from those who cheated once more after their ban expired and are lying in their appeal - unless they could contact the player who made the report and they conceded that their evidence was indeed outdated. I am unsure if moderators have this ability, but if they could look back through the cheater's games played on which maps and at what times, then if they didn't play the map featured in the evidence after the ban expiry date, the 2nd report could be denied.
As for players purposely reporting cheaters once again after an initial ban (with a different piece of evidence from the same occasion), there seems to be no way to stop them doing this. The current age limit for video evidence is 2 weeks, after which it becomes invalid. This is obviously much longer than the 1 day and 1 week bans, and also there is really no way for moderators to work out when the evidence was recorded. Therefore it is all too easy for someone to delay their report in order to potentially permanently ban a player from the network.
If anyone can suggest a fix for this exploit (the only idea I have is to reduce the maximum age of a piece of evidence), or can see a fault in my logic and understanding of the current system, please reply with your thoughts.
Also, if anyone does know if moderators have the ability to look back through a player's games to validate evidence, that would be helpful for understanding just how easily this issue could occur either purposely or accidentally. I fully respect that this may be confidential, so no worries if you can't say!
