So, as some may or may not be aware, the nation The Eternal Knights was recently seized by a high ranking member of the region The Eternal Knights, and used to enact a coup of the region it had founder privileges over. The nation was, to my knowledge, shared between multiple persons, and not the personal nation per se of any of them. The person who ultimately couped the nation, changing the password etc, was to my knowledge freely given access to the nation. As in the password was not obtained via hacking or deception.
Apparently this nation has been subsequently taken over by moderators, removed from the control of the individual who enacted the coup, and returned presumably to its original owner. Text of mod telegram as follows:
"Your coup of nation the_eternal_knights has been reversed, and it cost you your current WA nation, plus warnings on all your other nations. Note that the FAQ is quite clear about what happens to players who steal other people's nations. The fact that it was a shared nation and no hacking was involved is irrelevant. Think twice before trying something like this again, as it would most likely cost you your remaining nations."
Screenshot of quoted mod telegram: https://i.imgur.com/EHnKDjw.png
Now, this struck me as very odd. In fact it struck me as a complete reversal of what I believed to be mod policy in this area, so I'd very much appreciate clarification of the rules on the risks of nation sharing, and perhaps an explanation as to why the approach to this has changed
Despite the telegram claiming otherwise, the FAQ is actually not very helpful here. It reads as follows:
"It is against the rules to hijack someone else's nation, and if we see someone do it, we'll ban them. If we don't see it happen, though, and someone changes your password and e-mail address, I'm afraid you're on your own. As far as the game is concerned, your government has been overthrown in a coup."
Which is rather vague. More importantly, if we have a look at the actual rules Regarding Shared Accounts, they make it very very clear that the moderators will in fact NOT step in if a fellow accessor revokes your access to a shared nation. Specific text as follows:
"Nation theft - Fact is, the more people have access to a nation, the less secure it is. If one person hijacks that shared account, there will be nothing moderation can do to help recover it."
As you can see, this completely contradicts what was said in the mod telegram quoted above. So, has moderation's stance changed on this issue, if so, then why, and why were the players apparently not informed? I would also say that, for the sake of legality, it seems to me the action taken against the individual who couped the specific nation in this instance should have the nation returned to him. That is to say, the mod decision should really be reversed, since at the time he did the act in question it was, according to the available information on the rules, entirely legal. To uphold the decision is effectively stating the rules can be changed on the fly and retroactively applied to acts that were previously legal, allowing punishment of players for actions that didn't at the time break the rules, which doesn't seem right at all to me.
As a disclaimer I am not the individual who enacted the coup and received this telegram. I am however an interested third party who finds this turn of events rather concerning.
TL;DR: Moderator taking action completely contrary to the publicised rules.
You were very polite, acknowledged that the action was a ruling on shaky and possibly conflicting grounds, explained your reasoning, and clearly opened this to discussion. We've been basically criticizing your action all evening, and I want to just make it absolutely clear we're not criticizing you, as a mod. You did what you though suited the job best at the time, and without you and the others, this place would be a lawless train wreck! Thank you for passing this up, as is appropriate, and acknowledging where our worries lie. Thank you for the late nights, and making the decisions people don't want to make and will argue about for days. Thanks, Fris.
