Not only have you completely disregarded Shtet's appeal and given him no concrete reasoning as to why he's a DOS, you've also refused to engage with him when he attempted to understand why he was banned in the first place. It is clear, particularly to the F7 community, that Wuchu was nothing but a cordial NSer who was a valuable part of NS, worldbuilding-wise.
Shtet has, in my opinion, cleared his name of any purposeful wrong-doing considering the fact that no mod has come forward to explain the reasoning behind the deletion of his nations which seems to be a complete misunderstanding and mistake on Shtet's part. However, here's where the problem arises.
"You're DOS. Go find some other site to spend your time on; you're not welcome here." is not sufficient enough reasoning to ban someone and frankly, it's insulting to our intelligence. The community deserves better transparency and more communication in regards to the deletion of nations off of the face of NS. I was worried that Shtet might've done something reprehensible game-side but from what I've witnessed, the moderation team have put in little to no effort in communicating with Shtet and attempting to locate and resolve the issue behind his deletion.
A few questions that I will most certainly not get any answers to due to the current moderator policy on staying radio silent:
- According to Shtet's statement, he was using a dodgy or illicit VPN service, does that compromise NationStates in any way, shape or form?
- According to Shtet's statement and clean prior history, he has done nothing gameside nor forumside that would bring his character or personality into question, why was he banned?
- Considering the lack of transparency in the way nations are deleted, how are we, as a community, supposed to trust a moderator's decision on banning a nation?
I might've bought the "Just trust us, we're the mods" reasoning back in the day but overtime, as a long time member of NationStates, my faith in the moderation team has reached an all time low. I continue to see spammers get away with meaningless bans or warnings while completely sucking the fun out of NS, especially F7. I've seen abusive nations get away with slaps on the wrist, allowing them to continue to abuse other nations. On one occasion, an NSer I know was slapped with a forum ban after an abusive nation reported them as a cruel joke and a mod decided to follow up and slap an idiotically lengthy ban on them which was soon revoked after much outcry. I continue to see reprehensible and divisive NSers keep adding their bile and rage to the site's community. I continue to see borderline pedophiles linger on this site, earning nothing but light slaps on the wrist or meaningless rule changes to address the situation. In conclusion, your priorities are in the wrong place. I obviously am not going to point fingers at any nations as that would be inflammatory and detract from my point but just like how you expect the community to believe you when you banned Shtet out of nowhere, believe me, I have many nations in mind who should’ve been gone a long time ago.
Fact of the matter is, the moderation is not owed any trust or respect, especially after the fiasco with Shtet. I have yet to be given a solid response or closure as to why Shtet was banned. He was one of the most interesting and nicest NSers in recent history. I am extremely worried and appalled by the way you treat established NSers, especially ones who keep to themselves.
Unless he was a brutal, genocidal dictator in his spare time, I have seen no concrete reasoning for why Shtet deserves to be banned and honestly, if this is the way you treat NSers who have done no visible wrong and have harmed nobody at all (Again, this is to the extent of my knowledge and according to what Shtet has said, I might not even be having this conversation if you guys explained why you banned them), then NationStates is on its way to the gutter soon enough.
I highly doubt I'm alone with my thoughts. Many other long-time members of NationStates are rather appalled with the way the moderation team has been acting not just lately but for a rather long while now. I don’t think I should remind the moderation team of the number of incidents this past year that has made them evermore unpopular and for good reason. You guys don’t take criticism or feedback at all. This is almost everyone’s perspective and even your most ardent of supporters are doubting your ability to effectively manage and maintain this site.
A personal message to Sedgistan because I truly cannot contain my frustration with your recent comment targeted towards Shtet, you clearly don’t get to say who is or isn’t welcome on this site considering your inability or reluctance to share why you think Shtet deserves a ban and if it’s as ridiculous as I think it is (WA bans), then you are in the wrong, plain and simple. I do hope that you understand that this is because I’m extremely frustrated by the mod policies and am not attempting to develop a grudge with you. I am simply appalled by the way the majority of the moderation team conduct themselves