TRR Mute Button

[Presdigitation]

Make no mistake, this is a political question: How tolerant can a region be of intolerance (of what is within site rules). Not everyone agrees on politics, and the people in question here are undesirables. How can the only ejection-free zone deal with such?

Every other region has the theoretical ability to banish someone from the region for any cause, with not tolerating intolerance one such cause. TRR mechanically cannot do this, to attempt to impose a new tool that allows the region to change this would alter the very raison d'être of TRR; the home of the banished. It is a great thing that TRR is as accepting as it is, and is home to great people. But trying to fit a square peg through the only non-square hole when more than 25 000 square holes exist is failing to see why TRR exists. An argument put forward in this thread sought to create a further rejected realm, such a proposal is emblematic of much of the discourse in this thread and blind to reality, being in search of a rug to hide this mess under.

This is not a defense of the bigotry that occurred to such a level that this thread was made. This is a reflection of the technical reality that TRR was created within. If there is to be one region in NationStates that is to be tolerant of intolerance, it is TRR. As long as the populist forces of cancel culture do not run NS, TRR is likely to remain so. An offsite community of a region cannot take precedence over the onsite players from a technical standpoint: Admin does not exist to recognize the legitimacy of regimes. There's no shortage of regions anyone can move to that fit their worldview. The players in TRR have chosen where to make their bed, they chose the one place where they cannot decide their bedfellows.

[Great Algerstonia]

Report them to moderation if it's that bad. This is too much power to give to non-mod nations.

Have you not been paying attention? We have, and we get “we don’t enforce political correctness”

Here's a suggestion which might work for both sides:

An ignore/foe list for the RMB. Similar as the foe list on the forum or the ignore feature on telegrams.
This way you can ignore/not see any nation you don't wish to see and you won't need to interact with them.

This does seem like it could definitely work

And it should stay that way. NS is a political game. All topics should be allowed to discuss. Letting TRRers mute nations for going against their political ideology is a terrible idea and goes against the whole concept of NS.

[Crazy girl]

The topic of this thread is not "what did Unibot do" please stick to the topic, thanks.

[Vuy]

Make no mistake, this is a political question: How tolerant can a region be of intolerance (of what is within site rules). Not everyone agrees on politics, and the people in question here are undesirables. How can the only ejection-free zone deal with such?

Every other region has the theoretical ability to banish someone from the region for any cause, with not tolerating intolerance one such cause. TRR mechanically cannot do this, to attempt to impose a new tool that allows the region to change this would alter the very raison d'être of TRR; the home of the banished. It is a great thing that TRR is as accepting as it is, and is home to great people. But trying to fit a square peg through the only non-square hole when more than 25 000 square holes exist is failing to see why TRR exists. An argument put forward in this thread sought to create a further rejected realm, such a proposal is emblematic of much of the discourse in this thread and blind to reality, being in search of a rug to hide this mess under.

This is not a defense of the bigotry that occurred to such a level that this thread was made. This is a reflection of the technical reality that TRR was created within. If there is to be one region in NationStates that is to be tolerant of intolerance, it is TRR. As long as the populist forces of cancel culture do not run NS, TRR is likely to remain so. An offsite community of a region cannot take precedence over the onsite players from a technical standpoint: Admin does not exist to recognize the legitimacy of regimes. There's no shortage of regions anyone can move to that fit their worldview. The players in TRR have chosen where to make their bed, they chose the one place where they cannot decide their bedfellows.

The premise of your argument is false. No region has to be tolerant of intolerance. And TRR deserves something to compensate for its lack of ability to choose who it wants to be in the region.

[Ellinika Nisia]

Have you not been paying attention? We have, and we get “we don’t enforce political correctness”

This does seem like it could definitely work

And it should stay that way. NS is a political game. All topics should be allowed to discuss. Letting TRRers mute nations for going against their political ideology is a terrible idea and goes against the whole concept of NS.

Can't other regions ban those against their ideology while TRR can't?

[Visionary Union]

Here's a suggestion which might work for both sides:

An ignore/foe list for the RMB. Similar as the foe list on the forum or the ignore feature on telegrams.
This way you can ignore/not see any nation you don't wish to see and you won't need to interact with them.

Isn't it amazing how you think that a tech change is superior over just dealing with those players?
As for the proposal itself, no. Sweeping the problem beneath a rug does not solve it.

[Umbratellus]

Legitimate question here from a gameplay outsider; why not just make your own region? Given that you appear to have a decently active offsite community, why not just tell everyone, "We're packing up and making our own 'chud-free zone.'" If your community is a vibrant as you say, it seems to me like most people would follow suit and join whatever new place you set up. At that point TRR RMB is none of your problem and the mods can deal with it. What's the downside here? You can kick as many people as your heart desires and police the messages however strictly you'd like.

[Crazy girl]

And TRR deserves something to compensate for its lack of ability to choose who it wants to be in the region.

"no need to recruit nations to the region"

Isn't it amazing how you think that a tech change is superior over just dealing with those players?

This is the Technical forum. If you wish to discuss rule/policy changes, move one forum down.

[Hoffania]

This is not a defense of the bigotry that occurred to such a level that this thread was made. This is a reflection of the technical reality that TRR was created within. If there is to be one region in NationStates that is to be tolerant of intolerance, it is TRR. As long as the populist forces of cancel culture do not run NS, TRR is likely to remain so. An offsite community of a region cannot take precedence over the onsite players from a technical standpoint: Admin does not exist to recognize the legitimacy of regimes. There's no shortage of regions anyone can move to that fit their worldview. The players in TRR have chosen where to make their bed, they chose the one place where they cannot decide their bedfellows.

It isn’t cancel culture to try to get bigotry off our platform

Have you not been paying attention? We have, and we get “we don’t enforce political correctness”

This does seem like it could definitely work

And it should stay that way. NS is a political game. All topics should be allowed to discuss. Letting TRRers mute nations for going against their political ideology is a terrible idea and goes against the whole concept of NS.

NS’s whole concept was to promote a book by an Australian author named Max, saying trans people are delusional isn’t political, and saying that COVID is a flu isn’t political either. Both are either awful, dangerous, or both.

[Visionary Union]

And TRR deserves something to compensate for its lack of ability to choose who it wants to be in the region.

"no need to recruit nations to the region"

Gee, what a delight. The constant flow of spammers and hateful people.

Isn't it amazing how you think that a tech change is superior over just dealing with those players?

This is the Technical forum. If you wish to discuss rule/policy changes, move one forum down.

Ignoring the issue. Anyhow, I did give my opinion should you note.

[Gorundu]

And TRR deserves something to compensate for its lack of ability to choose who it wants to be in the region.

"no need to recruit nations to the region"

Feeders and other Sinkers get that too without any of the disadvantages.

[Visionary Union]

"no need to recruit nations to the region"

Feeders and other Sinkers get that too without any of the disadvantages.

Careful, you might sound entitled.

[Toerana]

This has been a very interesting thread to read.

Speaking as someone who reads a lot of TRR's RMB as an RO with Comms perms for over a year, and the primary author of TRR's self imposed rules I agree with the idea behind mutes, but I disagree with the execution.

Fundamentally, when individuals chose to spend their time in TRR they went in knowing that people they deem to be unsavoury were just going to be a part of regional life. There isn't going to be a single active reject who doesn't know that, and everyone has the option to leave if they find the RMB too unpleasant. Giving TRR extra tools with trouble makers will just likely result in other regions requesting these powers - powers would could have impacts on gamplay, such as using the RMB for native led coups etc.

The homophobia, transphobia, hate speech, covid misinformation and all the other flavours of "delightful" that we see are simply acceptable in the eye of NationStates moderation, and there isn't much we can do about it. A mute button simply isn't going to make these problems go away, especially given that handing the power over to ROs makes it a gameplay tool as opposed to a strictly moderation tool.

I've also found a lot of actual rule breaking doesn't get reported, and while I do my best reading through every post and either handle or report anything breaking the rules (posts which often are suppressed by ROs but not reported) I don't always have the time to go through 300+ posts while eating breakfast before work.

I find this incredibly hard to believe to be honest. However, I can see why this may be the case. A large portion of what is GHR'd by myself and other individuals active offsite (to my knowledge) is not actionable - Which means that you're telling us that we ignore the actionable content but GHR non actionable content. I think that's probably because of GHR replies.

To parrot Guy:

Perhaps players would be more motivated to report posts if the responses were less condescending.

There is a decent number of GHRs that are filed by individuals in TRR who get snarky and/or condescending replies that quite frankly encourages (intentionally or not) a lack of communication between players and moderation.

My favourite is this gem:

The post you reported isn't actionable. Your region's RMB seems to report a lot of non-actionable content. Perhaps you should reflect a bit more on what is and isn't a rule violation.

This to me reads as "GHR less content". Kinda exactly the opposite of "Lots of Actionable Content isn't reported." I need to simultaneously report more and report less - Got it. Not contradictory at all.

However, going further would drift this into more of a thread for the Moderation subforum, so I'll stay on topic(ish) for the rest.

Giving ROs of TRR, or any other region as a matter of fact, greater moderation tools will naturally make the tools inherently political, while I may disagree with how lax the NS rules are, true moderation tools are definitely best left with "impartial" NationStates Moderators.

From a gameplay perspective, TRR is the region of second chances and allowing ROs to immediately mute individuals for whatever reasons will undermine that point and any "rehabilitation" that may occur in the region. Although, for obvious reasons, ejecting people into a region who's RMB has a large amount of hateful content on it just makes that sort of behaviour seem okay and doesn't really help with "rehabilitating" them and giving them a second chance in TRR and possibly wider NationStates. But, if that's what NationStates' Moderation wants then that's what NationStates' moderation will get. The current tools are adequate enough to deal with the content we as a region don't like, but NationStates allows.

[Bears Armed]

That's basically Max saying he's the one who makes the rules, and he determines what content can stay and what content will be removed. If he wants to allow offensive opinions to be expressed, but doesn't want people getting in flame wars, that is perfectly consistent with the FAQs.

I think it’s more of a “don’t take free speech for granted” sort of thing, especially since he isn’t on the site as much, he only really makes the news posts

He isn't on the site as much... as far as we know. It's quite possible that he actually actually has one or more active nations,but keeps their ownership secret from the playership in general because he doesn't want their inbox[es] & RMB[s] filled with messages that -- like some posts in this thread, for example -- complain about various aspects of the game...

[Sedgistan]

My favourite is this gem:

The post you reported isn't actionable. Your region's RMB seems to report a lot of non-actionable content. Perhaps you should reflect a bit more on what is and isn't a rule violation.

This to me reads as "GHR less content". Kinda exactly the opposite of "Lots of Actionable Content isn't reported." I need to simultaneously report more and report less - Got it. Not contradictory at all.

Mmm, that response is not ideal. At a glance, you've submitted ~37 reports, of which ~5 were deemed non-actionable. So I don't think there's any reason for staff to have been concerned about the validity of reports you've been submitting.

My guess is that some others from TRR had submitted quite a few non-actionable reports around the same time of you submitting that particular (non-actionable) report, and the message being relayed to you was a collective one. But even so, that point could have been made more clearly, and without carrying the suggestion that you personally should be reporting less. I cannot check context, as that's from several months ago.

But on a personal level, please do keep submitting reports; it looks like the ones you submit warrant moderator intervention in the overwhelming majority of cases.

[Hoffania]

This has been a very interesting thread to read.

Speaking as someone who reads a lot of TRR's RMB as an RO with Comms perms for over a year, and the primary author of TRR's self imposed rules I agree with the idea behind mutes, but I disagree with the execution.

Fundamentally, when individuals chose to spend their time in TRR they went in knowing that people they deem to be unsavoury were just going to be a part of regional life. There isn't going to be a single active reject who doesn't know that, and everyone has the option to leave if they find the RMB too unpleasant. Giving TRR extra tools with trouble makers will just likely result in other regions requesting these powers - powers would could have impacts on gamplay, such as using the RMB for native led coups etc.

The homophobia, transphobia, hate speech, covid misinformation and all the other flavours of "delightful" that we see are simply acceptable in the eye of NationStates moderation, and there isn't much we can do about it. A mute button simply isn't going to make these problems go away, especially given that handing the power over to ROs makes it a gameplay tool as opposed to a strictly moderation tool.

I've also found a lot of actual rule breaking doesn't get reported, and while I do my best reading through every post and either handle or report anything breaking the rules (posts which often are suppressed by ROs but not reported) I don't always have the time to go through 300+ posts while eating breakfast before work.

I find this incredibly hard to believe to be honest. However, I can see why this may be the case. A large portion of what is GHR'd by myself and other individuals active offsite (to my knowledge) is not actionable - Which means that you're telling us that we ignore the actionable content but GHR non actionable content. I think that's probably because of GHR replies.

To parrot Guy:

Perhaps players would be more motivated to report posts if the responses were less condescending.

There is a decent number of GHRs that are filed by individuals in TRR who get snarky and/or condescending replies that quite frankly encourages (intentionally or not) a lack of communication between players and moderation.

My favourite is this gem:

The post you reported isn't actionable. Your region's RMB seems to report a lot of non-actionable content. Perhaps you should reflect a bit more on what is and isn't a rule violation.

This to me reads as "GHR less content". Kinda exactly the opposite of "Lots of Actionable Content isn't reported." I need to simultaneously report more and report less - Got it. Not contradictory at all.

However, going further would drift this into more of a thread for the Moderation subforum, so I'll stay on topic(ish) for the rest.

Giving ROs of TRR, or any other region as a matter of fact, greater moderation tools will naturally make the tools inherently political, while I may disagree with how lax the NS rules are, true moderation tools are definitely best left with "impartial" NationStates Moderators.

From a gameplay perspective, TRR is the region of second chances and allowing ROs to immediately mute individuals for whatever reasons will undermine that point and any "rehabilitation" that may occur in the region. Although, for obvious reasons, ejecting people into a region who's RMB has a large amount of hateful content on it just makes that sort of behaviour seem okay and doesn't really help with "rehabilitating" them and giving them a second chance in TRR and possibly wider NationStates. But, if that's what NationStates' Moderation wants then that's what NationStates' moderation will get. The current tools are adequate enough to deal with the content we as a region don't like, but NationStates allows.

The last paragraph is why I like CG’s proposal, an ignore button, so a nation at a time can choose to not see the content if they don’t want to

[Eastern Phoenix Islands]

Hi, I've been reading this thread a few times and I would like to make a point, and an addendum for this mute button idea that is something that I think should be clarified.

First off, in the point of general moderation and what is actionable vs. non-actionable content. I have come to believe that any post that advocates for the deaths of members of specific groups of people is never ok, such as "[insert race here] people should die" or "I'll be happy when [insert sexuality here] people are dead" or stuff along that line. It's been my belief that it's basic decency, but apparently what some people consider basic decency, others consider suppression of free speech. There are far better ways to articulate if you really have to make those points such as, "I think [insert group here] is bad because [insert reasoning here]" which actually opens up discussion (though the discussion would likely be in bad faith anyways, considering that the kind of people who would be openly airing transphobic/homophobic/racist commentary are more so doing so to get a rise out of "libtards" rather than openly and honestly debating people.) I do also recognize that this website will inherently be political, and politics is very broad, with some sides advocating for some things, and other sides advocating for others, and everyone feels like their side is the only acceptable side. It's also really hard for anyone to draw the line between what would be actionable and what wouldn't be actionable content in any debate that arises, I suppose that is why certain transphobic and homophobic content is actionable and why some isn't. A mute button would be useful for those who may disagree with moderation that certain transphobic/homophobic/racist commentary isn't actionable in order to keep TRR's RMB a civil place while offering those "lovely" nations a chance at rehabilitation.

As advocated, I don't see a time limit for TRR mute buttons. As a forgiving region, mutes probably shouldn't be permanent at all and I don't see why mutes are being advocated as something permanent. In the objective of "reforming" previously-undesirable individuals, temporary mutes would be useful. Perhaps mutes could expire after an hour or so? It would make sense for repeat offenders who continue to spout undesirable content and who don't get the message with suppressions. Maybe make it so that you have to have suppressed at least 10 posts or so from that specific nation made that day to unlock the mute button? I can see this solving the problem of undesirable nations making undesirable posts on the RMB and the RO's having suppress every post they deem inappropriate while dealing with concerns about the mute button being abused. I don't necessarily understand what kind of coding would have to go behind this idea, if it's feasible from that perspective.

If TRR is going to have to deal with nations that are spouting things that aren't inherently actionable according to mods but still generally extremely bad form, then they should at least be able to temporarily stop such behavior for a short time.

[Cormactopia Prime]

There's too much to quote all of it, but I just have to say that the responses from moderators throughout this thread have been more appalling than anything I've seen from them in nearly ten years of playing -- and that is really saying something. The condescension, the dismissal, the parroting of right-wing talking points in defense of "free speech" by which is meant the freedom of privileged cis, het, white men to demoralize, degrade, and if they can destroy anyone who is not like them because of their own manufactured sense of grievance. It's outrageous. It's deplorable. And it's amazing to me that everyone who's seen it has not quit.

Seriously, babbling about "safe space" strawmen and cries of elitism because people don't want to be bullied and in the most thinly veiled way told they should kill themselves based on their gender identity? Is this what it's come to now? Is this actually all the progress that NationStates moderation has made by 2021? It's no progress at all. You've regressed, to the point that you are a parody of yourselves, and you make a mockery of the very idea of moderating an online community and creating a safe environment for players. You don't deserve this community, and this community deserves far better than you.

This game is a toxic cesspool. Those of us who have played it for any length of time know it. We've watched and continued playing, for some reason, as players -- some of whom are still welcome to play -- have done such vile things as commit acts of sexual assault and harassment against other players (including minors), make false claims about suicide attempts for in-game benefit, make vile and false accusations against others for in-game benefit or to try to tarnish players making credible accusations against them, and engage in hate speech that would be immediately suppressed in most civilized internet communities these days. Players have allegedly been driven to suicide by actions taken by other players of this game, as moderation responds with platitudes like "off-site behavior isn't actionable" or "report it, and if it's not actionable move on." That was bad enough. But now we're to the point where the response is the rhetorical equivalent of "suck it up, snowflake" and I have no idea how any other players are tolerating it. But I'm done. I am done continuing to patronize this game and put money in Max Barry's wallet while he and his administrators and moderators don't give a rat's ass whether my friends and I, or total strangers who deserve to be protected, are safe.

So for the record on my way out: This game's moderation is garbage. Many of its moderators are human garbage, just ask some of the former moderators who have stepped down in the past. If you can get them talking, it can be very enlightening. This game's administrators are human garbage for turning a blind eye to the deficiencies of the moderation team. But most of all, Max Barry is human garbage. An absolute dumpster fire of a human being. Because ultimately this is all his responsibility, and all his fault. He is the one, we've been told before, who insists that the most vile people imaginable -- actual Nazis -- be able to use his website as a platform for their hate speech, whenever they can manage to cleverly disguise it to conform to the site's lousy rules, and use his website as recruitment grounds to turn impressionable young minds to hatred and violence. That's what Max Barry is responsible for doing, and he does it while collecting the money you give him from advertisement and stamps, with a smile on his face like the capitalist swine he is. Think about that and think about whether you want to keep contributing to him.

I don't. I'm done.

So fuck you, Sedge. Fuck you, Crazy girl. Fuck you, [violet]. But above all, for all the people who have been brought to tears and worse by the things that happen on your website, whose mental health you have jeopardized, and whose very lives you have endangered, fuck you Max Barry.

#CancelNationStates

[Neutraligon]

There's too much to quote all of it, but I just have to say that the responses from moderators throughout this thread have been more appalling than anything I've seen from them in nearly ten years of playing -- and that is really saying something. The condescension, the dismissal, the parroting of right-wing talking points in defense of "free speech" by which is meant the freedom of privileged cis, het, white men to demoralize, degrade, and if they can destroy anyone who is not like them because of their own manufactured sense of grievance. It's outrageous. It's deplorable. And it's amazing to me that everyone who's seen it has not quit.

Seriously, babbling about "safe space" strawmen and cries of elitism because people don't want to be bullied and in the most thinly veiled way told they should kill themselves based on their gender identity? Is this what it's come to now? Is this actually all the progress that NationStates moderation has made by 2021? It's no progress at all. You've regressed, to the point that you are a parody of yourselves, and you make a mockery of the very idea of moderating an online community and creating a safe environment for players. You don't deserve this community, and this community deserves far better than you.

This game is a toxic cesspool. Those of us who have played it for any length of time know it. We've watched and continued playing, for some reason, as players -- some of whom are still welcome to play -- have done such vile things as commit acts of sexual assault and harassment against other players (including minors), make false claims about suicide attempts for in-game benefit, make vile and false accusations against others for in-game benefit or to try to tarnish players making credible accusations against them, and engage in hate speech that would be immediately suppressed in most civilized internet communities these days. Players have allegedly been driven to suicide by actions taken by other players of this game, as moderation responds with platitudes like "off-site behavior isn't actionable" or "report it, and if it's not actionable move on." That was bad enough. But now we're to the point where the response is the rhetorical equivalent of "suck it up, snowflake" and I have no idea how any other players are tolerating it. But I'm done. I am done continuing to patronize this game and put money in Max Barry's wallet while he and his administrators and moderators don't give a rat's ass whether my friends and I, or total strangers who deserve to be protected, are safe.

So for the record on my way out: This game's moderation is garbage. Many of its moderators are human garbage, just ask some of the former moderators who have stepped down in the past. If you can get them talking, it can be very enlightening. This game's administrators are human garbage for turning a blind eye to the deficiencies of the moderation team. But most of all, Max Barry is human garbage. An absolute dumpster fire of a human being. Because ultimately this is all his responsibility, and all his fault. He is the one, we've been told before, who insists that the most vile people imaginable -- actual Nazis -- be able to use his website as a platform for their hate speech, whenever they can manage to cleverly disguise it to conform to the site's lousy rules, and use his website as recruitment grounds to turn impressionable young minds to hatred and violence. That's what Max Barry is responsible for doing, and he does it while collecting the money you give him from advertisement and stamps, with a smile on his face like the capitalist swine he is. Think about that and think about whether you want to keep contributing to him.

I don't. I'm done.

So fuck you, Sedge. Fuck you, Crazy girl. Fuck you, [violet]. But above all, for all the people who have been brought to tears and worse by the things that happen on your website, whose mental health you have jeopardized, and whose very lives you have endangered, fuck you Max Barry.

#CancelNationStates

Yeah this post and others nets you a *** 7 day ban. ***. This applies to you the poster.

[Sedgistan]

I'm reopening this thread again; it was locked temporarily while an uninvolved mod could handle the situation above.

[The Church of Satan]

Okay, moving on! So, the three problem players on our RMB are just the latest (and most persistent) examples. Evergar however is the most glaring example of why we need a mute button. I'm not an RO, but I have consistently tried to steer the conversations on the RMB away from transphobia, homophobia, and why Nazi Germany wasn't actually bad because that's the kind of thing he absolutely loves to talk about on our RMB for some awful reason. To no avail, however! I have even tried directing our problem players to NSG, where people would be only too happy to talk about such things. But no, they continue to do it on our RMB because they know we can't rid of them, as the rest of NS is so privileged to be able to do. So we're not being entitled when we ask for a mute button. We ask this because post suppression has proven useless as of late. We ask this because we have tried everything else and we have no more options. We ask this because we need it to maintain civility on our RMB.

[Radicalania]

What about a mute button that has a timer? Say you can mute a nation for 24 hours or 7 days, that would allow players to reflect on their behaviour, and allow for rehabilitation which folk against the mute are in favour of. It would be a 3rd chance, so to speak, which would allow TRR to deal with immediate concerns to the mental/physical wellbeing of its Userbase.

[Quebecshire]

What about a mute button that has a timer? Say you can mute a nation for 24 hours or 7 days, that would allow players to reflect on their behaviour, and allow for rehabilitation which folk against the mute are in favour of. It would be a 3rd chance, so to speak, which would allow TRR to deal with immediate concerns to the mental/physical wellbeing of its Userbase.

My only question is why?

I assume a mute button could come with an un-mute button, leaving it to TRR's gameside mods or whoever to decide when new chances are to be given. Otherwise you'll be hitting the button every time it expires for some people.

[The Church of Satan]

What about a mute button that has a timer? Say you can mute a nation for 24 hours or 7 days, that would allow players to reflect on their behaviour, and allow for rehabilitation which folk against the mute are in favour of. It would be a 3rd chance, so to speak, which would allow TRR to deal with immediate concerns to the mental/physical wellbeing of its Userbase.

My only question is why?

I assume a mute button could come with an un-mute button, leaving it to TRR's gameside mods or whoever to decide when new chances are to be given. Otherwise you'll be hitting the button every time it expires for some people.

How about it use influence? After all, influence is pretty darn pointless in TRR right now. Let's put it to good use!

[Radicalania]

What about a mute button that has a timer? Say you can mute a nation for 24 hours or 7 days, that would allow players to reflect on their behaviour, and allow for rehabilitation which folk against the mute are in favour of. It would be a 3rd chance, so to speak, which would allow TRR to deal with immediate concerns to the mental/physical wellbeing of its Userbase.

My only question is why?

I assume a mute button could come with an un-mute button, leaving it to TRR's gameside mods or whoever to decide when new chances are to be given. Otherwise you'll be hitting the button every time it expires for some people.

Because the main (and possibly only valid) counterpoint beyond "hurrdurr NS Freezepeach" is the potential rehabilitation of Rejects. Yes, some people are eternal knobheads, and yes, they may be re-muted every week of the year (except Xmas where, as we all know, everyone comes together to be awful to one another #HatingXmasIsForLifeNotJustDecember), but it's at least giving folk the chance to be better. I do genuinely believe in everyone getting a second chance- this is a good middle ground.

In fairness, if it were up to me TRR would get an unlimited use mute button. But its not, admins allow absolute melts on this site, so what alternatives exist- a temp mute is one.