With the glut of stupid abuse threads recently, here is a step-by-step process to properly resolving a dispute with an administrator.
Step 1: Collect proper evidence.
The first thing you should do is type /condump blahblahblah.txt. This will dump all the text from the console into a file of your choice. "blahblahblah" is just an example, this can be named whatever you want. Keep the condump in a safe place, where you won't delete it by accident. A condump is what we need to look at first when determining abuse.
Next, make sure that you have "cl_autorecorddemo 1" enabled. This command will automatically record a demo of every single match you participate in, and will be great for figuring out what happened when a condump is too ambiguous. If necessary, you can host your demo file on something like Dropbox. Make sure it's from the right game.
Only if necessary, take screenshots with the F11 key. Host them on imgur or a similar site. Do not post an enormous line of screenshots. A single screenshot showing the exact moment of abuse is sufficient. It's important that the screenshot actually shows the abuse.
Proceed only if you have at least two of the three forms of evidence.
Stop here if you don't have anything. You're going to make yourself look very, very stupid otherwise.
Step 2: Talk to the administrator.
Do you know who used the command on you? If you don't, press ~ to access the console and scroll up. That is the person that used the command on you. Keep track of this person's name and the exact command they used on you.
This person is the administrator. There are two kinds of administrators you will commonly come across:
- Junior administrators can only kick, mute, denybuild, putteam and cancel votes.
- Senior administrators can do all of that, in addition to passing votes and banning people.
During your stay on US Main, you will likely figure out who is what level of administrator. For example, I am a senior administrator.
Now that you know the person, the command they used, and probably the admin level, talk to them. You can message them with /m name. For example, "/m kharnov hello this is a message" will send me the message "hello this is a message", but clearly you're not here to chat. You want to ask a question like, "why was I muted?" or "why was I kicked?" or "why did you remove my building rights?" in a non-confrontational tone. Do not insult the administrator. Do not harass the administrator. Do not spam the administrator. Do not tell the administrator that you're going to get their rights taken away. Do not threaten to make a forum thread.
When you and the administrator have discussed things, determine: was I actually abused, or were they right?
Proceed if the administrator responds in an extremely negative way, continues to insult you, or refuses to answer your question.
Stop here if you actually did something wrong. Nading the base is not a defensible position. You earned that ban.
Step 3: Read the server rules.
They are stickied on the Official Servers section, but in case you missed them, you can find them here:
http://tremulous.net/forum/index.php?topic=12896.0Determine, did you break any of those rules? Look solely at the player rules section. The administrator rules do not apply to you, and they are solely for our superiors, the developers, to decide on.
Proceed if you didn't break a single rule and you're very sure of it.
Stop here if any of the rules apply to your actions. If your collected evidence shows that you actually did break the rules, then you're going to look
extremely dumb.
Step 4: Send a private message on the forums.
You can message either a developer or the administrator that used a command on you. If you decide to message both, message the administrator first to see if you can resolve the issue one last time before talking to someone else about it. When talking to either, show the evidence you've collected and clearly state what happened. Get right to the point. Do not spend several paragraphs talking about a minor occurrence and do not be overly dramatic. State the exact rule that was violated.
Be patient when waiting for a developer or administrator to respond to you. Wait at least 24 hours. Do not repeatedly send messages until a day has passed.
Proceed only when this has somehow not resolved your issue.
Stop here if everything is resolved or a developer has determined that the rules were not broken.
Step 5: Post a thread.
This should only be done as a last resort.
Post your collected evidence, and in the same manner as your private messages, be concise. If possible, post any private messages that you had with the administrator between the offending game and the posted thread. Show that despite communicating privately and peacefully, nothing was resolved. Do not write a several page essay on why you feel extremely offended. Do not tell us that the person should be demoted. Our superiors will determine if someone needs to be demoted.
Hopefully, this guide will lead to far less drama than we currently have going on. This way, we can focus on things that actually matter.
Thank you.
