Requiem Posted July 24 Report Posted July 24 16 hours ago, padpilot said: They might have maybe i missed it but as somone who has been banned 3 times, and still allowed back in I can vouch it is lenient for sure. If you know better than anyone that the process is lenient, then people have no excuse not to just put in an appeal and follow the process. Some people break server rules because they are selfish or don't care about other player's playing experience here. I don't feel its fair to our existing loyal playerbase to allow people back freely that don't even want to put in the effort of appealing that have previously shown they don't care about, and will diminish the existing player's playing experience. If they don't care enough to put in an appeal and show at least a little bit of effort to give the staff team the idea that their attitude has changed, then that shows that they likely still won't care to put in the effort to do better while they are here. Quality over quantity. If we didn't care about quality of our playerbase, we wouldn't have the server rules in place to begin with. 1 Quote
LordOfTheRing Posted July 24 Report Posted July 24 8 hours ago, Requiem said: Some people break server rules because they are selfish or don't care about other player's playing experience here. Also, some people break server rules unintentionally or out of frustration with the server. Rules that seem arbitrary or exist only to complicate the roleplay experience can make everyone feel like they're walking on eggshells. But that's not the main issue. The real problem is that appealing a ban is an unreasonably lengthy process. Staff need to recognize that people have lives outside this platform. They have jobs, responsibilities, and other commitments that limit the time they can dedicate to repeatedly submitting lengthy, detailed appeals. Players who want to keep roleplaying will simply move to another server, while those with less time or patience may give up on roleplay altogether. Many players who were banned years ago are also likely to return with a fresh mindset and greater maturity. The core issue is that you cannot reasonably expect someone to keep submitting appeals for months. While that may be the current expectation, it's simply unrealistic for a large portion of banned players. Those expectations are especially high and difficult to justify for a server with a player pop of only 70-100. I understand that quality is more important than quantity, but I think this approach is holding the server back from growing. It feels overly rigid and focused on maintaining the current system, which has proven ineffective over time, rather than adapting it to the server's current circumstances. As I said above, a mass unban followed by staff monitoring players and removing those who continue to cause problems is not an unreasonable approach given the current circumstances. I want this server to grow, and I believe that's a goal we all share. Quote
Eliza Posted July 24 Report Posted July 24 40 minutes ago, LordOfTheRing said: Also, some people break server rules unintentionally or out of frustration with the server. Rules that seem arbitrary or exist only to complicate the roleplay experience can make everyone feel like they're walking on eggshells. But that's not the main issue. The real problem is that appealing a ban is an unreasonably lengthy process. Staff need to recognize that people have lives outside this platform. They have jobs, responsibilities, and other commitments that limit the time they can dedicate to repeatedly submitting lengthy, detailed appeals. Players who want to keep roleplaying will simply move to another server, while those with less time or patience may give up on roleplay altogether. Many players who were banned years ago are also likely to return with a fresh mindset and greater maturity. Bans aren’t immediately issued to players over rule breaks with the exception of the bad stuff like cheating, DSO, ban evading, etc. They are weighted based on your history of breaking that specific rule. If you get banned it’s because you are consistently not following the rules, Most of the time staff will try to educate you before issuing a punishment, as you’ve said people can unintentionally make mistakes and do an oopsie. Quote
Requiem Posted July 25 Report Posted July 25 16 hours ago, LordOfTheRing said: Also, some people break server rules unintentionally or out of frustration with the server. Rules that seem arbitrary or exist only to complicate the roleplay experience can make everyone feel like they're walking on eggshells. As Eliza said, people don't get banned for accidents or rule breaks out of frustration. You need to repeatedly break the same rules over and over to get to the point of being banned. There comes a point where it goes from unintentional to just not caring or being unwilling to change/learn. If you feel there are rules that are simply arbitrary or exist only to complicate RP, you are free to make suggestions on what those may be and how they should change. 16 hours ago, LordOfTheRing said: But that's not the main issue. The real problem is that appealing a ban is an unreasonably lengthy process. Staff need to recognize that people have lives outside this platform. They have jobs, responsibilities, and other commitments that limit the time they can dedicate to repeatedly submitting lengthy, detailed appeals. This goes both ways. It's certainly understandable that players have lives outside this platform, but so do server staff members. We are all volunteers that do this simply to help the community. We don't get anything, or expect anything from this. We can't sit on the forums 24/7 attending to banned players and their appeals. Not only that, but it takes time, discussion and review with many of these bans to make sure the right decision is being made. It's easy to blame staff for issues, but people sometimes forget that we have our own lives and want to enjoy the game for ourselves too. I encourage you or anyone else that thinks its as easy as you might believe to apply for server support staff next time applications open and be the change you want to see. Quote
LordOfTheRing Posted July 25 Report Posted July 25 (edited) I think the problem with this discussion is that people keep responding to arguments that nobody is actually making. Nobody is seriously arguing that cheaters, RWTers, DSOers, or people who have repeatedly demonstrated malicious intent should be automatically welcomed back. What some of us are questioning is whether the current approach has actually produced the results the server wants. For example, Requiem has repeatedly stated that the punishment and appeal system is very lenient. To some extent I don't necessarily disagree. However, I am not criticizing the appeal system because it is difficult to win. I am criticizing it because it is lengthy, discouraging, and often requires multiple attempts spread across months. Those are two completely different discussions. A process can be lenient while also being so time-consuming that people simply move on. "Staff have lives too." Nobody is disputing that. The criticism was never that staff should spend 24 hours a day processing appeals. The criticism is that the current system appears to be creating a situation where many former players simply stop caring about logging in. Another argument I've seen is: "If they can't be bothered to write an appeal, they won't be bothered to follow the rules." I genuinely don't understand how people arrived at that conclusion. Following server rules and deciding whether it's worth spending months writing appeals are completely different decisions. A player can be fully capable of following the rules while also deciding that repeatedly appealing to return to a server with a declining population isn't worth their time. Likewise, somebody can write a perfect appeal and still cause problems later. One does not automatically prove the other. The thing that confuses me most is that some people are simultaneously arguing that player count doesn't matter as much as people think while also using player count to argue that everything is fine. We're told not to focus on numbers. Then we're told that numbers have improved from 100 to 115 or 125. Which is it? Either population matters or it doesn't. Personally, I think population matters enormously because roleplay depends on players. An OG cop can log in and instantly find something to do because they know where to look. An OG criminal can log in and immediately reconnect with existing groups at locations that they know will be populated. But, a new player logs into a city with low population, sees mostly empty streets, struggles to find organic interactions, and logs out. That's not a script problem. That's not RageMP being the problem. That's a population problem. People in this thread have pointed this out already. What I find particularly interesting is the repeated claim that players only get banned because they repeatedly refuse to learn. Yet in the same discussion we have examples of players being banned multiple times, appealing multiple times, returning multiple times, and eventually becoming productive members of the community again. If people can improve after being banned multiple times, then clearly being banned does not automatically mean somebody is incapable of learning or changing. So why are we so quick to assume that a large percentage of banned players would automatically return just to troll? That assumption keeps appearing throughout this thread, but I haven't seen anyone provide evidence for it. One of the biggest contradictions I've noticed is that people defending the current system often explain why the system exists rather than demonstrating that it is working. When concerns are raised about population decline, we're told why the appeal process exists. When concerns are raised about player retention, we're told why punishments exist. When concerns are raised about community engagement, we're told why standards exist. But very little attention is being given to the actual results. Because if we look at the results being discussed throughout this thread and other threads: Population is significantly lower than it was years ago. New player experiences appear worse than they were years ago. OG players are describing fewer organic interactions than before. Players are expressing frustration with communication, development transparency, and community engagement. Whether every criticism is correct or not, these concerns are clearly widespread enough that they shouldn't simply be dismissed as isolated complaints. I also think people are overlooking a very important reality. The server is no longer competing against "nothing." It's competing against every other RP community available, all RP servers will be consolidated on FiveM. Five years ago somebody might have waited months to get back into Eclipse because they didn't like the nature of FiveM servers. Today somebody gets denied, waits a few weeks, sees another server with 250+ players online, joins it, and never looks back. That's just reality and that's why I think people are focusing on the wrong question. The question shouldn't be "Why do these policies exist?" The question should be "Are these policies producing the outcomes we want?" Because if the goal is a thriving, active community, then we should be willing to honestly examine whether our current approach is helping achieve that goal or making it harder. At the end of the day, nobody here wants the server to fail. People wouldn't spend this much time discussing the problem if they didn't care. The concern many of us have is that we're repeatedly being told why the current system exists, while the outcomes that players are pointing to are largely being ignored. Edited July 25 by LordOfTheRing Quote
Eliza Posted July 25 Report Posted July 25 1 hour ago, LordOfTheRing said: I genuinely don't understand how people arrived at that conclusion. Following server rules and deciding whether it's worth spending months writing appeals are completely different decisions. A player can be fully capable of following the rules while also deciding that repeatedly appealing to return to a server with a declining population isn't worth their time. Likewise, somebody can write a perfect appeal and still cause problems later. One does not automatically prove the other. Playing on this server isn’t something a player is entitled to. Being on the whitelist is a privilege, and constantly breaking the rules to the point of being disallowed from playing is a removal of that privilege. Waiting for appeals is something they just have to deal with if they want back in. If they followed the rules in the first place they wouldn’t have to appeal at all. 1 hour ago, LordOfTheRing said: So why are we so quick to assume that a large percentage of banned players would automatically return just to troll? That assumption keeps appearing throughout this thread, but I haven't seen anyone provide evidence for it. If a player shows no desire to own up to their mistakes and write an appeal to demonstrate they can be productive members of the community then they will show no desire to follow the rules if let back in. Im sure there’s an argument to be made that some players will be better, I agree, but letting the good people in will also let the bad apples slip in, and not doing a mass unban and allowing players to appeal through the appeal process is a line to draw for that. Quote
alexalex303 Posted July 25 Report Posted July 25 1 hour ago, LordOfTheRing said: - Let's get something straight, on ECRP there's two kinds of ban: a timed ban that you don't appeal and just automatically get unbanned after x hours, and an indefinite ban (called a permanent ban) which you have to appeal to get back. Getting an indefinite ban in 2026 is an achievement, punishments are so extremely lax anyone that is still banned deserves to have to make multiple appeals because they did something that bad. It used to be that if you got 2 DMs, one in 2018 and one in 2022, you'd be permanently banned. Nowadays you can get three DMs a year and still not be permanently banned. Combat logs? no ban there either until you rack up multiple, even though it's an intentional and selfish act. Nonrps? people never get permanently banned for nonrps outside of people on probation. If you have friends that are discouraged from applying because one of their appeals got denied and they had to make a second one, they would've done one of the following: abused/misused staff position cheated or ban evaded doxxed people were involved in a meta cord mass dmd (like shooting up city parking) RWTd Anyone else is a single appeal away from playing again, and that has been true for years. I don't want any of the people I listed above to come back to the server easily, and neither should you, I think. 1 Quote
Ash Posted July 25 Report Posted July 25 (edited) Low key someone should just leak the staff punishment guidelines because they're extremely forgiving, especially when you consider punishment counts "fall off" after 12 months. Getting the amount of DM/NonRP required for an indefinite ban is as @alexalex303 said, an achievement. You're talking multiple counts of them independent of other rule break punishments. If you've at the point of needing to ban appeal then you've repeatedly committed the same kind of rule break several times, so yeah, you should have to go to the effort of explaining without AI that you're not an idiot and do actually understand the rules now. Edited July 25 by Ash 1 1 Quote
Ritchie Stones Posted July 26 Report Posted July 26 On 7/20/2026 at 8:37 PM, LordOfTheRing said: Agreed, the lack of engagement from staff and the devs is one of the reasons why this community had been slowly leaving and moving on to other projects or basically quitting GTA RP altogether. I think we're in this spot right now due to a series of bad practices and poor decision making from the higher ups. I really hope one day they wake up and do the right thing for the community. It is such a shame that all these people took time out of their day to post really good suggestions, and for what? To get ghosted by the community leaders. I will say this, a server full of scripts but without a community is wasted effort. Pulling everyone back in through a mass unban (excluding the cheaters) and then filtering out the bad apples over the following weeks or months will revive this server, but this seems unlikely to happen. wel thats what i was expressing more early trough my " you arent listening reaction" so many people used to be invested i saw 5 suggestions a day now i see 2 a month. people just gave up at this point. Quote
