Introducing a change to our punishment system; recognizing old punishments

[Osborn]

Eclipse Community, 

A hot topic throughout 2021 has been to review our progressive punishment system and to become more forgiving. Initially, we did not think a change was needed as admin staff had already been encouraged to seek a deviation from our internal punishment guidelines, to issue more lenient punishments on players who had remained clean for a relatively long time. However, we've come to understand that this isn't very efficient, as it's left entirely to the judgment of the staff member on whether they should seek deviation or not, and in many cases, it has resulted in players being banned and having to go through the appeal process only to be unbanned. 

So with that being said, we'd like to welcome 2022 with our very first change.

• Punishments that are 1+ years old will be considered as such, old, and will not by default weigh into the punishment progression that we have. While 1 year may sound like a lot, it really isn't, as you do not by default get banned until you reach e.g. 6 Non-RP or 2 DM punishments, and if you manage to get this within a year, that may be an issue of your own that needs to be solved. 
• Cheating, Bug Abusing, Ban Evading, Server Advertising, Real World Trading, Harassment, Chargebacks, OOC Racism/Homophobia, and other similar severe rule punishments will not be considered as old.
• Admin Staff will still be able to, for extreme cases, seek a deviation from established guidelines from a member of Senior Staff, to consider old punishments in the punishment weight. This could for example apply to when a player has combat logged several times or reached an absurd amount of Non-RP punishments. 

Players who are currently banned will still need to appeal their bans, and any players who have been given a date to appeal will need to wait until said date. We will however take this change into account for those who submit appeals but do take note that a very extensive admin record can still affect the outcome of your appeal, but a better focus will be put on the date of the punishments. 

Additionally, we will be enforcing our 5 pillars of moderation internally within the team more extensively. Our goal as server administration is not to punish players, it's to educate players. Those who aren't cooperative, those who have a great negative impact on a situation, those who deliberately break rules, and those who are unwilling to learn, are who we seek to educate through punishments. Server administration has more options to solve a situation in which a rule violation has occurred, other than punishments, such as voiding a roleplay situation, restarting a roleplay situation, or influencing a change to a roleplay situation. We'll make sure that a greater focus is put on the latter options, including through forum reports. 

On an end note, I'd like to take this time to wish our community a Happy New Year! I hope you will have a safe, but pleasant entry into the new year. This year on Eclipse started very well, but admittedly, started to slow down towards the end of it. I can however foresee great things to come for 2022 as we continue to, together, strive towards becoming as perfect as we can be.