Many are taking to Discord to communicate with friends and more. As a bot developer, I know how important Discord is to many, and I've witnessed bans and reported users to T&S. My friend recently was banned from the platform for a reason they don't even know, and this isn't an appeal for him, this is a request to change the way T&S works. I'm also going to leave the user unnamed.
This all started when my friend wanted to report a user to T&S. The user was using their bots to spy on private conversations, and leaked some into DMs. After this report, the bots were terminated, though, my friend being the only one who the private info was leaked to, made it obvious to the reported user who had reported him. The reported user narrowed it down to 3 other users, and searched to find every possible thing to report my friend, and the two other users for to get them back. This shouldn't have happened. If a user is able to find who has reported them, they can easily get them back, because the T&S's "investigation" system assumes things, and it is obvious that the team doesn't actually have time to investigate each individual case, making them commonly do false bans, or "temporary" bans which are either not deserved, or are confusing, as I will bring up later.
The second thing that needs to change is the appeal and confusion relating to the bans. Users get one email, giving them no information on any specifics on what they did, only a general topic. Though it is important not to share too much information on what happened relating to the report, so that the users don't know who reported, it would be useful to know some sort of information so that the users wouldn't be too confused. After that part of the email, a "Your Options" part would be useful, so that the users know if they are able to appeal. I think that banned users should be able to access the T&S FAQ site, and that there should be places for users to understand their bans in the FAQ. They should also be able to contact T&S through the site for appeals, and that a specific T&S team be created to investigate and take action on either perm-banning or reinstating an account. This would be useful so that users know not to create alt accounts, and know what is allowed after receiving a ban. Can they create a new account?
The third issue are temp bans. What are they? Users are told they have a temporary ban, without knowing when or if it will be revoked. Ban time would be useful, as well as other information about what the ban means.
The fourth thing T&S needs to implement is more punishment options! I've been DM advertised because users didn't know it was against the rules when they saw others do it. Please offer warnings, make things clearer, and brainstorm new options to punish users for doing bad things instead of just removing them from the platform completely.
The last thing is that T&S is described as ban-happy and has a negative option throughout the platform of Discord. People want this to change, and for users to feel safe, Discord needs to be there. Elevated response times because of verification doesn't work. It's a lot more important to keep people safe than to verify bots. Covid-19 does effect response times, though by how much? The platform is being used more and more because of it, and more reports are coming in. It is important to respond fairly and make appropriate decisions for bans, as well as consider the point of view of every single person T&S is punishing. Investigations are important, appeals are important. People aren't bad, sometimes they make mistakes, and instead of revoking everything they have ever worked on, and the time they have spent on Discord's platform, Discord needs to consider their point of view and give people a chance. As I said before, people around the world are using Discord, and it is important to consider that they are living in the same or sometimes even worse conditions, and a ban for something they don't understand can, and has made people like my friend confused and worried, as well as scared of reporting people again. Some people's hard work and maybe lives have been ruined by some false bans, and it causes confusion & hate to be spread throughout Discord, which is not what we want. We want people to spread kindness, and for rules to be clear.
This could change the opinions on Discord T&S as a whole, and help support members of the community who were banned, teach them what to do differently, and make it easier to understand the rules of Discord before people continue to make mistakes.
Thanks,
Coding
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