To clearify the rules to remove abuse and/or grey areas

[Glada_Laxen]

Suggestion Name: To clearify the rules to remove abuse and/or grey areas. 

Suggestion Description: There are some rules that are unclear. I was recently banned just because of a rule being too unclear. 

 

For example, there used to be a rule regarding useless traffic. The question was, what exactly was useless traffic? The way I understood it was that basically, driving on a very populated road without any true reason was considered useless traffic. But the issue was, how would a moderator know that a player did not have any business being on that road? They couldn't, so it basically became a guessing game. I just noticed this rule was gone, but it's still a solid example as it becomes up to the moderator to choose whether they want to punish a user or not. 

 

Another example of a rule we still have is part of the §1.5 rule which states; 

 

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§1.5 - Inappropriate use of language, communication and impersonation of any kind

Using insults of any sort to put another user down. This can include but is not limited to racism, discrimination, discussing/expressing (extreme) political views, illegal or inappropriate situations.

• Light insults in chat such as "idiot" and "noob" are normally not punished, however, if abused they will be.
• Profanity without any insult is punishable. Bans or kicks are issued at our staff's discretion.
• Behaviour that is considered to be threatening towards any user of our service is not allowed.

 

The biggest issue I am having with this rule is that it have "normally" in it. "Normally" should NEVER be in a rules page. It basically gives a game moderators the choice to kick/ban a user or not. And it can come down to whether this game moderator have a good or bad day, whether they like or dislike a user and so on. It basically enables corruption. I recently got kicked and banned because I said in-game that doing a certain thing was idiotic, I've also talked with other players who claim the same. And this is also something I often see in-game by other players, including staff members. But the rules page states that such light, or sometimes called "polite", insults are normally not punished for, unless abused. In a case I know, I believe a moderator had a bad day, as they were part of the heavy traffic, probably lagging a bunch and had to deal with many troublemakers and doing exactly what was said to be idiotic, which puts them at a bias. So there is no wonder the choice was to kick, and later add a ban, because apparently they could by the rules, or at least how they interpreted the rules. 

 

There just has to be clear what words are and aren't allowed. "Idiot" seems not to be allowed, as I've learned from a feedback ticket, because the case was about what was "normally" and not. 

 

We also have rule §1.9 which states;

 

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§1.9 - Ambiguity

If, for any reason, there are ambiguous terms in the rules, or terms which could be "open to interpretation", punishments may be issued as interpreted and agreed upon by TruckersMP Management. Any ambiguity falls on the side of TruckersMP, and not individual players. If an ambiguity is reported to us, we will work to remove the ambiguity. Loopholes are treated in the same way, exploiting loopholes will be punished for in the same way as the rule you are exploiting - you should report loopholes, not exploit them.

 

The way "normally" is interpreted favours the moderator more than the player in the case of rule §1.5, just because of this "normally". The rules should be in place to protect users, from players but also punishments from the staff members. I'm saying it is to protect users from punishments because unclear rules can be misunderstood or interpreted in different ways. Just like words like idiot can be interpreted in different ways. 

 

 

Why should it be added?: §1.9 states that ambiguities are to be reported, so this suggestion is sort of a report to remove the ambiguity and clearify rule §1.5. 

 

 

EDIT: I'd like to add that I was just told by Game Managers of TruckersMP that "staff can decide to ban or not for any offence, whether it's written or not it doesn't hide the fact that we have the right to issue punishments when and if deemed necessary". Apparently Moderators are allowed to punish users however they like, even if it goes against their own rules or is not within their rules at all. I'd almost suggest removing the rules all together, because it doesn't even seem to matter. 

[Matt]

Hey there @Glada_Laxen,

Thanks for submitting a suggestion to TruckersMP!
We believe Rule §1.5 is sufficient for our rule-set at this moment in time. It is clear that if the word "idiot" or "noob" is used, it is not normally punished but if it is repeatedly said in chat, the Game Moderator can punish the user at their discretion. Rules do in fact matter as the community would have no control otherwise. The rules are very clear here and we have no plans to change this section of the rules.

After review, this suggestion has been rejected.