The staff team has recently noticed many cases of players breaking rules in order to catch other players breaking the same rules (e.g swearing in chat to get another player to swear). We would like to clarify that you do not need to break rules to catch rule breakers and that we are perfectly fine with you reporting possible dirt traders or island farmers without completely solid proof (e.g players saying in chat that they traded dirt or island farmed). We would rather you report a dirt trader without proof of them actually trading dirt than break the rule yourself trying to get that kind of evidence. Breaking a rule for proof against another player does not justify you breaking the rule. Along with the reported player, you will also be punished for breaking the same rule, even if it was not done for the same reason as the other player. Gather as much evidence of players breaking rules (e.g players joking about trading dirt in chat) rather than immediately resorting to breaking the rules for that evidence. Reporting a player without complete evidenceIf you have suspicions of a player breaking a rule or you have seen them break it and you do not have any proof of them actually doing it, it is okay to make a report with all of the evidence you could gather if it is for a player breaking any of the following rules: • Fly hacking ○ Using fly hacks in order to get another player to use fly hacks • Breaking chat offenses (e.g bypassing filter, talking inappropriately, etc.) ○ Breaking a chat offense to get another player to break the same chat offense • Griefing ○ Griefing another player to get another player to grief alongside you • Illegal trading ○ Trading illegal items (e.g dirt, buckets, etc.) to get another player to trade illegal items with you ○ Trading in-game items for things in real life (e.g money) to get another player to trade in real life with you → This includes players pretending to trade dirt in chat and it can be misleading to new players who do not know this is illegal • Player killing ○ Killing a player to get another player to player kill alongside you ○ Encouraging another player to kill players Knowing when it is okay to report a player without complete evidence If you truly believe that a player is breaking a rule, think about how you will be able to get proof for it. The questions below will help guide you when to gather proof to report and when it is okay not to.Is it a chat offense? If yes, take a full screenshot of chat and report it here. If no, continue reading through the questions. Is it one of the rules listed above? If yes, scroll back up and read about how to report a player without complete evidence. If no, gather as much proof as you can without breaking any rules and report it here. Have you seen the player break this rule? If yes, look if they broke one of the rules listed above. If they broke one of the rules listed above, scroll up and make a report with as much evidence as you can gather. If no, they most likely did not break it, but it is okay to message a staff member about them possibly breaking the rule. Do you have to break the rule in order to gather proof? If yes, make a report and include all of the evidence you could possibly find that led you to believe the player was breaking a rule (e.g them stating in chat that they were trading dirt). If no, you should already have enough proof to make a full report. Reporting without complete evidence This is something we wish to enforce more on players as the staff team does not enjoy having to punish the player who took the time to gather evidence and make a report, but chose to get evidence by breaking the rule. Reporting a player is something for players to use when they see someone breaking a rule and want to inform us about it. It is not something for players to break rules to get others to break the same rules with them in order for others to get banned.We cannot guarantee that these reports will result in the player being punished as it all goes down to us finding if they are actually breaking any rules. It is best for all players to do their best to gather as much evidence as they can for reports as long as they do not have to break the rules to get it. This thread is to inform players who have broken rules for reports that it is not something we encourage as it will result in you getting punished as well.
I'd just like to add to this discussion that something like this happened to me. I was unaware that literally all mods/hacks/clients/etc were like FORBIDDEN from this one server. Once again I was unaware, so this one guy who's really friendly with the mods there was like "yo what hacks are those" and asking me questions about them. Eventually he turned that all into proof and such and got me banned for something I hardly glanced over as a big rule. Lets use dirt trading as an example. Literally any new player would think of all things that its ok to trade dirt. Maybe they might hear its illegal and think its even a joke. But when you have important people offering to do it, youll think "oh then its okay" Getting set up to get banned is literally the worst way to kill the playerbase of the server. No ones gonna wanna come back after being banned like that.
Posts thread on don't break the rules to encourage someone else to do the same, someone rate abuses with the rude ratings to get other players to rate abuse. What irony. On all seriousness, encouraging rule breaking to report people defeats the purpose. You are supposed to report people to stop rule breakers, but instead do it to encourage rule breaking and trap people into punishments they shouldn't have deserved. Please stop
It's a notice for all players to see and is something that I'm okay with players discussing in the comments (as players have already done above). If I were to put it in the "Guides & 'How-To'" section, it wouldn't necessarily fit as it's not really a guide.
The staff team has recently come across more situations previously discussed in this thread where players choose to break the rules in order to catch another player in the act. We are beyond grateful for all of the reports we get as it helps keep the server clean and fun. However, although evidence is necessary for a report to be looked at, players should never break the rules to gather it. If you see a player break a rule and you were not able to get evidence, we encourage you to message a moderator privately via forums or discord to inform us of the situation. We will keep an eye on this player and if they break the rules again, we will be there to get the evidence and punish them. Please understand that we will not always be able to get back to you immediately, but we will do our best to respond as soon as possible. The #skyblock-help discord channel on the Skyblock Discord (click here to join) is a great place to receive assistance from any staff members and possibly even some amazing players. The channel is a great place to ask quick questions about how to play or any other quick questions (you could go to warp info in-game for any other gameplay questions). If you have any questions about this thread or would like a more in depth explanation of it, this thread is open to any questions relating to what is being discussed.
