Before starting, I want to make clear that I fully understand it is not Mods duty to look out for the mental health of the Players. This Suggestion has a personal Background, so I'd like to apologize beforehand if it reads like written in the heat of the moment at some Points.

The Trigger for this Suggestion is this:
Edge_x [Anna] [Banned] | Skyblock Forums
followed 6:45 hours later by this:
Edge_x [Anna] [Accepted] | Skyblock Forums

The reasons Players ask for a temporary ban is because they have an important Deadline to meat in real life but they struggle to control external stimulis, so they beg for an external safeguard because they know they couldn't control their urges otherwise.

Computer / Internet /Mobile Phone addiction is a new medical field that has yet to be fully understood and is still far from being recognized by everyone. It isn't even catalogued in some of the main medical Guidelines, so professional have to help themselves by subordinating it (for those who know what I'm talking about Kerahna ) under IDC-10 code F63 "Impulse disorder, unspecified" (like for instance compulsive gambling). Yet I know of no health insurance recognizing it.

So back to our Server. We have basically Kids or even grown-ups who Show symptoms of addiction (which are increased wish for, increasment of daily Dosis, lost of self-control, unable for absinence, withdrawal symptoms, retreat from social (real) life). In an attempt to control their lives, they ask for restraining their Access to their Stimulation. The withdrawal symptoms here are mainly extreme boredome (although you have plenty to do), stress, anxiousness and irritability.

I don't even know why the mods accept to Play this "game" in the first place. I mean they sure have better things to do than banning someone on request and unban him short time later because he goes cold Turkey on gaming. Either you do it or not. Staff don't have to answer the distress call itself, but just to be consequent. You allow temporary bans. Seen what the Backgrounds of those bans are, they are useless if they are appealable. You might as well refuse them beforehand. It doesn't have to be a written rule, but if Players sollicitate the mods for something else than moderating, they shouldn't be allowed to stress it out like this. As written before, the mods duty is NOT to care for the psychological and mental health of the members of the community. IF they allow requested temporary bans, they should be bothered for each ban only once, and then the Player wait out the ban, period. The side effect is, it is (to some extend) convenient to help the Player, because there is no loophole to the safeguard they have errected themselves. And maybe they get consciousness for their actual condition.

Take care: Do what you feel is good for you, not what you "like" to do. The only freedom is the free will.

 

This is so true on my behalf.

But what if you request one because you feel someone is using your account (like me?)

 

Then you most probably would ask for a perm ban until that Problem is solved. As you can see I didn't talk about perm bans. A real addict would never ask for a perm ban anyway, I think, unless he means it dead serious. Like when you quit Smoking and destroy the remaining packs.

Thank you for that insight. I already suspected that there are no actual Guidelines for anything related to this. Can you relate to what I'm suggesting? Maybe it could be a guideline (but still not forcing any mod to do requested temp bans in the first place): If you do requested temp bans, don't lift them until they expire (no rule though).

I'd also really like to hear the mod that handled the Appeal that inspired me this Anna , if you please.

 

It really depends on the moderator you are asking to get a ban from, I think everyone just needs to know that not all the mods will unban you upon requests. I mean if it's really a problem you can always click the log-out button?

 

I started to write this thread here in suggestions, then I swapped it over to discussion, just to move it back to suggestions. I'm still not sure where it belongs, and you tend to confirm my doubts. Because I fully understand your last Argument, and others. Maybe it's just fine to talk about it. Because there are no actual effective measures, unfortunately.

Can you move it to discussion, please? I'll Change the title afterwards. Thank you

 

Well, you cannot force people to stay banned even if it is requested for personal reasons when they ask after a period of time to drop it. It is simply not the responsibility of the Mods to take care of the people's life.

Don't understand me wrong on that. I have requested a ban for the recent months because I had finals and I needed to prepare for my job interviews (It helped me, I got the job and study place). I am able to control myself.

I regret to see that this kid above did not manage to control his addiction for even 7 hours, but this is how life works. Some people succeed, some will fail at life. And nowadays more kids will fail than ever before. Blame their parents, blame their personal disorders or blame the computer industry or politics: The thing is that we cannot stop it and we should not. Because I think we need one generation to fail massively in order to improve and admit something went wrong. Only then there will be the motivation to improve the situation and impose strict acts and restrictions on gaming for our youth.

Sorry for my evil view on that. But I got many "friends" not even managing to play outside because of gaming. They fail at school, don't get a proper job. And honestly: I don't care. Because when I saw them it motivated me to be better than them. And now look at me: I am becoming a civil servant in public administration for a city with Millions of citizens. What many people fail on will mean more chances and motivation for others.

 

Meet* and I ageee. It shouldn't be a mod's responsibility to look or for other's mental health. I gusss that once one or two mods do, people just expect it from mods

 

I personally don't mind requested bans. Although I don't have addiction issues, I can understand some people might have them. You make a good point, though. If you want a requested ban, it would be good to stick with it. Some people need to face their addictions rather than hide.

I think it's good to request a tempban if you're unsure of your account like Dough said. Although a perm ban would be fine, it's not necessary unless you cannot get a hold of your account afterward.

 

I'll throw in on this topic. Personally, the ban mechanic isn't one to be used and abused. This is designed to rid the server of persons who are problematic and should not be on the server in the first place. This isn't here to make a 15 year old be responsible, they should be capable of that on their own by this age. Even younger children should have their parents to help them control their online activities.

That said, if server staff wish to set this precedent, then they should enforce it. Things such as compromised accounts and other reasonable activity should be met differently due to the unstable situation, but if I request a ban because I'm going camping and my brother knows my password, then hours later request an unban... Nah. That's it. I'm camping and should just take the weekend server free. This also applies to players who wish to take time off server for school purposes. Even if you finish your homework a day early, you asked for a ban for x period of time, ride it out. It's your fault at that point.

Not saying I think the mod team needs to do any different than they have been, but it's my two cents. Some of you will take what I have to say to heart and I somewhat count on that being the basis of my desire to even post anything.

The long and short of this states that if you ask for a ban for reasons in your control, you should deal with it and mods should also make you deal with it, not waste precious time.

 

If you really wanna control yourself and get offline for 24 hours, I recommend the App "SelfControl" (Mac Only)

It kills all access for a period of time on links you set up and there is NO way to undo it. I hope this is not an advertisement. It's all free, the maker makes no money off it. He just wants to help people

Link (Mods: Remove if that is considered advertising): SelfControl

 

Sadly this is true. I have never seen an addict motivated to free himself before he was completely left alone, desperate. And even then, some fail. But I don't think that's a reason not to help. It's not their fault. Of course it's not mods duty. It's everyone's duty. And none's. I relate, thus I care for them, so I think if throwing in this thread may help, that's not waisted time.

 

requesting bans makes everything so dramatic, i hate them.

 

would a VPN work? using another browswer etc?

 

I'm having a hard time figuring out the point this thread is trying to get across, other than people are addicted to this server.