Manacube Blog Ep 2: Paid unbans/unmutes

[Cookie Kat]

Hello everyone, welcome back to another Manacube Blog! This is my second blog, you can find my first blog here. Today I will be discussing paid unbans/unmutes. Hope you enjoy, please feel free to comment below, the support is greatly appreciated!

Spoiler: Disclaimer

Everything in this thread is my opinion and other people's opinions. You are free to disagree as long as you stay respectful.

My thoughts on paid unbans/unmutes
Have you ever had one of those friends who is always getting banned or muted? Or are you one of those players who "accidentally" floods chat and blame it on your cat? Are you tired of your 2000 mute/ban appeals getting rejected? Well, my friend, you're in luck! Dacon is a very nice man, and on the Manacube webstore there is an option to buy an unban or unmute for only 15 USD. That's right, with 15 US dollars you can buy your freedom! The only drawback is you can only purchase 1 unban and 2 unmutes per year. *play audience clapping/cheering*

Okay, but enough of the jokes. As a player who is continually getting muted, I know how frustrating it is to get punished. While I think that the option to buy unbans/unmutes is a cool concept, I don't think it's very fair. I personally don't have the kind of money to spend on unmutes, so I'm forced to go through the appealing process. Really, appealing isn't as bad as it sounds. You just have to know what you did wrong, and explain why you feel you should have your punishment lifted. I will tell you from personal experience it feels so much more fulfilling when the staff respond saying that your appeal has been accepted. It's easy to throw money at a server to get your punishment lifted, but with appealing, it requires a lot of self-reflection and realizing your mistakes. In general, it's frustrating how some players are just able to throw money at the server to get their punishment lifted when I have to go through and appeal. While I am aware that other players can pay for the unban or unmute on your behalf, I feel that it's wrong to depend on people to "bail you out."

Now, this really only applies if your punishment was justified. If you feel your punishment was unjustified, I can see how it could be a bit more difficult appealing. However, a solution could be explaining WHY you feel your punishment wasn't justified instead of explaining what happened and accepting that your actions were wrong.

Do I believe buying unbans and unmutes should be allowed? No, I still feel that the best way of getting your punishment lifted is through appealing. It feels unfair that some people have no other option than appealing, while others are able to just pay money to get their punishment lifted. This isn't even taking into consideration how ANYONE who has access to the webstore can buy the unbans or unmutes no matter what they were punished for.

What other people think

"No. Paid unbans and unmutes should not be allowed. Firstly, it's against the EULA of Minecraft (the obvious reason as to why they shouldn't be allowed). Secondly, there is a punishment system for a reason. It's to keep hackers, cheaters, repeat chat offenders, etc off of your server. This is to allow others to have a more peaceful and enjoyable time on the server as they do not have to deal with rule-breakers disrupting their gameplay experience. Additionally, there is the appeal system. If the rule-breaker understands that what they did was wrong and they will not do it again, they can make an appeal for their punishment and will most likely get unbanned/unmuted. Paid unbans and unmutes also favour the rich. They can get banned as many times as they want and always buy and unban and come back to the server with no consequences. On the other hand, if a server were to have paid unbans and unmutes, I believe there should definitely be a limit to how frequently, how many times they can purchase an unban/unmute and how long they have to wait before being able to purchase the unban/unmute. Such as, 1 in total - wait time of 4 months, etc. (no frequency limit as only one unban/unmute is allowed to be purchased) I do not support this, but I understand that people may change during this time and mature more as a person - they stopped using slurs/hatespeech, they stopped using hacks, etc. But again, they can appeal their punishment and get unbanned/unmuted that way. TL;DR: No, they shouldn't be allowed. It's against the EULA and there is an appeal system for a reason. However, people may change and stop their previous behaviour which caused them to be punished. But again, they can always appeal their punishment." -kxie

"I think it's fine to be able to buy them, since they are a limited purchase. You get plenty of chances to correct yourself after you mess up, and if you really mess up to the point where you need that unban/unmute, having to purchase those is meant to be both a punishment and another chance.
In regards to preventing certain players buy those, it really depends on the severity of what that person was muted/banned for.
For example, what if someone was a sexual predator on the server? Would you want someone like that to be allowed to come back after being banned?" -Fluffy_Hime

"I think that paid unbans or unmutes aren't bad. It's not like you can keep buying unmutes / unbans, there's a limit (which is very good lol). People who get muted / banned choose whatever they want to do, and if they want to buy an unban or unmute so be it
Even if the person is incredibly toxic, there IS a limit for buying them so"
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ -Bean/Slaapziekte

"My state about unbans/mutes is neutral. I don't see the reason why someone should buy an unban/mute if he was taken a permanent penalty while he could just play on another server. Although I wanna underline the fact that good servers are a minority to Minecraft. Thus, when someone fits on a server and gets banned for a mistake, I support the unban/mute feature since it gives people a chance to keep playing. If I could change something about this feature, since most players are underage, instead of only paying to get unbanned, I would add a "community serve" where the punished person could take to earn his unban/mute. We are all equal and deserve a second chance" -ColinKiousis

 

[LiLKayla]

Howdy Everyone!

I guess i'll take a good ole second here to reply to this thread and start a conversation/ clear some things up <3

Things like purchasable unmutes and unbans are pretty standard across most minecraft servers, it is also another way for Manacube to support it'self. However- this isn't really the point of me replying. We encourage players to appeal their punishments, no matter if they believe if it was justified or not. We look at each appeal with fresh eyes and consider all outcomes. We have to keep in mind who is applying and the community they will be rejoining. We will happily look over any appeal you send in as long as it follows our guidelines.

Here is a brief breakdown of some of our guidelines:
1: Please do not be hateful or cuss at staff in your appeal
2: Use the appeal format
3: Please only open one appeal per punishment at a time
4: Be patient
5: Feel free to reply back or contact a staff if you have any questions or concerns regarding your appeal.

p.s there is a more detailed explanation/guide under the "appeal your mute/ban" forums thread

I could be wrong, but I believe purchasing unmutes and unbans is allowed under Minecraft Eula, Eula mainly protects players and servers from intensive pay to win advantages and protects Mojang Studios from losing income from copy wright issues. This is why we made some recent changes to our faction server, removing most donation options that gave in game items that also gave an advantage in pvp. What is and is not allowed is very situational. If you guys know more about this than I do, feel free to reply and fill me in. I'd love to have a conversation with y'all <3

Also, thank you Stormy for posting some pretty snazzy and interesting content to the forums. It is always nice to see more players getting involved in our other platforms.

best, kayla

 

[Cookie Kat]

Helpful tip: if you are trying to appeal a punishment and it gets rejected, the staff suggest waiting 3-4 weeks before appealing again. Of course, change doesn't happen instantly so I like to try and wait at least a month or so between appeals.
And big thank you to Kayla for clearing up the whole EULA thing. Though, I did find the first part interesting- Manacube is actually the first server I've ever encountered that allows players to buy unbans or unmutes. If I had that option on other servers, I wouldn't be banned from a lot of my favorite servers. (Manacube is currently my favorite bcuz I keep getting banned from other servers lol)

 

[Nicksfish]

Wow that was really interesting to read! Keep up the great work!

As for me, I don’t see it as a bad thing if your appeals don’t go through. Manacube is the first server I’ve seen to have this feature, but it does help support and keep the server running. The limit to how many times you can use it makes it so someone coming to troll will just get banned again and won’t be able to pay for another year (at which point, they probably will have forgotten about Manacube.)

I can see how it looks like it would be a cheap way to make a buck, but I think that’s a misunderstanding.

 

[Icebarge]

Heyo!

Interesting post for sure, and I like your style of writing, makes for quite the fun read! I also like how you added in other people's opinions since that really helped me to understand where some other people stood on the issue, and I think it's pretty obvious that some players have pretty mixed opinions.

I think the points you brought up are valid, and I understand your position. I personally havn't ever really dealt with getting frustrated over being continually punished, but I assure you it's probably not fun for the staff team to punish community members either. I'm glad that you're addressing this in a mature way by addressing your actions in an appeal rather than taking a more messy approach. I can understand why the idea of being able to purchase something like this can be a little disappointing, but also keep in mind that players who do choose this option are essentially appealing as well, however instead of proving their commitment to following the rules with an appeal, they're proving their commitment with a payment.

That being said, I have full confidence in the staff team on Manacube to be accepting and reviewing applications rather than looking to make money with a feature such as purchasing an unban / unmute. While I've never used it, I've heard great things about the appeal system, and it seems like the decisions made are incredibly fair. As Kayla mentioned above, the staff team is actively making an effort to try to help anyone willing to join back in the community with the appeal system. If someone truly wants to play on Manacube, there are opportunities for players to come back, whether it be through appealing or by purchasing there way back in.

Finally, I'll clarify some things about the EULA from my experience.

In 2016 when Minecraft 1.9.3 was in the snapshot phase, a new feature was introduced that prevented players from joining certain servers on the "server blacklist" which was created by Mohjang. Servers were blacklisted for not upholding the Minecraft EULA as introduced in 2014. Essentially Mohjang was trying to fight Pay2Win servers, and since there hasn't been much news or changes made to the blacklist since the blacklist created a lot of drama.

As it stands, some servers on Manacube may not fully meet the requirements set out from the EULA. As it stands, the EULA is incredibly vague and doesn't actually provide much information, but I've gathered the following from an FAQ posted by Mohjang:

"Q: Can I charge for access to server commands?
A: Yes, as long as their effects are purely cosmetic. Commands that affect gameplay, such as a command to fly, cannot be sold for hard currency."
Mohjang's Definition of Hard currency: "Hard currency is real money or anything that can be converted into real money, including Bitcoins."
(Taken from Let's talk server monetisation - The follow up FAQ posted Jun 16 2014 on the Mohjang website)

As it stands and as already suggested above, a vast majority of servers are in violation of the EULA according to Mohjang, however that being said for competitive servers that offer payouts, there needs to be more sources of income, and with purely cosmetic features I don't believe competitive servers would be able to run at all. I think Manacube has made a giant leap with their recent update to Factions, and it's really cool to see efforts like this to try to actively involve all members of the community, willing to pay or not.

In specific to unbans though as this is the topic at hand, I actually believe that the EULA does allow for a feature such as this one.

"Q: Can I charge for access to my server?
A: Yes. How players join a server is up to you. Single entrance fees or subscriptions are both allowed."
(Taken from Let's talk server monetisation - The follow up FAQ posted Jun 16 2014 on the Mohjang website)

Since all players on Manacube are upheld to the same rules, there is no advantage or pay to win aspect of purchasing an unban. Everyone has equal access to one, and theoretically it does fall under an entrance fee to the server, or atleast I would argue that anyways. I couldn't really find any other relevant information since Mohjang seems to have taken more of a focus on bedrock servers, but if anyone has any further information that contradicts or further clarifies anything please do let me know!

Long story short, the EULA does not explicitly outlaw servers from selling features such as unbans / unmutes from my interpretation.

Thanks for reading my essay (Holy butts I didn't realize this post got so long), and have a great day,

- Icebarge

EDIT: I'm not making a new post as this would take away from the main topic, however the EULA information I presented is still accurate although dated. The TOS and EULA for Minecraft were last updated in 2015 and 2017 respectively, therefore there's not a lot of recent news and there have been no significant changes since 2014 for either document. I do however have more recent sources that don't do as well of a job explaining. If you have any further questions feel free to PM me, thanks!

 

[Cookie Kat]

Wow that was really interesting to read! Keep up the great work!

As for me, I don’t see it as a bad thing if your appeals don’t go through. Manacube is the first server I’ve seen to have this feature, but it does help support and keep the server running. The limit to how many times you can use it makes it so someone coming to troll will just get banned again and won’t be able to pay for another year (at which point, they probably will have forgotten about Manacube.)

I can see how it looks like it would be a cheap way to make a buck, but I think that’s a misunderstanding.

imo, most players who get punished for an extensive period of time wouldn't bother appealing or buying unban/unmute unless they are rlly seriously into the game. I have an extensive punishment history on the server but I haven't left for good, though I did take some short breaks- usually a month or so at most.

 

[Cookie Kat]

Heyo!

Interesting post for sure, and I like your style of writing, makes for quite the fun read! I also like how you added in other people's opinions since that really helped me to understand where some other people stood on the issue, and I think it's pretty obvious that some players have pretty mixed opinions.

I think the points you brought up are valid, and I understand your position. I personally havn't ever really dealt with getting frustrated over being continually punished, but I assure you it's probably not fun for the staff team to punish community members either. I'm glad that you're addressing this in a mature way by addressing your actions in an appeal rather than taking a more messy approach. I can understand why the idea of being able to purchase something like this can be a little disappointing, but also keep in mind that players who do choose this option are essentially appealing as well, however instead of proving their commitment to following the rules with an appeal, they're proving their commitment with a payment.

That being said, I have full confidence in the staff team on Manacube to be accepting and reviewing applications rather than looking to make money with a feature such as purchasing an unban / unmute. While I've never used it, I've heard great things about the appeal system, and it seems like the decisions made are incredibly fair. As Kayla mentioned above, the staff team is actively making an effort to try to help anyone willing to join back in the community with the appeal system. If someone truly wants to play on Manacube, there are opportunities for players to come back, whether it be through appealing or by purchasing there way back in.

Finally, I'll clarify some things about the EULA from my experience.

In 2016 when Minecraft 1.9.3 was in the snapshot phase, a new feature was introduced that prevented players from joining certain servers on the "server blacklist" which was created by Mohjang. Servers were blacklisted for not upholding the Minecraft EULA as introduced in 2014. Essentially Mohjang was trying to fight Pay2Win servers, and since there hasn't been much news or changes made to the blacklist since the blacklist created a lot of drama.

As it stands, some servers on Manacube may not fully meet the requirements set out from the EULA. As it stands, the EULA is incredibly vague and doesn't actually provide much information, but I've gathered the following from an FAQ posted by Mohjang:

"Q: Can I charge for access to server commands?
A: Yes, as long as their effects are purely cosmetic. Commands that affect gameplay, such as a command to fly, cannot be sold for hard currency."
Mohjang's Definition of Hard currency: "Hard currency is real money or anything that can be converted into real money, including Bitcoins."
(Taken from Let's talk server monetisation - The follow up FAQ posted Jun 16 2014 on the Mohjang website)

As it stands and as already suggested above, a vast majority of servers are in violation of the EULA according to Mohjang, however that being said for competitive servers that offer payouts, there needs to be more sources of income, and with purely cosmetic features I don't believe competitive servers would be able to run at all. I think Manacube has made a giant leap with their recent update to Factions, and it's really cool to see efforts like this to try to actively involve all members of the community, willing to pay or not.

In specific to unbans though as this is the topic at hand, I actually believe that the EULA does allow for a feature such as this one.

"Q: Can I charge for access to my server?
A: Yes. How players join a server is up to you. Single entrance fees or subscriptions are both allowed."
(Taken from Let's talk server monetisation - The follow up FAQ posted Jun 16 2014 on the Mohjang website)

Since all players on Manacube are upheld to the same rules, there is no advantage or pay to win aspect of purchasing an unban. Everyone has equal access to one, and theoretically it does fall under an entrance fee to the server, or atleast I would argue that anyways. I couldn't really find any other relevant information since Mohjang seems to have taken more of a focus on bedrock servers, but if anyone has any further information that contradicts or further clarifies anything please do let me know!

Long story short, the EULA does not explicitly outlaw servers from selling features such as unbans / unmutes.

Thanks for reading my essay (Holy butts I didn't realize this post got so long), and have a great day,

- Icebarge

Yeah, I totally agree with what you're saying. And yeah, there have been times that I got frustrated with the staff for rejecting my appeals, or punishing me... but I understand that they're just doing their jobs, and trying to keep the community safe. I know that the staff aren't out to get me, and I realize that they do care about everyone in the community. As someone who used to actively moderate discord servers, I can somewhat understand how punishing people can be difficult, of course I'm not going to say that moderating a discord server is anything like moderating on Manacube. I know that I can be really stubborn, and I really am doing my best to change. These little blog posts was one of the ideas to get me more involved in the community and show "good behaviour" as opposed to breaking the rules.

The next forum blog I'm doing will probably be on p2w/donator/patron. It'll cover the idea of "pay to win" and if donators/patrons feel they get enough "recognition." Already got some really amazing responses! This blog will definitely tie into this somewhat, since "pay to win" has been mentioned a couple of times

 

[BluePottwal]

Well i just know 1 example... Dan got banned for doxxing... He leaked a players personal info. I understand that that is bannable if u do that without the players consent. But in this case, the Player was fine with him leaking his information. He got permbanned from server and store. In my opinion this ban isnt right. U guys think the ban was justified?

 

[SSM_GOD]

@Icebarge and Kxie too 'cause she said it in her quote thing.
Although you did incredible research and presentation, your information is no longer accurate. You were listing sources from 2014-2016. The Minecraft EULA and TOS are often updated and edited.

In 2016 when Minecraft 1.9.3 was in the snapshot phase, a new feature was introduced that prevented players from joining certain servers on the "server blacklist" which was created by Mohjang. Servers were blacklisted for not upholding the Minecraft EULA as introduced in 2014. Essentially Mohjang was trying to fight Pay2Win servers, and since there hasn't been much news or changes made to the blacklist since the blacklist created a lot of drama.

This was true, but since they have edited it to become more of a 'pay to access' restriction. They're more specific now to being fair to all players. Commercial public(ish) servers like ManaCube would not be allowed to charge some people access to join and let others do for free. When it comes to in-game things, cosmetics as Mana calls them, they're able to give items like picks on Olympus because they have their cubit system. This allows people to get a boost with real money, but still achievable with only in-game currencies. Using real money in this way makes it a pay to enhance the experience of playing on the server. Now, when it's for undoing a punishment, they're allowed to do it if they supply a free and fair way and leave the real-life money costing option as a last resort. It's not allowed if they gave some people free pardons with no effort and others have to pay. At this point it becomes more of an ethical thing... 'do we think it's okay to give wealthier players an advantage'

My opinion on it is like, if I was a server owner, I would want to be able to help players have another option to return to play if they don't seem to be good enough for an appealed pardon, but I don't want others to do it to me. I would personally never ever pay my own money to get pardoned for the actions I did. If it was false, I'd appeal, and if it was justified, I'd work towards undoing my actions and then think if it would be worth it for myself and others if I got pardoned.

 

[Cookie Kat]

Well i just know 1 example... Dan got banned for doxxing... He leaked a players personal info. I understand that that is bannable if u do that without the players consent. But in this case, the Player was fine with him leaking his information. He got permbanned from server and store. In my opinion this ban isnt right. U guys think the ban was justified?

I'd say that you might wanna talk to the player who got "doxxed" and see what they have to say. However, I'm not a mod and don't know the whole story so I can't say whether it was justified or not.

 

[Cookie Kat]

An old player (who wishes to remain anonymous) sent this to me this morning:

"Paid unbans and mutes, in my opinion, can stay as they are. It helps the server and it is not just an open gate. Those who deserve to be significantly punished do not have access to those purchases; so it becomes fare. It also gives players another chance. Maybe if a rule was added where you could only purchase an unban if your ban is 3 months +, which in that case would stop all of the small offenders continuously coming back. In addition, there should also be an appeal side of the purchase, where you can give a detailed reason as to why you should come back, and a place where you can express an apology."