# Appeal Policy and Procedure

##### 1. Confirm that the appeal uses our appeal template, and is being made in good faith.

Extremely low-effort appeals may be denied without undergoing the full appeal process if attempts have been made to direct the player to proper formatting and they have not reformatted the appeal. Denials must always be checked over by another admin. Examples of low effort appeals are as follows:  
\- The appeal is clearly the output of an LLM such as ChatGPT.  
\- The appellant is clearly not expecting their appeal to be accepted, and made it simply to troll.  
\- The appeal is incomprehensible or written in a language other than English.  
\- The appeal has so little effort put into it that no other outcome can be derived from it but to close it.  
\- An attempt has been made to guide the appellant to proper formatting but was unsuccessful or met with hostility.

##### 2. Collect Information and present it in the ban appeal forum, following the provided format.

A new channel should be made in the ban appeal forum for each new appeal. The **title** should include the **player’s name**, the **duration of their ban**, and a **short description** of why they were banned (self-antagging/Rule 3B/metafriending). Link the ban appeal ticket sent in by the appellant, and name the banning admin. Begin by linking the ahelp related to the ban, if applicable, followed by other relevant information.

There are a few steps to take when collecting relevant information:  
 1. Check the player’s history of appeals.  
 2. Make a reasonable attempt to verify any claims made in the appeal by the player, or accept them to be true.  
 3. Check the player’s note and ban history.  
 4. Read the ahelp that led to the ban, if it exists.  
 5. Contact the banning admin for any additional context or relevant information.  
 6. Ask the player questions that are important for the processing of the appeal.  
 7. Attempt to allow the player to respond to information which will be considered in the appeal that it would be unfair to not allow them the opportunity to address.  
 8. Ensure that relevant information is made available to other admins in the ban appeal thread.

##### 3. Run a vote in the ban appeal forum.

\- Votes should include options to accept the appeal (✅) , lower the ban duration (⏰), or to deny the appeal, allowing another in a month (❌). Decisions to deny further appeals are a case-by-case basis and should be used sparingly, if possible.  
\- Votes must run at least 24 hours, and appeals should be resolved within 5-7 days of the appeal, excluding off-days and barring extreme complexity.   
\- Votes must not be closed if there is ongoing discussion unless a majority is hit.  
\- Votes should present as much relevant information as possible.

##### 4. Post a response to the appeal and summarize the following:

\- The outcome of the appeal.  
\- The facts referenced to make the decision.  
\- An explanation detailing why the admin team has decided upon the outcome, based on the cited facts.

##### 5. Finish the appeal.

\- The player’s ban appeal thread should be marked as "closed" and "accepted” or “rejected" after the outcome is summarized and sent in their appeal ticket.  
\- Proceed with the agreed-upon outcome.  
\- After you confirm that the player has seen the outcome, you are free to close the ticket or prompt them to close it themselves.