Overview
Judgement - Punishment Policy is a tool, use good judgement when punishing players, if you feel something doesn't quite fit, talk with your fellow staff before proceeding. Communication is key.
Severity Levels - are a way of grouping infractions together in order to fit them into a category. By categorizing infractions it makes punishing users easier.
Repeat infractions(if continued) - Players committing a violation following the issuance of their first will receive punishment of the next level of severity(make sure to start out at 1st infraction of next level).
Warnings
Verbal Warnings - In some cases before punishment is dealt you may want to issue a verbal warning via pm or in chat as it could defuse the situation before hand. Verbal Warnings are a way of letting a user know that their actions are in violation of the rules and to cease such conduct.
Non Verbal Warnings - /mute and /kick - Mutes and kicking can be viewed as non verbal warnings. When muting the key is to keep it short because mutes can be evaded by relogging. Muting or kicking a user should never be considered as an intermediate or long term punishment.
Severity 1
Severity 2
Severity 3
Severity 4 - S4 will result in an ip ban consult admins or devs before issuing.
Consistency
Consistency in severity level and punishment should be even across the board. Below I will give examples of both consistent and inconsistent patterns and why you want to remain as consistent as possible.
Examples of inconstant and consistent patterns:
Commands that will be useful once fully functional
For now these commands don't work as intended, once they are fully implemented this thread will be updated.
trade ban(unable to trade / transfer)
pvp ban(unable to send or receive pvp battles)
encounter ban(unable to encounter shiny and HR pokemon)
Leniency & Cooperation
You may want to be lenient towards those that have cooperated with their current case or users that have been helpful in the past by reducing punishment time period. Users will often appear remorseful or sadden by their ban, this should not be a cause of leniency. User whom have donated shouldn't be given special consideration either. If punishment reduction is being considered make sure it's because the user has been truthful and up front about the situation, have had overall good history and reputation within the community.
Mod Tools
Now that mod tools are available please remember to search a user via mod tools to track their ban history,trade logs and other info. Shane recently change the ban policy, before issuing a ban check ban history to see if the user has been previously banned before determining the length of said ban.