Forged Alliance Forever offers an open policy where any user can upload a custom made map to the vault system; however, a person must follow the rules and regulations as set forth by the Maps & Modifications council (read this thread).
Unfortunately, the amount of violations has become so overwhelming that I myself, and the two moderators allowed to assist, cannot possibly keep up with the process. For that reason, I am making a post to ask for assistants that want to help and keep the vault in order. If you feel you can be responsible enough to follow through with the instructions set forth, please contact myself, one of the FAF moderators, or another council member.
The Procdedure:
Step 1:
Read and understand the rules in full (linked above). If you have any confusion by anything set forth, ask questions and you will receive further details to help clear it up. The thread looks like what is shown below, FYI:
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Step 2:
Utilize a report in the M&M discord or using the rules & regulations, spot offending content in the vault. Below is an example of a report made in the #content-reporting section of the discord, follow by a highlighted example of a map that is breaking the "3 Stratum Rule:"
Reported content -
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Offending Content Spotted in Uploads or the vault itself -
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There are more ways to learn about content that is not following the rules, so don't feel one is stricken to these methods alone. Authors can self report and request hides / unranks, other players can show their maps are being taken, etc. Use your best judgement in determining whether or not reports are valid, and if in doubt, ask someone with more experience.
Step 3 [most important]:
Contact the author, and try and find out if they are aware of breaking the rules or not. The rules are probably not the first thought of someone who is going through the process of learning how to create and upload a map (there is plenty to do, otherwise), and it is critical in assuming this first rather thinking the author had malicious intent.
In order to find out who the author is, go to the vault in the client, search for the map, and click on the map preview image. You can see the map author in the preview image, but it's good to also note the expanded window that shows up after clicking reveals the map id and more info:
Once you know the author, private message them on the client and explain the rules were broken and that his or her map will be hidden unless it addresses the rules. If the map is clearly an idea taken from another author's this can likely be skipped, and one should only need to inform the author of this violation.
While messaging the author, hopefully the conversation goes something like the 2 examples below:
Example 1:
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Example 2:
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At times, trouble can be encountered such as finding out that the author does not speak English. Note the player's country flag, ask what language they speak, and ask a moderator or someone that is part of M&M to talk to that person who speaks their language. Unfortunately, Google translator and other online tools do not work very well with many languages like Russian. Please refrain from attempting to use direct copy and paste translations and use the following method:
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...and, in some unfortunate cases, folks will get upset and block you or take some other extreme action:
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Please keep in mind, this type of behavior warrants automatic hiding/unranking of a person's content, and it is highly recommended to start getting a moderator involved. Should that person continue to upload content and break the rules, a temporary ban may be necessary through a moderator. Breaking the rules of content uploads to the maps and modifications vaults can be treated just as harshly as in-game violations. Do not take this lightly as everyone needs to follow the rules.
Step 4:
Take the appropriate action.
Should the author agree he or she will update their content, or remove it on their own, no hiding will be necessary. However, should someone refuse and not feel obliged, the content must be hidden.
All hides and unranks should be logged whether to cover several items (declare it's so if this is the case) or single ones. In order to do this, log it in the #administration-log section of the Maps & Modifications discord. There is also a shared spreadsheet pinned to that channel which should be updated once all final actions take place. If the map remains hidden and no further action is taken for a week or more, update this log and make it permanent. The original author will always have a chance to update their work and follow the rules, but until then it must be remain hidden or unranked or both.
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Special Case: Inability to contact the original author
If the author is not online and you cannot make contact, please use the following stock message and send and !offlinemessage using TheSetone bot. You simply pm the TheSetoner (in the aeolus lobby) and write:
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!offlinemessage [i]username[/i] Hi, just fyi, I am hiding/unrating your recent content uploads to the maps vault. They have broken the rules /viewtopic.php?f=2&t=17873 . If you would like to discuss this action, please go to the M&M discord channel and make an appeal in the #appeals channel. I am writing this message through TheSetoner because I have not been able to contact you through the client or discord. Thanks and sorry for the inconvenience.
Parting Words:
The amount of violations occurring in the maps and modifications vault is getting far too overwhelming for one person to handle these matters. If you think you can help, please reach out to me and a trial training will commence. Should you prove capable of completing the actions and steps outlined, you will be given access to the M&M permissions variant of the moderator client. With that tool, maps and modifications can be hidden, unrated, and logged.
Thanks,
Morax
