What this amounts to is a policing issue, essentially, right? I'll point out some things here. The staff side:

- The staff member who handled this probably didn't know (or care) it was Matrik. This wasn't a personal attack.
- Matrik was being an ass. (Hi Matrik, if you're reading this- also see bottom of post) And got dinged for it.
- The actions taken after the RotD are likely to be the ones that got him in trouble.
- Staff members do have tools to try to keep the MUD running without cheating, or disruption, to try to keep things running smoothly and as such have access to details that most people might not see.

So, with respect to perceived heavy-handed moderation:
- It's fine to voice an opinion, criticize, and/or call people out on this, otherwise no changes will/would be made.
- It's also true that MUD numbers are down.

However (and I have seen this myself):
- Some people try to use the rules and/or turn the system against those who are trying to enforce them.
- Some people try to use popular opinion to turn the tables against moderators.
- As hard as it is to be in this mindset for the average person/player, some people are habitual miscreants, or cheaters. They look to game the system at expense of everyone else.

(Case in point: guy who rolled up multiple characters to hoard high level limited gear, and then tried to start a pity party/moral crusade on forums when caught. This was because, in his eyes, this was not a rule violation- he had found a loophole, so the staff were in the wrong.)

When you have to deal with incidents like the above, staying as the "good cop on the beat" becomes difficult. It's fair to say that this is probably the case for a portion of modern law enforcement too.

(To garnish with a real world example: When witnessing a dashboard video of a police officer running down a perp. in his cruiser (yes this actually happened), it looks horrific that anyone could even consider that. An abuse of justice. But for all we know, he may have just been at a homicide scene of a young child, or witnessed a gang shooting up a public area and people getting caught in the crossfire. It doesn't justify what he did. Not at all. But it may provide context as to why he acted that way. The people involved in policing are human, and are not exempt from bad, or awful days. They're not exempt from feeling strongly about things. They're not exempt from making mistakes etc. They/we should be held to account for abuse of power, and rightly so, but expectations of perfect moderation at all times are idealistic.)

Over time, people become weary of shoveling and endless mountain of #### and get jaded. Also, whereas I tend to believe that carrots are a better motivator for good behavior than sticks, some people are just completely unable to help exploiting whatever system is in place, usually at the expense of others. Note: carrots work both ways. Being a respectful and not ruining an Imm's day if they are unfortunate enough to have to call you into the RotD is likely to see better and more lenient moderation. People sometimes forget this. It's why I always pop up on these threads and try to keep people from name-calling and pointing fingers- on a human behavioral level this does not achieve much at all.

>I wish the staff would rethink this decision.

As do I because I think a permanent ban is probably a little heavy-handed, but it's not my call. Also I don't have the details of exactly what happened. So I will defer to people with a better idea and more details. Whatever their judgment call on this one, I stand behind it, though there are valid points raised by some of the more community oriented folks, like yourself.

Also, I will point out: with all of the opinions on this matter, and all of the people jumping in- there should really only be 3 parties involved in this that should matter. Matrik/other permabanned players, the Imms involved in policing the incident, and the IMPs/senior staff if the issue is appealed.

It is probably fair to say that some opinions from the people debating this stuff here are liable to be skewed/biased. We do have a history of players bandwagoning various matters and hijacking the narrative/broadening the scope to push their own grievances rather than speak on the specific incident. It actually reminds me a bit of dissident political movements BLM (in terms of the general rhetoric employed).

A longer post than I intended, but that's more or less where I'm at here.

Edit: A final personal message to Matrik and other party- if you feel you have suffered injustice, you should email the senior staff/IMPs and explain things. On a personal level, I'd probably recommend leaving the boozing out of mudding if an appeal is lodged and is successful, but that's just me.