IV. Tampering
A - 3. "Tampering accusations may only be reported by the player who had been tampered with or his current GM or Co-GM with the exception of a flagrant public occurrence, in which case accusations may be levied by the HO."
This section from the tampering rules needs to be expanded upon or removed and rewritten entirely. Either that, or HO needs to start equally applying this rule to every single tampering accusation, not just those in which they see fit. I don't know who was the accuser in the Jeffie case, but it was clearly not the alleged tampered player, and he had no contact with HO or the appeals committee in regards to the "investigation" of tampering of his own player. This specific instance also clearly was not a "public occurrence", so that rules out literally anyone except for the IA player's GM or Co-GM, in which he/she may have not even known who they were at the time, since he was in fact IA.
The Bullying/Harassment "Don't Be A Dick" Rule
This one needs some serious work. First, this rule needs to actually be in the rulebook, or I don't see any reason for it to be considered a legitimate rule. Also, it should be clearly established in which situations this rule applies, because as we've seen in the past, this apparently varies depending on the person, the position of the accused, and the place in which the bullying/harassing messages were sent. Why are private messages considered in some cases, but not others, and going back to "Tampering A - 3", why is just anyone allowed to report users in these cases, not just the user being bullied/harassed? At the very least, this needs to be made into an actual official rule or not be taken into account at all.
Also, why is there nothing about appealing punishment decisions, the process and system of the established appeals committee, and the limit to the powers of HO and the appeals committee anywhere in the rulebook? There is nothing about this branch of positions in the league, and there is no rules in place for them or HO. There should be some type of "checks and balances" system in place to ensure that these groups are not abusing their powers. Without this, you get into the situation that we see every single time a punishment gets announced, where the league members feel helpless at the hands of HO, because they know there is nothing they can do. If there was a system like this in place to balance out their powers and actions they can take, we as a league could focus more on not disrupting these powers, because we could actually trust they will be taken care of to an equal standard, and focus more on the fun aspects of the league, not trying to constantly avoid upsetting people and breaking rules we don't know exist.
A - 3. "Tampering accusations may only be reported by the player who had been tampered with or his current GM or Co-GM with the exception of a flagrant public occurrence, in which case accusations may be levied by the HO."
This section from the tampering rules needs to be expanded upon or removed and rewritten entirely. Either that, or HO needs to start equally applying this rule to every single tampering accusation, not just those in which they see fit. I don't know who was the accuser in the Jeffie case, but it was clearly not the alleged tampered player, and he had no contact with HO or the appeals committee in regards to the "investigation" of tampering of his own player. This specific instance also clearly was not a "public occurrence", so that rules out literally anyone except for the IA player's GM or Co-GM, in which he/she may have not even known who they were at the time, since he was in fact IA.
The Bullying/Harassment "Don't Be A Dick" Rule
This one needs some serious work. First, this rule needs to actually be in the rulebook, or I don't see any reason for it to be considered a legitimate rule. Also, it should be clearly established in which situations this rule applies, because as we've seen in the past, this apparently varies depending on the person, the position of the accused, and the place in which the bullying/harassing messages were sent. Why are private messages considered in some cases, but not others, and going back to "Tampering A - 3", why is just anyone allowed to report users in these cases, not just the user being bullied/harassed? At the very least, this needs to be made into an actual official rule or not be taken into account at all.
Also, why is there nothing about appealing punishment decisions, the process and system of the established appeals committee, and the limit to the powers of HO and the appeals committee anywhere in the rulebook? There is nothing about this branch of positions in the league, and there is no rules in place for them or HO. There should be some type of "checks and balances" system in place to ensure that these groups are not abusing their powers. Without this, you get into the situation that we see every single time a punishment gets announced, where the league members feel helpless at the hands of HO, because they know there is nothing they can do. If there was a system like this in place to balance out their powers and actions they can take, we as a league could focus more on not disrupting these powers, because we could actually trust they will be taken care of to an equal standard, and focus more on the fun aspects of the league, not trying to constantly avoid upsetting people and breaking rules we don't know exist.
