Punishment Appeal Manager

Punishment Appeal Manager, usually shortened to PAM, is the CIT role that handles punishment appeals.

PAM used to be handled by regular players, but it is now a staff-side role handled by L3+ staff.

Overview

PAM is responsible for reviewing punishment appeals and deciding whether a punishment:

stays valid
is invalid and should be removed
needs its custom duration or severity adjusted

PAMs also review logs, proof, and staff explanations before deciding an appeal.

Current System

The current PAM system works like this:

PAM is a staff-side role
PAM is handled by L3+ staff
there can be up to 4 PAMs in total
PAMs are appointed by Head Staff (L4+)
the majority makes the final decision
if more information is needed, PAMs wait for the punishing staff member
if the punisher is L3, an L4 staff member reviews the appeal
a PAM decision can only be invalidated if 2 L4+ staff members agree

Current PAMs

The current PAMs are:

Staff member	Staff level
Arnold	L3
Darius	L3
Bhairy	L3
farm	L3

History

The PAM system used to be handled by non-staff players.

That changed, and PAM is now handled by the staff team through the current L3+ PAM system.

Purpose of the Board

The punishment appeal system exists to:

let players appeal punishments
help players understand the rules
reduce rule-breaking
bring fairness and structure to player and staff punishment disputes

Appeal Boards

Use the:

Punishment Appeals board

Use the:

Bans Issued board

for:

normal bans
limit bans
fullmute bans
mutes over 3 days

Appeal Title Formats

Appeal type	Topic title format
In-game punishment appeal	`Punishment Appeal - Punished by [CIT]NameHere`
Forum warning appeal	`Forum Warning Appeal - Warned by NameHere`

Appeal Formats

In-game punishment appeal

Use these fields:

Your nick when you were punished
Groups & Squads you're involved in
When were you punished "Date/Time"
Account name
Who punished you
What was the reason (rule you broke)
Duration of the punishment
What language is used (if any)
Explain what happened
Why do you think it was unfair?
Chat Logs

Forum warning appeal

Use these fields:

Link to forum user profile, leave this blank if you're posting from warned account
Groups & Squads you're involved in
When were you punished "Date/Time"
Who punished you, if known
What was the reason, if known
What language is used (if any)
Explain what happened, if known
Why do you think it was unfair?
Paste the exact message that you received when you received a warning

Board Rules

Main Punishment Appeals board rules include:

you must fill in the whole format
required evidence must be included
lying in an appeal can lead to instant denial and a forum warning
you cannot appeal a punishment older than 14 days unless a forum mute prevented you from appealing
a punishment can only be appealed once
once the topic is locked, the decision is final
PAMs may deny appeals if you break forum rules or act disrespectfully
trying to hinder, delay, or bias a PAM can lead to denial
only the appellant, their representative, CIT staff, or people asked to reply by a PAM should post
bans changed to admin jails cannot be appealed
the punished person should write the appeal themselves whenever possible
all sides should post their evidence within 3 days from when the appeal was first posted

Representatives and Posting for Others

Someone else may appeal or post for you only in limited cases, such as:

you are forum muted
you are forum banned and need an in-game punishment appeal posted

The appeal should still be written by the punished person, and the person posting it should not alter it.

If the punished person does not understand English, they may request translation only.

Accepted Appeals

If an appeal is accepted:

the punishing staff member, or an L3+ or L4 staff member, will be told to remove the punishment line

A punishment line is only removed when a PAM officially invalidates it.

Client Logs

For appeal evidence, client-side logs are found in:

MTA San Andreas 1.6 > MTA > logs > console.log

Punishment Classes

The Punishment Appeals board lists these punishment classes:

Code	Meaning
`A`	Non-English in English Only Chat
`B`	General Misuse/Spam
`E`	Highly/Multi-Abuse
`H`	Religious or political arguing / provoking
`I`	Provoking/Trolling
`V`	Insult directed at someone's real life identity
`J`	Racial Insult
`K`	Homophobic Insult
`L`	Homophobic or Racial Insult directed at player
`M`	Unguaranteed Transfer
`N`	Part of Cyberbullying Campaign
`P`	Threatening of IRL Violence/Crime
`Q`	Advertising another MTA Server
`R`	Minor Illegal Content
`T`	Major Illegal Content
`S`	Minor sharing or threatening to share private data
`U`	Major sharing or threatening to share private data
`W`	Intending to cause drama
`X`	Harmful lying

Notes

PAM is now a staff-side L3+ role
PAM used to be handled by regular players
punishment appeals do not get answered instantly
there is no normal player application path for PAM

Punishment Appeal Manager (PAM)