On your privacy point aren't player account names just that, whatever people want to call themselves? There are no identifying features there so I don't understand why protecting the privacy of, for example, "Sheepman" could be an issue?
You did seem to advocate for it not mattering if the account names are revealed earlier on, but I guess you've dropped that point now?
What I'm confused about, is what problem is this change and extra work addressing?
You've mentioned you believe there needs to be more visibility on how bans are carried out, but WHY?
It's clear the more players know, the more they will try and work around things, or use previous cases to their benefit in looking for ways to dodge punishments.
What big shift are you expecting to see from this change that will 'save the server'.
And of course, why does this outweight the spotlight it's going to place on banned accounts.
In the meantime I would ask Damacsta:
When people break the rules this is cheating. Currently when an account receives a sanction the whole game world knows (villages deleted, perma bans, etc.).
Are they not going to be harassed by rumours anyway?
It's just rumours and guesswork, ultimately these will fade from peoples memories, and generally it's only their neighbours that notice anyway. Unless they're a top account, the server doesn't really take notice.
This is very different to what you suggest by putting them on blast on the forums, and creating a permanent record.
If you put the spotlight on it, and release logs onto the forum, people can begin to guess or work out who the anonymous user is. So why do you see such a strong need for a public flogging?
Do other, more popular TW servers or innogame games do this? I still can't think of any other popular game that does this. So why will it save the server?
What would a short note saying "X used push account" or "Y has illegal script/bot installed" etc. change?
Harassment, people now have some facts to go off.
But it's a good question to bounce back at you as well, why do you think this is needed, what would it change? What issue does it solve, and why should the dev's code in a function to do this/why should the mods add this to the notes each time?
The rules are already laid out, if people want to try and skirt them they can. If the internal guidelines (outlining the punishments for certain breaches) and the punishments actually handed out were published I don't understand what difference this would make.
This is an interesting one. It's clear that the rules are a general 'break this and you get banned'. However, the rules are generalized, and not every case is black and white.
A good one is push accounts.
Here's the ruling:
Creating and/or using one or more accounts for the primary benefit of another account ("pushing"), as well as profiting from such behavior, is forbidden.
But there's always the question of, when is it pushing, and when is it two people working together?
Imagine if the internal guidelines were released for this? The general player would then have a precise playbook on how much they could get away with, in pushing their friend, without getting caught.
At least currently it's a bit vague to dissuade anyone from trying.