Admins on Paradise Station can require you to get a vouch from another server to be unbanned. The catch? Sometimes there’s no clear time period, and other times, they might tell you to actively play on another server for six months (possibly even more) before you can even ask for a vouch. After that, you need to convince a headmin on that other server to go out of their way to message the Paradise admins for you. That’s six months of your life, forced to actively play on a different server with no guarantee of success. If you never get a vouch, it's essentially forever. If you play on a server for 6 months and Paradise says "we don't accept a vouch from this server", we'll you're fucked for another 6 months. The paradise admins will definitely go above and beyond their way to pettily ask "how many crew hours do they have on your server?" To verify that you are actively playing on another server.
There’s no list of approved servers for this, because Paradise doesn’t have any partnerships or affiliations, unlike TG which has a network of servers. They just tell you when they won’t accept from a server if you do get a vouch from there (like Goonstation). An admin even admitted, "You are correct that not all servers offer vouches, but this is up to the player to check."
The problem is, there aren’t that many SS13 servers out there, and not all of them are the same. It’s like being forced to play Minecraft with a completely different modlist than what you’re used to. You need to play on a server that has different mechanics, rules, visuals, and community. Also, the chances of getting a headmin to vouch for you are slim. Why would they want to lose a player, especially a "good" one they they would vouch for? Player counts are crucial to server health.
Without a vouch, you’re essentially banned for life. There’s no way to appeal or get unbanned if you can’t get a vouch—even if years go by. This practice is unreliable, impractical, and frankly, seems like a way to get rid of players with little to no chance of them ever coming back. Even their own guidelines admit that this system has been abused by admins in the past but they continue the practice because "it has worked before." Am I the only person that sees a problem with this??
This doesn't come from it happening to me. It's a practice I've noticed by browsing their forums, and someone needs to question if the policies are fair or effective.
It's easy to say "just follow the rules" but my argument is that this practice is easily abusable. There are no regulations on this. No discussion, no debate. Are we going to start banishing criminals to other countries and force them to beg their new country's government to vouch for their return to their original country? Or should I just not question anything and assume that everything is flawless and fair to a perfect point, that there is absolutely zero problems and no way that admins could ever be unfair. If you play on a server for 500-2000+ hours, you are bound to have had at least one conversation with an admin for whatever reason. That is used against you.
Admins can be flawed in the same way that judges can be flawed. If a judge, who is in charge of sentencing people to prison, can be corrupt and improperly do their job for any number of reasons or bias, an admin on a small videogame can easily do the same, especially because it is a huge position of power over a small group of players.
