Appeals Process
Appeals
Sufficient Velocity was founded on principles of fairness and transparency. Most disciplinary actions can be appealed: first to an Arbitrator, a member of the Staff whose job it is to review disciplinary actions, and then publicly to the Community Council, a group of elected community representatives who oversee the Staff. (Note that by posting on Sufficient Velocity, you agree that this process will be your only recourse with respect to being disciplined - you give up your right to take any legal action or seek any outside recourse. You can review these details in the Terms of Service.)
Why appeal?
If you believe that a Staff disciplinary decision was wrong - either because the Staff got the facts wrong or because they interpreted the rules incorrectly - you can challenge that decision. You can tell your side of the story to a Arbitrator, and then, ultimately, to the Council and have them decide whether they agree with the Staff or not.
If your appeal is successful, your discipline - infraction, ban, points, threadban, etc - will be removed.
What can I appeal?
Generally speaking, you can appeal any disciplinary action imposed by the Staff. If you are infracted, you can appeal the number of points given, the length of the threadban, or that the infraction was given at all. In the same way, if you are banned from a forum or the site as a whole, you can appeal that decision, as well.
You cannot appeal all staff actions, or even all staff disciplinary actions. There is a detailed list in the Rules, but generally speaking, you cannot appeal policy decisions (i.e., what is against the rules), administrative decisions (i.e., whether something should be in one forum or another), technical decisions (i.e., whether an account is a sock puppet), or a disciplinary decision under the Terms of Service (i.e., that something is a copyright violation).
How do I file an appeal?
An appeal begins by setting out your side of the story in the Make an Appeal forum. (If the nature of your ban prevents this, please use the "Contact Us" form at the bottom of the page.)
You may want help. If you feel uncomfortable, you can ask one of our community volunteers for assistance or to make your appeal for you. They are:
- Advocates
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Appeals need to follow a specific format. This makes it both easier for you - you have a clear idea of what to do - and for Arbitrators and the Council, who know where they should go within the appeal to understand what is happening.
Each appeal should be a new thread. That thread should be titled '[username] appealing [staff action] in [title of thread]'. If the title of the thread is too long, you can shorten it for convenience; if the disciplinary action was not given in a thread, you obviously do not need to mention it. For example, your appeal might be titled 'Alice appealing 25-point infraction in thread Alice and Bob's Storytime Thread' or 'Claire appealing 6-month suspension from Quests subforum'.
All appeals must be made within three days of the action you are appealing. If you need additional time - either because you had a good reason for not appealing in time or because you need more time to contact an advocate or write your appeal - you should ask for it as soon as possible. Extensions are generally granted for a good reason.
All appeals should be no more than 1,000 words and do not need to be written in 'legal language'. You should focus on making sure that you set out clearly and simply what happened, why you believe that the disciplinary action was wrong, and what you believe should happen instead. If your appeal is unclear or too long, an Arbitrator may ask you to shorten it.
All appeals should satisfy the Four Corners rule. This just means that the Arbitrator or the Council should not have to go beyond the 'four corners' of your appeal: all of the relevant information is located in (or at least, linked in) your appeal itself. You shouldn't ask, or want, Arbitrators or Councillors to have to go digging themselves to understand your argument.
Specifically, your appeal needs to include:
- The right title;
- A brief summary of the context: what you believe happened in the thread leading up to your infracted post;
- A quoted copy of the post that was infracted;
- A link to the post that was infracted and the staff post in the thread (if any);
- An explanation, including the rule, if necessary, of why specifically you believe the disciplinary action was wrong.
If you want to file an appeal, but either need more time, or want the assistance of an Advocate, you should still create the thread, with the appropriate title. Simply state in your opening post that you need more time, tag the Advocates (@Advocates), or identify your issue. Your appeal itself can simply be a subsequent post in that thread. Doing it this way keeps the entire package together and available for review by the Arbitrator or the Council.
What happens to my appeal?
Once you have filed an appeal, an Arbitrator will be assigned to handle it. Arbitrator appeals are not public. The Appeals forum is only viewable by Advocates, Staff, and Councillors, and they have all agreed that they will not discuss these appeals publicly. There are several exceptions, however. Administrative staff may discuss your appeal in public if you argue about it in public or we have some other important reason to do so, such as a disclosure to law enforcement.
Ideally, an Arbitrator should review your appeal within 72 hours (three days). If an Arbitrator does not respond in that time, feel free to bump the thread or tag a Director or Administrator.
The Arbitrator reviewing your appeal has a number of choices. They can:
- Decide that your appeal is inadeqate or improper, and either require you to resubmit it or dismiss it entirely;
- Decide that your argument is right, and reduce or eliminate your punishment;
- Decide that your argument is wrong, and keep or increase your punishment;
- Decide that the action you are appealing was right, but for the wrong reason, and leave it alone.
Your appeal might be inadequate or improper for any number of reasons:
- You have waited too long without good reason;
- You have not provided all of the information required by the Four Corners rule;
- Your appeal is not about whether the moderator was wrong, but about whether something should be against the rules, that someone else started it, that someone else should be infracted, or some other similar reason;
- Your appeal alleges some staff misconduct and does not present clear evidence of that misconduct and its relevance;
- Your appeal clearly and obviously will not succeed.
If your appeal has been dismissed by an Arbitrator, they may give you time to fix the problem. If they do not do so, or you do not fix it in the time given, your appeal is over. You cannot appeal to the Council from a dismissal. You may, in extraordinary circumstances, request that a Director set aside the Arbitrator's dismissal and permit you to fix your appeal.
Please do not argue with the Arbitrators in the thread. They will not argue back, and they will not change their opinions because you do. If you are asked a question, please answer it clearly; if you believe after you have made your appeal that you missed something, please let the Arbitrator know what you missed and why it's important.
What if I disagree with the Arbitrator?
If you believe that the Arbitrator was wrong - either because they agreed with the Staff, or because they changed your punishment in a way you don't agree with - you can appeal to the Community Council. The Council are elected representatives who oversee the Staff, including by reviewing appeals.
An appeal to the Council is a fresh chance to have your matter considered. The Council is free to do anything that the Arbitrator could have done, including eliminating, reducing, keeping, or increasing the disciplinary action imposed. They can also decide that the discipline was correct but for the wrong reason, and substitute their own rationale.
To appeal to the Council, you must post a clear statement of why you believe the Arbitrator's decision was wrong within three days of the Arbitrator's decision. These can either be the same arguments you made before, or you can simply say that you believe your original arguments were not listened to.
The Council hears all appeals, but they only hear at most two at a time. Your appeal may therefore have to wait for some time, depending on how busy the Council is, before it is presented to them.
The Council discussion is not a debate. You may respond to questions asked by the Council, but you should not argue with Councillors. If you are argumentative, you may be removed from the discussion. Remember that your goal is to convince the Council, not out-argue them.
Council cases are, by default, made public. When the Council has rendered its decision, the entire file will be made public. If you have a good reason why you believe the file should be kept private, you should make that clear in your appeal, and the Council and Staff will consider the matter. It may then be discussed in the public Administrative Tribunal Commentary Thread.
What happens if I win my appeal?
If your appeal is successful, the disciplinary action appealed from will be removed from your record. In cases where the Council is split and there is no majority agreement on how to proceed - if some Councilors vote for uphold, others vote to reduce, and some vote to overturn, for example - the Administrative Staff will review the Council decision and implement what we believe to be an appropriate result. Usually that means we err on the side of reducing or setting aside a disciplinary action, though we may also simply implement a plurality decision (or try to craft some other appropriate solution).
Please be aware that, as in the real world, even if your infraction or ban is overturned fully, that does not 'wipe the slate clean'. Infraction records, reports, and other records - including, of course, the appeal - are not removed.
Permanent Ban Reviews
If the Staff are proposing to permanently remove you from Sufficient Velocity, they will - with limited exceptions as set out in the Rules - make that case to the Council even if you do not appeal. The Council will then be in a position to uphold that removal or set it aside and substitute some lesser sanction.
In those cases, the Staff's explanation for your removal will be posted first. You will then have three days to respond, at which point the Council will review the matter just like any other appeal.
Quashing appeals
In very rare circumstances, the Directors/Administrators may quash an appeal. There are only a small number of reasons why this might be done:
- You are extended clemency and your disciplinary action is removed, regardless of the merits of your appeal;
- There is some legal or technical reason why allowing the appeal to proceed would be inappropriate;
- The Terms of Service are involved in your appeal and the matter has been taken over entirely by the Directors.
In these cases, the Directors - or someone they designate - may put an end to the appeals process and direct a specific result be reached. Unless extraordinary circumstances prevent it, an explanation will be provided as to why this was done.
