Infraction Appeals and Discussion
Infraction Appeals and Discussion is a special forum on Total War Center that allows members to appeal infractions and comment/question moderation policy. It is exclusively overseen by the Hexagon Council with the exception of the Tribunal described below.
Praetorium
The Praetorium is the first line of appeal. Members can create a thread here in privacy to ask the Moderation Staff to review their infraction. The decision made here is collective and can sometimes result in a reduction or removal in cases of error and/or with good persuasion by the member. The recommended path is if this line fails, concede the infraction or muster a good case to proceed to the Tribunal.
The Tribunal
The Tribunal is a section with unique staffing. It is overseen by four members at a given time, plus watched over by the Hexagon Council.
Two of these members are Tribunes, who are handpicked by the administration to serve 'for life' or at least until they no longer have time. The other two are elected Magistrates from the Curia. Generally junior to the Tribunes, they are involved in cases on a rotation. One magistrate will be in a case at a time and the other will be on standby until another case comes along. They serve for a limited term (4 months) at which point they are replaced by new elected Magistrates. Or re-elected. A magistrate may also serve in other areas (say, Content Staff) but may not take another Curial Officer position. They can be removed by the unanimous vote of Tribunes or by the Curia if there was a discrepancy in their election.
In this forum they are known collectively as the Tribunal and have a very specific task - to review a member's appeal against an infraction, and use their judgement of the Terms of Service to see if the infraction was valid. This draws from the member's opening argument and the official details of the issue provided by the Moderation Hex. Often the Tribunal takes some time to look over the subject and get the input of its acting members in private. Typically one of them presents official questions to help influence this discussion that the Moderation Hex or infracted member may answer.
There is no time limit and the length depends on the nature of discussion and available time of the members. It is unusual to see a case last beyond a few weeks however. Internally the Tribunal comes to a decision for the case. 2/3 makes an answer; if there is a digressing third, their line of thought is included in the final decision. Individual opinions are anonymous here, though they may reveal their takes via Commentary if they wish. In general however, it is poor form for them to discuss cases outside of the thread even after it is resolved.
Formally they may uphold the infraction, remove it, or amend it if 'the punishment did not fit the crime'. This is the final, binding line and it is highly unusual for it to be overridden by administrators.
Members & Badges
Current Tribunes and Magistrates are listed with their badges below:
Commentary
Neither the Praetorium nor the Tribunal allow much chit-chat beyond direct discussion of the cases in their threads. The Commentaries allow a public outlet. They are manned by the Hexagon Council and any interested regular member; it is heavily discouraged for non-Hex Moderation to participate and otherwise discouraged for most staff to engage here. The Tribunal may also comment (and perform light moderation in the case of their commentary) as they see fit.
Most conversation relates to moderation policy or ongoing tribunal cases. New threads can be made to discuss policy topics in detail.
