First, please take a look at the Team Section to see the tasks and tools of each group.

Administrators (admins) are in the "highest position" holding the most authorizations. At the moment these are the developers of the game, and if there are ever more admins, they will most likely not be people who play the game, to avoid any conflicts of interest. If there are disputes between any groups of users or about moderative decisions, admins may always have the final word. However, their main purpose is not to solve social conflicts, so they should be only contacted when nothing else works.

Super-Moderators (s-mods) are former moderators promoted to this position by the admins. They are trusted 100% by the admins (also because of real-life meetings) and therefore have more advanced tools than moderators. Usually when someone says "moderators" the super-moderators are meant to be included.

Moderators (mods) are active players who regularly take part in forum and chat discussions, guide players and help keep rule violations low, or act when rule violations happen or are reported. They are chosen by the admins for their sensibility and reliability.

All these positions act globally (in all game universes), mods and s-mods can be contacted via PM only in the universe of their characters however.

It is appreciated that you want to help out, but moderators are always asked first by the administrators and do not need to apply. Besides, it may be that more mods are simply not needed. Just continue playing and taking part in the community like you did before, and if the admins want you they will tell you.
(Please note that this is not an invitation to demonstrate your moderating skills. "Backseat Moderation", i.e. acting like a moderator despite not being one, is not welcome and will have the opposite effect.)

From "softest" to "hardest" there are:

• Warning: A system message to make the player more aware of the rules. Usually used after minor infractions. (e.g. Spamming)
  
• Forum-Ban or Chat-Ban: The player is restricted from posting in the forum or chat (including alliance chat) for an amount of days, but can view everything. Usually used after continued minor infractions or medium infractions. (e.g. Insults)
  
• Account Lock: The player is restricted from logging in with his/her account for an amount of days. Usually used as an alternative to Forum-Ban or Chat-Ban, often when those are not applicable (e.g. because the rule violation happened by PM).
  
• (Game) Ban: The player's account is deleted. He/She is allowed to sign up a new one. Usually used after repeated minor/medium infractions or severe infractions. (e.g. Repeated Spamming)
  
• Permaban: The player's account is deleted and their IP and email address is blocked for 6 months. This person is never allowed to sign up a new account again. If a permabanned user's reappearing or multiple account is discovered, it will be deleted immediately. Usually used after repeated severe or very severe infractions. (e.g. Illegal Activities)
  

To avoid accusations of favoritism, there is a guideline in the forum for moderators on how they should use MAs: MA guideline

Yes. For example, a forum ban will be displayed in the moderative actions list for only one character, but all characters of the account will be affected. If a player is banned from the game the entire account, including all characters, will be deleted.

Guides are regular players that have demonstrated knowledge of the game, friendliness and a desire to help other players. Guides have access to Help Chat in which new players may ask questions about the tutorial or the game in general during their first few days in Pardus.

Guides should be experienced players with a basic knowledge of Pardus, the ability to read and write English clearly, and above all a guide should be friendly and helpful. An extensive MA history or history of abusive language in the forums or chat will likely disqualify a potential guide.

You may contact a moderator if you are interested in becoming a guide. The moderator will then assess your knowledge of the game, general helpfulness and friendliness, and possibly your MA history. If the moderator feels you qualify you will then be appointed a guide.

You can see all warnings and bans along with the reason they were given in the Moderative Actions List. A warning is nothing dramatic, it just means that a moderator or administrator suggests that you should to pay more attention to forum-specific rules or the Game Rules.

You can see all warnings and bans along with the reason they were given in the Moderative Actions List. Your ban will not be reversed or compensated. Please pay more attention to the Game Rules in the future.

Moderators are not biased. Moderative decisions are come to as objectively as possible. There is a simple explanation for your case: Many places in Pardus are usually not monitored at all (private messages), or are at least not under constant moderative supervision (chat, forums). Some rule violations slip by unnoticed and unreported. However if a moderator notices the rule violation or if it gets reported by a player, an MA will be applied if necessary. If a rule violation happens, no moderator sees it and it does not get reported, it will go by unnoticed and there will be no consequences. If however a moderator notices the rule violation or if it gets reported by a player, an MA will be applied if necessary. It is up to the players to report rule violations. To prevent receiving an MA, do not break game rules in the first place.

The answer to this question is similar to the previous one. There is no constant moderative monitoring of all places in Pardus, so if you broke a rule in e.g. the forums a month ago and it went by unnoticed, you were lucky. However, if for a reason someone noticed and reported your rule violation just now, you still may receive an MA for that rule violation which happened a month ago. There is no "statute of limitations" for rule breaks (except for already archived forum posts). To prevent receiving an MA, do not break game rules in the first place.

Of course the admins appreciate players who have been long-time fans of Pardus and thank them for their encouragement and faithfulness.
However, this has absolutely nothing to do with the game rules and the way they are applied, and it would be unfair if this was not the case. Regarding the rules, everyone is treated the same, regardless if newbie, second oldest veteran, alliance leader, or ingame war hero.

As the game rules clearly state, "Participation in abusive, defamatory, sexist, racist or profane language" is not tolerated in Pardus, whether it is meant to count as in or out of character. If you are not able to communicate and behave in a mature and civilized manner, Pardus is not the game you should play.

It is good that you realized your wrongdoing and the apology is appreciated. However, moderation in Pardus is done professionally without emotional involvement, so apologies are not necessary. Instead please focus your energy on not breaking any more rules in the future, because that is what really helps.

Concerning the punishment: An immediate reaction (after the rule violation has been reported or noticed, and processed), independent from e.g. any ingame influences or other subjective factors, is part of the punishment. Therefore, a delay or diminishment of moderative actions is not possible. If someone is not willing to respect the game rules and chooses to violate them, they will have to live with the consequeces, all of them.

No, this is definitely not too harsh. The types of rule violations which lead to punishment and not a preemptive warning are those where the player has to behave in an actively destructive way together with a not insignificant severity - such as destructive behavior or participation in profane language (see our MA guidelines). This is a harsh behavior - which definitely cannot be played down as a "mistake" -, and with it has to come a "harsh" reaction. (Actually, the moderative reaction is probably still very light compared to other circumstances. For example, if someone enters a bar and spouts out vulgarities at innocent customers or smashes equipment, the barkeeper has any right to throw out the troublemaker and never let him back again, without having to give out a warning first.)

This information will not be disclosed, sorry.

First, no one from the admin or mod team hates anyone or will ever hate anyone in Pardus, nor do they favor anyone. In fact the admins have very limited time to follow ingame events as they are occupied with other things, and are often not even aware of ingame conflicts between the players they are accused of being biased towards.

All MAs are executed as fairly and as factually as possible. A mod chat and mod forum (visible only to mods and admins) ensures that before important or debatable decisions an objective discussion takes place.

Concerning "I have witnessed a few players getting permanently banned for what seemed to be relatively minor infractions", this may indeed "look suspicious" to an observer, but there is almost always a lot more going on behind the scenes than one would think. Often inflammatory PMs/Emails to admins or other players, chat entries in times you were not online, systematic long-time incitement, etc. are involved. Of course it is no problem to disagree with mods or admins, as long as the discussion remains reasonable, intelligent, and involves logic instead of emotions. You will have to trust the mod and admin team that there are always very good reasons for permanent bans (or any other MA) and that they are coming to correct decisions. Please respect them and do not come to premature conclusions when you cannot explain everything. They are working hard to make your personal gaming experience in Pardus as comfortable as possible.

We have made the Moderative Actions list as transparent as possible. You can see all warnings and bans along with the reason they were given there.
Some cases involve a lot of in-depth evidence-gathering by administrators. Such cases are considered carefully and the decision to ban a player is never made hastily, lightly nor based on rumors or assumptions.
It would be unreasonable to expect members of the Pardus Team to compromise the security of the game by giving out detailed information about possible exploits and rule-break verification or detection methods, as there will always be people who will use that information to abuse the system. Likewise we cannot publicize a player's text from PMs, chats, emails and similar channels.
It is unfortunate that your friend cheated, but there is nothing you can do that can make it be undone.

A player who was banned has broken the rules, and his achievements in games can be related to cheating; the celebration of rule-breakers and cheaters is not appropriate as it would break the following game rule: Inciting, manipulating, encouraging, assisting or conspiring with others to violate any of the Pardus Rules.
Also, in the past, such threads have very often become platforms for insulting admins and moderators, and created tensions. Therefore, it has been decided that commemoration threads are not welcome if they are about rule-breakers.

Despite our best efforts, occasionally moderative mistakes are made. When a moderative error is discovered, any moderative actions applied to a player's account are removed. Players have even been unbanned and had their accounts restored when an error was discovered.
In no case has the decision to ban or unban a player been influenced by other players "protesting" or "petitioning" moderators or administrators. Participating in "protests" or "petitions" will likely get you an MA for spamming.

We have done our best to explain the rules in detail, however it is impossible to cover every conceivable scenario or loophole. In such cases special consideration is given to the severity and intent of the violation, and factors such as the player's MA history are taken into account.
Ultimately Pardus moderators or administrators have the right to make the final judgment in any case and decide if an MA is warranted or not. If you are unsure if an action violates the rules, don't do it!

The admins and mods would love to chill the whole day without having to bother about rules and stuff like that, but unfortunately with thousands of active players the forums, chats and generally the whole game would turn into pure chaos very quickly, which in turn would be really bad for the community. If there were only nice people with the same kind of humor on the internet no rules would be needed at all, but since this is the real (internet) world that is not the case. For example, a joke about the holocaust may be appreciated by some, but a lot of people will be offended. So the consensus regarding ingame behavior is the smallest common denominator everyone should be able to agree to: Please be reasonable, friendly and tolerant.

Please ask a moderator.

When you are playing Pardus, you are doing so on private servers owned and operated by Bayer & Szell OG. Players using these private servers are bound by the game rules and service agreements which every player agreed to abide by before creating an account. The service agreement and all other legal documents in Pardus are in full compliance with all applicable laws.

Use of Pardus is a privilege, not a right, and this privilege may be revoked at any time if abusive behavior occurs. Just as in real life, common courtesy and basic respect for others is necessary to maintain a friendly and tolerant ingame community. And just as in real life, there are penalties for offensive, abusive or threatening language towards another individual, race, creed, or nationality.

Please read the Game Rules carefully and if you do not feel you can abide by them, then do not create a Pardus account.

Many role-playing games have naming rules very similar to Pardus. This naming rule was implemented in open beta after more and more nonsensical names became common in the game, which severely diminishes the RP-environment and kills any immersion.

This is absolutely no problem and will not trigger the multiple accounts detection system.

Certain subforums may contain a pinned thread (+ red text) with specific rules.

More regulations than already covered in the game rules do not need to be announced, but the following advice should be taken to heart:

• Lurk before posting:
  Before interrupting a forum and posting fifteen threads per day, you should take at least a few weeks without any posting at all to get to know the community, what is acceptable and what not, and so on. Only then you should actively take part. It is simply rude to enter a new place trying to make the people there having to adapt to your style of posting - it should be the other way around!
  
  
• Contribute content:
  Please try to invest at least a little bit of effort into your replies and posts. If you just want to chat with others then use the chat. Please never post just for the sake of posting.
  
  
• Use correct English:
  Instead of using u, y, cuz, dat, etc., and numbers instead of letters, this is preferred: You, Why, Because, That, and so on. (Using "lol" or "rofl" or similar common internet-phrases should be no problem). This keeps the community a sensible and intelligent place for all to enjoy. Also please remember that Pardus has players from around the world and using phrases like mentioned above makes understanding difficult for people with English as a second language.
  

Feel free to politely remind others of this and link them to this FAQ:
https://www.pardus.at/index.php?section=faq_rules