gazzthompson wrote:and whys that?
Illustrated example:
"They paid" to have slaves. That didn't turn out right or fair, either, did it?
Logical derivation:
Even though it is morally acceptable for a person or group to assume control and rule setting abilities for that which they monetarily pay for, being that they have chosen to share it with other humans, taking away that "shared" privilege simply on a whim due to "ownership" and without any other specified justification is generally frowned upon by those people that make your server worth having to begin with by actually playing on it.
On Human Rights:
The right to freedom of speech may be shut down by any server admin, but, those who do it too frequently often find themselves with empty forums, or consumed by the next competitor completely, as the stragglers who are holding on quickly jump ship.
Essentially, you have to choose a methodology for the decision-engine of your site, server, or country, and, an authoritarian dictatorship is generally not the best method to assure success. Your non-paying members would really be more loyal and happy on/in your site/server/country if they had a voice and were assured they would not be muzzled/blackbagged/banned/imprisoned based on some mutually agreed upon rules besides "I paid for it, so my rules are my rules".
Too often those who "paid for it" and who "own" it forget that the success or failure of the investment (site, server, country) is 100% dependent upon those who "use it" (Visitors, players, citizens)... and while you may only choose to consider MONETARY currency in the creation and success of your server, the free time that we donate to play a game on your server is another form of currency altogether, which is equally important.
I remind: Nobody is saying that rules are unnecessary or that you have no right to set them based on paying for the server... I'm simply reminding that the rules are subject to judgement by those who they are enforced upon.
Bottom Line:
If you mandate rules because you pay for the server, and those rules come into question, or your server population dries up, there might be a connection.
I hope that's helped clear that up. If you think it's a load of ****, I invite you to enjoy the pages of the nearest history book or newspaper to see how people tend to react to despotism, regardless of how it was achieved.
"If you don't like the rules, play somewhere else" is a hilarious cry of the burned server admin. You might as well say "if you are hungry, eat something"... that's what people are going to do whether you ban them or they leave by their own volition. Or worse, your bad attitude as a server admin might be 1/10th of the reason that Project Reality as a whole takes a bad hit to player population... there aren't that many servers.
Bye~