I realize I'm way late to the conversation. I also realize that I've been away from the game for what I'm guessing is nearly 3 years. (Actually, just found the resignation email I sent- September 2008.) But I guess either we never fully had discussion on the subject back then or time away has given me some new thoughts and I figured I'd share them now.
1) Let me start by mentioning to those who don't know or remember, that I was one of the original Titans. I say this for two reasons. One, I hope it gives a little credibility knowing I've been on the "other side", but mostly I think it maybe points out a flaw we always (at least used to) have with the system. Unless things have changed, the Titans were always "anonymous" and their identities as players were kept secret. Some were a little more vocal than others and it was clear that they were a part of the group, but for the most part, there was never any official, public list stating who was a part of the team. Thus, any efforts at transparency within the system died a horrible death at its onset.
There was certainly good reason for such anonymity, especially during the project's infancy. Any action taken by a newly formed, untrusted body to police and harness rulebreaking was taken as an attack, or at least an affront, on a person or said person's character. So not knowing who it was who cast "judgment" on you was safer for the Titans, who feared unfair retribution. However, as I look back now, this certainly caused more harm than good. There is, and has always been, a strong emphasis on the fact that the Titans are not above other players. The players behind those accounts are not more important, more vital, and do not carry more authority than anyone else in the system. What they were, however, were individuals who were willing to volunteer their time and efforts, as well as being people Tom himself knew to be trustworthy.
But the opinion of the general populous never really swayed toward them. Mistrust and claims of "the Titans are out to get me" or "the Titans are only supporting their characters and their friends with unfair advantages" were prevalent and I doubt those have fully gone away. The biggest, most simple answer in terms of trust is this:
Titans should not be anonymous. If you want transparency at the bottom and the entire system to be trustworthy, transparency
must start at the top.
2) Titan actions have always seemingly come from out of nowhere. As Tom has mentioned, this needs to be curbed. Both accuser and accused should receive official in-game notifications at every step along the way. First, when a complaint is received, detailing the complaint itself. Second, when a complaint is accepted or rejected (along with rejection explanation to both players involved). Third, when a decision has been reached, again with explanation on the decision to both players. Transparency includes keeping people updated on progress, whether good or bad. It also allows the accuser to know whether their complaint is being dealt with in a timely fashion- something I know we had issues with from time to time early on.
3) Once a decision has been reached, both the accuser and the accused should receive a notification upon logging into the related characters and be given a series of followup options that
must be addressed before playing said character again. Something as simple as "Accept Decision" or "Appeal Decision" with, once again, space to provide explanation/apology/affirmation/whatever. That "option" probably should not be optional either, now that I think about it. This provides space for feedback from the two players involved. It's a good initial gauge on how the situation was handled and also is a simple way to make sure both parties full acknowledge the decision instead of simply ignoring a "slap on the wrist".
4) Regarding transparency within the community, I don't think that having the playerbase be a part of making the decision is wise, for many of the reasons stated by others, but also because of expediency. If you open things up to discussion, they could drag on until the dawn of time if some of you get ahold of it- I still remember many of you quite well.
Instead, what I would recommend is to have the final decision made public. This does two things. One, it establishes precedent for all to see and should encourage equal decisions for equal infractions across the board. As a result, players find out that everyone is being treated fairly and with no special treatment. The second thing this allows for is open discussion
after the fact, so that both the Titans and the players can learn from the interaction and better move forward.
5) Multi-account accusations should be made into a separate option, plain and simple. Everyone has already excluded it from the other suggestions made, and it should probably be established by in-game mechanics that there's a difference too. Furthermore, if it doesn't bog down the servers too awfully much, it might be prudent to set some rolling multi-checks- both inter and intra-realm. (Say for instance, Colonies today could have a Lukon-Assassins check and also check inside each of those realms. Next day could have OT-Giblot, etc.) System could be automated, I'd imagine, fairly easily to alert the Titans when a relatively high match score turns up and they can take over from there. I know when I had the time on my hands as a Titan, I would occasionally do "random" checks on questionable accounts and was surprised how many hits I sometimes got. Automating as much of the checking process as possible should help with the time constraints and also will cut down on how many are floating out there.
6) If you want to have an "expanded pool" of trusted people to help the process, while also adding another layer to the community involvement, have a larger group simply in charge of expediting complaints. I spent some time briefly as an expediter with ChaCha and the whole job was to filter out questions, categorize them, and pass them along to the proper places. This idea could be used similarly here. For example, bring in a group of 20-30 people whose sole job is to filter out and accept or reject complaints. If, after 10 or more votes are cast,
a (approve)-
b (reject) > 0, it's passed along to the Titans. Likewise, if
a (approve)-
b (reject) < 0, the complaint is rejected and it never moves on to the Titans.
Oh, and... it's good to be back.
