How an appeal is handled, step by step

So you know what is happening while nothing appears to be happening.

What we do

1. It gets read. By a person, in order. Serious cases — a permanent ban on
an account with a long history — get more time, not less.

2. We look at the record. What was logged, when, and by whom. This is why
the timestamp in your appeal matters so much: with one it takes minutes,
without one it can take an evening, and an evening is a thing people run out
of.

3. We check the punishment against the rules. Two questions, separately:
was the rule actually broken, and was the length right for it? An appeal can
succeed on the second question alone. "Yes you did it, and thirty days was too
much" is a real outcome.

4. Somebody who was not involved looks at it, where that is possible. A
person reviewing their own decision is not a review.

5. You get an answer in the topic. With a reason.

How long

Days, not hours. There is no queue-jumping and no escalation path — posting
again, or asking on Discord, does not move it and does make the queue longer
for everyone including you.

The possible outcomes

Outcome	Means
Lifted	It was wrong. Removed, and we say so.
Shortened	The rule broke, the length did not fit.
Upheld	It stands, with the reason stated.
Declined	Ban evasion, a second appeal for the same thing, or an appeal that is just abuse.

Appealing again

Once, and only if you have something new — evidence that did not exist
before, or a fact that was not in the first appeal. A second appeal that
restates the first is declined without a long reply, because there is nothing
new to weigh.

What does not happen

• Punishments are not negotiated. There is no offer to make.
• Nobody is told the outcome except you. What happened to someone who

reported you, or to somebody else in the same incident, is between us and
them.

• A good appeal does not guarantee a lift. It guarantees being read

properly. Those are different, and pretending otherwise would make every
answer here worth less.