You make some interesting, albeit inaccurate comments. As a Moderator and at the risk of being trolled I am going to respond... I will state that these are my opinions and are based as my experience as a Moderator and not that of the Innogames or the Community Managers. I will also not be replying further.
Forum contributors are expected to know and follow the posted rules for the forums.
It is the forum moderator’s job is to enforce the rules of the forum. This is done by editing and/or deleting posts and, where required, issuing punishments to those that cross the line otherwise how would enforcing the rules work? I would direct you to the Forum Rules which are posted here:
https://wiki.en.grepolis.com/wiki/Rules#Forum_Rules
I would point out this comment within these rules:
The moderators have the right to edit or delete posts and close topics. Please follow their instructions.
I have seen many players claim their posts do not break the rules however when compared to the same rules, the violations are often blatant and obvious.
If you feel that a forum moderator is abusing their authority, then follow this rule:
If you have a query or problem with any of the moderation, do not create a topic about it. Please PM Baudin Toolan.
EVERY in game player that is banned is informed that they are banned by a pop up when they attempt to access Grepolis. This pop up indicates that they are banned, why they are banned, and for how long.
EVERY player has the option to appeal a ban. There are processes in place for this.
As for the timing of appeals. I personally would love to be on line when a player comes online to discover they were banned, however that maybe immediately after the ban was placed or literally days later. I have personally seen players that wait to appeal their ban a day, if not hours, before the banned account was to be removed and ghosted. Moderators cannot be on 24/7, we have lives outside of our
volunteer support team duties.
If any player has a VALID issue with how a ban appeal was conducted or how long a response takes, then they should be contacting the Community Manager and lodging a complaint.
You might want to consider knowing the facts prior to stating speculation as facts. I was there...
The Rules are posted. While some may be subject to interpretation, they need to be vague enough to give everyone an understanding of expected behavior but not specific enough to bog down game play or the forum. Does this occasionally cause issues? Yes.
Moderators are expected to follow specific protocols and standards, those that do not get the title “former moderators”. Moderators also frequently consult with other Moderators to ensure that the protocols and standards are applied correctly.
Not sure who you had confirm this, but most mods cannot access player information on premium (gold) so they cannot tell if a specific player has gold or how they spend it. Personally, I don’t care if you spend nothing or your weekly paycheck. If I can prove you broke the rules, you will face the appropriate punishment.
"to err is human" Mistakes do happen despite the best intentions and it's what we do when we discover them that define us. I know I have apologized to players for errors on my part and players have apologized to me for theirs.
I just shake my head at the amount of rumors and speculations about what happened to the CoMa you are referring to. Am I going to expand on that… no. Are you correct? That information falls under our privacy rules and, from my perspective, is quite simply none of your business.
Are there issues? Anything is possible and when it does happen the evidence, and not speculation, needs to be presented to the Community Manager to be addressed.
Is there room for improvement… always but trying to draw attention to issues using rumors and speculation stated as facts does not help your cause.