I generally think that discussion over whether or not an individual is hacking is seemingly a decent idea. My reasons for this stand as it is, this is because of how it can lead to a more suitable understanding on the rules that have been based for the community. Furthermore, it leads a good majority of the community to potentially gain a somewhat suitable, and convenient amount of experience of how the rules are based upon, and how the server works with its system. Of course the staff member would indeed make the final decision when it comes to such case, and it does seem as if it were quite a good place to bring the community closer together. Moreover that it will help more people to reach agreements and good terms amongst one another when it comes to working together on making reports of illegitimate players.
However, the main down points on bringing quite serious situations public would cause an extreme amount of disruption within the community. As previously stated by other members, many people would bring a more abusive attitude among one another, and thus it will cause a ridiculous amount of flame, and we certainly wouldn't want that! I have mentioned flame wars because of how people would come up to bringing very mischievous comments and remarks on the report, that either being rude on someone's report format or supposed grammar. Or possible because they would intend to "troll" the community by stating on how the rule-breaker is legitimate, and is apparently their friend, thus not wanting them banned.
Do believe me when I say this, as a staff member in another community (Not advertising!), we used to allow this sort of thing within the forums, when it came to staff applications, abuse reports, and ban disputes. I have previously banned someone who was hacking, and had well justified my decision, but there was a huge revolt when one individual claimed that they were a friend of the person. And began stating on how he just communicated with him through Skype and the hacker was crying over that matter. But the thing is, the person who claimed to be his friend had no evidence whatsoever to back up his statements, hence it made my decisions remain as they were. Unfortunately, since that occurred, the individual, and his many friends began revolting over the matter when it was not supposed to be their concern, and began growing very abusive to me. I was fortunate that I was not truly alone, and someone did try to support me on the matter that had occurred, however, those people began harassing him severely. Note that one of them had access to this supposed "Nick" command, to where they can edit their username to look more flashy in-game, and had the audacity to put in a name that severely offended that individual who was trying to support him. Eventually this situation had been reported to the Co-Owner (By me. :33 ), and we had to result in further mutes and temporary bans for the severe amount of abuse they have caused, especially over a matter that literally wasn't meant to concern them.
I state this little anecdote to clarify that even the most innocent people can become quite savage when we provide them the opportunity of something that requires a lot of responsibility. And I have learnt this from first hand experience, it wasn't a pleasant one either. And when it came to such cases, many people began thinking of me as abusive of a staff member, despite the fact that my actions were fully justified, and had not blatantly insulted anyone, and in addition to that, had the permission of a higher staff member to take action. And so I accepted the fact that I will not be a good moderator to the community's eyes, but I will be a good moderator towards doing the right thing. Which of course, led me to the epiphany that being a staff member requires responsibility and etiquette. And we must swallow that pride and reputation, and never focus on what others think of us, because that is what brings us down the most.
Back to topic, abuse reports come in by the hundreds at very quick paces. And letting the community decide whether or not someone is illegitimate will most guarantee a lot of disruption, and as said before, a lot of flame. Furthermore, this could also lead to people making redundant posts on the threads without any meaning whatsoever, and so they gain more post counts to take pride in. In addition to that, this will also be some sort of fly trap for a lot of people who like to troll on threads and would then do something like that in an abuse report.
The same situation can go within ban disputes as well. Also, we could consider on what would happen if we allowed moderator applications become public. Lots and lots of false accusations would potentially occur of the applicant apparently being abusive. Or people would become very abusive on how the application was written.
Ultimately, we have higher up staff members to help deal with the problems that keep arising within the community, Senior staff can help with ban disputes, and can easily tell whether or not someone was abusive within a game during someone's interview or application stage. And moderators were thoroughly hand picked to deal with abuse reports, through my eyes, perhaps it would be best we do not involve too much of the community in things that would require lots of responsibility and care.
