Zombiedude101 - "Disregarding admin rulings and constantly ignoring previous warnings while trying to rule lawyer."

[Zombiedude101]

Discord Username: Zombiedude101
Ban reason: "Disregarding admin rulings and constantly ignoring previous warnings while trying to rule lawyer."
Ban Issue:
I did what I was banned for, but the ban is unreasonably harsh

Events leading to the ban

Earlier in the day someone by the name of “Lea” was badly trying out some ERP when I was a clown and following me around. Naturally I joked in F1 that I was too young to understand this then proceeded to oblige Lea’s request to do anything they want by dressing them up in clown garb, giving them my banana (literally, to subvert expectations of dirty shenanigans) and welding them into a locker so they could annoy sec and be quarantined for the good of the station. No admins seemed to be about so I thought nothing of it.

A few mins before round ended as the shuttle evac’d and most of us were dead I posted a screen of one of the weird things they said earlier in the round and joked “she said I could do anything I wanted to her, so I dressed her up as a shrine maiden and welded her into a locker outside sec” and someone complained about me posting in round screens.

Later in another round, I posted a photo of the singularity (no text, literally just the heart of the singulo) commenting that the shader effects were neat.

Someone complained again and said because I didnt confirm if it was current round they were deleting it. I told them that it was harmless and made my point to the sunmary of “big whoop, people saw the singularity, its no worse than taking a photo of a vending machine”

Clearly they didn’t like what I’d said or the tone of my words I assume because I was banned from the discord for the reason above.

Reason the ban should be removed

I dont really think a ban was proportionate, and again no harm was intended nor done as far as I can see.

Just feels like a very heavy handed response to take and not the first time either which doesn’t exactlty foster much faith in the banning individual. Again, I get you dont want people posting in round shit where people can metagame, but I dont think either photo really ruined anyone’s round as the first was posted near end of round and the latter was literally just a picture of the singularity and I was commenting that it looked neat. I didn’t say “hey, singuloose on SERVER” or “hey, JOHN SMITH JUST ROBUSTED THAT FUKKEN CLOWN”

If you require any form of proof, check here. The oldest comment on that account goes back to 2009.

If I genuinely ruined someone’s round I’m sorry.

Alternate Accounts

Just this one that I use. A fellow householder has supposedly set up an account but

Typing on phone so apologies for any odd typos

As an addendum, I am a little concerned about what feels like a “shoot first, ask questions later” mentality - I was kicked from the discord the other day for asking a serious question under the assumption I was trolling - the question being whether it fell foul of ERP / sex rules to sing songs with explicit lyrics in the bar, ie Shaggy’s “It wasn’t me” - to the kicking individual’s credit they did clear remove the note but the fact remains that their reaction was somewhat knee-jerk for a game that’s supposed to be about 2D spessmen dealing with clowns, mimes and secret agents.

[Zombiedude101]

Posting here again to ask if this is going to be picked up as it’s been close to a week.

[Zombiedude101]

Still waiting on acknowledgement.

[nikthechampiongr]

The moderation team has decided to reject the appeal. This is due to a repeat of problematic behavior that lead to your previous ban.

[Zombiedude101]

What is the way forward in that case? Also this reply does not explain or justify the ban. You can’t tell me my actions harned the integrity if the discord or the cimmunity. You can’t leave me hanging for over a month only to provide a lazy one liner as your response. If you do not reply to this I will re raise the appeal with the same talking points. Let’s be real - how does posting a photo of the singularity warrant a ban?

Also, how is this remotely a repeat of past behaviour? My old ban was for discussing the rules around erp and complaining sbout a ban. This clearly wasn’t that.

Unless, of course, you’re saying it’s effectively OK to ban someone for questioning the mod team?

It doesn’t, and I firmly disagree with the response provided so far. I’ll give you a day or so to reply, if not this is coming up again. If you dislike the tone of my replt, well it’s to be expected when you offer little explanation for what was already a silly ban.

[nikthechampiongr]

@Zombiedude101

Unless, of course, you’re saying it’s effectively OK to ban someone for questioning the mod team?

You were banned for violating our rules, specifically on posting in round info. You did not wish to follow the moderator’s ruling on the matter and instead attempted to argue it further when our rules clearly state the following “Do not discuss things from ongoing rounds. Wait until the round is over. “everybody knows” is not a valid excuse”. You have had a previous ban which was issued again because you did not wish to accept the rules of the server. This along with problematic behavior in places like the ss14 subreddit does not inspire any confidence that your behavior will be rectified.

@Zombiedude101

You can’t leave me hanging for over a month only to provide a lazy one liner as your response.

Moderators are volunteers, and the team as a whole has limited resources. We make absolutely no guarantees about when an appeal will be processed, or what info will be provided.

@Zombiedude101

It doesn’t, and I firmly disagree with the response provided so far. I’ll give you a day or so to reply, if not this is coming up again. If you dislike the tone of my replt, well it’s to be expected when you offer little explanation for what was already a silly ban.

Appeals that are substantially similar, and close to one another have a lower chance of acceptance. Ultimatums do not assist your cause.

[Zombiedude101]

What problematic behaviour on the subreddit are you talking about? I’m not quite sure I follow.

Again, I’d be a little less stand off ish if the dituation had been handled better. I didn’t see posting a close-up photo of the singularity as really revealing in-round info because a searc on YouTube would shoe you more. I’d get it if I posted a whole heap of in round dialogue spoiling it for others but I hadn’t, that was why I argued, because I did not feel I had acted against the spirit of the rules which was to prevent metagaming. Which me posting a close up photo of the singularity (without specifying the server) would hardly do.

[nikthechampiongr]

@Zombiedude101

What problematic behaviour on the subreddit are you talking about? I’m not quite sure I follow.

My apologies, that specific part was mixed up with another case with someone with a similar name. It was not part of your appeal case. For reference, the case as brought to the moderation team contained the following information: The discord ban, the previous moderation history on discord, and history of previous appeals. As the one responsible for bringing the case forward for voting, I have not voted myself.

@Zombiedude101

Again, I’d be a little less stand off ish if the dituation had been handled better. I didn’t see posting a close-up photo of the singularity as really revealing in-round info because a searc on YouTube would shoe you more. I’d get it if I posted a whole heap of in round dialogue spoiling it for others but I hadn’t, that was why I argued, because I did not feel I had acted against the spirit of the rules which was to prevent metagaming. Which me posting a close up photo of the singularity (without specifying the server) would hardly do.

As previously stated, the major issue is not that you had posted screenshots from an ongoing round. It was that you have repeatedly been confrontational with moderators about the rules enforcement. If you wish to dispute a rule, or the way it’s enforced it must be done civilly and through proper channels such in General for the rule itself or in Staff Complaints should you believe that the moderator’s actions were improper, not argue and persist with the violation with the moderator at that moment. In this case, the offending behavior was continuing to argue with the moderator after your images were deleted as in round info as well as the images being posted in another channel.

[Zombiedude101]

(post deleted by author)

[Zombiedude101]

As previously stated, the major issue is not that you had posted screenshots from an ongoing round. It was that you have repeatedly been confrontational with moderators about the rules enforcement. If you wish to dispute a rule, or the way it’s enforced it must be done civilly and through proper channels such in General for the rule itself or in Staff Complaints should you believe that the moderator’s actions were improper, not argue and persist with the violation with the moderator at that moment. In this case, the offending behavior was continuing to argue with the moderator after your images were deleted as in round info as well as the images being posted in another channel.

Can you at least understand why I was frustrated though? I made this appeal back in June, and it takes a month to get any response, and it’s a flat “no” because the team felt I was repeating previous behaviour, which I don’t think is a fair assessment. I think banning someone for questioning / arguing with you on a harmless issue like this is bad form - as someone who has been in a community where the admin team enforcement was downright abusive and basically had to go through major reform, it rubs me the wrong way - and I was a little annoyed from being kicked a few days before the ban for asking a genuine question in chat - ie “is singing [a song with explicit lyrics] in the bar going to get you banned” given you’ve previously banned people for relatively harmless comments because they included references to sexuality / anatomy.

At the end of the day, I didn’t go onto the discord with the intent to cause a headache or hassle anyone, and getting denied after a month of radio silence is incredibly frustrating given I probably put more time and effort into the appeal than most people do around here, or in actually judging whether to approve or deny them.

Can I at least ask for a reconsideration of the decision? I really don’t see what else you want out of the appeal - I still feel that, the time I didn’t see the harm in questioning it. Ie, from perspective - it was just a photo of the singularity, what difference is there between posting that or a picture of a vending machine? Like I absolutely 100% get why the rule is there, to stop people posting shit in round for metacomms, but a random close up of the singulo (with no bodies or text) as per below seemed harmless, so why make it a hill to die on? It felt like they were enforcing rules for the sake of rules, and banning me for “rules lawyering” - to be quite blunt that just left me rather angry because at the end of the day like anyone else I come to SS14 and the discord to discuss and joke about a game I enjoy and not get caught up in what seems like fairly banal / asinine arguments. I just felt a bit more common sense could’ve been used.

Re the other photos - they were never mentioned and I kinda forgot about them given it was round end and the individual in question got banned for their ERP shenanigans. Again, I’d have got deleting anything that spoiled in round events, but I felt it harmles to post a close up pic of the singularity given I hadn’t specified the server or who I was.

[nikthechampiongr]

@Zombiedude101

Can I at least ask for a reconsideration of the decision?

A reconsideration of an appeal usually only happens under extraordinary circumstances. Usually due to some error in the process, missing evidence, new information, or because the appeal was improperly handled in some other way.

I am not aware of any discord ban appeal that was voted on, and then had its decision overturned. When an appellant wishes to present new arguments this is usually done through a new appeal.

The Moderation team also does not have the resources to reconsider an appeal at request of the appellant. You already had a very long wait to have this one processed, if we had to reconsider other appeals as well the wait time may be even longer.