ultimeme, take two

[Hunter]

Hello Blocktopians,

I’m Aots, and I would not be surprised if you haven’t heard that I have been banned again. Behind closed doors and with no consultation of anyone else, I was banned by the Blocktopian Triumvirate – Superstein, Baker, and Malcovent. The reason behind this ban and the events leading up to it will be explained, but I would like to preface this saying that nothing I did negatively affected the community. What I did was on the forums, and never was anything that I did directed at a member of the community or a group of members of a community, thus leaving me with the question: why was I banned?

To begin I will start off with the events leading up to the ban. Two weeks prior I had been unbanned after Superstein had talked to Malcovent/Baker at my request. I had been banned for almost two years at the time talks between me and Superstein occurred. I was dying to be let back in the community and see fresh faces, something communities I’ve been at/ am at now don’t seem to offer. And so after these talks between the head admins, it was decided that I should be unbanned. It was not two weeks after this that I was re-banned, and told by two administrators to ‘fuck off’ (one such statement being unprovoked) is reasonable.

The first incident occurred when I had a friend register on the forums for the hell of it. He posted a Shutterstock picture of some random girl, and went on a tirade of how he was a ‘girl gamer’ who just ‘wanted to be one of the boys’. It’s a seemingly harmless joke, right? Not in the eyes of the administrators. Shortly after, the post was deleted, and I was messaged by the Triumvirate, with a pretty threatening message, that, at this time I cannot repeat verbatim because I am banned, but it was along the lines of this:

“You are responsible for any posting you or your friends do on these forums.”

Understandable, but what rules were broken? Did my friend quote someone’s picture making fun of them and actually harassing members of the community? It was a joke, and it was nothing more than that. I understand that I should be responsible for my friends and what they post, but honestly I cannot see the wrong or harm that was done by my friend to warrant such a message from the admins. With my track record, that post was harmless compared to things I have done in the past, yet the Triumvirate took it upon themselves to message me and threaten me over a joke in a thread. The easiest solution would have been to just delete the post and move along with life, but the administrators saw it as an opening to re-ban me and once again remove me from the community.

The second incident occurred when I had multiple friends register on the forums. I made a thread, in Off-Topic, where there are threads like ‘Madden Gifs’, which serve no contribution to anything but to just have a laugh at MEMES, about memes. My friend signed up under the name ‘hitler’, which again is not a big deal. He posted a link to a screamer, nothing that anyone on the internet hasn’t seen before (the girl from the ring screaming). It’s been seventy years since the end of WWII, so I don’t think banning me for my friend naming himself after a long-dead man. The thread then devolved into a spider-man thread, and shortly after I had my friends join the BT Teamspeak to meme around. And as that happened, the thread was deleted, and not a moment later did all three admins join my room, ban my friends from the Teamspeak, and me from the forums. And right before I was about to be banned from the Teamspeak, I heard a “just fuck off Aots I’m tired of your shit” from your local community administrator Baker. It was an unprovoked rage from someone in the community who is a leader, and telling a member to “fuck off” is not a quality in a leader.

Now I’m left with more questions than answers: Why was making a thread about memes ban-worthy, is naming an accounts name ‘hitler’ really permanent ban worthy, where do I go from here? So to answer the last question I talked to Superstein, who didn’t do anything but tell me that I was banned for my friends messing around. Okay, but what rules were broken? I guess posting a screamer and calling your account ‘hitler’ is enough to warrant a permanent ban from the forums. If that’s the only case you have against me, then that’s a sad case because it truly is not a good reason to ban someone. Again, in this thread we didn’t make fun of anyone, we weren’t harming the community and its members in any way, yet the administrators wanted something to pin me for just to get me out of their community.

So then I go Malcovent, not expecting much given our previous history. I get the same response, but am not told which specific rules were broken that warranted a perma-ban. A PERMA-BAN. For a name and a single post. You have my history, but is that really enough to perma-ban someone once again? I’m told that I fucked up and that I will never be allowed back in the community, and that he will leave a small note telling everyone not to accept any appeal I post, and so I tell him “maybe my friend named himself hitler because he was imitating you”, to which I am given a blunt “fuck off”. Can you blame me for being so hostile when it was three against one where one head administrator had already told me to fuck off, and where I was told that any appeal I made would not be listened to? And that was the end of that conversation.

In the aftermath I decided to message multiple community members, who shall remain unnamed because I do not want to drag anyone into this thread to fight my battles for me. I have not had one person tell me “well you had it coming”, but rather “that’s pretty fucking dumb” or “that’s bullshit”. But if you feel that I’ve been wronged and that the events were not permanent ban-worthy, please state so in the thread. I won’t be able to defend myself because I’m banned, and thus will not be able to post except for this which Hunter is doing for me. If you think I should stay banned, post and say why. I just do not believe that I should be permanently banned over such a small, isolated incident that could have been dealt with so much better.

Thanks,
Aots

and now my turn to add some words
while the banning of the other account seems reasonable (at least for the hitler one, not that I've seen the thread in question) i'm curious as to what the deal is. tagging the big three myself this time: Malcovent superstein Baker93

recall the thing about “You are responsible for any posting you or your friends do on these forums.”
now, i've never heard this being an actual thing. now, if this was a case of alternate accounts, that'd be different. but banning someone based off of the actions of people someone referred to the community? no.
if this is something you can actually get in trouble for, that's quite frightening, and discourages others from inviting new members.

we need new members.

do you guys have any counter-evidence, or is this truly what happened?
if this is what happened, why? i'm sure people would love to hear explanations.

a response would be greatly appreciated. hell, even lack of a response would be.
anything's better than sweeping problems under the rug.

 

[Baker93]

The previous thread was about to be restored so that I can post this response, but I may as well leave the response to Aots here.

While I would usually recommend that such discussions take place through a PM, there are a few points here that I'm sure some members want clearing up.

There is an apparent attempt to distance blame from yourself, instead opting for an approach of conspiracy or victimisation, so I'll begin by clearing up that an Administration team that held a grudge wouldn't overturn a global ban and give you another chance in the first place. If there was a hidden agenda to re-remove you from the community, you wouldn't have been unbanned, simple as. It was your friends actions, and by extension, your actions, that landed you where you are. No more, no less.

It was made explicitly clear that you would be held responsible for who you introduce into the community and their actions within it. Plead otherwise if you like, but screamer sites are not acceptable to post, and Hitler is far from an acceptable name to use on a public forum/teamspeak server filled with users of all ages and backgrounds. If you want to joke around about war atrocities in privacy, go ahead, but I'm not going to start allowing this community to slip down that road.

Is this the worst thing we've seen? Well, no. Have you had more than your fair share of chances? Without a doubt. Your ideal situation seems to be that we deleted the thread and leave it at that, but what you have to understand, Aots, is that we can't keep cleaning up after you. The overhaul that the community is currently going through is extremely time consuming. There is no stopping when there are servers to set up, ranks to overhaul, updates to implement, suggestions to process and oh so much more on top of our ordinary community operations. To say that babysitting you or any of your friends while you treat the forums like 4chan is unthinkable, is an understatement to say the least.

We strive to moderate the community as fairly as possible, and keep an open mind, but keeping around a known troublemaker unable to control his friends, not to mention one that has only just returned from a ban is illogical. There is simply not a place in this community for someone so unwilling, or perhaps unable, to determine what is appropriate for the diverse community playerbase we hold. You've been here for over 4 years, one would hope that you know what we allow by now.

As for my statement prior to your ban, I agree wholeheartedly that it is not an attitude that someone in an Administrator position should hold. You should understand however that to see the hours you pour into the community only added to by having to deal with trouble from the same name time and time again can cause tensions to run high. You run tired of the excuses, the arguing, and the loophole searching after so many times - so much so that you aren't interested in hearing it. Telling people to "Fuck off" isn't the quality of a leader, no, but neither is letting someone run circles around you time again. Manners don't get through to you, and that's a tried and tested conclusion. You were allowed to return and make amends with the community, you were given a polite PM when you drifted out of line, and you were treated just like any other member of the community so long as you stayed on that line. I'll spare you the 9 lives spiel, but how many times can you honestly expect to get away with breaching our rules?

In short, you were banned because there is absolutely no reason to keep someone stuck in a cycle of 'mess up -> ban -> heartfelt appeal -> unban -> repeat' around in this community. Call it small and isolated if you like, call it an overreaction over a username, but the fact of the matter is you crept over the line assuming you could get away with a 'minor' offence. Actions past, present, and future hold consequences, and you would do very well to keep that in mind. It is for this reason that we will not be considering allowing Aots to return to the community - enough is enough.

We sincerely hope that you understand that this decision was not made lightly, and encourage anyone with further questions about the thought-process behind this, or any other queries, to send us a PM - we don't bite! The thread will be locked not to deny you the ability to find out more or question this response, but to encourage constructive discussion via PM if you so desire, in an attempt to avoid unnecessary arguments.

 

[Malcovent]

recall the thing about “You are responsible for any posting you or your friends do on these forums.”
now, i've never heard this being an actual thing. now, if this was a case of alternate accounts, that'd be different. but banning someone based off of the actions of people someone referred to the community? no.
if this is something you can actually get in trouble for, that's quite frightening, and discourages others from inviting new members.

Wasn't originally going to post this but, Had a few people pm'ing me concerned.

Our stance isn't typically to hold people accountable for their friend's actions, but, aots had recieved a previous ban on teamspeak for introducing friends just to troll/bully players. Hence why a special case was made.