Alfie's Ban Appeal

[Alfie]

Steam Name: https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198149431514/
SteamID:

Name of the Admin you were banned by: Flerk


How long is the ban for?: Permanent


The reason you were banned?: I've been banned for apparently metagaming and using a discord server without authorization from the staff. And then ignoring staff.


Why do you wish to be unbanned?: I will be speaking from the bottom of my heart in all honesty. Is this what the Willard's Community has become? Willards was a loving community in all aspects of life. I've seen it grow from just being a tiny little community into a rather massive accomplishment. But now, day by day Willard is falling into the hands of what seems to be a circle jerk of some rather independent individuals. I really didn't want to say it, I'm not dragging the comb-over everyone or trying to be disrespectful. But what is said is said, and I'm not just speaking by heart, but also from other members alike. I'm putting myself at the front so I can sacrifice myself to say the truth about what other members could not. What could I honestly lose now? When I've been ripped off the freedom of what I once fought for? A Community that actually focused on proving the players with the freedom of RP without the use of OOC restrictions and limitations. I've dedicated minutes, hours, days, and months to this community. Only to be utterly back-stabbed by the people I saw as role models. Everyone knows I've been a long-standing community member, breaking server records along with creating opportunities and never seen experiences. I've even been here longer than the Staff member who banned me along with the general greater activity. I'm not saying this to be rude or disrespectful but by common sense that this is what we're dealing with folks. And I want upper management such as Atle, Rad-x, or Mullin to start investigating the general abuse amongst the administration towards players alike. Just take the example of Pawlu. Yes, his past history of minor mingery from time to time, that obviously wasn't meant for malicious intent. And if anything, his years of community service and dedication should add up to his wrongdoings. Yet it's simply overlooked and shadowed. This is also the case for me, I've contributed and dedicated my time. Almost putting sweat and tears into the hardship I've done. Yet I get trampled and thrown out like a lap dog by someone that hasn't had the same hardship. If this doesn't get dealt with then Willard's will simply fall into the typical HL2RP spiral it always has been.

An example of this would be that I've made a previous abuse appeal previously about flerk. Like, come on? Getting warned and borderline banned for speaking to 2 staff members and asking for a Stalker whitelist? Is this we're at folks? How on earth does that warrant a ban along with the warning? Then the same people you appeal against literally handle the appeals. Someone must understand that this is wrong on so many levels. The abuse appeal got closed in less than 24h. I literally went to sleep and by then the thread was bombarded with arguments and then closed. It just shows the length that some people are willing to go to suppress those talking against them. I by all honesty didn't even get a chance to barely provide my side of the story and actually defend myself against the counter-arguments as I was simply thrown aside. The door was also simply shut on the general public as they didn't either get a chance to provide their opinions as well even though some thought that the warning was obviously wrongfully based.

And now we got this cluster-fuck of a situation where I've been harassed and targeted by NEYOON. Less than a day ago, I've decided to bring forward the possibility of an expedition. As my character needs to get ahold of the Antlion extract for character development. This idea was discussed amongst the Creative Team and then planned out by Dog and Neyoon as they obviously have had a grasp around the idea of an expedition.



As mentioned I start preparing for the expedition by setting up a shitty discord with literally the default channels. This discord was made to organize the expedition and make it obviously easier to actually get the expedition up and running. Mainly to get a general idea of OOC timezones from people to somewhat get a reasonable time that everyone could be on for the expedition. Also to seek out the necessary requirements and player availability. I also SPECIFICALLY MENTIONED no IC information in this Discord.






Less than a day later, I see Neyoon poppin' into the discord while there's only me and another guy in the entire discord server. I quickly check the logs and found out that no new discord invites were created and the only option for someone to get into the discord by now is either by Neyoon literally going in-game and then personally targeting my in-game logs and searching through it just to find a discord link which Neyoon decided to join. The only place I did post the discord link was in-game for "LiterallyAPancake" to join. I was utterly disgusted by this approach and out-right banned Neyoon from the discord like any reasonable person would do as that is a total violation of any person's right. Not only is that targeted harassment but also shows the malicious intent of someone digging around someones' files for god knows what reason? Or either a way to ban them or presumable to find a "metagame" discord as Neyoon put it himself. Neyoon eventually went on to slander my reputation of "apparently" metagaming with this new discord in #vort-flux and then targeting my DM's trying to get confirmation of why Neyoon himself was either kicked or banned from the discord.




Neyoon couldn't have any reasonable doubt about the actions he just committed or any patience whatsoever. As I was eventually banned for Blatant metagaming while trying to join the server. But as I already provided by the screenshots above, there aren't any removed chat logs of me or either "LiterallyAPancake" talking about anything related to metagame as I literally specified that this discord is ONLY will be used for OOC occurrences and availability amongst players. To smoothen out the expedition process.

I believe this is blatant malicious intent of targeted harassment but also a player violation of utterly disgusting behavior. Personally, digging into someone's in-game player logs for god knows what reason? And then blatantly exposing themselves after joining the discord. He was instantly banned along with the two messages Neyoon sent which were just pure sarcasm of in-direct harassment which I sadly enough didn't get a screenshot off. But it was along the lines of guidelines and emojis.

I know Neyoon will pull the typical: "Your general attitude and player behavior hasn't been a good public view" or pull up some old warn and player bans just to provide a reasonable point. Or try to turn the tide of this ban appeal by saying that i "left out key information" while I either didn't just include or didn't think about it.

Do not simply lock this thread and forget about it in less than an hour. I want all points to be brought forward and a chance to respond.

 

[Neonity]

Hi. I'll directly respond to some of the points you make because I noticed I was mentioned in them

Let's begin:

harassed and targeted by NEYOON

This is a pretty bold claim to make, as I have no reason to personally harass you. You're just some ordinary player to me. Nothing more, nothing less.

I also SPECIFICALLY MENTIONED no IC information in this Discord.

This is wrong. You blatantly forged your own screenshot in order to make yourself look better, because I took my own screenshot the moment I joined that discord.

I joined this discord, and redirected you to Willard's rules, specifically the one regarding metagaming and private discords. The staff team was made aware of this fact.
In your screenshot, posted above, you deleted my messages, and edited yours to make yourself look better. The "No IC info here." wasn't mentioned when I joined, proven by the screenshot I took. - If you want to plan for expeditions, do so in the official rebel discord, and simply request your own channel there.

Instantly banning me with no response, and refusing to elaborate when asked, isn't the right approach and you know this.

Neyoon literally going in-game and then personally targeting my in-game logs and searching through it just to find a discord link which Neyoon decided to join.

I have no reason to personally target you, that's absurd. Just why would I do that? I found the discord invite by pure random chance, by going through the logs for something completely unrelated to you. And yes, I decided to join the server to see what it's about.

Not only is that targeted harassment but also shows the malicious intent of someone digging around someones' files for god knows what reason?

It really isn't targeted harassment. I have NO incentive to target you. Don't be ridiculous, please. Besides, I wasn't looking through your logs at all, that's a very specific assumption. Your discord invite was found by pure chance when looking through the logs for mentions of the word 'discord' for something completely unrelated to you entirely.

targeting my DM's trying to get confirmation of why Neyoon himself was either kicked or banned from the discord.

Obviously I want to know why I was suddenly removed from a server that was in violation of Willard's community rules with no prior warning. And yes, I will "target" the DM's of the server owner to do so. If this is harassment, then consider me guilty as charged.

I believe this is blatant malicious intent of targeted harassment but also a player violation of utterly disgusting behavior. Personally, digging into someone's in-game player logs for god knows what reason? And then blatantly exposing themselves after joining the discord.

As explained earlier, your invite was found by chance. I have no reason to dig through your logs, as you are really not as big of a deal as you make yourself out to be. Just some ordinary player who hadn't touched the server in a very long time. Don't take this the wrong way, but you weren't even on my mind. And yes, I "exposed" myself after joining the discord, because I have nothing to hide. I was very direct.

He was instantly banned along with the two messages Neyoon sent which were just pure sarcasm of in-direct harassment which I sadly enough didn't get a screenshot off.

She*

When I joined the discord, the first thing I did was send you a link to Willard's ruleset and directed you specifically to the ones regarding metagame. That includes private Willard-related discords - which this was one of. You confirm this in your screenshot, because you deleted my messages for whatever reason (one of them being the one where I joined the discord.), then edited your messages, and then took a screenshot as if it was always like that before I joined.

I know Neyoon will pull the typical: "Your general attitude and player behavior hasn't been a good public view"

Ask yourself the question. What's the general opinion towards you, from staff and players? Be honest.

saying that i "left out key information" while I either didn't just include

That's what leaving out key information means, yes.

Final thing to note



^ This does not mean "create a private Discord nobody is aware of and plan the expedition with a bunch of others, especially without staff supervision."

If you really want OOC help to prep, ask for a channel on the rebel discord, that's what it's for after all. Have a nice day, and don't take everything as a personal attack in the future. We're all here just to play a game in the end

 

[Alfie]

I'll respond tommorow

 

[Alfie]

Sorry, but this is taking longer than excepted. Things like these shouldn't be rushed and we're all busy from time to time. Just be patient and i'll get back very soon.

Unless i get slammed with an already existing ban for not responding in time. if you get what i mean

 

[Deleted member 418]

Sorry, but this is taking longer than excepted. Things like these shouldn't be rushed and we're all busy from time to time. Just be patient and i'll get back very soon.

Unless i get slammed with an already existing ban for not responding in time. if you get what i mean

Don't worry man, it's your ban! Take all the time you need, we'll be here.

 

[Alfie]

This ban appeal is far more in-depth. This is not simply about myself but the direction Willard's is currently heading towards. I remember back in V2 when people actually just got a slap on their wrist for mildly stupid things. Maybe even a 3-30 days ban depends on the circumstances. But now? Every day I come online I see people get permanently banned left and right, multiple times a day. For even the mildest stupid things. Something isn't right here, and we can't simply go from a slap on the wrist to one of the worst possible punishments to be given as a player. Permanent bans are reserved for those people that cannot be stopped. They actively seek to malicious destroy a community. And these permanent bans seem to be handed out like candy on the streets. There's no thought, no recognition, or even the slightest of consideration. If this continues, long-standing members will simply be whipped out and what will be left is a former shell of what Willard once was-

What a lot of people really got off the edge about was that abuse appeal on the Stalker Whitelist that got denied in less than 24h. Am I missing something here? How does speaking to two staff members warrant a warning and borderline permanently banned, especially in the regard of one admin re-directing me to the next one? Am I on my high-horse or something? Am I missing something here? Then the entire abuse appeal just gets denied while I'm at sleep, not even given an opportunity to explain or respond. Basically accusation me of me leaving out key information and then shoving those accusations down my throat. Yet I'm the one being told that my attitude is shit and my behavior is garbage? What kind of fucked up bucket list is this? Even if my behavior is bad, or my attitude stinks. That shouldn't be a direct cause to be handing out bans. I've been in Willards for what? 8 months? During such a long period of time, it is expected to see the best and the worst out of somebody. And you can't simply nick-pick the bad parts out of somebody and then use it against them while completely disregarding all the good things.

Take my Admin Application for example. The first application I sent in was denied because I haven't "put enough effort into my in-game activity". Yes, my in-game activity was pretty shit because I had taken a break from Willards. But I immediately proved that I could once again be active and reserve my dedication to this community by almost being online for 10h a day. It eventually came around after a month of waiting that I'll reapply for my position now that I've proven my hardship. Only to be turned away by NEYO (Aka Salvador) once again because *he* personally didn't like how I approached his DM's a month ago trying to understand the previous denial of my Admin Application. completely disregarding everything good I've contributed. I can provide the entire chat logs but this is not what I'm here for. I'm here to bring forward opinions shared amongst myself and other people but also by the fact that I got permanently banned because of a discord server.

-----

This is a pretty bold claim to make, as I have no reason to personally harass you. You're just some ordinary player to me. Nothing more, nothing less.
This is wrong. You blatantly forged your own screenshot in order to make yourself look better, because I took my own screenshot the moment I joined that discord.

I joined this discord, and redirected you to Willard's rules, specifically the one regarding metagaming and private discords. The staff team was made aware of this fact.

In your screenshot, posted above, you deleted my messages, and edited yours to make yourself look better. The "No IC info here." wasn't mentioned when I joined, proven by the screenshot I took. - If you want to plan for expeditions, do so in the official rebel discord, and simply request your own channel there.

Instantly banning me with no response, and refusing to elaborate when asked, isn't the right approach and you know this.

Look, my general community record is pretty clean and shiny. Even if I were to metagame it wouldn't warrant a permanent ban in the first place. But what you just said here Neyoon just proves the entire point that I will be making very soon. Without reasonable doubt, I don't think you "randomly" decided to look through probably millions of logs from what other people said. And then single-handedly nick-pick my log out of all the other random logs. You obviously weren't looking for my logs as you said, but instead of continuing scrolling, you decided to stop and dig deeper into my logs specifically. You then went even further to take the decision to join the discord server and snap a screenshot of the first thing you did. If that isn't malicious actions of actively looking for a reason to either target or harass someone that I honestly don't know. You then went even further by sarcastically posting the metagame guidelines in my discord before taking the decision to slander my name in the #vort-flux? And yet you whine about me banning you off the discord? Your behavior was utterly disgusting and predatory if anything, and then go on to slander my name in #vort-flux about some sort of "metagame" discord when you obviously knew that it was for OOC availability and planning for the upcoming expedition WHICH YOU and DOG told me to prepare for. It's easy to say that "you accidentally" stumble upon my logs, but action speaks louder than words, and what you've proven here today just says all of it. And you mentioned something about me editing my message because I wanted to look better in this ban appeal? It's hard to look better in a ban appeal when it obviously was edited before I even got banned in the first place. This completely renders your accusation of me trying to look better in this appeal totally obsolete as you can see. And if anything, I just reinforced the rules in the discord that this server is mainly made to OOC plan for availability and requirements for the expedition. And that no IC information should be served here. If anything, I should be given a gold star for upholding the rules rather than being slandered about trying to look good in a ban appeal.

Obviously I want to know why I was suddenly removed from a server that was in violation of Willard's community rules with no prior warning. And yes, I will "target" the DM's of the server owner to do so. If this is harassment, then consider me guilty as charged.

I already explained why you were removed, and if you had somewhat of reasonable doubt about what you were doing. Then you'd understand what you did disgusting behavior. There is no violation of my Discord server, where are the logs of me spreading IC information OOC? Where are the logs of me saying "Don't go into sewers, there's a sweep happening" because I certainly don't see any similarities of me saying that anytime soon? At the end of the day, metagaming was the main reason why I was banned. With the logs you've provided, there isn't any removed message of either me or pancake. And there isn't any proof whatsoever of me spreading IC information OOC. What Neyoon has provided here today is a screenshot of me editing my message before my ban even happened, to reinforce the regulations even further. Seems like you're digging a pit of me metagaming but there obviously isn't any.

You're obviously trying so hard to get me banned for what? You took a screenshot of an empty discord server of me reinforcing the rules. And saying it's a violation of Willard's rules? Where's the violation? Since when did people need consent from Willards to make a discord server? Because I certainly ain't finding anything related to that. All that I'm finding is that I need consent if I plan on having actual IC chats and channels which I specifically said that this discord was purely OOC.




Not only did you just bend the rules of the Willards Community, but also accused me of trying to look better in a ban appeal that was edited long before I even got banned. You're trying so hard to get me banned for metagame that doesn't exist. And then try some shady metabaiting alongside it. You said I could prepare for the expedition, which is OOC allowed. And now you're trying to get me banned for the same reason you told me to prepare for. If anything that discord server ban served you right with the mindset you currently have. And if anything, this should be an abuse appeal.

(Edited: And maybe, be more patient next time instead of coming to conclusions. I'm busy like everyone else. And the fact that you couldn't wait an hour or two after you dm'ed me just shows how impatient you are. And the first conclusion you drew was me evading staff. What a joke.)

 

[Maroon]

Hi Alfie,

I've spent some time reviewing this case. The official ban reason is:

'Metagame. Using a Discord without authorization and ignoring staff when questioned. Authed by higher management.'

So we'll take these charges one by one.

Metagame
I've found no proof of this based on the evidence delivered on this thread and in the staff section. I think the accusation was levied against you based on that message in your discord, which is neither metagaming nor shows an intent to metagame.

Using a Discord without authorization
This is technically not against the rules, as you stated explicitly in your discord that it would only be used for OOC information.

Ignoring staff when questioned
This can also be disregarded, as the admin in question did not notify you of any sense of urgency regarding a rule breach. Moreover, I personally believe that, as players are not entitled to our immediate attention outside of the server, neither are staff entitled to the immediate attention of players.

Ergo, I will accept this appeal. In the future, I do suggest using our official rebel Discord, The Underground, found at https://discord.gg/W8Brw2w5.
We will also be adjusting the rule you posted regarding unofficial discords in the near future, so it may come to a point where OOC coordination will be entirely disallowed on Discords not part of our official network.