Neonity Unban Appeal

[Neonity]

Steam Name: Neonity
SteamID: STEAM_0:1:55099154

Name of the Admin you were banned by: Purple Knight
How long is the ban for?: PERMANENT
The reason you were banned?: Malicious abuse of moderator permissions
Why do you wish to be unbanned?:

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When I submitted my resignation from staff (no screenshot, but easily searchable in mod chat) the idea was presented to me to unban Sachimii so she could "say hi" to RAD-X and was assumed by me to just wanting to surprise him by having a familiar (banned) name suddenly show up. I let this happen, because I figured it would be a funny surprise, knowing full well she'd just be banned again in an instant. There was no game unban or anything, it was purely a Discord gag for when I left.

At no point did I have any intention to "sabotage" or abuse moderator permissions in any way beyond that, and didn't. If I did, I obviously wouldn't have submitted my resignation and instead used it to cause chaos (e.g mass-deletions, item spawning on the gmod server, etc), but I didn't, because I had no intention of doing anything beyond a joke. I did not expect any harmful things to be said, rather just jokes around a fake unban being made, and while I did not witness every message (just some) that was sent in the end, I believe it came down to pedophilic accusatory remarks towards several members of management for the believed mishandling of the Marshall situation, considering I had seen THAT.

I had not planned nor expected anything to spiral out of control, and did not anticipate any harm to befall anyone from this situation. I had assumed it would be something to be laughed off, and apologize if it gave a few of you a headache.



Regardless, I do not believe my accusations to warrant a permanent, immediate (previously unappealable) community ban, especially since it is by all means a first offence. I was never informed of my ban, and had to question people myself on what happened because nobody did the due diligence to reach out and ask me what's up myself.

THE MARSHALL SITUATION
For those unaware, the Marshall situation in question refers to when ex-admin Marshall was exposed for inappropriately texting an underage member of the community with extremely explicit message and pictures, and that person eventually privately contacting staff. The believed mishandling of the situation refers to how Marshall was not immediately banned, and instead only had his admin role taken. He was then given CT back by the CT-Coordinator at the time, Cengiz, who is believed to have been informed of the context surrounding Marshall's removal and still gave the CT role to him anyways. Community Management at the time opted to keep all information regarding Marshall secret, but due to leaks eventually a group of upwards of 10 people within staff and trusted players discovered it and demanded answers.

A group chat was made to discuss the incident with those in the know, in which it was finally decided that Marshall should be banned. Community Management did have a lot of messages to read through, considering the extent of the logs, but the immediate logs presented should've been enough.

As for why Marshall was "only" removed from staff and not banned:


The last part of ClapTrap's message here is exactly how bad it looks and why people discovering this information get so unequivocally upset about it, and want to call people out, no matter how justified the delay on the ban looks. If anyone wants the FULL logs of the messages Marshall sent to the minor in question because you, the person reading this, has doubts for any reason, reach out to me. I believe we're long past the point of keeping this stuff on the down-low, considering the sheer amount of people who have this knowledge now.

The other part of the accusatory statements stems from the fact that after Marshall's ban, several members of management kept him on their friends list and were seen playing games with him (Abiotic Factor specifically), which made those aware of the incident extremely skeptical of them, albeit this concern was never expressed publicly, fearing backlash or worse. He remains on their friends list to this day. He changes his name a lot but this profile is his. https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198148082140




MY DISCORD
Because some people like to believe my personal discord is some kind of staging ground to attack Willard, it is not, and this is easily debunked. It is easily accessible and consists of friends (and friends of friends) only. It contained several members of the SC (to this day still does) and even had RAD-X in it, but he left on his own after a dispute with Hayden. And yes, even the "private" channel is accessible by the SC member who remained. You'll easily be able to find that not a single channel was used to organize or scheme any attack on Willard, that is a ridiculous assumption to make.

The server dates back to 2017, and has been in use ever since. While Willard is obviously a topic that was frequently brought up between a handful of people, this is a natural consequence of sharing interests with close friends/meeting friends ON the Willard server. Of course, some within the server dislike "Willard-talk" as well, due to sharing no interest in playing on the server for any reason. Many people within staff and the community have similar servers to this, and some are reading this right now.

ACCUSATIONS OF "MANIPULATION"
There were people within the Server Council who believed I somehow manipulated Vasilidesu into inviting ultima into the Civil Protection discord. This is a false, gross statement to make and tantamount to character assassination in order to further justify your personal vendetta against me, and something I do not stand for. And for the record: Ultima was never banned, I did not unban ultima. I'm saying this, because people are saying I unbanned multiple people, which just isn't true. He just previously left the Discord on his own and needed no unban to rejoin.




Here's me opposing the invite being sent:



After seeing this rumour spread, I attempted to immediately clear my name and dispell any rumours surrounding this, but was ultimately ignored. Vasilidesu eventually reached out to Purple Knight but was informed my name would NOT be cleared, to my disappointment. Here's the message that was sent for clarification.

Feel free to reach out to me for any questions. I am happy to oblige.

Do you have any picture or video evidence to support your reason?: Included in the post.

Were there any witnesses who can help in this appeal?: Included in the post.

 

[Imperator RAD-X]

I understand that there's so much effort put into the appeal, Neon. Though I feel given what's been placed in this written appeal, it's left me in a very conflictual state. Now personally I did open the gates to have the appeal route open to you and when we did speak I did have a handful of moments to sit back and reflect the previous few months and what ever has came out of it and it all starts with the imagery of Sachimii.

Me and you, we both wanted to put investigations first and foremost into any and all avenues to make sure what ever decision we were going to pursue regarding Marshal would have been the correct choice to make. We wanted to make careful consideration, though it didn't end up being the way we needed to be due to very extreme time constraints in having to look through 2.4ks worth of messages.

When the unbanning of Sachimii occurred, I originally didn't see the message because it was deleted. This is the first time I'm seeing it for what it was with my own eyes because it was deleted from view. Those types of accusations ruin lives, and I've spent far too much of our time trying our best to stop actual threats to the community like Pepper his ilk. After they were forced away for good (god I'm hoping so), the natural state of the server turned on itself and then unfolds the Marshal situation. You're right, the investigation was shit because we had to deal with a firestorm at the same time of investigating every element of it. I hated it just as much as you hated it and I'm glad we kept the community safe no matter the cost.

But seeing that screenshot message for real, it makes me think and wonder about how Alex Grist from Nebulous Cloud felt all those years ago and how he had to deal with some horrible accusations like that, how such things could so much as ruin a life with a direct destruction of someone's image. Permanent repercussions for no reason. I'm lucky to have avoided it, because I wouldn't wish it upon anyone. I agree Marshal should have been banned upon that moment while the investigation was pursued, but it didn't end up that way.

I originally left the appeal to be debated by the entirety of the moderation team. There's a definite divide between those that value fairness and those that value commonality. Both of which I have to juggle between the two camps.

Thinking about what there was to see, it has forced me into a position where I have to reconsider basically everything I know - and challenge perspectives based on conversations that happen behind places I cannot see, cannot hear and cannot know that exist unless I'm somehow given the knowledge of. But every time I have painstakingly gone out of my way to defend my actions and your actions during the investigation of Marshal, it was never reciprocated until the convenience of the appeal itself arrives to the doorstep of the forums.

No matter how many times I've had to explain it, or the difficulties I've had to carry on the backs of everyone else expecting me to take either a leap of faith or a determined decision, the only good outcome was never satisfying to those that felt I had somehow wronged them in one way or another. To this day, seeing that image and how others are out there now trying to convince people that trust me and those I trust that I'd be some vicious monster that Sachimii so falsely accuses me of is more than hurtful. In a place that actively hates what the community of Willard is and including me for remotely existing.

Very little to nobody looks to my point of view or feelings on these matters and takes it seriously, until it has to be forced through. This is one of those times. A headache would be an understatement, for nobody else has had to suffer it but me in a room full of hundreds of people.

The problem now is something much more than just clearing your name but mine is now permanently polluted by things like this, and I feel that if I give you leeway then it will only get worse by those that will be emboldened to act this way.

Everybody wants fairness from me but nobody treats me fairly, or stands up for me in decrying these things.
HL2RP is now a game of Chinese Whispers where everyone has different face masks, and it's a mime game for each person to figure out which one is which while wearing blindfolds.

I was also delivered this from an anonymous source:

Given the nature of the appeal and how it's made to be, I have to say this. Obviously people have a negative perception of Euclid but I'm not going to get into that, I'm just going to be blatant:

They unbanned Sachimii knowing her history, then played dumb when she immediately attacked RAD-X. ‘Just a joke’ doesn’t cut it and is dishonest.

She has constantly trashed Willard and its players but is calling for ‘fairness’ because it is negatively impacting her experience on GTA due to the sharing of communities and most likely other egotistical reasons. This isn’t just ‘one mistake' but a pattern of hypocrisy.

That's all.

I sat there looking at this for a solid five minutes trying to process it and thought I cannot continue with this. It's not worth it for you, it's not worth it for me - and the damage is already too great and it just furthers a divide. I would rather it is in the best interests of us both, Neon, that you just move on from Willard. I cannot for the life of me let what ever energy I have continue to be drained in dealing with this many months after it.

I'm sorry for not accepting your appeal. But after seeing it all face value - I just can't. It doesn't feel like an appeal or an apology, it just feels more like a justification and makes me look infront of everyone that I'm the biggest evil known to mankind or something which nobody that was on the opposite end close to me had even stood by to say "this is wrong".

I wish you happiness and fun on GTA World but you won't find what you're looking for on Willard. It's just the way of it, now.