vertix ban appeal/management goading and provocation

[verTix]

Steam Name: vertix
SteamID: STEAM_0:0:58254963

I would like to preface this by saying that at no point was I notified of receiving a ban, nor have I EVER received a warning for any reason. This was basically a shadow ban, completely out of the blue.

Name of the Admin you were banned by: Maroon
How long is the ban for?: 2 weeks
The reason you were banned?: "Constant toxicity"

And I'm sure part of the ban was the troll post in the Incarceration thread (which, again, I received no notification when it was deleted or a warning about not to post it again or whatever). I'm sure that could be considered toxic but it was a troll post. I would be more than willing to talk about roleplay standards because that has nothing to do with OTA and Kaffee conflating the two is essentially a bait in and of itself. But I digress.

Why do you wish to be unbanned?: Because this was literally a honeypot trap. Kaffee clearly posted this as bait, expecting a visceral response, so I gave it to him. You can punish me all you want, but the behavior in this screenshot on his part speaks for itself.

We could talk about the elitism and the circlejerking but none of you people ever even give a fucking inkling that you want to have a discussion. Ever. So what do you expect? You have systematically destroyed the faction through what I genuinely believe are deliberate and malicious methods by undermining trust and destroying relationships through top-down control.

Clearly, as evidenced by this ban (which, again, I received NO warnings prior to, nor notification that I had been banned in the first place), people like Maroon and the majority of management have absolutely no interest in having these down-to-earth talks with OTA members, and it actually seems like you guys are deliberately trying to bait members into saying or doing something toxic so you can get rid of them faster, because it takes a lot less effort to do that than address the core issues. I saw it happen with Neon, Flerk, and Hiros. Then Vadim, then myself, of course. Maybe I'm wrong, but I've never been able to get a hold of any of you about it. So, yes, it does fester.

Do you have any picture or video evidence to support your reason?: All posted above.
Were there any witnesses who can help in this appeal?: No, but I will tag @Imperator RAD-X because he seems like the last bastion of sanity amongst management. Maybe I'm wrong, but none of you have given me any indication to believe otherwise. The only time you talk to us is when you're shitting on us (see above) or complaining about the circlejerk (see above) or announcing top-down changes that nobody agrees with.

So, I'm sorry for coming on a little strong, but maybe it's about time I took it to the forums.

 

[Kaffee]

Kaffee clearly posted this as bait

Wrong. It was a genuine comment to the state of the OTA right now. And as I said in the message, this will be my only message, because I couldn’t care what others had to say. You putting “you are retarded” is absolutely giving nothing to the scenario, only proving my point really.

 

[Leudoberct]

Hi,

So, I'm going to post a few images in here. To get it out of the way, none of these are meant as an accusation of toxicity. These are screenshots that other people believe to have been instances of toxicity. I'd like to get your side on it, as I understand that sometimes, being passionate abut a subject can result in these kind of comments without any real malice behind them.

















If you could give me a general run-down on the context behind these screenshots, I'd appreciate it.

 

[verTix]

Wrong. It was a genuine comment to the state of the OTA right now. And as I said in the message, this will be my only message, because I couldn’t care what others had to say. You putting “you are retarded” is absolutely giving nothing to the scenario, only proving my point really.

if that was a genuine comment then you couldn't be more incorrect. not to mention how passive-aggressive and baity it was even if that wasn't your intention (which i still think it was)

and if you "couldn't care" what we had to say, why post it in the first place? it was clearly meant to be inflammatory if that is the case.

I don't understand how this is toxic. You people haven't given any inclination that you give a fuck about OTA or our criticisms or our input. I still stand by what I said here 100%. You do not care, and if you do, you demonstrate it horribly.

Still stand by this. I'm sorry if this post offends you, but it wasn't meant to. I do not think a single positive change has been made for the server in months.

I will say it again. I think you have made several consecutive terrible decisions for the server's health. I am not going to back down on the premise of that statement. If the way I phrased it is too brazen, I apologize, but I am not going to lie and say I support what direction the server is going.

This is just the case. I have been in this faction since before V1 launched, and I have watched you systematically castrate it over time with procedural nerfs, deployment restrictions, and everything in between. If you wanted to have a serious discussion with any of the members about our concerns, I guarantee you we would be more than willing to do so. But none of you have EVER reached out to us, and you claim to be too busy when we reach out to you.

And from what people like Maroon have said (referencing the "purge"), it doesn't seem like you want to have a discussion. You would rather remove or ban everyone who disagrees with you and replace them with milquetoast and wishywashy members who bend to your every whim. Not to mention the (essentially) shadow ban that resulted in this appeal in the first place, with no prior warnings or notification that it was occurring. It doesn't look like you want to try and talk this out, but I think that's what should be done.

I tried to be civil last year when this all started. Nothing happened. So I cranked it up a notch, and got removed for toxicity. History repeats itself.

I still believe in full that you guys are making every possible wrong decision in terms of how certain factions are treated and prioritized. This completely excludes OTA; I understand we are not a priority. But neither should rebels be, yet they seem to be top of the list, and that is quite literally working to the detriment of the server's health.

I've already been over this. I responded in kind. Kaffee's post, even if it was genuine, was undeniably toxic and very unbecoming of a staff member. It is disappointing, because his post is probably one of the first times a non-OTA staff member has even brought up criticism directly to us (even if it was veiled in passive-aggressive insults). Like I said, let's have this talk. Don't let it fester any more.

In the context of the Industrial 17 event, did I say anything wrong here? I see that event as a snapshot of the bigger picture. The rebels fucked up immensely, and you still handed them the win on a silver platter.

On the main server, there have been plenty of times where rebels have been, for lack of a better term, punished. That is not what angers me.

City 24 v4, expeditions, smuggling buffs, lesser grinding, sweep number restrictions, PK rules (to an extent), and more are all changes made to exclusively benefit the slum-dwelling script-vacuuming rebel players that I criticize so vehemently.

I think a lot of people are starting to realize where I'm coming from, given the responses to my posts in the Sweep Limit thread and the many people who have come over to my side on the rebel matter.

And, for the record, I'm not trying to be an asshole for the sake of being an asshole. I know full well I come off as such, but I feel like there's virtually no other way to approach it, judging by what has (not) happened in the past.

---

I hope you guys use this appeal as a catalyst of sorts to try and repair the damage done to OTA through what over half of the faction perceives as deliberate and intentional destabilization. Despite what you may think about me, and whatever posts I make, I do want to establish common ground and fix this.

 

[Leudoberct]

I'd like to clarify that I'm not management. I had no involvement in any of the decisions made with OTA. I'm just the guy handling the appeal, so it's not "you" when you're responding to this.

In regards to reaching common ground, what do you think actually needs to be done to establish that?

 

[verTix]

I'd like to clarify that I'm not management. I had no involvement in any of the decisions made with OTA. I'm just the guy handling the appeal, so it's not "you" when you're responding to this.

Gotcha. Sorry.

In regards to reaching common ground, what do you think actually needs to be done to establish that?

I think it's fairly simple. They need to take more initiative and engage with the OTA members instead of dismissing us as a circlejerk and seeking only to get rid of us for being a thorn in their side. They should be seeking compromises and trying to reach a consensus with us.

What do they want?

What do we want?

What do we both want?

And go from there.

Instead, what we get is dishwater corporate announcements of unwanted top-down change and "we are working on it" every time we complain about it. It really comes off like they (management) don't want to address any of our concerns because OTA is low priority or filled with trolls and elitists or both.

When they don't communicate 1-1 with us in any regard other than bait posting and leaked logs of shitting on us, it's hard not to come to that conclusion about us -- and it's even harder for us to assume the management isn't its own circlejerk.

The inner workings of the staff team do not need to be so highly secretive. If you want to talk elitism, the upper staff/management "cabal" definitely seems like it right now.

I understand that differentiating time zones and busy schedules are an issue, but they certainly aren't an excuse to forego communicating with us altogether. Something as simple as a semi-private thread on the forums or a Discord channel where management is ACTIVELY engaged would be a good start.

 

[Leudoberct]

Would you be available to discuss this in voice chat?

 

[Leudoberct]

Hi,

As per what we've discussed in VC, along with discussion with the OTA leads, we've made the decision to lift this ban, and allow you back into the faction- though you will of course need to refrain from repeating this behaviour.