[Resolved] Ban Appeal

In-Game name: Spaced
Time of Ban: 14:05
Date of Ban: 09-23-25
Steam ID:
Reason for Ban: "Brown Hat Rule, or a history of, or several rule violations"
Additional Comments:

I was banned supposedly for comments critical towards a user who is under the age of 18 that is deliberately posting content of a sexual and flirtatious nature repeatedly in the chat. I have never received any formal warning or temporary ban, the closest is maybe a couple of years ago when I played a few rounds and started punching the wall in spawn as Heavy, and that was not listed as an official warning in any capacity. I have yet to be warned formally by a member of staff, and I find a permanent ban to be very sudden and severe for a situation that was not talked out with me in any capacity.

Whilst I have used the comment "r-slurred" before, I have never been warned for using this phrase, and I have deliberately softened the term to avoid using the actual term being referred to (in which searching chat logs, has been used by others). If this is in violation of the rules, I am happy to stop using the term.

EDIT: After having talked out my concerns with the user in question and staff, I am happy to drop this issue with a particular user and not refer to it again.

Thank you for your appeal. We will review the details of your ban and get back to you shortly, usually within 1-3 days.

Apologies for the late reply, some irl stuff came up which took priority.

Thank you for your appeal. After reviewing the details of your ban, we have decided to deny your appeal at this time. You were banned for constantly harassing a minor because they were using ":3", which you apparently deem as flirty and promiscuous even after being told that it wasn't and to stop. You've also been repeatedly toxic to other players, telling them to "shut the fuck up" and calling them "r slurred" in order to evade our filter, especially, again, minors. While you were not formally warned for this behavior, warnings are a courtesy and not a requirement, especially when you've been banned for something that should be common sense (like harassing a kid for having :3 in their name.)

You will be eligible for re-appeal on 9/30/2026.

To clarify, within the context of the furry community, :3 is often used to signify a cute playfulness, and that can code at flirtatious behaviour. even if the individual in question did not intend it, and I reacted with disgust when finding out the user in question was a minor because my predominant aim was to discourage behaviour that would put a minor at risk of exploitation, as I tend to hang around 18+ spaces where this isn't a problem, and I expected a game mod for an 18 year old game that emphasises the classic era of that game to be a similar space. I was never told by a member of staff that what I was doing was against the rules, and this permanent ban came out of complete left field. I agree I could have handled the situation better, but it was a situation I deemed sensitive, and I did not think a simple approach to the user in question would work out, and I believe a permanent/year ban is disproportionate when relating to my point of view.

Additionally, people have not been punished for using the actual term "retarded" on the server, so why is a version deliberately softened being punished? The same can be said for "shut the fuck up", as I searched for the exact phrase and saw many other instances of it being used and going unpunished. Meanwhile, on this very forum, I have been the subject of genuine toxicity and attacks on my character for ultimately not wanting someone put in a dangerous and potentially illegal situation on your servers (Jill Maween's comments come to mind here).

I'm extremely disappointed in the decision as I've spent many years playing on the server with no incident, but I doubt I'll get you to change your mind at this point despite having apologised to the user in question for the misunderstanding and agreeing not to talk to them again. All other servers on TF2C are either dead or highly customised versions of the game, and I have been effectively locked out of playing the game because of ultimately wanting to prevent a serious situation regarding exploitation taking place through your servers (and a positive outlet for helping deal with CPTSD, I might add). This was a misunderstanding and I have admitted and apologised as such.

EDIT: It seems this isn't an isolated incident either: https://www.vaultf4.com/threads/ban-appeal.8301/

Someone else also perceived the :3 emote in a manner similar to me. For the amount of people who are furries on the staff, it's strange you do not consider how this could be misinterpreted. I'm not saying the emote should be banned, that would be stupid, but you can at least understand where I was operating from, and in the initial ban request made against me how I tried to handle it somewhat politely at first and was ignored.

If you interpret something entirely innocent as being sexual without any context, that's on you. Genuinely, I do know how you could possibly interpret someone having ":3" in their name as being sexual and promiscuous, and frankly it says a lot more about you than them. I absolutely do not see where you are coming from. You did not simply "react with disgust", you repeatedly insulted and harassed dozer in multiple isolated incidents. Telling him to "shut the fuck up" is not part of what netted you the ban, your repeated insults and hostility towards them for wanting to play a game in a space that is decidedly not restricted to just adults is. In addition, you seeing other people breaking the rules does not give you permission to, and again, warnings are a courtesy, not a right. You were not given that courtesy due to your repeatedly toxic behavior and concerns about you using pedophilic dogwhistles. Finally, you didn't just harass dozer on your own, you also incited other people to treat them similarly. Your apology doesn't do anything in terms of your ban appeal, and if you were genuine about it, you wouldn't be trying to use it as leverage. Your claims of trying to handle the initial ban request politely contrast with you just straight up lying to admins in that initial discussion.


I'm marking this issue as closed and locking the thread. Further attempts to bring up your ban on the forums will result in a ban on here and, resultingly, an ineligibility to re-appeal. If you are caught ban evading, you will also be ineligible for re-appeal.

An emoticon is sexual has got to be the take of all time.

And what a strange context in which to discuss an American media outlet.

Dont pull a muscle with these stretches.

To further clarify: The basis of your ban was harassment. You spent the better part of at least two months consistently harassing a user every time they were on our servers, and invited further harassment towards them in doing so, to which other users joined in on many instances. This is directly against rule 3 of our server rules, which is one of the rules we take especially seriously given that discrimination is rampant in many gaming communities, and we do not want users being discriminated against based on immutable characteristics. You directly violated this by constantly bringing up that you really did not like a specific player for the crimes of being 16-17 and talking a lot, and continuously ended up having others give that player shit as a result. Our servers are not age-gated as that is an unreasonable ask for us to properly do without massively invading the privacy of our users by doing something like asking for their government ID before playing. The player you were targeting cannot simply choose to stop being their age, but you could have at any point stopped constantly shitting on them every single time they joined the server and making their time significantly more unpleasant. You could have also simply reported them if you believed their messages were violating our rules, though I should add they have not violated our rules at all.

As for the dogwhistle claim, there's a small level of plausible deniability there to where this was not the basis of your ban, but it was factored in. You do tend to protest about minors and trying to like "protect the children" constantly, to the point where this does not really reflect well on your case or your character. Please use your time away from our servers to reflect on your actions and how you behave towards others.

To clarify, the main reason for the denial of this ban appeal was that you spent two months harassing a minor because you felt they did not deserve to play the game based off of their age, despite our servers not being age restricted. While there were concerns about you using potential pedophilic dogwhistles, there's enough deniability there that it did not play a significant factor into my decision to deny the appeal. It was my mistake to mention it without clarifying that, and for that I apologize.