[Resolved] Banned for Covering Sprays

[Binge Eating λ]

In-Game name: Binge Eating λ
Time of Ban: 14:11
Date of Ban: 06-26-23
Steam ID: STEAM_0:0:35688384
Reason for Ban: Brown Hat Rule, or a history of, or rule violations
Additional Comments: Haven't been playing as often due to work but to my surprise I noticed I was auto banned upon attempting to join a server. I noticed mdgcreepers post right before submitting this and all I have to say is his claims are greatly over exaggerated and hold no true weight. In no way am I personally attacking and intentionally going after this user or his beliefs. I cover sprays here and there randomly for the fun of it but especially things that are NSFW. A few times I've covered creepers spray with absolutely no bias against him or what his spray stands for. Mdgcreeper noticed this and started taking my covering of his sprays very personally. I can see how he could come to the conclusion that I was going after him for what he was spraying, but simply covering a spray should not demonize you as "homophobic or transphobic". After he told me and "Please Bathe In My Milk" to kill ourselves as well as saying "Fucking degenerate homophobic scumbag, I hope you die alone" I wrongly decided to continuously cover his sprays to protest. As for the sprays themselves, they are clearly meant to be satire and were never intended for the use of sending a message of hate toward any group of people or beliefs. I'm also totally fine with using a different spray if its causing too much trouble. I have been playing these servers for awhile now and as far as I'm aware I don't have any past bans of the sorts. It's a tad bit annoying that creeper could clearly break rule 5 with his unsavory comments to me and bathe and not even get a warning. I have NEVER said anything in any chat to attack him for his beliefs. I've only said things to point out his temper and his comments. I'm respectfully asking for me and my brother "Please bathe" to be unbanned so that we can play during my downtime from work. If not unbanned then at least shorten the time to be consistent with the "1st Offense" ban length as this would have been the first. I apologize for the trouble.

 

[VintagePC]

Apologies for the delay. Your appeal has been received and will be reviewed. I've been travelling recently and am scheduled to be back by Tuesday at which point I'll take a look.

Ordinarily our ACM would already have handled this but as they are the issuing staff member it would not have been an independent review.

~Vintage

 

[VintagePC]

Due to timing circumstances it would appear that your ban has already expired at this time so there's limited value in arguing the duration anymore, but from what I can gather this is still your first offense on record. However, the banning staff member made an executive decision to increase the duration as we sometimes do for intermittent players (or players otherwise not in the server at the time the punishment is issued) to ensure that it doesn't go unnoticed and render it pointless.

Based on the information I can gather, even if we discredit the recent complaint about sprays as a "my word vs their word" situation, there are still a few less-than-desirable things we've encountered while reviewing the details.
- use of sprays drawn by a notable antisemitic conspiracy theorist
- Past reports from players and at least one direct warning from staff regarding a statement that was edgy and easily interpreted as borderline transphobic
- Other questionable things said in text chat. One of the examples you cite above ("Fucking degenerate homophobic scumbag, I hope you die alone") appears to be in response to both of you calling someone claiming to be bi "grody/gross", and one of you then followed up by calling them "this thing", which really doesn't work in your favour for the context of the previous remarks.
- A number of staff have concerns about the persistent "edginess" of some of your in-game behaviour. (While this doesn't necessarily weigh heavily during an appeal, it does provide me with some context that there seems to be a long-term festering issue here that needs to be addressed)



All of these things together I think are certainly worthy of a "first offense" demarcation and I've already explained why it was extended a bit longer than a typical first offense ban.