Josh's Blacklist Appeal

[Nucleus]

I have posted this on behalf of Josh as he is banned from the Forums. It turns out Josh plays on a community I also play on and so we got chatting and I said if he wanted I'd put a post up for his appeal if he DM'd me the appeal (Just some extra info if you wanted to know how I spoke to Josh again)

Steam Name:  Josh

Ingame Name: Josh

SteamID: STEAM_0:1:181545127

Ban Length: Perma/Blacklisted

Admin that Banned you: Snar

Reason for Ban: None given “Blacklisted”/ Never explained

Dispute:

The first thing I like to say is I never planned on making this appeal. I simply accepted what happened and moved on from GL for past few months. However, discussion with other people and friends has persuaded me to at least attempt this appeal. I tried to appeal the minute I got banned, but I was banned from forums, discords and in-game within minutes. Unable to give a side of my story or appeal, a huge thank you to Nucleus for helping me out and risking his position in the community. I am sure he wouldn’t risk this without believing in the appeal.

 

My blacklist was fully recorded by myself at the time I started speaking to Fame. I knew this wouldn’t go well and prepared, as I have had bad experience with SMT in the past. This will be important further into this post, so do keep in mind. The video is here: https://youtu.be/4XXFj-feDXQ I would highly recommend you watch such video before making a judgement. The comments on set video are not my own views, except the one which I pinned. 

 

Point 1- Armyguy Situation

Referenced in the video, Fame talks about how Armyguy was in the TS when he was blacklisted and I supposedly “helped him”. Whilst I make clear what happened in the video I will explain further. Armyguy randomly connected to GL after being banned for months to see what would happen. On this occasion it must of glitched and he was allowed into TS. At which point he rang me on discord (far as I was aware talking to blacklisted member was not a rule although might of changed) and started yelling how he get into TS. I then talk to him and he starts yelling for me to help him. I thought the situation was funny and went into TS support to try get into the room Armyguy was in which was a Support room, filling up with staff very quickly. There was no way I could help nor would I have helped. I simply wanted to watch him freak out and peoples reactions to seeing him. This happens a lot to other people when they are in trouble so I fail to see why I should be punished for such actions.

 

Point 2  - “Your Opinion Matters”

Those who may remember back in December/January, Fame created a post called “Your Opinion Matters” which he explained to the community SMT care about opinions and people won’t be banned or punished for them. Well no longer being staff after my opinion got me DNP’d. I reacted to the post with a laughing emoji on the forums to express my displeasure with the post. I had in my mind that this possibly could cause SMT to react in a negative way, as I was public going against them. However, I simply was doing what the post said I could do, and I didn’t agree with recent bannings that had occured. Which related to the post even being created. I was quickly pm’d by Snar on the forums telling me to remove my reaction or there would be consequences (bare in mind this went against the post AND happened 

5-6 months before my blacklist even occurred). I agreed to take the reaction down to prevent further escalation. Not only did I not break a single rule, but I was silenced. 

 

Point 3 - Going Against SMT

This point was brought up that I ‘constantly’ go against SMT in the community. This is totally false, I have had a few runs ins with SMT. This was because I disagreed fundamentally with some of their decisions. I wasn’t afraid to be public about it and cost me a lot during my time as staff (some of you will know why). However, after the opinion post I did not talk about SMT actions nor things on the server for months after. I even gave praise to SMT for implementing bug fixes and suggestions in March/April time after a long break of work being done. I point out the truth and it’s important people are given criticism so they can improve themselves and ultimately the server. This was also not a rule but used against me. 

 

Part 4 - Fame

So I am going to be honest here, I haven’t liked Fame for a long time. That's 

ok because you don’t have to (it isn’t a rule). However, in the video I point that out to him and it appeared to be wrongly interpreted. I explain to him although I didn’t like him in SWAT (he was a SA/HA at the time) I did not stop him from being promoted. As the same with others I disliked in SWAT because that’s not how you run a department. He was promoted when he did a good job, I could easily blocked his promotions but I didn’t. Because I wouldn’t want that to happen to me if I was in his position. I want to make it clear, no point did I try to hurt fame or get him in trouble etc. I simply just didn’t like him and opinions of others no matter how good or bad is allowed and can be expressed if appropriate.

 

Part 5 - The blacklisting

As you can see from the video, Fame started to either purposely or through his own fault misquote me infront of Snar. This annoyed Snar when I tried to defend myself and banned me without hearing my side. I like to point out as high ranked staff members, I felt that lacked professionalism in the way the situation was handled. As staff, especially higher ups you need patience and willingness to listen to people you may dislike or not agree with. I was given neither and banned within a minute of Snar joining the TS, without knowing exactly what had happened as he admitted in the video. This isn’t the bash Fame or Snar, but this is to point out I was not given the chance to speak and give my side. I was banned and silenced without any explanation. That simply isn’t justifiable and wrong, it simply makes the staff team look bad. 

 

Point 6 - What I did for this community

At this point I would of had 2 years since joining the GL community. In that time I have helped countless players and staff members in the smooth running and operations of GL. I have helped bring in new players and give advice to current ones. I helped build and grow departments on the server, bringing joy to hundreds of players. I spent over a year in SWAT expanding and transforming the department from a mingefest to one of the most respected on the server. I single handedly wrote all the update codes, updated and kept track of documents/rosters, created new initiatives for training, wrote new handbooks and rules and kept loyal throughout it all. Those that knew me in the community, I worked hard and never gave up to achieve those goals. Whilst I made mistakes, I owned up to them and continued to try to improve the server. I was a staff member for over a year, spending countless hours everyday staffing and making sure players had an enjoyable time on the server. I had the highest staff hours and claims in the entire staff team and had an open door policy when I became SA to help those in need at any time. I dealt with abuse daily but continued to do my role as staff to help the server and it’s players. I never lost my patience with a player and never had a staff report on me during the entire time I was in the staff team. I donated personally to the server to help it gain funds to bring in new updates and addons to better improve the server. I also had 0 warns at the time of the blacklisting. 

 

Conclusion

Overall I feel my blacklisting was wrong, not only was it unjustified but SMT refused to even attempt to communicate with me. I tried through discord, snapchat and others but simply ignored. I didn't want to make this post and go public, but I had no other choice to get my side and appeal across. I understand blacklisted players are normally not allowed to appeal, but in this extreme circumstances I feel it’s justifiable. I also like to point out other players have done MUCH worse things and been allowed second chances after perma/blacklisted bans. I feel that in all evidence and situation, I should be unbanned.

[Kitty.]

+Support

I never really understood why Josh got banned, did so much for the community and actively in my eyes, helping to improve it, and for such a loyal member to just be blacklisted on the spot is quite frankly unjust. If, which with evidence proves not the case but for a balanced argument, Josh did say what he said, I still don't think the blacklist was really justified as the harshest punishment was given to him for what is essentially a warnable/strike able offence. Thank you

[Sion]

I'm just going to say this. Blacklist can't be appealed. And please. Don't start a war with your opinions below.  Cheers

[Jeff Junior]

- support 

No I don't think he should come back 

[Calamity]

BLACKLIST CANNOT BE APPEALED

[tcoops]

I think he should be allowed to appeal it.

[Nucleus]

1 minute ago, tcoops said:

I think he should be allowed to appeal it.

 

18 minutes ago, Kitty. said:

+Support

I never really understood why Josh got banned, did so much for the community and actively in my eyes, helping to improve it, and for such a loyal member to just be blacklisted on the spot is quite frankly unjust. If, which with evidence proves not the case but for a balanced argument, Josh did say what he said, I still don't think the blacklist was really justified as the harshest punishment was given to him for what is essentially a warnable/strike able offence. Thank you

I found some blacklist appeals in the accepted section so I think they are allowed. I may still be wrong. 

[Dredgen]

- Support
Blacklists can be appealed.

[Mr Yobo]

+ Support

 

Look I understand Blacklists cannot be appealed but a couple of them have been. So what is the harm in trying. 

If the blacklist cant be arranged can it be changed to a Temp ban?

 

35 minutes ago, Kitty. said:

+Support

I never really understood why Josh got banned, did so much for the community and actively in my eyes, helping to improve it, and for such a loyal member to just be blacklisted on the spot is quite frankly unjust. If, which with evidence proves not the case but for a balanced argument, Josh did say what he said, I still don't think the blacklist was really justified as the harshest punishment was given to him for what is essentially a warnable/strike able offence. Thank you

 

[tcoops]

+ Support

I've seen many blacklists successfully appealed.

[Alton]

1 minute ago, Yobo said:

+ Support

 

Look I understand Blacklists cannot be appealed but a couple of them have been. So what is the harm in trying. 

If the blacklist cant be arranged can it be changed to a Temp ban?

 

 

 

37 minutes ago, Kitty. said:

+Support

I never really understood why Josh got banned, did so much for the community and actively in my eyes, helping to improve it, and for such a loyal member to just be blacklisted on the spot is quite frankly unjust. If, which with evidence proves not the case but for a balanced argument, Josh did say what he said, I still don't think the blacklist was really justified as the harshest punishment was given to him for what is essentially a warnable/strike able offence. Thank you

 

[Nimo]

46 minutes ago, Calamity said:

BLACKLIST CANNOT BE APPEALED

 

[tcoops]

2 minutes ago, Nimo said:

 

It has been in the past.

[Spection]

-Support

-Josh is a toxic community member

-The fact that your staff and are posting this for him is sick

-You making this is going to put you on a watch list and shows that you shouldn't be trusted

[Snarlax]

Denied

Now, I know I'm already going to get a lot of hate for this decision. But frankly, I've learned to drown out a lot of the unreasonable hate that I now get for controversial decisions like this. The reason I'm denying this is that there is no actual benefit to accepting this. You can make yourself out to be the good guy all you want, but unfortunately, the cons of accepting this appeal far outweigh the positives. After your withdrawal from staff, you caused nothing but low blow problems to fame and other SMT members just because you disliked them, and you finally got what was coming. I'm not going to sit here and bash you, because I have nothing to bash you on, but you obviously have a lot of people who don't even play this community or involve themselves in it just to reply to this one ban appeal. You have a clique of individuals who will blindly support you no matter what you do, and that isn't going to fly with me, as those opinions from the people who will blindly support you have no value, at least within this appeal. As I said, I don't see any benefit to letting you back into this community, as it will only make you be more stuck up than you already are. I appreciate your efforts, even if they were unsuccessful in the long run. I wish you luck in your future endeavors, but as for this community, you will not be allowed back in it.

P.S I will come out and admit that the situation was handled a bit out of line, but SMT are humans too. We aren't robots who can't have feelings, and even in a professional setting, those emotions can slip through the cracks, After constant torment from one member who only did things to get under our skin, the reaction all came out at once. Nevertheless, SMT has decided that your blacklist was valid and will stay