Admin Complaint - Necaladun

[Sollessa]

Admin(s) Key: @necaladun
Your ckey (Byond username): Sollessa
Your Discord name (if applicable): Sollessa

Date(s) of incident (GMT preferred): August 4th, 2019

Nature of complaint: Abuse of Powers, Feedback, Clarification Request
(Select all that apply: EG - clarification required, misapplication of rules, misconduct, abuse of powers, feedback, other)
Links to all relevant ban appeals for any bans related to this complaint: 

 

Brief description (tl;dr here. Just the critical elements): Banned almost a month ago with no warning over something extremely minor.

Full description of events: I was playing a round just like any other when, after some unfortunate events which lead to my terror spider death, I was speaking of the fairly controversial new-crit change and made a comment about Fox being a moron for pushing it through.  Not long after that I was booted from the server with a notification that I had been banned for that comment.  I messaged Necaladun to figure out why he had felt that a permaban was an appropriate response to a fairly minor insult and was told that I "should have known better."  I will not argue that what I said wasn't technically a rule violation, because it was and saying otherwise would be a lie.  The reason that I've decided to write up this report after thinking about it and deliberating for almost a month now is because I believe, and so do many others (admins included), that this ban was a massive overreaction.  I have been a part of this community for a long time, not as long as some others but a long time nevertheless.  I have never, not once, heard of someone being banned for something this minor and neither had some of the other admins that I talked to (I will let them remain anonymous unless directly asked or if they decide to speak up) . 

 

They also had this to say afterwards.

When being told "you should know better" there has to be some kind of precedent for something being unacceptable.  There is no precedent.  I have not scoured the unban request but I've read hundreds of them over the years and not a single one of them that I read dealt with something this minor.  How could I have known better?  Another issue is that I was also apparently banned because of my "note history."

As far as I am aware I've never even been warned for using abusive language or insulting other players so I'm not sure what notes they are referring to that could possibly even begin to justify this ban or my removal from staff.  I worked hard on being the best mentor that I could, even testing features out to make sure they worked or experimenting with new changes so that I'd understand them and could explain them to players.  I know I do have notes about times that I went a bit over the top in terms of violence or AI subversion but how could that possibly justify this ban and staff removal?  I know that I've already been unbanned but I still feel like it needs to be said.  I feel that to accept what happened is simply unacceptable because the justifications behind the ban were flawed. I believe that the enforcement of the rules, in this case, was more strict than necessary. If this is the norm for enforcement across the board, I'd ask that the practice is reviewed, as outside of the staff it seems like much too harsh a punishment for something that feels too minor to deserve what I was personally presented with.

Edited August 29, 2019 by Sollessa
fixed minor typo

[necaladun]

Admin's version of events:

As described.

Admin's reasoning for actions:

The fact this is against the rules is not in dispute, but the harshness of banning "without warning". Sollessa here asks "How could I have known better?". 

As a mentor, one should be expected to know the rules and know better than to insult people in OOC channels, let alone staff. Someone with a half dozen warnings in their notes should know better. Any decent, mature, human being, should know better than to insult others - especially over something like this.

There is plenty of precedent for this being unacceptable. I've warned people and banned people,  many, many times, in OOC, deadchat, etc, and told everyone not to insult others.

Being part of this community a long time means someone should be well aware of that. Warnings are generally given to people who may not know something is against the rules, specifically newer players. One is not entitled to be warned. It is up to admin discretion as to whether or not a ban or warning is to be given. 

In this case, I decided to apply a ban immediately, because I was incredibly disappointed that a long standing player and a mentor, would personally insult server staff, publicly to other players - especially when that staff member isn't even present.

This kind of immature and toxic attitude is utterly unwelcome here. The harassment Fox has received for years and years - both OOCly and now ICly too - has me incredibly disappointed in many members of this community. If anyone thinks it's acceptable to personally insult someone over coding changes in a video game, they are not welcome here. If they are unable to control their emotions over this 2d spess farting simulator, I don't think warnings will help - they are simply lacking in maturity, and need time to grow up, and realise there are consequences for their actions.

Acknowledgement of wrongdoing or disputing of:

No wrongdoing at all. This is something we've been lenient on for far too long, allowing for such a toxic attitude to ferment and people to play the victim when they are punished for it.

[Kyet]

Briefly:

1. Yes, your ban was significantly harsher than we normally are when enforcing the rules. That said, you were also a mentor, slagging off one of our senior staff in front of players. You had a lengthy note/warning history (yes, this is relevant, as it is in all other ban cases), and you should have been well aware that what you were doing was not okay. So, while yes, this was harsher than we normally are there are several other factors in play which very arguably justify us being harsher in your case.
2. In the past, we have not been as strict with mentors as we could, or even arguably should, have been. Your ban was partly based on the idea that we're going to start holding mentors to a standard above that of players, even if we haven't historically. So, while there is a "policy is changing" element here, that's not really grounds for an admin complaint. It is within the powers of a headmin to pursue policy changes like this and generally act in such a way as to "send a message". In this case, the message is "no, we won't tolerate bad behavior from mentors".

While I can see why you might feel blindsided by this ban, even hurt and confused, that doesn't mean your complaint has merit.

You were in a position of trust, and you used that position of trust to insult and attack one of the hardest working members of our staff team, in front of players.

You also seem to be under the delusion that your previous note/warning history isn't relevant to this (note history is always relevant, to any ban) and that you are entitled to a warning instead of a ban (you aren't, this is just another manifestation of an entitlement mentality which isn't doing you any favors).

While I might have used a warning, rather than a ban, in this situation, by making it a ban I think Neca was trying to send a clear message that we aren't screwing around, and we really do hold mentors to a much higher standard than your average player. Issuing a ban instead, while it may seem harsh, does serve that objective, and the objective is a legitimate one.

So, this isn't misconduct, but rather, you simply not understanding a few facts:

• Mentors need to be held to a much higher standard than players
• You aren't entitled to a warning when you break the rules
• You aren't entitled to have your ban be considered separately from your existing note/ban/warning history
• While we historically have not always enforced this as strictly as we can - we can, if we choose to.