Staff complaint against MattAtlas (Discord ban)

[Ambrose]

BYOND Key: MarcusKlein
Staff BYOND Key: MattAtlas
Game ID: N/A
Reason for complaint: Personally believe my discord ban was out of left field and unjustified (Instructed to make this staff complaint as i've been restricted from appeals)
Evidence/logs/etc: Cannot acquire as i'm not in the discord.
Additional remarks:

So, this was honestly a surprise for me. I recently left the discord because I felt like I wasn't using it very much and I ended up rejoining yesterday to message Cyberspy as I had found out that someone had potentially been banned after having been mistaken for Star (A ban evader you guys were dealing with). Star had tried communicating this but of course no one's going to listen to them because they have a really obnoxious and theatrical way of talking to people let alone their previous history, so I felt like as I had some level of rapport with cyberspy as someone reasonable enough to talk through that we could discuss the situation.

When I rejoined, I barely spoke in the public discord. I said to Mattatlas "Is it alright if I talk to you since cybs is offline?" which is met with a reply of "Talk to me about what?". I later said nevermind cybs is back and that's where the conversation continued. I also recall making a joke in regards to people touching grass with another aurora member and that was the sum total of my conversation in the public discord. I would understand the premise of my discord ban considering a couple interactions in the past had me publicly disagreeing with bans of people i'm affiliated with elsewhere which is disruptive, and if I had done this again i'd completely feel like this is fair. But I joined the discord, spoke to cybs privately to hash this out and got hit with a ban from MattAtlas for "Probing for info for stars" (If you can even probe much info from a public discord, let alone one where said person had already admitted to having alts in). 

I'm gonna be fully honest, it feels like i'm getting banned for any reason that can be grasped at for the sake of association, which I can personally say isn't much. I am not close with Stars, but of course you're unable to verify that. I can only point out the facts here: I joined the discord to talk to cybs about it, barely spoke publicly (and didn't cause any public disruption which would justify a discord ban based on previous history) and then got banned out of nowhere by MattAtlas for "Probing for info" which kinda felt like "You're being banned for being here and having some kind of association with this other guy".

I'd like to reiterate that there really would be nothing to gain either by joining a *public* discord for the sake of gathering information. There really is no value in it, so i'm unsure of how this can be considered a valid reason (aside from everything else). On-top of this loosely based ban reason, I was restricted from appeals. So I don't think this is exactly about doing his duties as a moderator for MattAtlas, I think he's pretty much declaring his desire to not have specific people in the server anymore fullstop, which isn't how things should be moderated. Rules are enforced, not your feelings towards specific individuals.

I've seen enough complaints to know that his first port of call will be to mention that i'm not very active on the discord, which is completely fine and honest- i'm not. But it doesn't change the fact that I got banned for a reason which not only doesn't make sense, it also doesn't align with my history that I have been warned on. So you can use that factor but ultimately it only really helps your case in the scenario of "This person only shows up to troll" which isn't what I was doing.

Edited April 15, 2023 by Ambrose

[MattAtlas]

So what you are telling me is that it is a complete coincidence that you joined the Discord right when I banned Stars for ban evading, and also a complete coincidence that you happened to ask for Cybs if we have anything that detects ban evaders.

I suppose it must also be a coincidence that Stars just made a new forum account right as you posted this staff complaint.

Ok.

[WickedCybs]

I'll be reviewing this with @ReadThisNamePlz. @Garnascus will be overseeing it as Matt is a Primary.

[Ambrose]

22 hours ago, MattAtlas said:

So what you are telling me is that it is a complete coincidence that you joined the Discord right when I banned Stars for ban evading, and also a complete coincidence that you happened to ask for Cybs if we have anything that detects ban evaders.

I suppose it must also be a coincidence that Stars just made a new forum account right as you posted this staff complaint.

Ok.

Stars actually asked me if I needed anything quoted for this because I cant retrieve anything from the discord and I told them i'd rather they stayed away, so yes stars making a new forum account has nothing to do with me.

They have been ban evading and doing whatever else this whole time because their ego is high af and they have a theatrical view of the situation- all without my involvement beforehand, so I dont think it's a stretch to believe that I had  nothing to do with them making a new forum account.

I asked if there was a ban evasion system because it was relevant to a point I was making about the possibility of a false ban positive. 

Simply KNOWING a ban evasion system exists doesnt mean you can circumvent it. Every ss13 server that has relatively competent staff will have some sort of system like this so your reasoning is very far-fetched and convoluted. (I actually emphasised to cybs that I didnt want details and didnt push the issue when he said he wouldnt feel comfortable discussing that)

Joining the same time wasn't a coincidence because I obviously heard from them that they were trying to talk to you about how someone believed to be them got banned, hence why I figured i'd talk to cybs because I personally dont think stars is bullshitting. In the end the conversation just ended up being "Can you just make sure?" 

Banning me for simply existing at the same time as someone when I was not brigading or causing issues in the public chat is straight up ludicrous. You'd have a point if I joined and was causing trouble, but fact is I wasn't.

 

Edited April 16, 2023 by Ambrose

[Ambrose]

You'll probably assume I faked this, but heres a screenshot attached.

[Ambrose]

Does anyone have any questions they'd like me to answer?

[ReadThisNamePlz]

Hi. No questions really. Cybs and I have taken the time to review everything and we've talked extensively about the situation. 

It became pretty clear you did this exclusively due to the situation with the ban evader rather than any happenstance, like what happened when you began activity again during the problem with Zulu's discord. It's the same issue and you really have only shown up around these problems at the moment. Because of this, we just don't feel that it is right to have you around due to the nature of what occurred. Also, I can appreciate the attempt at showing that Stars perpetrated this in some manner. Truly. However, this basically just shows that despite all of this, you're continuing to interact with SOS. Which is pretty much the whole reason this situation is an issue. 

With that said, we're going to uphold Matt's decision. If you feel that this is still wrong, you can make a staff complaint and it'll be reviewed by a Headmin. 

[Ambrose]

So essentially what you're saying is that i've been banned due to the association rather than causing any issues in this scenario. Thank you so much for exposing the real way you moderate your server: through emotions and personal opinion towards individuals and whether you or your colleagues like/dislike them. 

Furthermore you completely make it sound like it's a foreign concept to have empathy for someone who's been banned because of the actions of an egotistical borderline l33t esque player who acts like they're in an anime. 

The screenshot shows that i told stars to stay out of this. I was merely trying to help someone who got falsely banned and the fact you have to poison it to support your own goddamn cognitive dissonance towards your colleagues insane banning criteria is disgusting.

MattAtlas's ban decision is not justified whatsoever. You focus on the fact I joined because of this situation and it is the same as previous situations- except it isn't! You are a liar.

I caused ZERO disruption in the discord, did EXACTLY what cybs told me I shouldve done before arguing in the lore discord (messaging an admin privately) and yet I am still banned as if I actually affected the discord in a harmful way!

This is a charade and you have to be VERY good at burying your head in the sand to actually believe this was a justified banning decision! 

I am actually disappointed that I thought there was a possibility that you could prove that you didn't follow the stereotype of admins always protecting and supporting eachothers actions regardless of how SHIT they may be. 

This is either intentional or this deranged level of  decisionmaking has been going on for so long that you are desensitised to it.

Such an obvious case where a ban was bullshit but you STILL couldn't find it within you to call this out.

The only secarios where i'll make another staff complaint is if I delude myself once again into believing any sort of justice will be found on this server, if I stupidly expect you to have the backbone to contradict your colleagues when they're clearly wrong or expecting any base rationality.

I hope one day your players and any potential (unlikely) good eggs in your staff team can receive liberation from the petty mindset that clearly pollutes the minds of your current staff team. Until then, I suppose me and countless others who fall victim to this failure of a system will never be welcome here.

I have always felt like true strength comes from standing up for what's right, even if it's unpopular and inconvenient.

I hope one day you can find the same strength to make your community truly fair and welcoming.

Until then, c'est la guerre.

Edited April 18, 2023 by Ambrose

[ReadThisNamePlz]

Locking and archiving.