Staff Complaint ReadThisNamePlz

[Star Dust]

BYOND Key: Sarge7767
Staff BYOND Key: ReadThisNamePlz
Game ID: I really can't remember
Reason for complaint: I was permabanned by ReadThisNamePlz over an issue of repeated powergaming. Due to a policy change made in January (Or so I was informed) I was unable to appeal my permaban, so instead I'm here to argue that the punishment given to me was far to harsh for the crime committed. The shift this all happened on started as a chaos shift though kinda mellowed out into an extended one, I was tired IRL, going through a long string series of sleepless nights, and high caffeine intake.  But how the round started with a antag warden starting a firefight with me and another person, we won. antag warden then popped his own head with an explosive, my focus on the rp, and attention to the server was already low, but this poor roleplay just sucked me right out of the round, mixed with all the other issues I was more-so playing that round on mindless autopilot which I know I shouldn't have done, but at the time I was not thinking clearly. The round then picks up with some other character coming on shift, a janitor who was endlessly causing issues, taking floor pills, and just being a harmless menace to security. We figure out that the dude is killing himself in a bathroom, and me being at my limits kinda mentally snaps and just goes to get a welder to cut down the wall because we had no engineering who could have done this and I was just kinda fed up with the situation. I know this was not the correct thing to do at the time.

Yes I know what I did was powergame, and I had made this same mistake in the past, but I feel like other factors are being ignored, most of my notes and warnings happened years ago, around 2019-2020, when I had very little knowledge of how to roleplay properly in an SS13 setting like Aurora. Secondly, the last time I had something similar happen was over to my knowledge 2 and a half years ago, the ban states I've made no real progress, I say having a small hiccup after two and a half years does not warrant a permaban. I'm willing to accept punishment, but I think taking it to a permaban was a step to harsh.

My last permaban was almost 4 years ago to my knowledge, and I have improved, changed, and have steadily gotten better over those years since I was unbanned. I'm willing to work with the admin team to become a model player of Aurora, I'm willing to put in the effort to become better. I know I made mistakes, and I know I'm not perfect, but I'm more than willing to step up and try to become better if you will allow me.

Evidence/logs/etc: (This is purely to give further context.

Additional remarks:

Edited February 22, 2024 by Star Dust

[MattAtlas]

On 22/02/2024 at 19:23, Star Dust said:

Due to a policy change made in January (Or so I was informed)

This is not entirely accurate - we've not unbanned anyone with two or more permabans for a long while now (at least one or two years). It was only made an officially visible policy in January though.

[Star Dust]

1 hour ago, MattAtlas said:

This is not entirely accurate - we've not unbanned anyone with two or more permabans for a long while now (at least one or two years). It was only made an officially visible policy in January though.

Really? I swore I saw a few people with 2 permabans get unbanned around 2023. But still, that is when I was informed such a change of ruling was made. Also if you don't mind where is it officially visible? For I didn't see anywhere where this new ruling was. Plus from the reaction of other people I've talked with they didn't know about this change of ruling either.

Also if you're the one who will be handling this complaint, would you be comfortable with me privately dming you some information. I do not feel comfortable expressing it here in a open forum post.

Edited February 25, 2024 by Star Dust

[ReadThisNamePlz]

1. The change in January is something that was made official across the staff teams. Before hand, we had flexibility to unban people with two permanent bans - case by case. Though it was extremely rare.

2. Anything you have to say about this should be said here, as it is a complaint against my ruling.

3. The entirety of this can be summed up as follows - You powergamed. You admitted to powergaming. You have an extensive history of this. So I banned you. You are right, a lot of your previous actions are older, but the fact that you still did this means that you haven’t learned in the 4, almost 5 years that you’ve played here.

I don’t care if you’re unbanned or not, but it shouldn’t take anyone two permanent bans to learn the standards and rules we have here. Especially after being here for (almost) five years. 

side note: on painkillers rn so sorry if this reads strangely

[Star Dust]

50 minutes ago, ReadThisNamePlz said:

1. The change in January is something that was made official across the staff teams. Before hand, we had flexibility to unban people with two permanent bans - case by case. Though it was extremely rare.

2. Anything you have to say about this should be said here, as it is a complaint against my ruling.

3. The entirety of this can be summed up as follows - You powergamed. You admitted to powergaming. You have an extensive history of this. So I banned you. You are right, a lot of your previous actions are older, but the fact that you still did this means that you haven’t learned in the 4, almost 5 years that you’ve played here.

I don’t care if you’re unbanned or not, but it shouldn’t take anyone two permanent bans to learn the standards and rules we have here. Especially after being here for (almost) five years. 

side note: on painkillers rn so sorry if this reads strangely

1. Gotcha

2. That is fair, and I'm willing to speak to you and the admin who takes this complaint privately for I know this is my defense, but the things I do need to say are more private.

3. The situation surrounding it through isn't a normal thing, and I normally wouldn't have ever done it if I was in the right mindspace at the time, which I was not. Like I stated before I was dead on my feet exhausted from multiple nights of very little sleep, and plus I was also drinking a lot of caffeinated drinks at the same time so that also was messing with my thought process. This also plus the situation involving me/my character was also not helping, because it was someone who was doing very poor roleplay of drug abuse and purposeful suicidal actions, which really caused me to disconnect from everything. I know that is wrong, and I shouldn't have, but if I was of the right mind space I wouldn't have done what I did. I would say I very much have improved, I just made a mistake in a moment of poor thought processes. There is also far more to this, but like I've said I do not feel comfortable expressing it here in the open. I don't know if situations like this is when the Confidential Complaints section should be used or not.

4. (To your statement of me being unbanned and the permaban), My first permaban came about because I had very little understanding of ss13 roleplay was, and how the rules worked there. I did read the rules, but my mind connected it with GMOD Half life 2 roleplayer brain (which if you know anything about half life 2 rp it is an awful place to learn rp from), ontop of that I was younger and far dumber.  But I would say I've been meeting the standards of the server and that what happened was an isolated incident that happened due to a lot of outside factors. I promise you I wouldn't normally do or even consider what I did if I was in the correct mindspace at the time.


Thinking of it can I please have a head admin move this complaint to Confidential Complaints due to the sensitive nature of some of the information I need to express.

Edited February 25, 2024 by Star Dust

[MattAtlas]

20 hours ago, Star Dust said:

Also if you're the one who will be handling this complaint, would you be comfortable with me privately dming you some information. I do not feel comfortable expressing it here in a open forum post.

I'm not the one handling this complaint, I only commented to correct something.

The ruling itself is here.

[Star Dust]

7 minutes ago, MattAtlas said:

I'm not the one handling this complaint, I only commented to correct something.

The ruling itself is here.

Thank you. Might ask though to move this complaint to the Confidential complaint section. Or could the admin who handles this do such?

[Alberyk]

I will handle this.

[Alberyk]

@Star Dust you need to contact me and explain why exactly do you need this to be a confidential complaint.

[Star Dust]

After discussing it with the admin team, I feel comfortable giving a more basic explanation here both Alberyk and Readthisnameplz. I was in a very rough spot regarding my mental health on the 14th when all of this happened, and it affected my ability to make good decisions at the time, ontop of all the other issues I have brought up before. My powergaming wasn't me trying to get a leg up, or to play an unrealistically skilled character, it happened because my brain had a stutter to it and caused me to have a lapse in judgement. I assure both Readthisnameplz, and Alberyk that such will not happen again, and I will take proper steps to ensure that if my mental health starts to effect my ability to properly behave on the server, that I will stay off the server until I have such matters resolved.

[Alberyk]

While these decisions might have been influenced by what was going on in your life, that does not excuse you from them. There is a rather long list and a pattern of this behavior. I don't think that anything done by the staff involved in this was unreasonable or uncalled for.

[Star Dust]

1 hour ago, Alberyk said:

While these decisions might have been influenced by what was going on in your life, that does not excuse you from them. There is a rather long list and a pattern of this behavior. I don't think that anything done by the staff involved in this was unreasonable or uncalled for.

No, it does not excuse them, but you also understand that we are Human beings, and when our brains are going through issues we can make faulty choices that do not reflect on how the person is now. I promise you that I have in the past year I have made massive strides in being a cooperative player to the community, and have followed the rules. Yes I made a mistake, but it is a mistake that was caused while extreme real life circumstances were happening at the time. I promise you that I will do everything in my power to stay within the serves guidelines, and what had happened that day was purely a hiccup and a short circuit that will never happen again, I promise you.

Also just to add upon it in the past year 2023 and into 2022, I constantly whenever I did not know if something would be considered powergaming, within rp standards, or unsure if it was even ok I used the admin help to ask  and get clarification.

Edited March 5, 2024 by Star Dust

[Alberyk]

10 hours ago, Star Dust said:

I promise you that I will do everything in my power to stay within the serves guidelines

You were given more than enough chances to do that. There is nothing wrong with the admins ruling here. I see no reason to change what was done here.

[Star Dust]

59 minutes ago, Alberyk said:

You were given more than enough chances to do that. There is nothing wrong with the admins ruling here. I see no reason to change what was done here.

I see. Whelp off I go then. Despite the problem that happened was human error and not willful malice that is grounds for a permaban with no chance of returning. 

Edited March 5, 2024 by Star Dust

[Alberyk]

The complaint is handled then. I will lock and move it in one day or so.