Covert0ddity - Unban Appeal

[Covert0ddity]

BYOND Key: Covert0ddity

Total Ban Length: Permanent.

Banning staff member's Key: General admin consensus, applied by Skull132 and Dea Tacita.

Reason of Ban: A not-so-long story of me being an idiot. The full story is known by most members of the admin team of olde, but in basics: I used to be an admin here, I abused my privilege and duty as an administrator for about three months until someone called me out, when I acted out and blamed a close friend for something he did not do.

Reason for Appeal:

Hey guys. It's been another long while, huh? Well, I'm posting another appeal (It's been about six months, probably less, since my last time?) and although I would not blame the administration team for denying this appeal, I would appreciate, at the very least, the musings of it. I, unlike last time, do not justify anything that I did in my head. I know that it was a horrible act on my part, and the specifics honestly bring me to shame. But I do have the honor to attempt to reconcile my actions. I understand that key members of the administrator team would not want to see me in any position that I could possibly abuse, be it lore writer or manager of whitelists or what have you, so I'll ask none of that be granted.

I'm perfectly fine with just starting with a clean slate, being able to play as a player and make a new name for myself. I do not want any of my previous whitelists, (Command or species) granted back unless I specifically apply for them. Nor do I want to have any official involvement with the Vaurca, unless the current managers (Lord Fowl) or the lore headmin wants to consult me on anything. I do not want to call upon any of my previous friends here to defend me or what have you, I want this to be a purely professional appeal.

In my playtime on Aurora in the past, I do not believe I was a negative impact on the actual roleplay; I believe I contributed to it, however small-ways. I want to be able to do that again, and to interact with the new members of the community and be apart of something again. I've migrated through at least seven communities since I have been banned here and... nothing is quite the same. Be it the nostalgia, the lore, or the people who play here, on this specific server, but I find nothing compares. I would really do a lot to be here again.

Thank you for reading this and considering my appeal. I look forward to your responses.

Edited June 10, 2016 by Guest

[Jboy2000000]

The bulk of the drama about Convert happened just before my acceptance as a forum mod, so I can't speak for what Covy did, or who he hurt, stuff like that. But I was a member of the community for a long time while Covy was here, and he was fun. He's right in saying that he wasn't disruptive of the flow of roleplay, and from what little I can remember of his characters long ago, I genuinely enjoyed having them on the station. I was in favour of his return the first time, and I have to say that I still am. This doesn't seem like Plahunter or Mercy who did something so bad they can't be forgiven, or betrayed the trust of players and staff so many times they can't either.

[Covert0ddity]

I'd disagree that I haven't betrayed the trust of the administration team and key people on the server, but I feel that, given the amount of time passed, it may be best to let sleeping dogs lie.

Edited June 7, 2016 by Guest

[Tenenza]

Alright then, I'm retired, but since I was the admin that was theoretically in charge of handling your last unban, I feel I should probably explain my decision, and the reasons for it. It's actually kinda simple, and while I regret it, I still feel it was a necessary decision.

To put it simply: A significant majority of the moderation team threatened to resign and leave if you were unbanned. As a result, the then headmin judged that it wasn't worth the risk unbanning you. I didn't strictly have to follow this judgement, but under pressure from both a large part of the moderation team and our headmin, I did not approve the unban.

I am, in all sincerity, completely sorry for what happened. It wasn't how things should have been done, and quite a number of admins objected to it. Most of the mods that threatened to leave have left, and so has the headmin at the time, so if you have anyone to blame, it's me, for not realizing that the types of people who would threaten to quit because of giving someone else a second chance aren't the types of people we want as staff.

[Skull132]

For mods and mins, the last discussion thread for reference: http://forums.aurorastation.org/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=3793

For everyone, the last appeal thread for reference: http://forums.aurorastation.org/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=3632

[Covert0ddity]

I don't intend to throw blame around for any of the decisions that came about due to my actions. I feel that the moderators, even if they handled it in a slightly immature way, were expressing their opinions and how strong they felt about them on me. If you feel that it was the best decision at the time, then that is what you should have chosen. Since you did, I even respect you more for it. Overall, I am disappointed with myself that I'd get under enough people's skin that they would leave their responsibilities behind for simply letting someone back into the server.

[Covert0ddity]

Also, to comment on even my last appeal, I seemed passive aggressive and assuming of the people considering my appeal and those critiquing me. I hope I do not come across that way this time.

[Skull132]

Further, to reiterate and clarify the story of Covert. Any of those with knowledge are free to correct me if they spot any missing or erroneous details.

Roughly around September/October 2014, Soundscopes (Developer at the time?) alerted myself (Head Developer at the time) and FFrances (Head Administrator at the time) to potential adminbus conducted by Covert. We investigated, found him to be abusing powers such as build-mode, random events, etcetera, to influence rounds in his way. The most usual thing he did was, for example, force round ends through creating large infestations of spiders, by releasing the singularity, etcetera. Over the course of the next few months, he was demoted from Primary Administrator, to Secondary Administrator, and then dismissed completely from staff.

A few months pass, FFrances resigns, and it is raised to me that in his final month as Secondary Administrator, Covert did something amazing. Specifically, he abused the clause that permitted adminbus in order mess up ERP to grief two players of the server for, well, personal reasons. This reached me about a month or two after his dismissal from staff. For that, myself and the Primary Administrators at the time elected to permanently ban him for violating Rule 1 to a relatively high degree. And that was that.

Sort of. Inbetween his dismissal and permanent banning, he also received a list of notes for shitting up IC and RP, which I would like him to address and explain: http://puu.sh/pkdIV/265ea7f3bb.png

[Covert0ddity]

That story seems 100% correct to me. (Except that the two players were, specifically NOT ERP'ing, and that I accused them of doing it. The way you put that made me glean that they where, I'd like to make it clear that they weren't and that it was me being an absolute douchebag.)

As to touch on the chucklefuckery in the notes that Tishina added, that was exactly what it was. The details as to why exactly I did them are unclear, but based on the notes I'd say there were done out of spite towards everything going and and also chucklefuckery. I don't even recall the thing about Clucky, which goes to show how petty it was.

And arming the rev as the captain is also something that escapes me - I'd go on to say that it was a bad move on my part and also likely an action committed out of spite? Either way it definitely deserved a restriction of some kind.

[Jboy2000000]

I can help with that. You made an appeal on the energy pistol thing and it was accepted. Link below.

http://forums.aurorastation.org/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=1280&p=11615#p11467

[Skull132]

The admins are currently waiting to see if anyone has any further input on the matter.

We did also decide that should Covert be unbanned, he will not be permitted to be on any of the staff teams. This would include the auxiliary teams, like lore, as well. Reason for it is simple: he has a lot of trust to patch up.

[Covert0ddity]

That sounds perfectly reasonable to me. Thank you.

[Miruka]

This may be of little significance - and certainly, I'm not a very well-known or respected member of the community - but I'd like to state that Covert made the decision to appeal his ban (again) upon my suggestion. It's a dubious move to place one's middling reputation on the line for someone else's sake, but with the scarce feedback so far, I feel compelled to make a positive statement about Covert's potential interests in reforming his behavior. He's been greatly helpful and forgiving to me on aforementioned other servers, though it looks like the breach of trust was very severe on Aurora, and for that reason I'm using it as a measure to pass my own judgment.

Indeed, as trust is very important, one could say Covert is under duress to make a good impression when someone's otherwise unblemished reputation and fresh expectations are at stake. So for those in charge of the appeal, take this for what you will.

[UnknownMurder]

I heard someone wanted opinions, this is my opinion. If we're going to talk about trusts. I trust recently unbanned players to remain players, attached fishing line/strings, where staffs with scissors can watch them and cut the string anytime.

[josh1133]

Alright then, I'm retired, but since I was the admin that was theoretically in charge of handling your last unban, I feel I should probably explain my decision, and the reasons for it. It's actually kinda simple, and while I regret it, I still feel it was a necessary decision.

To put it simply: A significant majority of the moderation team threatened to resign and leave if you were unbanned. As a result, the then headmin judged that it wasn't worth the risk unbanning you. I didn't strictly have to follow this judgement, but under pressure from both a large part of the moderation team and our headmin, I did not approve the unban.

I am, in all sincerity, completely sorry for what happened. It wasn't how things should have been done, and quite a number of admins objected to it. Most of the mods that threatened to leave have left, and so has the headmin at the time, so if you have anyone to blame, it's me, for not realizing that the types of people who would threaten to quit because of giving someone else a second chance aren't the types of people we want as staff.

 

Mm, I apologize for popping back up. In fact, I guess its not really my place to speak at all since Im not around much...or at all anymore. But, being one of the Moderators that threatened to quit if Covert returned, I feel like all parts of the story are needed here. Im a little offended by your last line Ten, but you have the right to your opinion and Ill let you have it. Im not here to say "He shouldn't be let back in!" because I don't play here anymore and if I came back to say that, I would be a pretty disgusting person. Let him, Don't let him in, its not my problem nor is it my concern.

What I am here for, is to simply share what me and the other mods that were packing our bags and saying "If he comes back, were going" had in our minds when your last appeal came up. Im mostly rambling at this point, so let me start. The mods were approached and asked about our opinion on your appeal, and me and several other mods quickly said we would not like him to come back. From what I can remember (( If I remember wrong, I am sorry. Im not perfect)), a fight broke out and lasted a few hours with half the mod team being "Give him a second chance" and the other half being "No". Eventually, the half of the mod team felt like they were being dismissed despite some...rather serious issues that we felt were just being brushed under the carpet. Its not my place to share some of those issues, so I will not do so here. My issues involved more of what you did to players outside of the server, as quite a few players had expressed how unsettled they would feel had you returned. So, we felt backed into a corner and we did the only thing we felt we could do to show how serious our point was. Was it exactly the right thing to do? Probably not. We had good intentions though, at least from our point of view. We likely should not have put the admins in a corner like that as it kind of hurt the relationship between certain mods and admins, but live and let learn.

Sorry, I just thought it be best if someone shared the mods side of the story instead of us just sounding like we went "If he comes back we quit" right away. Im not saying that our actions were justified because it wasn't our first resort, but I just thought I share everything so you could know what happened.

[Skull132]

I'm partially surprised, and a little bit disappointed, that not even you mention the root/core issue that pretty much ended Covert's run as staff and as a player on the server.

O'well. Here goes. Covert's conduct was manipulative. As an admin, I'd argue that a good portion of his abuse, both the blatant kind, and the soft kind (spawning of objects for his characters justbcuz, building giant ships so he could RP with his friends) was centered around making him seem powerful. I mean, of course there's the chance that it could have been abuse just for the fuck of it, but I base my assessment on the fact that towards the end of the entire spiel, I needed to spend days untangling the webs of dishonest crud he had piled onto people. And most of it seemed to have been done with the goal of making said people perceive him in a more positive light. It was unpleasant, to say the least, and not something I wish to do ever again. There was also the general lack of consideration towards players when it came to certain actions. Though that would require me to dig up mountains of text from my PM history.

But, people change. Or so my fellow admins and some players remind me. And sometimes people are worth a second chance. My opinion on the matter has not changed from 06JAN2015, but, I am willing to stow it.

And for reference, the condition of, "No staff positions," is intended to last longer than in the case of a regular unban. I'll run a final pass with the admins and we'll see what we think, unless something else emerges.

[Skull132]

And for the sake of things, here's Soundscopes' opinion on the matter after I spoke to him on the matter a few days ago:

Oh yay, input from someone else that was directly involed.

I agree with Teneza. "A significant majority of the moderation team threatened to resign and leave if you were unbanned"

They were stupid as fuck, covert did things that were stupid, but did more for the server overall. If it wasn't for him a lot of people wouldn't have stuck around when they did, he was the main event guy when I started.

As you can see in the history I went mad when mods were being all secrtive about their reasons, when I finally got a few of them to tell me I realised how stupid it was, along with Doom I didn't have the energy to deal with them along with the other stuff that was going on.

He can be an arse yes, but he doesn't deserve this, does he? He's only human after all, not an AI like some of us.

[josh1133]

I'm partially surprised, and a little bit disappointed, that not even you mention the root/core issue that pretty much ended Covert's run as staff and as a player on the server..

 

Honestly? I don't feel like its my place anymore. Sorry Skull. Im not staff, I'm not even a player here anymore. I tried to keep my post as non offensive as possible to avoid stirring up any trouble. If you would truly like, and I have permission from at least Covert or you, I be happy to express myself with slightly more freedom. I could explain why I, personally, found myself in the position of "I quit if he comes back" and why I disagree with Soundscopes and Ten so heavily.

Edit: Permission Granted!

I apologize if this offends anyone...But its a Opinion on what happened.

I will be blunt with you, Soundscopes and Ten can say we were stupid and we didn't belong on staff, but I don't believe either really has the right to say that. But Im not here to start a fight, I will explain why I was so against you coming back that I was willing to quit a job along with four other people and why I was more then willing to cut all ties with Aurora if they allowed you back. I remember watching you as a player, long before I was a mod, and I could always feel that something was...off. I, for a very long time, thought it was just me. I saw you spawn things, I saw the way you interacted with certain people and I saw how you seemed to be loved by so much of the server despite certain...actions you did. It confused me, why someone who was a admin was doing these things and for whatever reason, we just never clicked. I don't know if you felt the same way about me, but for a very long time I just saw you abuse your powers but seeing that you seemed to be so popular, I kept my mouth shut and my head down. I was new, who was I to say anything against a Admin?

I eventually brushed it off, it was a game after all, why should I care? But after quite some time, you started to affect my personal life in a variety of ways. Ways I don't want to share in great detail both for your sake and my own. But because of actions you did, I had fights with players and have still not made amends with them today, I had to convince friends that everything was going to be alright because you hurt them in very, very bad ways. Most people only saw what you did to Hive, but I saw quite a bit which only made me resent players when I logged on and caused many of my friends to be driven away from the server. You caused fights in many friendships which had been going on for years and had caused just enough chaos in my life alone, that I just simply was happy to see you gone. You manipulated people, people looked up to you and thought all these things about you that were simply not true. Its quite hard to talk about these events without going into detail, so I may have to cut it short.

Basically, you lied....it spread out like a spider web kind of thing, you caused lots of fights amoung the community and you were banned.

Then you appealed, and old wounds were re-opened. I personally fought with two admins over your appeal, I was fighting for hours over how you had caused quite a few players to leave...How you caused so much trouble in a game that is suppose to be a past time. I shouted, screamed and fought because...as a mod that is all I could do. I didn't have any /real/ power compared to the admins, and I remember that when they were prepared to accept your appeal, I was the first one to threaten to quit.

Was it Childish? Yes. But I just felt like your entire appeal was just another lie.

A few of the other mods who had seen you when you were a admin quickly stepped up behind me, while the mods who were not around during your time quickly fought for you to get a second chance. I just like to point that out, that none of the mods that had seen you as Admin or as a Player fought to let you come back to Aurora. I am not saying that to make you feel bad, I am just pointing out how bad it had gotten. We were afraid of it happening again, the players fighting, the headaches that would come with the many fights. Even before you were unbanned, half of the mod team and the rest of staff were fighting over you and it just reminded me of my early days on Aurora. Getting into a fight with one of my best friends because of my refusal to give you a second chance led to us not talking to each other for a good amount of time once again.

Im mostly rambling but Im just describing the events of what happened through my eyes, I apologize.

Apparently this caused quite a rift as the mods no longer trusted the Admins, and the Admins no longer trusted the mods. The only reason you were not unbanned is because the older mods did not cave, and we were truly prepared to move to a entirely new game if they accepted your appeal. We had accounts ready, we were set. Even after that though, the situation never truly went away, but you cannot be blamed for that in reality. In our attempt to make a move to show how serious we were, we apparently caused Scopes to believe that something was amiss. I don't remember if he interrogated me or not on my reason, but I remember I did not tell any admins my exact reasoning, which in the hope this does not offend them, was Tain and Aqy. Sadly that is not my story to tell, but Im sure you are aware of what happened. I did not tell the Admins my exact reasoning, as it was personal to the two of them and I had no right to share that with people, so I guess that is a "Stupid" reason as Scopes describes.

Im mostly rambling, again apologies.

But to sum it up. I saw you abuse your power as a Admin, I saw you manipulate quite a few people and stir up enough trouble as a player that the moment I saw your appeal, my vote was casted. The simple fact was the admins were completely ready to brush us off and allow you to step in, prepared to "Keep a close eye on you". Its quite hard to keep a close eye on someone with a rap sheet like yours though, and during our time as staff we weren't exactly the best at "Keeping our punishments" so it, at least in my mind, a very real possibility that you would quickly get back to lying and manipulating and simply receive a slap on the wrist as you didn't have any powers to abuse.

So, I made my choice. To sum this up even more.

You lied and abused power. I didn't want to deal with that again. Admins were ready to brush off and forget everything you had done despite it being a likely chance that you were going to repeat the process (( You might not have, again my opinion, I apologize)), we did the only thing we could do to prove how serious we were since we have no powers over the Admins. Six months later, we are all gone because rift between Admins and mods never really settled, I mean, the mods had to make a secret chat because all our chats were being monitored by at least two admins.

Long story, but huh...Kind of a interesting butterfly effect it had?

[Tenenza]

Well, it's nice to finally hear the whole story, so I'd like to thank you for finally clearing that up, Josh.

... Yeah, that whole situation could have gone better.

I dunno really what else to say.

I still think that threatening to quit was unprofessional and dishonorable, but I guess in the end we all felt forced into a corner.

Did I believe we should have let you just leave? No, because you were a good staff member who believed they were doing the right thing.

Did I believe it was right to deny covert's appeal? No, because it was against the spirit of the rules and against our server's principles.

[Covert0ddity]

-snip-

 

I see.

I'm not even sure where to begin apologizing. I likely never can nor will be able to make amends for all that I did. The last appeal wasn't a lie, but I felt that I came into it feeling brash and deserving and I simply, didn't. I did a whole lot of things wrong, and even if I am a special case when it comes to punishment, have deserved my time away from the server and the people who play it. I am open and completely cooperative with whatever restrictions Skull and the rest of the admin team wants to place on me, if I am unbanned.

If you want to discuss some things in private, Josh, I am open to a PM. I'd like to apologize to you personally.

As for everything he talked about... I'm not sure where this puts me. Since I've had such an effect on the server and the people inhabiting it, I feel that perhaps I shouldn't have returned in the first place, for the last appeal or this one. I never, truly, realized that I had such a stigma about me. If the admins decide to decline this appeal, I will not make a fuss about it. But I would like to point out that the community has, from what I've read, changed quite a bit. And I still love the people here, the community that the server has fostered over two years. There's nothing like it, and I still want to be apart of it, even as just a player.

[Covert0ddity]

To go even further:

I'm a bad egg. I realize this. I hurt a lot of people in my time here with my dishonesty and deceit, and I won't attempt to hide it anymore. I feel horrible about what I've done, now, and at the time I would often question myself on why I did what I did, which I never truly found the answer for. I get that I can never, truly, be trusted with what I had been trusted before due to my own actions, and not that of others. I had a tendency to blame others for a lot of things that I did, and I will not do that now. It was my own insecurities, my own childish thinking that made me think that the server was a playground and the inhabitants were mine to do with my own whimsy, (As I believe skull put it rather correctly a long time ago.) It was sick, disturbing, and if I could, I never would have showed myself again.

But I don't want to be that cowardly. I want to come back, show myself, and say, "Hey, everyone. This is what I've got. That okay with you?" And earn back the trust of the people I've hurt, earn back the days of headaches and deceit and digging, and painful arguments that I, directly or indirectly caused. I want it to all to be better, but that takes time. I want it to be clear that if the case is that I am unbanned, I am cooperative and expect heavy restrictions and monitoring from the moderators and admins.

[Skull132]

Ban lifted, as per administrator consensus.

The condition that will be enforced is the one discussed earlier: you will not be permitted back onto any staff teams.