Closed Ban Appeal - NeonForce

Character name: NeonForce
Last thing you did: irrelevant
Why do you think you got banned?: Banned for harassment in a thread reporting me for mass defame
Ban message when attempting to log in: Your account has been temporarily banned for harassment and/or kill-stealing
What GM banned you: Katsuruka

I will quote the statement released by GM Katsuruka when putting the ban on me:
"Neonforce has been banned for 3 days for harassment. Although 2 defames doesn't constitute mass defaming per se, Neonforce's general behaviour as regards this matter is also unacceptable."

http://royals.ms/forum/threads/reporting-neonforce-for-mass-defaming.23518/

Although the person reporting me was targeting my defaming actions, I still got banned for some other reasons. I am appealing this ban for the following reasons:

1.) It was not a harassment, at all
If I was banned for harassment simply based on the 2 screenshots he provided to the thread, that is brutal to say the least, as what was captured was only me calling him back a douche as a response of him calling me it first (if this ever was the reason I was framed for harassment).

To be fair, I was reasoning, or at others interpretation, potentially arguing with that person. However, this still does not constitute harassment, as what took place was exchanging reasons trying to convince whose fault it was, not in the form of spamming, or spitting vulgarities, or insulting his families, or anything that does look like harassment but not reasoning. It has to happen if someone approaches you saying that he/she is going to report you. Or else, that person can say that you were foretold before reporting the matter to authorities, but you chose not to respond and had given up the chance to defend yourself.

If the harassment was based on me defaming him, then this just went against GM Katsuruka's own statement, which stated "2 defames doesn't constitute mass defaming". In addition to that, defaming was part of the game, although fames are only required for certain equipments, and for bragging. If defaming is not acceptable at the first place, then why enable players to defame others? Or set up rules like "1 defame on the same character per XX hours" to be enforced by the system?

2.) The ban was (potentially) based on what happened in the Forums, not in the game
Now if the 2 screenshots alone cannot put me into the ban, then what would be left to be responsible for it was things happened in the Forums. However, the only rules around here only warrants something that needed us "to bear with [them] a while longer while [they] try to work something out." (source: http://royals.ms/forum/threads/faq-forum-rules-under-construction.6334/)

Given that the offense in the Forums is not supposed to be related back to the games (and vice versa), and there were not any clearly defined punishment for it, this ban should not exist.

In addition, the only thing I did on the Forums was yet another reasoning session with the people around here. If reasoning was the cause of my ban, go ahead and close the entire Forums as freedom of speech was not permitted to be here. Not to mention that my "unacceptable general behaviour regarding the matter" was nothing more than to explain my actions, the situations I was in, what I did not know prior to the incident, what happened next and what caused my actions.

And, there is a fine line between having unacceptable behaviour, and breaking the rules. Do clarify which was me, and how so, if you insist on the ban.

3.) The ban would cease to exist for me to not respond anything here, given point 2.) was true
As mentioned that 2 defames did not constitute mass defame, if I were to ignore the whole drama happening here and let him be, I could have escaped from the ban being placed on me. Few replies to the matter in the Forums leading to an in-game ban? That's truly unacceptable.

If the ban was allowed to be put effective based on such causes, then there is no point for anyone to defend, or counter the statements people made about them in a report, since the response of the accused itself led to the ban.

And people would be accusing others all day long while they are unable to defend themselves, creating a chaos everywhere.



I sincerely hope that this ban would be reconsidered based on the points I made here, providing valid reasons but not based on harassing, insulting the administrators for the decision.

To whom it may concern: I wish not to argue or discuss about the event anymore, as this thread's focus is on the ban GM placed on me.

 

OK, we don't have a ban reason tailor-made for every single situation. I could alter yours to "misconduct" if you like, which nicely covers to defaming someone twice without bothering to check if they'd actually seen your message and then behaving in an entirely unreasonable manner by accusing them of making themselves unaware of the situation. Behaving in an unreasonable, jerk-ish manner towards someone isn't in itself necessarily bannable, neither is defaming someone twice, but taken as a whole, your behaviour towards Baasbase was unfair and unacceptable and is something that we feel should be discouraged.

 

The fact that he actually saw the message, but did not bother to respond further to resolve it does fit to "make himself unaware of the situation". How exactly do I check if someone was genuinely AFK, or just could not bother to help it? Furthermore, discouraging behaviour what you claim to be unfair, needs not to be a ban, especially when I was being the guy who did not insult, harass but presented myself with valid points backed with reasonable causes. Now I am puzzled by your judgement of whether something is fair, acceptable or not, when I was uninformed of what the solution was for the incident (no, he did not inform me about the ~gm before the defaming, while I was genuinely exposed to the bug for the first time), got one day less of store sales, and now a ban.

From your statement as well, if nothing is bannable here, then the ban should be lifted.

 

He already made it clear that he did not see your message until after you'd defamed him.

 

So if I was the one accusing him to not bother the message, and you asked if I bothered to check whether he had actually seen the message...
How are you sure that he was truly unaware of my message, and not pretended to be unaware of it to claim innocence?

 

As you stated,

I think Kat's explanation directly addresses the ban placed on you. The rest of these posts goes back to what you said you no longer wish to argue or discuss.

 

What could I do better, if the GM himself was the one trying to bring it out once again, given that it is used to counter my appeal?

 

Look, if you people think that silence and a "Closed" prefix should settle this, it is not going to be the case. GM Katsuruka decided to mention the incident again to convince me that the ban was with good reasons, of discouraging unfair and unacceptable behaviour. If my reply was nowhere relevant to what he proposed, then it will no longer be a communication, but simply for-fun talk.

Not mentioning the incident happened in-game, I appealed because of the points I made earlier in the OP. However, GM Katsuruka decided to evade from the points, and suggested that my ban reason to become misconduct if I wish. That is an even more hilarious reason for a ban, simply because there would have been too many situations happening around us to fit into this category. Say, defaming even just once, opening monster sack to kill others even just once, kill-stealing even your friends jokingly, saying the f-word and the n-word even in your buddy/guild/private chat, trolling friends and strangers, calling people even friends names like "noob", "kid", and the list goes on. Because all of these minor things are seen as unacceptable no matter how small they are. They can all be misconduct if the standard is, I am guilty for misconduct if there ever was someone offended. I too was offended by him for not reacting quickly to resolve the situation, causing my loss of sales. So will he be banned for misconduct as well?

I would like to repeat my point, that if there is nothing bannable here, then no ban shall be here.

 

The decision was made, and you wont be unbanned for the next 3 days. Quit arguing back.