The reason why our ToS needs to change

I'm not staff, never had a run in with a gm and played since 2015. AMA

 

Wait. So Skarmory was banned due to chats in his PRIVATE guild discord? Does that mean that any chat through any medium like whatsapp, qq, line etc, if deemed offensive, will get you banned here? Because if this is true, then the Staffs have really overstepped their boundaries.

So the basis of the 4 strike permanent banned is that you have 3 strikes beforehand to learn respect. If you reached the 4th, it means that you are not a person the community wants because you are toxic.

Firstly, aren't the 3 bans stemming from different scenarios? It can be completely different situations that causes the ban, which you can learn different things from different ban scenarios. Saying that the 4th should banned you permanently as you have not learnt your lesson is a bit far-fetched since it can be another kind of scenario.

Then, saying 4th strike ban is enough to deem you a person that is harming the community. I personally don't know Skarmory, so I want to know if he was a person that is so insufferable that deserves to not enter ML community ever again? From what I see, the tributes and people standing up for him, I think otherwise. So this proves that the 4th strike ban is not infallible, there are too factors to consider and not something just a black/white policy can decide.

Therefore, I don't think having such a policy helps at all. Handling things case by case basis should be enough.

 

One example of many, I had a guy get upset on behalf of a friend and they asked me for details for their case. I flat out said no, because as yall all know i signed an NDA. The guy immediately goes onto a rant and throws personal insults at me. So you can maybe see that as "bait". I didn't bother responding because there's no point in making people like that see sense. So i blocked them. This was before we extended our rules to discord too so that wasn't fun not feeling protected even though the words said to me were vile and full of hate. Because the guy couldn't take no for an answer xD

 

Yes, i agree you will feel the need to, but i still feel like everyone has a choice to engage or not engage. We ALL have baggage and other stuff going on in our lives. I don't like thinking i would be wasting my time arguing with people i don't like, don't care about, don't have any emotional investment in, when i could be with my friends instead.

 

Right, like someone telling you you're a power tripping fascist trying to play God, and comparing you to a North Korean dictator?

I will admit that in the day to day people have been kind to me. Whether or not it was because I was staff remains to be seen, but since I've left the team, not much has changed. Perhaps I'm lucky to be surrounded by a group of kind and chill folks.

 

I consider this view problematic tbh, being kind, cute or 'important to the community' should not be a reason not to sanction someone for breaking the rules they agreed to follow.

 

You keep strawmanning this discussion. What are you afraid of?

 

Bro, I actually play the game.

 

For those kinds of bans, warnings have never been a possibility within the rules. They seemed like a moderation of silly conflicts from the staff at that time.

Skarmory was banned due to leaked messages on his own guild Discord about a community member. Pasta argued that this community harassment implies continuous bullying against someone, so I suppose that was thought to be the reason for Skarmory's permanent account ban on all his mains. Staff considered things that happened on TB that weren't restricted to Skarmory. Furthermore, the community's opinion of that player was not associated with Skarmory, nor was the more explicit conflict that happened at that time. Many players had something against him because of attitudes he had on TBuddies. I'm just pointing it out here because it seems that the staff creates an angelic view of the reporters and sometimes doesn't consider what that person could have done to receive such a bad view from the community, not that this justify any harass but must be considered to understand the context.

Also, we must remember that the material produced on Tomatoe Buddies shouldn't be accountable one year later, even if he was guilty. It was a time when there was no community harassment rule or Discord regulation. The staff explicitly stated that there was no regulation in that Discord and didn't ban players who even harassed people sexually or any other absurd stuff, matters much different from Skarmory stuff. Additionally, the conflicts were not one-sided at that time.

Now I ask, is it reasonable to ban him one year later using insignificant issues from Tomatoe Buddies, an unruled Discord, when that stuff wasn't even comparable to the other serious issues present?

The staff used evidence from a privately leaked Discord and old material from an unruled Discord – a Discord they didn't use to penalize serious abuses against people. Does this seem like justice to you? For us, it just felt like you dug up the reasons to ban him

 

I appreciate you thinking im cute xD
Context IS important, but how you respond is too. Talking about how you feel towards a certain person and what they're doing is one thing, but people are using those feelings to accost, belittle, and verbally abuse each other is another. The latter WILL result in a ban.

 

Just an FYI to all, saying you’ve never had an issue or run-in with staff can come across as a statement of privilege. Language and cultural differences can be a reason for vastly different experiences from player to player which can lead to different types of conflict and escalation stemming from miscommunication and misunderstanding.

Just look back on your own life and consider how many times you’ve had run-ins with the police. Does it really make sense for you to be saying “Well I’ve never had an issue with police before, why can’t you just be like me?” Sounds a bit tone deaf doesn’t it?

 

I'm very sorry to phrase it like this but this is bluntly rubbish. And this is coming from an atheist gay who's living in the middle east.

I had no problem within the ML platforms not because i'm priviledged but i'm not an asshole towards others, period.

 

That’s your personal experience, but thanks for stating your opinions as facts.

I can speak otherwise from my own experience and interactions with people - not just here but in real life situations as well. People who have a better command of the English language can get away with a lot more bullshit and can navigate around social situations by just crafting their words more carefully. When 99% of the interactions between players in this game are done using text-based communication, it’s not hard to imagine that those with a better command of the language would naturally have an easier time explaining themselves or wriggling out of conflict.

Btw there are different types of privilege. Idk what being gay and atheist in the Middle East has anything to do in this context, but I’m interested in seeing your explanation.

 

I never stated my opinions as facts.
We're also not discussing how anyone with a language barrier can navitage through any hardships in any ML paltform. I honestly believe the staff would deal with a situation like that in all fairness.

I countered your opinion about being priviledged as a subject of a minority group. I hope you can make up the rest. If you are that unsure of your own statement maybe you shouldn't have commented about it in the first place.

 

If there is a big language barrier I always had the user just respond in his own language and use google translate lol.

Literally not an issue