Abiuv [Tharine]

[Abiuv]

I was banned for harassment. I'm assuming it's involved with me and N00ble_6 saying things to (player name redacted) recently. But, while I do think we may have gone a bit too far, a fair deal of trash talk came from (player name redacted) also, if I remember correctly. Don't really know what else to put in the appeal..

Edited July 7, 2013 by Tharine

[Tharine]

Hey Abiuv, in the interest of both fairness and because I honestly don't have the time to expend on things like this any more, i've readied a response to yours and N00ble_6's appeal and they will be worded pretty much the same. Your ban did indeed come from harassing that other player. I've since redacted their name from your comment on their behalf, as I am unsure of how comfortable they would be having their name made public with such an issue, as is often the case with harassment bans. All of the players involved know who took part in this, so it's of no harm to us to redact the name of the person it affected.

 

This came prior to the initial concerns made by the player in question, but I thought it worth mentioning your actions here, as a start. In doing this, you are very clearly mocking another player's previous, very legitimate concerns of harassment that take place on our servers. You are actively ensuring that this player's worries are treated with the least amount of concern by the rest of the community by blasting their every day conversations as an open avenue to being accused of harassment, when that's not the case at all. We shouldn't be shaping our community to ignore the genuine concerns of others like this - you're essentially setting up a 'boy who cried wolf' scenario on that individual's behalf, and you're erring uncomfortably close to the line of bullying with how yourself and the other player target this individual. This continued further, as evident by this set of logs.

 

It's honestly incredibly disappointing to see this kind of behaviour from not one but two individuals on our server. Making light of harassment in such a way would have warranted me speaking with both of you to cut this sort of thing out before it escalated into actual harassment, but as it usually goes, this hadn't come to my attention until after such a thing had happened.

 

To continue, this is the particular incident that lead to both yours and N00ble_6's ban, and the extension of such behaviour here only solidified my reasoning. Replace '12 year old' with 'female', and you know damn well that would have earned you an instant kick/ban from the servers. People will have no issue pulling the trigger on such a ban because sexism is both more easily identifiable and more clearly discriminative in such a context than ageism is, but that doesn't mean we're going to hesitate on acting on such an issue when it's brought to our attention at a later stage. I know full well that as a young person on the internet you need a hard shell to put up with the barrage of crap that comes your way based on your age alone, but that doesn't mean we're going to let such behaviour go unmoderated on our servers because it's what's expected and celebrated in other areas online. This is supposed to be an open and welcoming community, and discrimination has no place here.

 

I've spoken with the player in question about their use of sexist language towards N00ble_6, and i've made it very clear that we won't tolerate that sort of thing either. The fact that none of the people involved in this situation thought to take the higher road and recognise that this kind of behaviour is appalling absolutely shocks me. It's the internet and Minecraft is just a game, but you lot need to stop being such assholes to each other and you certainly need to cut out the discrimination and harassment on all sides. You're all conscious individuals with the capacity to make your own decisions, and it disappoints me that none of you put that ability to good use and just quit it when things got out of hand. It shouldn't get to the point that a staff member here has to step in and hold your hands and guide you through the steps it takes to be an actual human being to one another.

 

That said, your ban is not going to be a long one should you fully recognise that we will absolutely not tolerate this nonsense from yourself or anyone else on these servers. I've provided the evidence and reasoning behind your ban, and i'll await a response from you before continuing with your appeal.

[Abiuv]

Ok, Tharine, seeing as how I don't really have anything as a response, I fully recognize that harassment will not be tolerated on any of the servers.

[Tharine]

Thank you, i'd like to see you continue from here on out with that in mind. You're unbanned, I really hope that there won't be any reason for you to end up in this section of the forums again.