Goonhub
Admin: Emily
Server: Discord
Date + time: 26. 9. 2021 (9/26/21), 20:44 (8:44 PM) CEST, UTC +2
Synopsis: The incident happened during Discord conversation before and at 20:44, on the channel "ss13-discussion", when we were talking about double meter in kissing RP in game and kissing content in the game (like Kissing contest). Then Emily joined the discussion and explained to us what the kissing contest refers to. Then we moved from this topic into a conversation about the mutation „coprolalia“, which makes a player character to randomly scream swears, with the word „TITS“ (which I find inappropriate in a SFW game) included. There Emily started telling us how that word doesn´t mean anything sexual outside of any context and when I answered that it reminds me sexual stuff (because that´s meaning of the word) I got banned without any warning. This complaint is focused on the behavior of the admin, mostly before the ban happened, as I think that it could be prevented.
First, I think that the admin behaved unprofessionally. As especially after my experience from other Discord servers, an admin or moderator should keep the discussion outside of breaking rules and if it goes the wrong way, the admin should ask people to change the topic or as she has joined the conversation, she could easily lead the topic away. Or at least to warn people, that they are close to breaking rules. But she did literally opposite thing – after we got to the mentioned mutation she started first talking about TITS term and putting there her questions with sexual stuff (thus the admin breaking Discord rule number 2 – explicit sexual content) (first of that stuff happened at 20:40 “Can you really not see the difference between screaming "TITS" out of context and "Hey, lets kiss baby"”).
Then the admin started telling us how if we think TITS about anything else than just random screaming, it´s the sexual harassment. (20:41: “The first is you screaming TITS, the second is sexual harrassment”) For which I seem to be banned when I told so. (I answered “nope” at her question at 20:43: “do you not see the difference between screaming TITS out of context and saying "nice tits" by which I wanted to pint out the inappropriate meaning of the term) Which I see both as unprofessional and toxic behavior. Because the admin could explain us, what the “TITS” “joke” from the game means and maybe we would have a good laugh. Also this is toxic behavior and abuse of admin powers, as it´s basically an admin forcing her opinions on us and also trying to forcefully hide the fact, that the “TITS” word is problematic and can even theoretically get us banned in the game (due one´s character screaming it). And maybe that the developer of this “joke” broke one of the games rules by putting it in. Also I consider this as toxicity against me as non-native English speaking person. As if TITS has any other English meanings than the inappropriate one, I can hardly know that, as all its meanings I know is from a vocabulary. And as I have “CZ” part in my user name, the admin should know it.
Now I would like to also complain about the ban-handling. I usually expect some feedback when I get banned, either some warning before it happens so or ban reason which could tell me what I did wrong. But the reason which I had was just “bye”. Which doesn´t tell me much and shows that admin even didn´t find any proper reason to ban me properly. Later, after returning to Discord, I have found out that the ban was for supposed “Sexual harrasment” (The admin telling it at 20:45: “Zero tolerance on sexual harrassment”). I don´t remember sexually harassing there anybody and if sexual harassment is just pointing out that a certain word has certain meanings, which are bad for SFW games, then what else is so called “sexual harassment”? Telling something in Discord which the admin doesn´t like or agree with, as it happened in my case? Or ahelping about some issue, but this admin picking it up and not liking it so banning the player instantly for “sexual harrasment”? Even if the user isn´t breaking any rules? This is the main reason why I am writing this complaint. Because if the admin handles player feedback and conversation such way, even when one doesn´t break any rules or if one accidentally does, without any warnings, then it won´t increase much people´s reliability with admins nor the ahelp function of the game. Also it´s hard to chat with such admin if you never know when she bans you for “sexual harrasment” out of nowhere. Or maybe the admin was right, as true is, I spoke the word “TITS” too. But in this case, why this word is implemented in the game, while in this game there isn´t allowed any NSFW stuff?
Also complaining about the ban “reason” and handling, I have noticed this one message from the admin at 20:57: “I do like when the chickens scream tits though”. So maybe the true reason for the ban was that the admin, also as a developer, either implements herself or supports somebody else implementing inappropriate content into the game and ban for some reason anybody pointing out that her content or content she likes could be inappropriate? Because in the context of the incident, this message sound suspicious to me.
The next thing which caught my attention was the admin´s message at 20:43 “Alright, then We don't want you around here”. She basically speaks there for entire Goonstation staff, but I don´t remember anybody else from the admins having problem with me pointing the inappropriate part of “TITS” out or even asking about it. In fact, I remember that when I have encountered this first time (my character started screaming “TITS” out of nowhere) and I asked an admin by ahelp if this is fine, instead of being banned for “sexual harrasment” I even got a friendly reply that it´s some old joke from the old Goonstation days. Or maybe Emily is right again and people like me, who try to behave and abide the rules and thus point to things which can get us banned (as one of the game rules bans any form of ERP or sexual stuff) aren´t welcome on Goonstation? If that´s really true, it´s sad.
Also as I have noticed it lately, I am adding one more thing to this complaint which I would like to point out. I have noticed that I was not only one being banned here with so called “bye” reason. Other people after me were banned so. Also I have noticed one thing, which the admin said at 21:36 “it's announcing them 30 minutes after i did the bans in this channel because intended for them to be announced here as an intimidation tactic”. Which again I find as unprofessional and toxic behavior. Because first, when somebody gets banned without any warning instantly, why he has to wait 30 minutes before he knows that he has been banned? As for example I indeed got my ban reason at 21:26 from the Dyno bot, while it happened at 20:44. So it isn´t just ban reason being told late on the Discord server.
And second thing, while I agree that rule breakers should be punished, Discord has more tools for staff to deal with people who break rules. Like muting. Or DMs for personal conversation about why the person did such thing, like it happens for example in game when somebody breaks rules somehow. Also the rules channel of Discord says “Bans will be reserved for only the worst cases.”. Yet this admin ignores such thing. And the toxic part – while I agree that it should be somehow known that punishing rules is going to be punished – banning people suddenly and creating terror over it doesn´t help creating much friendly atmosphere with the admins. Or even intent to talk with such admin, when it can end suddenly with a ban. Or ahelping any issue, which can occur in game.
I would like to close this long complaint with last thing. I think that the wiki tells us that we should respect admins as human beings and they will respect us back. Which is true for most admins in the server. But doing so with this one ended me and some other people by a sudden ban during a conversation. So to me it seems that this admin instead of human beings just sees us as random targets who she would ban when she feels about it.
Logs: If any screenshots from Discord are needed, I´ll post them.
Extra information: As more I re-read the messages before and after the incident, the more suspicious the entire situation looks to me. So I hope that the staff investigates this incident and I am looking forward replies from the staff members.
Server: Discord
Date + time: 26. 9. 2021 (9/26/21), 20:44 (8:44 PM) CEST, UTC +2
Synopsis: The incident happened during Discord conversation before and at 20:44, on the channel "ss13-discussion", when we were talking about double meter in kissing RP in game and kissing content in the game (like Kissing contest). Then Emily joined the discussion and explained to us what the kissing contest refers to. Then we moved from this topic into a conversation about the mutation „coprolalia“, which makes a player character to randomly scream swears, with the word „TITS“ (which I find inappropriate in a SFW game) included. There Emily started telling us how that word doesn´t mean anything sexual outside of any context and when I answered that it reminds me sexual stuff (because that´s meaning of the word) I got banned without any warning. This complaint is focused on the behavior of the admin, mostly before the ban happened, as I think that it could be prevented.
First, I think that the admin behaved unprofessionally. As especially after my experience from other Discord servers, an admin or moderator should keep the discussion outside of breaking rules and if it goes the wrong way, the admin should ask people to change the topic or as she has joined the conversation, she could easily lead the topic away. Or at least to warn people, that they are close to breaking rules. But she did literally opposite thing – after we got to the mentioned mutation she started first talking about TITS term and putting there her questions with sexual stuff (thus the admin breaking Discord rule number 2 – explicit sexual content) (first of that stuff happened at 20:40 “Can you really not see the difference between screaming "TITS" out of context and "Hey, lets kiss baby"”).
Then the admin started telling us how if we think TITS about anything else than just random screaming, it´s the sexual harassment. (20:41: “The first is you screaming TITS, the second is sexual harrassment”) For which I seem to be banned when I told so. (I answered “nope” at her question at 20:43: “do you not see the difference between screaming TITS out of context and saying "nice tits" by which I wanted to pint out the inappropriate meaning of the term) Which I see both as unprofessional and toxic behavior. Because the admin could explain us, what the “TITS” “joke” from the game means and maybe we would have a good laugh. Also this is toxic behavior and abuse of admin powers, as it´s basically an admin forcing her opinions on us and also trying to forcefully hide the fact, that the “TITS” word is problematic and can even theoretically get us banned in the game (due one´s character screaming it). And maybe that the developer of this “joke” broke one of the games rules by putting it in. Also I consider this as toxicity against me as non-native English speaking person. As if TITS has any other English meanings than the inappropriate one, I can hardly know that, as all its meanings I know is from a vocabulary. And as I have “CZ” part in my user name, the admin should know it.
Now I would like to also complain about the ban-handling. I usually expect some feedback when I get banned, either some warning before it happens so or ban reason which could tell me what I did wrong. But the reason which I had was just “bye”. Which doesn´t tell me much and shows that admin even didn´t find any proper reason to ban me properly. Later, after returning to Discord, I have found out that the ban was for supposed “Sexual harrasment” (The admin telling it at 20:45: “Zero tolerance on sexual harrassment”). I don´t remember sexually harassing there anybody and if sexual harassment is just pointing out that a certain word has certain meanings, which are bad for SFW games, then what else is so called “sexual harassment”? Telling something in Discord which the admin doesn´t like or agree with, as it happened in my case? Or ahelping about some issue, but this admin picking it up and not liking it so banning the player instantly for “sexual harrasment”? Even if the user isn´t breaking any rules? This is the main reason why I am writing this complaint. Because if the admin handles player feedback and conversation such way, even when one doesn´t break any rules or if one accidentally does, without any warnings, then it won´t increase much people´s reliability with admins nor the ahelp function of the game. Also it´s hard to chat with such admin if you never know when she bans you for “sexual harrasment” out of nowhere. Or maybe the admin was right, as true is, I spoke the word “TITS” too. But in this case, why this word is implemented in the game, while in this game there isn´t allowed any NSFW stuff?
Also complaining about the ban “reason” and handling, I have noticed this one message from the admin at 20:57: “I do like when the chickens scream tits though”. So maybe the true reason for the ban was that the admin, also as a developer, either implements herself or supports somebody else implementing inappropriate content into the game and ban for some reason anybody pointing out that her content or content she likes could be inappropriate? Because in the context of the incident, this message sound suspicious to me.
The next thing which caught my attention was the admin´s message at 20:43 “Alright, then We don't want you around here”. She basically speaks there for entire Goonstation staff, but I don´t remember anybody else from the admins having problem with me pointing the inappropriate part of “TITS” out or even asking about it. In fact, I remember that when I have encountered this first time (my character started screaming “TITS” out of nowhere) and I asked an admin by ahelp if this is fine, instead of being banned for “sexual harrasment” I even got a friendly reply that it´s some old joke from the old Goonstation days. Or maybe Emily is right again and people like me, who try to behave and abide the rules and thus point to things which can get us banned (as one of the game rules bans any form of ERP or sexual stuff) aren´t welcome on Goonstation? If that´s really true, it´s sad.
Also as I have noticed it lately, I am adding one more thing to this complaint which I would like to point out. I have noticed that I was not only one being banned here with so called “bye” reason. Other people after me were banned so. Also I have noticed one thing, which the admin said at 21:36 “it's announcing them 30 minutes after i did the bans in this channel because intended for them to be announced here as an intimidation tactic”. Which again I find as unprofessional and toxic behavior. Because first, when somebody gets banned without any warning instantly, why he has to wait 30 minutes before he knows that he has been banned? As for example I indeed got my ban reason at 21:26 from the Dyno bot, while it happened at 20:44. So it isn´t just ban reason being told late on the Discord server.
And second thing, while I agree that rule breakers should be punished, Discord has more tools for staff to deal with people who break rules. Like muting. Or DMs for personal conversation about why the person did such thing, like it happens for example in game when somebody breaks rules somehow. Also the rules channel of Discord says “Bans will be reserved for only the worst cases.”. Yet this admin ignores such thing. And the toxic part – while I agree that it should be somehow known that punishing rules is going to be punished – banning people suddenly and creating terror over it doesn´t help creating much friendly atmosphere with the admins. Or even intent to talk with such admin, when it can end suddenly with a ban. Or ahelping any issue, which can occur in game.
I would like to close this long complaint with last thing. I think that the wiki tells us that we should respect admins as human beings and they will respect us back. Which is true for most admins in the server. But doing so with this one ended me and some other people by a sudden ban during a conversation. So to me it seems that this admin instead of human beings just sees us as random targets who she would ban when she feels about it.
Logs: If any screenshots from Discord are needed, I´ll post them.
Extra information: As more I re-read the messages before and after the incident, the more suspicious the entire situation looks to me. So I hope that the staff investigates this incident and I am looking forward replies from the staff members.
