Vampirate mentor app don't laugh.

[vampirate]

Usual character name: Dickson Ormus and AI brought 2 you by SquareSpace
BYOND username: Vampirate
Discord username (if you are on our discord):Vampirate#6895

Recommended by (if applicable): Drago156, Uranium,  Dimwhat, and a bunch others.

Goon servers you play:  main and overflow, mostly the latter.

Reason for application + game experience (300 word minimum):

So like I didn't think I should post this and then someone said I should post, and then more people said I should.  

  Not many players go as far back as I do, but also most every player has a better history.   I know the games systems in and out, engineering aside.   Any time I get a unique chance to poke at the systems I take it. I've been playing for a long time, on other servers for a bit when not here as well.  

I have a natural love of testing how things work in the game, or learning systems so I can make my own bases, things like that.  Learned the electrical systems so I could keep power running as ai and such.  There's a lot of people who know the raw data better, but in terms of application I think I am one of the most knowledgeable people around.   Packets and engine set up probably being the big exception, though I can do both.

Since I've come back i've found great joy in answering people's questions, talking shop, and just like... sparking the imagination of new and learning players.   I just wanna help folk when I get a chance.   I want to help new players love the server like I do. 

I know also this means I gotta ups my game in terms of how I present myself on discord and such.  I'm already not a fluffy "ILY" AI or character (My lrp on those are known), but I love teaching people things in game too.   My weakness is by the end of the night my butt can be a bit grim when I am at that point where my meds wearing off but it's too soon to take more.  I've gotten really good at disengaging, and also if I got a problem with someone discussing it and like... finding their perspective cause most people are likeable if you give em a chance and you try to understand them.

That last long rant is cause...


Previous bans (while this will not affect your application lying about it will):   So many.  I was the worst in history.  Ok not that bad, but probably close. Sploded twice, or was it three?  Like a bully, straight up bully.

   My first ever note on Goonstation was back in a different time and it was that I whined too much (cause I'd adminhelped things) and I took that to heart in the worst way.  As Goon got better, I stayed locked in to that mindset.   Space people who cross you, Kill people who give you the slightest provocation...etc.   I got banned so many times and I was just an ugly ugly person on the inside.   I had issues that weren't gonna be fixed by trying ot be better in a game.   Admins tried for years to get through to me on what my problems were but I refused to see them.  Once I read back the old threads coming back this year I was so sad, cause like... just watching myself ignore people who genuinely wanted to see me thrive here I could feel their frustration.

My bans are numerous and well documented here, and the most I've had since I've come back is some admins pulled me aside and basically were like "holy shit man you are depressing" and I could/can? be a bummer but also right after that I got on the four meds I'm on now and it's helped a bunch with my stress. 

So yeah, but also I think it'd be cool to be a Mentor cause like... if I could turn it around anyone could, and I think that'd be nice to see and a good message to put out to people who wanna reform.

I just wanna help people.  If I could answer mentorhelps without being a mentor I'd do that lol.  I dunno if I'll ever think I should be a mentor with my history but other people have encouraged me to when I said I was thinking on it and I figured I could put myself out there once and try.   

This is kinda rambly and I edited some.  That's my app tho. Thank you for reading it.

[Retrino]

i think you definitely are knowledgeable enough to be a mentor, and you show enough heart and self awareness about previous actions that you have the personality for it now, too.

i already gave my support to you on discord obviously, but officially will say +1 for vamp here. they are a good person and have worked to be better in the community, and have a lot of fun things to offer newer players with purp status

[Pestilancer]

I've seen and played with you quite a bit and you seem to have become quite a bit better over your past years of being a splodey boy and seem to have owned up and moved on. It never hurts to have more mentors helping people out and I believe your experience over the year definitely gives you everything you need to be a good mentor so it's a +1 in my book!

[DimWhat]

Yes, yes, yes! I play with vamp a LOT on goon 4 and they are a very great person to play with. Through their presence alone they've brought me some greater understanding on how silicon interpretation of laws works. I see em help out folks on discord so that's already mentor behavior. In general vamp is a very nice person to play with and should 100% be a mentor. +1 Make them purple!

[Drago156]

As a veteran player who witnessed the past vampirate in the end leading up to their 2016 ban, Vamp has changed incredibly from those times into a much friendlier, nicer, and helpful person, and have given their all into this community since their return. I think Vamp has definitely more than redeemed themselves for their past actions and genuinely want to bring the best they can for the community and its members, and vamp is definitely a knowledgeable nerd. I also think they have an incredibly unique perspective from their position and has the opportunity to recognize frustrations or difficulties a player could be having and use that to more effectively help that person in learning the game and having a fun time.

This is a complete and wholehearted +1. It makes me very happy to see people return to the community in a way that Vampirate has and bring a huge amount of positivity and helpfulness, and I would think Vamp is very ready and fit to be a mentor.

[UrsulaMejor]

No from me.

Only recently, I had to give you a severe talking to about some passive aggressively metagrudgey remarks about how you would kill all cyborgs every traitor round you got. These remarks became a daily ritual of yours on the discord and included you reaching out to another member of the community in a way that visibly made them uncomfortable. This is not mentor behavior.

You also recently had to be banned from the #cool-zone on discord for some very uncool statements.

This sort of thing is the exact sort of thing you were banned for to begin with, and while I will admit your behavior is improved, most players don't have these sorts of issues ever, let alone multiple times in the few months that you've been back.

[vampirate]

No from me.

Only recently, I had to give you a severe talking to about some passive aggressively metagrudgey remarks about how you would kill all cyborgs every traitor round you got. These remarks became a daily ritual of yours on the discord and included you reaching out to another member of the community in a way that visibly made them uncomfortable. This is not mentor behavior.

You also recently had to be banned from the #cool-zone on discord for some very uncool statements.

This sort of thing is the exact sort of thing you were banned for to begin with, and while I will admit your behavior is improved, most players don't have these sorts of issues ever, let alone multiple times in the few months that you've been back.

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Oof I botched that quote thing thee... I wish edit was a thing lol

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What I said in reply there... a lil easier to read
Yeah i uhh... havent had those jokes much since I got on my meds. People were kinda not liking em so I dropped it as it was only ever meant to be a joke.

I also almost made an a complaint cause the coolzone is very much the "express only one kind of political idea zone"... and I still get dumped screen shots and shit from people who dislike it event ho I haven't been there in months (and frankly don't miss the opportunity). If we're going to discuss the cool-zone. My ban came down to objecting to a notion that someone on the right should be assumed guilty.


Yet routinely people condone violence towards other political affiliations and cops on the cool zone. Not specific cops and Trumpers either. Just generalized. The cool zone is extremely not cool. Fun fact: The thing that got me banned was expressing some doubts that I had had, but another younger member of the channel was afraid to express cause he thought he'd get dogpiled. I posted the doubts to show that he'd be alright.... I was wrong. He would have been. If you want screen caps to prove that, I can provide them.

The cool zone is a toxic, toxic place. There's a reason I haven't appealed that removal. I don't want back in, that place is bad for the soul. He's since left for the most part. The coolzone is gonna be the cause of another rift if it's not sorted out. But that's neither here nor there and not something I want to get into on my app. I appreciate your feedback tho. I appreciated it at the time. It was you who talked to me about synthetics and stuff and you why I went back to playing them and almost exclusively play synths now

[Caro]

Vamp's a good fella, definetly seen them being kind and helpful towards new people on discord and the ingame interactions I've had with them were also positive
Good mentor material +1

[Sundance]

Vamp is a top notch AI and a good player. I've routinely seen him give advice and assist, so it's a +1 from me.

[Chayot]

I can't remember specifics, the name vampirate recalls to mind someone who continued to harass me once the game was over sometime within the last 6 months or so. Told me to stop being SEC, insisting I must be an idiot or shitsec, ETC.
I never reported it & don't care to see him prosecuted, nor did he even act out on anything. He never mentioned it again and I still see him from time to time. I frequent SECOFF and arrested him, he didn't like it or so, so on and so on. A simple nothing.

I can certainly attest to him being knowledgeable, & I've seen him at times seeking out new players in pre-game lobby to meet up in-game. (For help.)
I don't think he's a super nice person but that's OK!

I wouldn't give him a yes or no as I can't remember specifics, and even if I did, I don't think it's fair to hold past actions against someone forever.
If he wants to change, let him change. Just thought it may be necessary to bring it to the attention of the application.

[vampirate]

I don't remember you in the past being bad. I think you been doing fine in the few times I've seen ya. Only people I call shitsec or those who go out there way to murder people or .... there was one guy I told to get a thicker skin cause he let a guy get killed by a traitor after he arrested him... the arrest reason was, and I quote "He slipped me on a banana peel and laughed about it"... that's the only sec I later said "man maybe sec is not for you" that I can think of. I stand by that. :p

[Podrick Equus]

As much as you've made efforts to improve yourself recently, and I must say that I do enjoy talking to you on discord, I believe that there should be a bit more time of consistently good behavior with little to no bumps to mar your efforts to improve yourself and those around you. You've shown that desire to help others, that's the first step.

I think in time you could become a good mentor. Just not now.

-1, but please reapply in a few months with a good track record and it'll be a +1 from me.

[Studenterhue]

I'll start with just some clarification about the circumstances surrounding Vampirate being banned (which I use rather loosely since it uses a different system than Discord's ban feature) from our Discord's cool-zone channel and a little bit of the things UrsulaMajor meant by "uncool statements". If it's gonna be a topic of discussion, I hope everyone can at least get their facts right. To paraphrase Ross of Ross's Game Dungeon, if people are gonna be mad, I want them to be mad for the right reasons.

So, first of all, I'm not the person who disbarred Vampirate from cool-zone, and neither is Urs here. If you want info about it straight from the horse's mouth, don't message me or her about it, for we're only the stablehands. I'd advise against asking the horse either, for they've taken a leave for sake of their personal mental health, and I want to leave out their name because I don't feel like a whole bunch of messages (whether asking about the ban or their life) is going to help them out.

Vampirate was forbidden from cool-zone over a pattern of behavior, a pattern the admin who banned them saw as provoking people and generally driving the conversation to everyone's detriment, sometimes to the point of discourse devolving into personal attacks. The remarks about the "someone on the right" were considered part of the behavior, but the examples that came up time and time again whenever the ban came up were these remarks about Native Americans' territory, which a fair number of people considered quite egregious, including the admin who carried out Vampirate's "ban" (again, it's not quite a ban under the hood) from cool-zone. (Link requires Player role and, naturally, presence in our Discord to see. Or maybe not, Discord can be jank sometimes. Try looking for messages from Vampirate from August 29th or so if you can't see that.)

I'm going to try to explain this from the perspective of the admin who prohibited Vampirate from cool-zone; I'm sorry if this might be a little obtuse or turns out to quite far from the truth to a disrespectful degree. You have this player, and it seems like whenever you talk to them about particular subjects in a certain channel, cool-zone, the conversation almost always seems to go awry, and everyone seems to have a terrible time. This is bad news, because this is precisely what you didn't want. The whole point of cool-zone is so people can talk about heavy stuff that might weigh people down (e.g. LGBT issues, living under quarantine, job loss and job searching) in a welcoming environment, while people who don't want it can opt out of it with by simply muting the channel. And not only is it a reoccuring problem, but you get a sense that maybe these ideas are almost deliberately provocative. Some of them feel dangerous even. Yet it still feels genuine, like it's not trolling.

What do you do? Ban them from Discord? Well, that can't be right, they're generally alright everywhere else, maybe not exemplary, but not exactly something you'd boot people out for. Talk to them about it? You have before, and it didn't really seem to stick. And honestly...you kinda feel tired of doing that. Do nothing? The problem's not gonna go away on its own.

So you decide to try basically the Discord version of a jobban: bar them from just that channel. Surgical extraction: if the issue is just this particular aspect of something that has particular rules, but everything else is acceptable, remove them from that aspect. If someone tends to (i.e. has a pattern of doing it) prescribe overzealous punishments as Sec or relentlessly argue laws as AI, but otherwise acts within the rules, a jobban can be a good option; they can still enjoy their game without ruining others' enjoyment. In the same way, barring someone from a particular channel could a good option if they only cause issues in that channel. And you know, they can always appeal.

I hope I've explained it well enough. To end, I want to clarify I really don't have any particular personal beef with Vampirate. I think Vampirate is okay, but there's things that need workshopping. For that, I'd ultimately say...No, but perhaps try again in maybe a few months.

[Flaborized]

Strong no from me for similar reasons to others here. For someone who's been Sploded *more than once*, you'd need to have pretty exemplary, and I'd personally say that you unfortunately haven't been.

[zjdtmkhzt]

I can't say I've played a lot with Vampirate in the actual game that I can remember, but they seem nice and knowledgable enough in the discord channels that I frequent.
So I'm not gonna necessarily give a +1, but I don't see how their conduct in the cool-zone is terribly relevant to this.
Lots of people get yelled at in the cool-zone for voicing somewhat dissenting opinions, and lots of people do not post in the cool-zone anymore.
Thus I don't see how that would be an issue with them being mentor, it's not like they will talk to mentees about politics, it's pretty much always kept to game topics.
And they're no longer allowed to post in the cool-zone, so it's not like it will be an issue again.

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Oh, turns out, I can't edit my posts here.
Just to clarify, I feel the stuff that Emily and Flaborized said is definitely still relevant though, and not exactly in a good way.