I am probably gonna get shit for this

[vampirate]

I wanna protest the decision to ban OMJ the way it was done.  

I can't think of an entire time in the history of the forums here that anyone has been banned for an admin complaint.    If y'all feel that OMJ had shit going on in the background that precluded him from the community that is one thing, but you set an ugly ugly precedent there because OMJ is not the first person to fling personal insults in complaints thread. 

The policy has always been that posting a complaint would not get you banned, and yeah people say some rude shit but it has always been a hallmark that you were angry in a complaint and said rude shit, things would be resolved through words, explanations, or else the thread would get locked.    Opening that door makes folk less likely to file complaints, and I dare say it makes it more likely that it will happen again eventually.    It's a line that hasn't been crossed for a reason. 

I whole heartedly disagree with ever banning anyone based on an admin complaint unless it contained racial slurs or something like that.   Even then I'd suggest just editing them out, locking the thread and posting a note.   This forum NEEDS to feel like you can post here and not get banned.  I know this is a slippery slope argument, but sometimes slopes be slippery.

I raise no objections to peanut posts or personal insults against my person in the replies to this thread.

[warcrimes]

The thread actually did contain more than *just* personal insults.

He used it as a highly visible platform to repeat the same behavior he was banned for originally, thus breaking the agreement that his forum access would remain as a last lifeline if he should ever choose to appeal.

Using the admin complaints forum to once again try to promote his cryptocurrency scheme is not only rude, it's a blatant abuse of the system we humbly built for the purpose of getting yelled at. Sorry but if the line isn't drawn at a mixture of go-fuck-yourself and actual fraudulent financial spam, i'm not sure where to draw it. Behavior indistinguishable from an abusive bot isn't going to be tolerated here, regardless of whether it's been posted in the magical "protected" subforum or not.

That's my 2c, not an official take.
I just think you're being excessively generous to what constitutes good faith admin complaints.

[Technature]

If I may on this one.

From what I can tell, OMJ was given the chance to come on and give a quick explanation for something.  This something was meant to be kept private, because it's a personal life thing.  No one should feel a need to air their dirty laundry, after all.  Despite OMJ's insistence, it didn't seem like Captain was trying to insult or drag them through the mud in doing this, nor did it feel like he was doing anything other than just saying that if he needs it, that he should get some help.  Why he decided to make the whole thing public, I don't know.

Now, let's leave the personal insults out of this one for a sec.

He was given the chance to give an explanation and to say he won't do try to share Crypto anymore.  And he decided to use this chance to...share crypto information.  Yes, it wasn't insisting people buy the shit

Ignoring everything else, I don't see how anyone could of expected this course of action to go well.  And from what I understand, this was just the last straw all together.

I don't like throwing anyone out and slamming the door, but then again I don't run the place.  Abd I can't say for sure I wouldn't have done the same, especially since it was less a "I don't like what this admin did" and little more than "Fuck you" over and over again.

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oh wow warcrimes said everything i wanted to while i was trying to delete this plz

[popecrunch]

Hi, I'm the one who pulled the trigger on OMJ's forum ban. This wasn't my action solely, everyone in adminchat at the time thought it was at *minimum* an option worth seriously exploring, I just happened to be the one who hit the button.

I've known OMJ for years. I consider him a friend. Friends don't let friends do what he did in the way that he did. He was told to knock it off with his schemes, he didn't, he got yelled at for it, he got an *extremely lenient* punishment for it, and he went thermonuclear with personal insults against someone who isn't currently a member of the admin team, but in that context. Friends don't let friends pull that shit.

There is no universe where the things he said to and about efrem in that thread were acceptable. They are indefensible, and it is unreasonable to ask any of our staff to put up with that shit. Like it or not - and I very much do not like it because again, I consider OMJ a friend - he fucked up to a degree that left us no real option but to excise him from the community.

edit to add: this isn't me giving you shit. you saw what you believed to be the admin team making a bad call, you asked about it. this is simply us answering.

[Enakai]

 Oh you quit? That’s fucking fire. No complaints towards the admins then, carry on. You clearly didn’t have the proper conduct becoming of this community. I hope you piss your pants every single day you walk this earth.

This is what he said, to the letter. This will never, ever be appropriate. This type of behaviour will net you a ban whether it's on discord, in game, or the forums.

OMJ has been warned countless times already for his attitude/conduct and his constant posting of whatever crypto-garbage he's invested in at the time. This is NOT the first time he has linked things like this with his latest "get rich quick" scheme. I have, myself, spent quite an amount of time talking to Efrem about OMJ and his incessant crypto/gamble posting and OMJ has been warned each and every time for it. 

The complaint itself was not the problem. Even if we look at the precedent of "we won't ban you for complaining about staff being bad", when it gets to the point where you're endangering both yourself and other players (economically), which is exactly what he was doing from my perspective, we're gonna can you for it. For the sake of you, us, and our players.


(Please note that my use of "you" here isn't directly referring to anyone aside from OMJ. It's just a generalization.)

[vampirate]

Fair. I do think I may have missed some of the posts that caused it? In that I think it might have been a mistake to remove them because now we don't have any context if we viewed the thread later. I didn't seen any huge insults, but I didn't view it til around noon central so it may be that I missed some real abhorrent shit.

That said, and it's just a suggestion, if you have them I might suggest posting some screenshots for context or deleting the thread entirely, cause as it looks to the person first viewing it now.... it looks like OMJ was mildly insulting and got banned for it. I am not saying that's what it is, just that's how it looks from someone coming in with fresh eyes it looking at t he thread for the first time it looks like OMJ throws out some fuck you's and whatnot and ban hammered. I'll go look again though, I read it precoffee so I might have missed something.

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The post Knight posted is not the worst thing I've ever seen admins swallow and come back and turn the thread around though, so if that was it ... I dunno. I guess the idea was that at this point there was no turning the conversation around with OMJ ?

I'm not protesting his ban, I don't have enough info to do that. I'm just protesting the first ban on admin complaints so please don't think I am devil's advocating here

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ok having reread it again.... I stand by that I would suggest one of two things... deleting that thread entirely (his complaint), or else making a post in it to the community at large explaining the situation more deeply. I think there was some stuff going outside the thread that could be touched on greatly. I know GENERALLY yall don't get into bans cause it's no ones business, but you're making a huge exception by banning someone on the admin complaints forum where accountability to admins is held.

It's my opinion that with that except you would do well to just come transparent with this one in one big post on that thread so people grasp why this case was the exception and why that wasn't necessary.

For my part, I know yall hate banning people for good. I am goddamn proof as I was probably the worst player in long stretches of time, and here I am able to make this post and play this game. I fully think ya'll didn't do this lightly. So those are my suggestions and I'll shut up.

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ack edit: and why that WAS necessary, not "wasn't"

[DasBrain]

Sorry to peanut post, but...

OMJ was one of the better known members of this community.
One of those who knew a lot about the goon secrets.
And I always did look up to him.
It's sad to see someone like him exiting of this community this way.

That having said...

I think the ban is reasonable.
If you would unban OMJ now, I believe he would find a way to talk about his crypto-currency again.
What he posted in his thread was unacceptable. I can understand, but not excuse, some insults in an admin complaint - but what OMJ did was over the top.

So, there is only one thing left to do:
Please consider letting him apologize. Not today, maybe in a few months. And only if he asks for that.
OMJ did burn some bridges on his way out. And rebuilding them will be hard work.
But I believe he can do it. Hopefully. After some time has passed.