Banned (All Servers): Twisted Tea |ORIGINAL| Hard Tea / Dicko A La Mode (Discord)

[Aurora]

Offender: Twisted Tea |ORIGINAL| Hard Tea / Dicko A La Mode (Discord) (Steam) (BattleMetrics)
Server: All
Time: January 20, 2021 7:04 PM
Length: 30 Days
Reason: Disrespect, Harassment,  Drama

Disrespect

• Disrespect of specific players and our PvE community in general
• Disrespectful and demeaning comments about staff

Harassment

• Ongoing bullying of players over the duration of wipes
• Continuously trolling a player for days to ruin their time on our servers

Drama

• Instigating toxicity and drama in our community
• Building to create lag areas on the server
• Creating an unnecessary workload for admins with their drama and trolling

Additional Info

 

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7:50 PM 2020-12-30 Dicko A La Mode: ez fix
8:15 PM 2020-12-30 Dicko A La Mode: Glad I have that shit bag muted
12:01 PM 2020-12-29 Dicko A La Mode: So is it offical? Scourge is the weeb server now?
12:02 PM2020-12-29 Dicko A La Mode: the fact that tons of weebs are joining
12:02 PM 2020-12-29 Dicko A La Mode: you dumb or something?
12:03 PM 2020-12-29 Dicko A La Mode: Where was there hate in what I said?
12:04 PM 2020-12-29 Dicko A La Mode: Wow, pretty bad for you to just assume that. Sounds like you are the hater.
12:04 PM 2020-12-29 Dicko A La Mode: Or you can just stop assuming
12:04 PM 2020-12-29 Dicko A La Mode: You fucking idiot
12:05 PM 2020-12-29 Dicko A La Mode: Aww you didn't actually mute me?
10:21 PM 2020-12-19 Dicko A La Mode: @froak stop talking
10:21 PM 2020-12-19 Dicko A La Mode: either say what you are doing or shut up
10:30 PM 2020-12-17 Dicko A La Mode: wtf is wrong with this shit head?
10:31 PM 2020-12-17 Dicko A La Mode: why does he talk so much?
6:55 PM 2020-12-17 Dicko A La Mode: u giving me a warning?
6:55 PM 2020-12-17 Dicko A La Mode: nope
6:55 PM 2020-12-17 Dicko A La Mode: I am unwarningable
9:40 PM 2020-12-15 Dicko A La Mode: free guns for non-weebs send TP
9:41 PM 2020-12-15 Dicko A La Mode: free guns for non-weebs, send TP
9:41 PM 2020-12-15 Dicko A La Mode: thanks
9:42 PM 2020-12-15 Dicko A La Mode: Send tp for free guns - no weebs allowed
9:43 PM 2020-12-15 Dicko A La Mode: CALLING ALL NON WEEBS SEND TP FOR FREE GUNS
9:43 PM 2020-12-15 Dicko A La Mode: tp for guns, no weebs allowed
9:44 PM 2020-12-15 Dicko A La Mode: send tp, free guns - no weebs allowed
9:45 PM 2020-12-15 Dicko A La Mode: I got 9 more guns, send tp
9:47 PM 2020-12-15 Dicko A La Mode: send tp for free guns, no weebs 8 more
9:49 PM 2020-12-15 Dicko A La Mode: 7 guns left! send tp free gun, weebs need not apply9:50 PM 2020-12-15 Dicko A La Mode: anyone else? free goons
3:30 PM 2020-12-14 Dicko A La Mode: after getting away with griefing
3:30 PM 2020-12-14 Dicko A La Mode: do you grief your neighbors?
3:30 PM 2020-12-14 Dicko A La Mode: thats the difference
3:31 PM 2020-12-14 Dicko A La Mode: and no one gives a flying shit about it
12:15 PM 2020-12-04 Dicko A La Mode: @just can you help us, someone is being a naughty little boy
12:17 PM 2020-12-04 Dicko A La Mode: some guy is trying to grief us. Can you delete his garbage?
12:17 PM 2020-12-04 Dicko A La Mode: lul
12:21 PM 2020-12-12 Dicko A La Mode: what did I steal?
12:21 PM 2020-12-12 Dicko A La Mode: how did I steal it?
2:22 PM 2020-12-12 Dicko A La Mode: Because you were being a dick bag
1:20 PM 2020-12-16 Dicko A La Mode: that sounds dope soup
2:09 PM 2020-12-16 Dicko A La Mode: this server is turning into a damn weeb hangout
2:10 PM 2020-12-16 Dicko A La Mode: I have 2 options, mute all weebs or leave the server
2:10 PM 2020-12-16 Dicko A La Mode: agree
2:10 PM 2020-12-16 Dicko A La Mode: survival is calling my name
2:11 PM 2020-12-16 Dicko A La Mode: yeah but weeb culture is terrible to japan culture
2:12 PM 2020-12-16 Dicko A La Mode: ban weebs
 

[SKUDRUNNER]

[DabDaddyJosh]

If none of this was from this wipe, i would ask why wasn't this 'super serious offence" addressed then, vs weeks and weeks later in the middle a separate wipe where the "offending player" hasn't even logged on?----" [ last seen 24 days ago ]."

No specific player report or chat log given for "bullying and trolling/harassment" to a named targeted player

Redefining "open public criticism of admin action "(or lack of action or selectivism of rule enforcement ) to "Disrespectful and demeaning comments about staff"

 "Building to create lag areas" -but showing no picture or evidence that a build wasn't populated or used for any other reason other then causing lag #Ban Twig

Going back in time and grabbing 42 things out of context as "evidence" (purposely and needlessly overwhelming in size) .None of witch is anything i see is explicitly against the rules (NOT including the old and unused "dont be a dick" rule). also if you replace the word " weeb" with my trademarked "loot goblin" (witch is also purposely derogatory in its intent and delivery, at a level similar to weeb or pepega) then im sure anyone could dig and find 42+ things ive said in chat in past wipes that are similar or in fact verbatim given a different choice word.  

But...….

that's not what this is about is it? 

 

That was me trying to be un biased because i unfortunately know what happened "behind the scenes" recently (between you and dicko)

 That from my POV,  makes this look and feel like some sort of late term unnecessary witch-hunt.

i will be the first to admit that Dicko threw a "hissy fit" after he got conformation that he was in fact "being TC greif'd". and to my knowledge and horrible memory (dab on the haters xD), nothing happened for days and days. He (Dicko) not only requested help (i personally witnessed this), but got the answer " this (TC greif) is 100% against the rules" and felt like he was ignored purposely and singled out 

**But...….that's not what this is about is it?**

given what happened just days prior to that wipe "behind the scenes" that basically boils down to a simple disagreement between members of Staff (at that time about a situation that i will not name.)

This looks like a personal, late, backhanded stab at a former staff member you had a disagreement with.

 

The "Drama" portion about this ban report is infact TRUE..... just not in for the 54 reasons/pieces of evidence stated in this Ban report. 

This server and the Old server has been my home for many years.. and thousands of hours. 

 at some point i had a realization that this server isnt a democracy. its a dictatorship........and a damn good one. 

ill blindly follow the rule changes and changes of its enforcement against any and all precedents that where made before EZ became popular and populated. 

In conclusion

If this ban is really about  "causing drama and unnecessary work for admins"(RIP PUTIN) or "building lag bases" (PUTIN CHICKEN'S) or " bullying/mentioning loot goblin weebs"(BAN WEEBS)  during past wipes.[Kirk Lazarus] 

Then by the same standard/new precedent.. i too should be banned. if not more so then dicko given what ive done and limits ive pushed in past wipes.

I formally request and approve any and all Mods/Staff to BAN ME for the same reasons stated in this ban report as i have committed the same atrocities and worse.

this is a written confession. please. please ban me.

i will lie on the hill and die as a martyr before i beleive that this is a genuine ban report. 

 

Aurora. i love you. i miss you. 

im sorry our friend group broke up while i was away.. To come back and see you left...broke my heart.. to see this breaks it even more. 

BAN ME

                       -DAB

[RepeatPete]

I fully expect my reply to this thread to have at the very least two, possibly three outcomes:

1. my comment deleted in its entirety
2. thread locked
3. Possible retaliatory ban placed on me for all servers and Discord, since it could be viewed as causing "drama".

However, I'll take my chances and chime in here. On the surface, this ban has all the looks of a spare-no-expense effort made in scouring for evidence. Chat logs, Discord screenshots and even an admin-hopeful chiming in with their own. You and almost anyone who knows Dicko can attest to how edgy he can be, call it a nuance of his personality. Now if you're going to apply consequence to players who like to talk shit to other players, you might start digging into chat logs on the daily, because I've seen evidence of it every single day I've played on RustEZ. Odd how that's not addressed as thoroughly. I know, folks should "report it" - but you have proven more than capable of finding it yourself, when the need arises.

Dab eluded to it, I won't. I've worked quite a long time on this reply due to it always deteriorating into my making scornful/snide remarks.

I will however keep this as anonymous as I can. Dicko had access to BattleMetrics and found out an admin was spawning in resources, providing those to an alternate account and that alt account then selling those resources  back to the black-market for in-game credits. Same admin was also spawning in items to sell for scrap at cut-throat prices, making any shop that would have sold those items irrelevant. Again, same admin spawned in items for players - all was able to be seen in BattleMetrics. I know for a fact any of those actions are against admin conduct in the Admin Handbook. I can also guarantee you that had players known about it, the ones that work their asses off playing, farming, selling to earn credits would have been pissed. We tried to really work the system to earn credits, and it's not easy, so I can understand how bad that is from a player perspective.

Once all of the evidence against this admin was brought to light, suddenly the tables turned and Dicko was looked at like he was the bad guy. I joined those ranks when I stood by the evidence. I was from a time when admins got away with nothing out of bounds. You, Aurora even told me one night in a voice call, that you wanted to remove an admin because he yelled at a player. Now that we have an admin who has given themselves (alt account) credits, impacted player economy and spawned in items for players, suddenly it's "ok" because it was 1) their first offense or 2) it wasn't actually them, but their kid.

I thought admins were held to higher standards, but is that only applicable in certain situations or are all the rules in the Admin Handbook equally important?

Quote

 "Our rules regarding player disrespect and harassment apply to all, and admins are held to a higher standard in these matters."

Rules still apply even when someone else uses your account? Is that only for players, with admins being exempt?
Within the first two pages of bans, you can see two ban appeals that used the "my so-and-so" used my account excuse, and the ban remained.

amsullivan:

Quote

Hello <playername>, You are responsible for your own account, regardless of who you allow to use it.

Granny:

Quote

I am sorry to hear that your brother caused this. 
Unfortunately, at this time, you are the one responsible for the account. 
Actions have consequences, even if it's a family member who gained access.

These are only two of the most recent examples. I've seen this reason used, many times over. That then made me wonder why this same didn't apply to an admin's kid/brother/who ever did everything I stated above.  Meetings were had, excuses made and that's when I had enough. I questioned the integrity of the server and its staff, and knowing it would affect my ability to remain as Event Staff, I chose to step down. You took that as a personal affront to your own integrity, rather than looking at the bigger picture. You left a Discord server we were all in, unfriended several of us, but to what end? Was this a tantrum? A silent revolt to distance yourself from our finding out about an admin who broke the rules? As it stands now, I don't honestly care - it's in the past. Just like everything you dredged up for this ban. I chose not to darken the doorway of any of the RustEZ servers this wipe, and doubtfully will ever again. 

What I do care about though, is no longer feeling welcome at the community you were appointed to lead. I began my days of playing Rust with RustEZ, grew to enjoy the community and then chose to help out as admin. I feel I didn't do horribly in that position. I knew when it was appropriate for me to step down, just as I did with the Event Staff. You lead by example, and by this example, I no longer want to be a part of something where a blind eye is turned at staff who shit on the very rules they are to abide by. That to me speaks of trust, and that is now lost. 

[aNoNiM]

@RepeatPete
I don't see how your arguments contradicts the points and screenshots brought up by Aurora toward Dicko.

The other issues you mention, I do agree on some. There are a lot of admins over the course of my playtime that they abuse their powers. For instance, one of them recently posted a video of them flying around with their tooltips having them to craft a workbench and place a workbench. So they were able to become an admin without ever placing this on their Rust account? Must be spawning everything they need crafted or something or using ubertools. To me there is not enough scrutinizing, honest admins are hard to come by.  And I know people are not perfect.

This does not just apply to RustEZ either, Iv'e logged in to a server and an admin put in chat, teleport toplayer anonim or something like that, said oops, then attack helis magically appear near me and then shooting while in God mode, and they fall near me, then Im told go loot the heli crates... when I just spawned in to that server. It took me less than 2minutes to secure my body in a 1x2 and logged out on a permanent basis from that server.

I am french canadian, his name indicates that being a dick is in fashion (A la mode), every time I have seen his username I cringed. And my username is pronounced the french way of anonymous, which is normally spelled anonyme.

[BloodyBaroness]

@aNoNiMI respect you, but you are profoundly missing the point. 
 

This ban is nothing but a late stab at someone over a disagreement.  Let me explain again, as both Pete and Dab have tried to do. 

The "offenses" listed are well over 30 days old and in some cases bordering on two months. They are cobbled together out of context chat messages for starters and completely zero evidence for the other things. 

I was personally involved in a great majority of the things, so my account is pretty accurate.  Let's get started shall we? I'll just hit some high points because the horse is looking pretty beat. 
 

Quote

Continuously trolling a player for days to ruin their time on our servers

There was an issue with a player building in the same area of our team. Myself, Dicko, Pete and Dab all tried to peacefully/friendly engage the player and work out a solution. The player refused to even acknowledge us and started griefing our building. We tried to take it in stride and work something out, but it was impossible. The player blocked us with TCs/building spam. Admins (literally all of the Scourge admins) were called, acknowledged the griefing, but refused to remove the TCs. This went on for days and took multiple attempts to resolve. It was ruining our gameplay to the point we decided to move our entire building to an unoccupied area deep in the snow. We rebuilt and carried on with wipe. But hey, we are the bad guys right? Sure looks that way when you only get one side. 

 

Quote

Building to create lag areas on the server

I'd really like to see the evidence of that. The base we made after being bullied into moving was specifically built in the most remote area possible. We build big and used every section of the build because we had 4-7 players living in and out of the base at any given point. We also had a community fishing area that all were welcome to use. So what part of that was designed with the plan to create lag? Please explain, because not just Dicko built our base, the team did and we should share the punishment. 

 

Quote

Disrespect of specific players and our PvE community in general

The weeb comments were out of line, Dicko did go too far with some of them. I will not argue that point. What I will argue is there were 1-2 other players making far nastier more degrading remarks, that I know for a fact were reported, and they were not banned, or even warned to my knowledge. Chat was gross and toxic, admin attention was called to it numerous times, but it stayed gross. December was by far one of the most disgusting months I've ever seen in RustEZ game chat. It was a big reason that factored in to my deciding not to continue playing on the server the last bit of that wipe. 

 

Quote

Disrespectful and demeaning comments about staff
Creating an unnecessary workload for admins with their drama and trolling

When you spend days talking to staff who acknowledge a rule break, but do nothing about it, you get a little fed up. 

This happened several times in December. The big incident was the lake griefing issue. Smaller but more consistent incidents continued throughout the wipe. I personally brought up problems/called attention to many different things and either got no response, or "this happened too long ago for us to do anything", or "we'll take a look" with zero follow up. 

It broke my damn heart. When I was a RustEZ admin, I took pride in my work. Seeing what the server was turning into made me feel awful for the dedicated group of players who call it home. You apply to be green you take it seriously or don't be green. 

I said some of the very same things Dicko did because we were so frustrated with apparent lack of engagement from the admins. The cookie cutter reply is "report it" but it was being reported, it was having attention called to it, and it was being brushed. If an admin had truly spent any kind of time in chat the month of December the problems would have been seen before they festered into bigger issues. 

We called things out because we care. We encouraged players to call things out more and make their voices heard in a constructive manner. We wanted better for the players and the only way to get attention on the problems was to lay bare the not so pretty truth. 

The situation with admin Dicko reported was a turning point for me. The evidence against that admin was clear, solid and without a doubt impacted players and the economy. I was lumped together with Dicko and Pete in the "bad guy" ranks because I too stood by the evidence. The the excuse "my kid did it" should have never flown. An admin allowed access to his account and manipulation of said account in the form of spawning items. If, as is it is clearly stated "admins are held to a higher standard" why was that not the case here? Players have bans standing for lesser offenses. I questioned the integrity of all those involved and decided to take a step back to asses my feelings on those in the leadership role. 

Ultimately I was saddened by the ending of friendships over a disagreement of this nature. From my side it was never anything personal, I even decided to take the high road by  continuing to enjoy the server and the players on it. I moved on and tried to leave it in the past, which brings me to my final point. 

In many of the issues I had brought up to admins I was told "too much time had passed/not enough evidence left to do anything."  This ban proves that it does not matter how much time has passed and it does not matter how little evidence exists, they can and will still do something.   This ban was a huge reach back to silence someone who had offended them. 

So I'm asking this of the admins for the players choosing to play on the RustEZ servers: When players do what you ask and "report it" you need to take ownership and "enforce it" uniformly and fairly across the board. 
 

 

 

 

[ZOMB]

3 hours ago, aNoNiM said:

I am french canadian, his name indicates that being a dick is in fashion (A la mode), every time I have seen his username I cringed. And my username is pronounced the french way of anonymous, which is normally spelled anonyme.

[ZOMB]

I had the exact same chat with another admin today! strange...

 

[aNoNiM]

The evidence presented by Aurora is pretty cut and dry, he should of been banned months ago to your point I guess, it shouldn't of been dragged on for this long.

[BloodyBaroness]

@aNoNiMyou are completely missing the point. 

The "offenses" have little to no evidence beyond cobbled together out of context chat messages.  So no, it's not cut and dry. It's manufactured and completely lacking reasonable evidence for 6 out of the 7 points made against him.  

It's also inconsistent enforcement of rules/targeted retaliation and there in lies the problem. 
 

 

 

 

[aNoNiM]

The ban should not be even 30 days, it should be permanent

[Aurora]

3 hours ago, RepeatPete said:

 

The 30-day ban is based on the player's own actions and behavior of disrespect, harassment of players, and their toxicity and disruption while on the US-Scourge server and when participating in the RustEZ Discord.

I get that it's easier to blame an admin than the player for their own actions (especially when you have an issue with the admin who placed the ban) --  but a decision I made two months ago is unrelated to a ban placed on someone for their ongoing trolling, player disrespect (calling others on the server a heap of shit, fucking idiot, dumb...)  in server global chat and Discord, harassing players on the server, and so on – as noted in the ban report.

For those who posted -- I do appreciate the amount of time you've spent penning letters, however, testimonials on behalf of banned players are not considered in the ban appeals process.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Quote

What I do care about though, is no longer feeling welcome at the community you were appointed to lead. 

Aside from the ban appeal, I know that not everyone in this community (players and staff) will be happy with every decision I make, but if you don't feel welcome here because of how I handled an admin issue, I hope you take the time to message someone in leadership (Death or Granny) to have that discussion. 

[DabDaddyJosh]

dicko not only quit the server. he left the discord and this forum... then this ban "magically" happens a month later with old chat logs, that i know for a fact im in. also saying the same shit hes saying about Bradly Camping , heli crate stealing, oil rig yoink'ing, Loot Goblin weebs. (plus that shit bag im sure you saw half the server muted) 

 fucking hurts my soul someone as nice as you could turn into a bAdmin weeb like virgoth, abusing priv for petty shit like banning someone who disagreed with you a month after they quit the whole community. the best community. even if alot of them watch the simpsons. 

SEND ME TO THE GULAG Papai.

 

 

[Death]

6 hours ago, RepeatPete said:

Now if you're going to apply consequence to players who like to talk shit to other players, you might start digging into chat logs on the daily, because I've seen evidence of it every single day I've played on RustEZ. Odd how that's not addressed as thoroughly. I know, folks should "report it" - but you have proven more than capable of finding it yourself, when the need arises.

I'd argue there's a huge distinction between shit-talking and straight-up being disrespectful and abusive. You're right, though. This is a common problem here, as with most communities. The difference is most players who go down this road either cross the line and allow us to moderate or mellow out when they are spoken to.

Dicko is different. They constantly, and often purposely, stood on the line of "bannable," knowing very well they wouldn't get in trouble. Being an ex-admin makes this very easy and very hard for current admins. Dicko has on several occasions flaunted being "untouchable" by the admins to players in the chat.

I recommended this ban in hopes they would go back to the somewhat-decent Dicko and not constantly berate and instigate issues in-game and on Discord. I also want to point out it was their constant pop shots at admins and attempts to spark heated discussions in our Discord that ultimately led to the ban.

 

6 hours ago, RepeatPete said:

Dicko had access to BattleMetrics and found out an admin was spawning in resources, providing those to an alternate account and that alt account then selling those resources  back to the black-market for in-game credits. Same admin was also spawning in items to sell for scrap at cut-throat prices, making any shop that would have sold those items irrelevant. Again, same admin spawned in items for players - all was able to be seen in BattleMetrics. I know for a fact any of those actions are against admin conduct in the Admin Handbook. I can also guarantee you that had players known about it, the ones that work their asses off playing, farming, selling to earn credits would have been pissed. We tried to really work the system to earn credits, and it's not easy, so I can understand how bad that is from a player perspective.

This was an issue for me. Dicko purposely scrolled through days, if not weeks, of activity to find a single ounce of evidence to have this admin removed purely out of spite. To be fair, it was beneficial for us to catch this behavior early on and correct it, but the expectation to terminate an admin over a first offense is unfair and unjust.

I was not involved in the decision making for this. However, I agree with the outcome. For the record, I didn't buy their story for one bit, but I agree this was a perfect time to coach and correct their behavior rather than giving them the boot. Spawning in items to sell for BM credits to buy attack helicopters on an alt is not as evil and profound as you make it out to be. Of course, it's not something we want to see from an admin.

This moral of the story is that the incident did not warrant termination, and any reasoning as to why they weren't terminated outside of that is irrelevant.

 

6 hours ago, RepeatPete said:

Rules still apply even when someone else uses your account? Is that only for players, with admins being exempt?

You're comparing bans for racism to an admin spawning in items for an alt. That's a pretty big stretch to try to bend the narrative.

 

6 hours ago, RepeatPete said:

What I do care about though, is no longer feeling welcome at the community you were appointed to lead. I began my days of playing Rust with RustEZ, grew to enjoy the community and then chose to help out as admin. I feel I didn't do horribly in that position. I knew when it was appropriate for me to step down, just as I did with the Event Staff. You lead by example, and by this example, I no longer want to be a part of something where a blind eye is turned at staff who shit on the very rules they are to abide by. That to me speaks of trust, and that is now lost. 

An admin you disliked made a mistake. A mistake that was discovered by spying on their activity because you disliked them. You wanted to have an admin demoted purely out of spite. That is certainly not an example of leadership I'd like to follow personally.

I appreciate your time as an admin and very much so enjoyed you on our team. You were very helpful and radiated a great personality. You showed amazing leadership skills and made events enjoyable. You've earned my respect, but I can't stand behind this affinity to cancel any admin your group has issues with.

 

3 hours ago, BloodyBaroness said:

There was an issue with a player building in the same area of our team. Myself, Dicko, Pete and Dab all tried to peacefully/friendly engage the player and work out a solution. The player refused to even acknowledge us and started griefing our building. We tried to take it in stride and work something out, but it was impossible. The player blocked us with TCs/building spam. Admins (literally all of the Scourge admins) were called, acknowledged the griefing, but refused to remove the TCs. This went on for days and took multiple attempts to resolve. It was ruining our gameplay to the point we decided to move our entire building to an unoccupied area deep in the snow. We rebuilt and carried on with wipe. But hey, we are the bad guys right? Sure looks that way when you only get one side. 

The player in question personally reached out to me and expressed their concerns about your team building next to them. They didn't mind you being there, but your base grew 100 times overnight, so they placed TC's around their base as a buffer. This likely caused issues with overlapping TCs which would have been sorted or done so respectfully, but that wasn't the case.

I sat and watched your group on several occasions harass this player. Throwing smoke grenades at and near their base to smoke them out, pointing spotlights through their windows, spamming sound bites and music over your mics, shooting at them and their base, and even at one point walling in every single puddle so they couldn't have access to water.

I'm not sure what transpired previously. I'm sure it was a lot of back and forth, but every time I was over there watching, the player minded their own business, trying to avoid your group while they did everything they possibly could to annoy them.

 

3 hours ago, BloodyBaroness said:

The big incident was the lake griefing issue. Smaller but more consistent incidents continued throughout the wipe. I personally brought up problems/called attention to many different things and either got no response, or "this happened too long ago for us to do anything", or "we'll take a look" with zero follow up. 

I admit this has been a problem for the past few months due to awful admin retention. We're also working on improving the reporting process so you always have a follow-up, regardless if anything can be done or not.

 

3 hours ago, BloodyBaroness said:

What I will argue is there were 1-2 other players making far nastier more degrading remarks, that I know for a fact were reported, and they were not banned, or even warned to my knowledge. Chat was gross and toxic, admin attention was called to it numerous times, but it stayed gross. December was by far one of the most disgusting months I've ever seen in RustEZ game chat. It was a big reason that factored in to my deciding not to continue playing on the server the last bit of that wipe. 

We do not make or plan to make warnings public. Punishments outside of a ban are private to respect that player's privacy. If someone is degrading in chat, this should have been handled by an admin. If not, we'll see that our chat moderation standards are being governed correctly.

Right now, our biggest issue is far too many players who study server rules to know exactly how to skirt them and avoid punishment. This is exactly why we've pushed for temp bans to address these individuals. The Dicko ban is one of many bans we'll be serving to bring us back to some sense of normality after the rough month we've had.

 

3 hours ago, BloodyBaroness said:

The situation with admin Dicko reported was a turning point for me. The evidence against that admin was clear, solid and without a doubt impacted players and the economy. I was lumped together with Dicko and Pete in the "bad guy" ranks because I too stood by the evidence. The the excuse "my kid did it" should have never flown. An admin allowed access to his account and manipulation of said account in the form of spawning items. If, as is it is clearly stated "admins are held to a higher standard" why was that not the case here? Players have bans standing for lesser offenses. I questioned the integrity of all those involved and decided to take a step back to asses my feelings on those in the leadership role. 

Their defense was irrelevant to the decision. They made a mistake. We corrected it—end of the story. We're not going to terminate an admin after their first offense, within reason. Spawning in items for an alt to sell for credits is not "economy destroying" as you want it to be.

The spawning of items to sell in vending machines is actually a common issue with newer admins. Again, we prefer to correct their behavior instead of just giving them the boot. Which we have on several occasions, and some of those admins are now heads or in leadership. It wouldn't have been possible if we just canned them after the first offense.

 

3 hours ago, BloodyBaroness said:

In many of the issues I had brought up to admins I was told "too much time had passed/not enough evidence left to do anything."  This ban proves that it does not matter how much time has passed and it does not matter how little evidence exists, they can and will still do something.   This ban was a huge reach back to silence someone who had offended them. 

@Aurora didn't wake up one day and decide to ban Dicko. After witnessing several distasteful comments in our Discord and a month of them constantly instigating issues to spark a response from both players and admins, it was actually my idea. The ban is completely justified, and I 100% stand behind it. If you're as passionate about removing problem players as you make it seem, I couldn't imagine you have any reservations about this decision.

 

Regardless of what has been said or how snarky any of my comments may have been in this post, I still respect the hell out of you guys. You were excellent admins, and I truly appreciate all the time and effort you put into our community. I understand Dicko is your friend, and you're going to defend them, but personally, I feel your vendettas are not your own. You're simply projecting the feelings of Dicko instead of forming your own opinion.

 

54 minutes ago, DabDaddyJosh said:

dicko not only quit the server. he left the discord and this forum... then this ban "magically" happens a month later with old chat logs, that i know for a fact im in. also saying the same shit hes saying about Bradly Camping , heli crate stealing, oil rig yoink'ing, Loot Goblin weebs. (plus that shit bag im sure you saw half the server muted) 

Dicko was active in Discord up until this ban. I want to say they left a day before the decision to issue the ban was made.

 

54 minutes ago, DabDaddyJosh said:

fucking hurts my soul someone as nice as you could turn into a bAdmin weeb like virgoth, abusing priv for petty shit like banning someone who disagreed with you a month after they quit the whole community. the best community. even if alot of them watch the simpsons.

I'd also agree that having an entire group of people abandon a community and berate admins because the guy they didn't like wasn't demoted pretty petty, too IMO. To clarify again, Dicko was banned for remarks said in Discord days prior to this ban, in addition to all the other incidents that were overlooked, because we don't just ban people we disagree with.  

[DabDaddyJosh]

1 hour ago, Death said:

To clarify again, Dicko was banned for remarks said in Discord days prior to this ban, in addition to all the other incidents that were overlooked, because we don't just ban people we disagree with.  

but you do see how the 50 (low to medium edgy) one way chat excerpts (of stuff ive written before)  looks like someone went back to a seprate wipe just to compile more evidence for justification. this would of been totally different/looked totally different had "remark(s) said in discord" (as you just said he was banned for days prior to this)  was the only thing or " he was being a dick" was the only thing.. as a player ( yes i had a base this wipe). ive seen admins break rules. ive had rules broken on me. and ive always had faith that even without complaining or blowing up the help channel that it would be figured out. and it always has. i couldn't care less about the "guy they didnt like not getting demoted" seeing how as a player not in the know it didnt effect me much.

what does effect me is whats always effected me, and that is vauge rules and even more vauge enforcement at times ( i understand they are trying times and things have changed)

but this quote from you.  "This was an issue for me. Dicko purposely scrolled through days, if not weeks, of activity to find a single ounce of evidence to have this admin removed purely out of spite"

that worry, and my worry of admins going back into chat log of past wipes to exerpt anything that can deemed negative to "strengthen" a ban is the same thing, with the same consequences 

 i never said dicko didnt deserve a ban for one reason or another. i just knew that those 50 excerpts from month old chat was literal filler to help make a case look T H I C C ( that ovbiously didnt need to be helped)

I understand that i may have been wrong about certain timelines regarding when people left or were/wernt active. and i also understand that there really is no reason a pleb like myself needs any explanation on why someone was banned/not banned. like i said above, this is a dictatorship. and a damn good one with you being our supreme reader.

i would like to apologize for any information i got wrong. and for being emotionally triggered by my friend getting banned by another old friend while completely ignoring the legit evidence against him and focusing on the larger "bullshit filler" aspects as if that resolves the ladder.

we all invested in EZ. we all love EZ for diffrent reasons . and thats prob why we all get emotional

im sorry Aurora for ever thinking you were being a bAdmin. i see now that is not the case and for that i feel horrible.

[Dicko A La Mode]

Alright everyone, here is my manifesto that I am sure some of the hundreds of views on my ban expected to find.

Just in respect for everyone's time, let's knock some of the obvious stuff you are expecting from me.  There were 7 listed reasons I was banned and supporting information following.  They are follows and my reaction to them.

Disrespect

Disrespect of specific players and our PvE community in general
Disrespectful and demeaning comments about staff

    I was disrespectful to specific people.  As wrong as it might be my approach to a lot of the behavior on the server was "an eye for an eye".  If someone wanted to skate the server rules and impact others game play, so was I.  There is probably something to be said here about "being the better person" but here we are.

Harassment

Ongoing bullying of players over the duration of wipes
Continuously trolling a player for days to ruin their time on our servers

    See above, I purposefully sought out to antagonize specific people.  The continuously trolling of a player was also a similar situation as above.  If they felt we built to fast over night, that is their deal.  The trolling was fueled by lack of action on the US Scourge Admin part.  It was reported, it was talked about but that is where it stopped.  I had every admin at our base investigating and the response was always that they needed to talk to another admin.  Yes, we could have went above Spliff's head and went to one of the 3 in Leadership but how would that have went given we were just blindly stripped of a staff role for simply not agreeing with a decision.  Does any of this justify my actions, no.  Again, see "being the better person"

Drama

Instigating toxicity and drama in our community

    This is a pretty general statement you could apply to a lot of your irritated long time players right about now.  I believe when this was written what was probably front of mind was me asking for people to share their experiences and opinions on loot goblins.  I could be wrong though, again it's a very general statement.

Building to create lag areas on the server

    This is flat out inaccurate.  If I cared enough I would ask to see proof.

Creating an unnecessary workload for admins with their drama and trolling

    Admin's never stepped in to do anything about my drama or trolling until Aurora banned me.  I fail to see whos time I wasted if no time was spent?

Let's move onto my comment in Discord regarding "Dat Gamer".  Whether you want to use the terminology "shit heap" or not you need to ask yourself if I am wrong.  He is one of the players I referenced above who skates the rules and nothing happens.  He also spams chat consistently bragging about him skating the rules.  With the amount of searching you did in BM I am sure you can find plenty of others displeasure with him.  Again, see "being the better person"

Now onto all my chat logs from last month.  If I skip them, see "being the better person".

7:50 PM 2020-12-30 Dicko A La Mode: ez fix
8:15 PM 2020-12-30 Dicko A La Mode: Glad I have that shit bag muted
    
    I was not the only one talking about him in a negative way.

6:55 PM 2020-12-17 Dicko A La Mode: u giving me a warning?
6:55 PM 2020-12-17 Dicko A La Mode: nope
6:55 PM 2020-12-17 Dicko A La Mode: I am unwarningable

    I have never flaunted being immune from any warnings or bans to anyone on this server.  I have more likely told someone I will likely be banned soon for speaking out.  This situation which Spliff asked to test /warn on me to see if I got the pop up.  I didn't just say "I am unwarningable".  But shame on me for wasting an admins time, right?

3:30 PM 2020-12-14 Dicko A La Mode: after getting away with griefing
3:30 PM 2020-12-14 Dicko A La Mode: do you grief your neighbors?
3:30 PM 2020-12-14 Dicko A La Mode: thats the difference
3:31 PM 2020-12-14 Dicko A La Mode: and no one gives a flying shit about it

    Was I wrong?  Not sure what I did wrong here.  No one did anything about it, it was a fact.  Worded harshly but a fact none the less.

12:15 PM 2020-12-04 Dicko A La Mode: @just can you help us, someone is being a naughty little boy
12:17 PM 2020-12-04 Dicko A La Mode: some guy is trying to grief us. Can you delete his garbage?

    Niko placed high walls around the front of our garage.  Did I hurt his feelings by saying "naughty little boy"?  If not, what did I do wrong here besides REPORTING it?

Now, that wraps up the original ban post.  Obviously there are replies from my friends that I am not going to comment on as those are their opinions and reflections.

aNoNiM - Should have it happened earlier? Yes, but not months ago.  I purposefully starting crossing the line December wipe.  I also agree that it should be a permanent ban but from Death's stand point on running a server you don't want to push people away.  Death and the other leadership has seen both sides of me.  If I like you, I would do anything for you.  If I don't like you and you give me a reason not to like you, good luck pal you're going to need it.  Sorry my username made you cringe.

Aurora - The ban was based on my own actions and behavior.  It was a fair ban, albeit a bit lenient.  What I do want you to understand however is that the situation prior is what fueled these actions of mine.  As I said before, I am not saying my actions are the correct way of handling it, but it was the way I chose to.  I do not believe anyone who posted was looking to appeal my ban for me and if you cannot tell from my response thus far, I am not looking for an appeal.

And finally, Death.  I truly and deeply respect your response to my ban.  Honestly, this isn't some Dicko troll or anything like that.  You are the first person in staff to actually  recognize that there is a problem.  Everything else to this point has been "report it" which from some perspectives is putting the blame back on the player base.  I will also echo what you mentioned about the ban being valid.  Most of the other parts of your reply is focused towards others comments on this so I will let those be what they are.  But there is one thing I want to bring up to clarify.  

This was an issue for me. Dicko purposely scrolled through days, if not weeks, of activity to find a single ounce of evidence to have this admin removed purely out of spite.

    I didn't just purposely scroll.  I was logged in and active on the server filling in as admin and saw a player in chat ask for "a large battery and metal frags".  Within 30 seconds I saw Virgoth giving him self a large battery and metal frags.  He proceeded to give them to the player.  This caught my attention as he was being a badmin so naturally I clicked on his profile in BM.  This triggered something else to catch my eye, an alt account.  An alt account that "catfished" a friendship with me a few wipes ago.  Maxx had met up with me and gave me a bunch of attack heli signals and asked that the next time we do a big public heli shoot down on our tower to let him know.  I didn't think anything of it other than this guy is nice.  If you look into my BM from that month.  Anytime I called in an attack signal I typed @maxx before throwing it.

Regardless what you heard or what you want to believe, it sincerely was not a witch hunt.  I guess that stuff gets lost in translation when it flows through a few people before you hear about it.

 

So that is it folks, Dicko's Manifesto of that time I got banned.  Take it for what you want, hell make it a perm ban if it helps.  I do ask 1 thing from all of RustEZ staff however - 

Take being green seriously.  I understand this is just a game but it is also an outlet for people to use to cope with MANY things from isolation during Covid, to dealing with social anxiety.  You don't know what people are going through in their life and their request to have an admin look into something or help isn't done to annoy you or bother you.  It is because they need help.  When someone complains of something, don't turn a blind eye to it because you don't want to deal with it or you are not in the mood.  

I personally believe the reason other ex-admins replied to this topic in the manner they did is because of passion for this server.  We all put time into it to make it a great place and it was, it used to be a fantastic home for people.  Seeing it in the condition it is now hurts.  It is different now as so many have pointed out.  Blame it on growing, blame it on admin turnover, whatever you feel like pointing your finger at but remember you have the power to make peoples experiences positive.

Please let my ban be the starting ground to turn a new leaf on behaviors and start actually doing something about all those "loot goblins".  You showed you can do it with me, now clean up the community and get it back to what it once was.

TL:DR - I am an asshole who deserved the ban and I am not appealing it.  Be better.

[SKUDRUNNER]

This is a very divisive topic, and I would like a moment to offer an opinion as somebody of little previous interaction with the person in question, Dicko. Also speaking as somebody who hasn't been active in the community for long periods at a time, which might offer some perspective towards people like me, or those who are new to this topic and do not know already.

@Dicko A La Mode, when I first joined RustEZ years ago, I'm pretty sure you were already an admin on US Scourge at the time. I remember you being a decent guy, and I'm pretty sure you helped me out several times when I needed it. Over the years, I've been off and on when it comes to RustEZ; always on US Scourge, and without any true form of activity until recently, it was easier for me to remember a lot of the changes in the staff over the server, or notice when one person wasn't an admin anymore even if I didn't remember everyone's names.

I came back to my longest stint of activity this past November's wipe. At this time, I'm pretty sure you had previously left the admin team, and you were serving a portion of that wipe as a temporary admin? I'm not sure the circumstances, but whatever was going on, and whatever I saw, you were doing your job, being mature, and not causing issues. I do not know of anything that happens behind the scenes, so I cannot speak to that.

But I noticed a change. And I know you have explained that change as being irritated with not only other players, but the system as a whole. The Dicko that was admin years ago when I joined, the Dicko that was temp admin this past November, is not the same Dicko that I saw this past December and onward. Be it irritated as you may have been, you came off as a cranky ex-admin with a chip on his shoulder, out just to only make a point. In the end, all I'm seeing is that you tried to show the flaws and problems in the system, by making yourself a problem for the system. I feel as though you made yourself a martyr, and maybe inadvertently so. (But to your credit, I think you did a good job. That topic is now on the table.)

-
So, let me put this on the table. Dicko, there are several people, inside and out of Staff positions in EZ, that either don't like you, or don't like something in particular that you've done. I'm going to say that I feel largely indifferent towards you, personally. I should also mention that these people's opinions doesn't solely lie on you... These people have all complained about a certain group of individuals, that which you engage with. I'll let you figure out their names. I don't know what it is, any of these people have done, and that's not my place to ask what or why. My point is, it's (apparently) not just you, Dicko.

In your defense, and remember that I'm largely on the outside of these issues, I don't think you're a bad guy. However, I agree with you. The ban was just.

=======

Having heard the testimony of a lot of people in here; Admins, Ex-Admins, Never Admins, and more from people not in this thread, I have garnered some of my own opinions about the way the EZ system, chain of command, etc. operates. And if I'm lead to believe my voice will be heard, because I can go to the Suggestions subforum and make a thread, then I will be typing something up soon. Whether or not I will be heard?... I suppose we'll just have to see.