At this point it's pointless to delete it, but here it is ag
Recently, I was indeed banned from Nero Seattle. Mark can speak for himself on his particulars, but many of the reasons are shared between us. We?ve both been warned a number of times recently. We both get into arguments with plot about the kinds of games that we like. Neither of us will hesitate to share our opinions when asked.
I?ve never been warned for cheating. I?ve never been warned for not going along with the final decision of a marshal on site. I?ve never been warned for a safety violation. I?ve never been warned for snoring.
I
have disputed a marshal?s call on site, even at the time when they made it. I?m sure many people have seen me do it. Having been a marshal and plot, I know better then to argue and hold up game. My protests are kept to ?I believe the book says X, are you sure that?s your ruling?? Then I?ll go along with it. I always look it up later, and bring it to someone?s attention. Thus I?ve never been warned for it.
But I have been warned for arguing with a marshal. In fact, it?s what expedited the banning process. I was arguing with a marshal whom I felt had made an incorrect ruling on the Seattle rules board, because I believed that he was wrong. There were two instances. One was in the titanium armor thread. The other was on the Nero Alliance Board about the ?Order of Defenses? ruling. I was certain it was incorrect, and had the audacity to
post the question again on another forum. Mind you, both of these are online arguments, and therefore,
per Shane, a warning should not have been issued.
The other warning I?ve been issued recently was for not following directions. In this instance, I was told that one marshal had told us to do a thing. However, there was another marshal present who told us to do another. Rather then go with hearsay, I went with the opinion of the marshal present. It was a ruling made with safety in mind, and I?ll rarely argue with the more conservative of two safety rulings. Hence, I, and four others, were warned.
Like I said, I?ll argue with plot. I?ll send in bad reviews and say that I didn?t enjoy the game or even that it outright sucked. I?ll also send in good reviews, or go into detail about why I thought something was cool, what I enjoyed, and what I?d like to see more of. Honestly, I understand how this frustrates some of plot staff. It?s harsh to have someone tell you they though your weekend blew. I?ve been there. But I?m not going to tell them I thought the weekend rocked even though I there was nothing to do for 6 hours on Saturday, or if I thought the Big Mod was horribly under-scaled, or I had to talk to the nobility for two hours. Some people like those things. I don?t, and I?m not hesitant about saying it. Most of the ?arguments? that I have with plot are over IM, and most of the time they?re initiated
by members of plot. I normally get along fine with most of the people on plot. The person I argue the most with is Dave, followed by Jim. We?ll really get into it sometimes, but I?m almost never actually angry with either of them by the time we?re done. Unfortunately, with the internet as our medium, I can?t tell how they came away from the conversation. I know that I can sit down with Jim and talk about plot styles and game types for hours in person and come away from it thinking we understand where we disagree, but I can also understand how he could get a really vile feeling from some of the IM conversations we?ve had. It?s a bad deal, but it happens.
To answer as many of JP?s questions as I can:
jpariury said:
3) What is the duration of a ban?
my banning letter said:
? you are hereby banned indefinitely from NERO Alliance Seattle? This banning will be reviewed one year from the effective date of banning (being the date of delivery of this letter). (February 2nd 2005)
jpariury said:
4) Is there a process for appealing the decision?
my banning letter said:
This decision has been brought by the executive staff of NERO Alliance Seattle. Any and all inquiries and responses should be forwarded to Daniel Van Den Broeke and Shane Macomber.
jpariury said:
6) What happens to banned players' characters whose home chapter is the chapter from which they are banned?
We?re moving onto Nero NJ?s books. I?ll be submitting my transfer request shortly after the event, as I have several hundred goblin stamps in Seattle from numerous donations, and will first submit a request to purchase the missed blankets from the three day event.
Now I know that this doesn?t directly address any of the reasons that either of us have been banned. Honestly, the reasons we were given are just as vague as the ones that Jim gave above. We believe that there are a number of factors that contribute to the banning.
1: We complain. A lot. This seems to be the most frequent thing that I hear when I?ve talked to Seattle staff over the past few weeks. I have been hearing this for some time now, and aside from the aforementioned occasional discussion on how I felt the event was with various plot people over IM, I?ve gone so far as to not sending in my event reviews specifically because I know that it will get various members of plot riled up.
2: We?re disrespectful of staff. This is by far the most valid reason for our banning. However, as I said before, I only really ever deal with Dave and occasionally Jim, and then primarily over IM. It would be a tough call for me to determine exactly what may or may not have come across as disrespect the majority of the time. I?ve spoken to Shane maybe 3 or 4 times in the last year, and I don?t believe any time there was disrespect. I?ve dealt with Bond and Leigh-anne even less. I generally avoid dealing with Sarah, as we?re very often very adamantly on the same side of something or very adamantly on opposite sides of it, often depending on the phases of the moon and flights of migratory birds. There is, however, no secret of the fact that I don?t like Dan, and he doesn?t like me. I think he?s a horrible rules marshal and a cheater, and so it?s very likely that I?ve let those feelings show through on more then one occasion. Similarly, I don?t like becca, but it has nothing to do with Nero, and so I?ve attempted my best to separate that out when on site.
3: We
really don?t like Dan. I?m sure that that?s apparent from #2 up there, but it comes up so often that it really warrants it?s very own reason. I could go into a big ugly ol? personal attack here, but that?s not at all productive. Just a few simple, easy to understand examples would be much more helpful. He frequently makes rules decisions based on what will help his character IG. Most recent example that comes to mind is ruling that a Cloak vs. Summoned Force will block an explosive trap. This was a ruling that was made after having read a document written by Mike Luther (Alliance Rules Committee) which
expressly clarified this as not the case. He?s manipulated the Seattle Character Database. According to the person who did his initial transfer onto Seattle?s books, his primary character was 21st level. That was in 2002. At this time that character is approximately 36th level. To gain those 15 levels in three years would require attending two
events every month, a monthly gobbie blanket every month,
and an additional gameday every month, for
every month, for all three years. Lastly, we know him to metagame something fierce, but that?s really hard to prove. We did find it quite amusing that our banning came very quickly after a post on the Gypsy Camp board in which we implied that we were going to kill off his character at the next event.
4: I (along with several other players) have serious issues with becca. We dealt on our own with them for some time, until she began repeating threats to a few players. There were threatening comments and emails written to various people, specifically stating that she was intending to take out her OOG issues through her position as plot to enact revenge on players. We finally went to discuss the problem with Shane. Whereas he told us that he?d look into the issue, we were later harassed by other members of staff for bringing our concerns to light. Several angry emails were exchanged, and in the end we discovered that, even after forwarding some of her original threatening emails to staff, they were of the opinion that they could have been faked, and that we were just unhappy for unrelated reasons. Several people have continued to receive threats from her, and still very little was done. Still the common belief was maintained that we were just unhappy with her, and that she wasn?t doing anything of the sort. She has recently shown herself to be exactly as volatile as we?d discussed with staff, as is evidenced by her recent, unprovoked, post on the staff board.
(Censored for pertinence and for language)
becca on the staff board said:
Personally what I'd like to do is take a perfectly weighted golfclub to Matt's knees until his kneecaps were reduced to powder and he cried like a child and wet himself every time I came near him. I would like to take a 2by4 to Carmen until she was forced to LITERALLY (re)grow a spine. I would like to get together with Raissa in a dark alley and knock out her stupid teeth for all the false smiles she's given me while stabbing me in the back. I would like to rip her husband to shreds for all the things he's said to me. I won't even go into what I would like to do to hayley, but it involves her never setting foot in the united states again without being unfairly arrested and treated like **** in jail.
(snip)
Please let me break Matt's kneecaps? And tear out his larnyx, and cut off his fingers and lips? and feet? That way when he wants to complain about something stupid, he won't be able to pour his useless emptybrained drivel out at anyone and he'll explode from the contained ****TARDEDNESS.
Honestly, I expected her to be banned for the threats she?s made to players, I was surprised when she wasn?t. I think it is
extremely irresponsible that she wasn?t banned after this.
I was banned because I have problems with some of the people who are on Seattle staff. I?m sure that that was assumed by now. But now you know why.
~Matt
