Discord Ban Appeal - shylocking
What is your Discord ID?
236620544353632267
What is your BYOND key?
scsnv
Total Ban Duration
Permanent
Reason for Ban
“Quality Control Ban, the server icon changing is not an indicator we’re somehow now unfriendly to LGBT people, but you certainly seem to be taking it that way. We don’t want people like that on the Discord.”
Appeal
So I was told that apparently the host-level was addressing this behind closed doors, but given the time it’s taken (which might be saying something unto itself), the fact that whatever process they’re trying to undertake doesn’t actually afford the opportunity for the person to give their side, and also for purposes of transparency, I’m going to just go ahead and post it here.
So in cm-discussion or what have you, the whole drama develops regarding the changing of the logo from trans pride to the ‘normal’ CM logo. This very promptly results in Grimreaper having a very public moment where he behaves as though this is the end of the world, the starkest betrayal, or what have you. And I honestly think it was just unprofessional and poor form, not to mention how much he was publicly blowing it out of proportion (of course inciting drama in the very Discord he’s supposed to be policing), so I say something along the lines of ‘the changing logo means that we hate the gays now’. Which is a very sarcastic reflection of how Grimreaper was behaving in the conversation, and the context makes it very clear that it was sarcastic.
He promptly quips back with a ‘I don’t appreciate this’ and that’s that.. not quite. Come to find out, some evening later, that I got a ban slapped on me (see ban reason above).
From what I’ve been told, based on certain procedures that didn’t occur (e.g. conversation amongst Discord staff before issuing a ban), the person who did it is Grimreaper. Let me pose a question; if Grimreaper for a moment thought that the remark, at the time, was genuinely anti-LGBT in nature, do we really think for one second that there would have been a wait for how ever long it ended up being? He wouldn’t have wasted a single second. But no, what actually happened is he was very upset with the remark and the way in which he was on the receiving end of some remark, so some anti-LGBT justification gets slapped on after the fact.
Even putting aside the Grimreaper angle for a moment, itself extremely inappropriate, I would invite anyone to read the conversation and see the context of my remarks. They are completely focused on/in response to the manner in which Grimreaper was acting, and pushing back on the theatrics. I even very clearly state that I have absolutely no problem with the pride logo.
I would also invite anyone to read through my ~6-7 years of involvement in the community (via Discord) and find even a single shred of anti-LGBT behavior of beliefs in them.
What I would say is that the specific phrasing ‘the gays’ in the remark is slightly crass, but the entire point of it was to play up the sarcasm/dismissiveness of his remarks in that chat. Even if you thought the specific phrasing was pushing it, that’s a very different conversation from whether it was anti-LGBT and a very different level of severity.
Again, I’ve been apart of this community for well over a quarter of my life. This ban would be my second - and therefore terminal - separation from the community. Clearly in that time I’ve ruffled some feathers. But staff (and I say staff, but really this is host level) are going to have to do some soul searching of whether they’d rather adhere to the barest modicum of fairness regarding the handling of players/community members, or if they’d rather just take the opportunity to get someone they find annoying out of the way. Because if it’s the latter, then I wish everyone still in the community the best.