Dannager
First Post
Note: This is going in Off Topic because I don't really think there's anywhere else to put it. If someone thinks differently, I'm fine with it being moved.
So I apologize if I've been snippier than usual these last couple of weeks. I've been dealing with a pretty frustrating issue over at another forum community - namely, RPG.net. This is going to be a thread involving full disclosure, because the community needs to see all of this in order to come to a reasonably informed conclusion about what happened here. I'm going to document the exact circumstances of what took place, to the best of my knowledge, in chronological order. This is going to be long. Bear with me. It's a lot to absorb, but at this point there are (I believe) 3 different individuals who have been affected by this problem. I would also like to make it clear that posting this here was a last resort; as you will see, I provided plenty of opportunities for this sort of thing to be avoided. Unfortunately, this is the final method of recourse available to myself and the other individuals so affected.
Exposition: About three weeks ago, a thread was started (located here) in which I involved myself. Some of my posts were off-topic, and I knew it. Some of my posts were also of a confrontational nature. Something got to me, and I felt compelled to share my position. I apologized to the thread starter in a private PM, and we resolved the issue.
This, however, isn't really about those posts.
On page 9 of that same thread (link here) I was permanently banned from RPG.net by moderator Darren MacLennan. This action was the beginning of what would eventually grow to become a serious problem. Concurrently with this ban, I received the following notices:
First, an email from that same moderator, which read as follows:
This is where things go really badly.
When serious disciplinary action is taken against a user's account, a thread is created to discuss and explain the decision in the Trouble Tickets sub-forum. You can find the thread covering my permaban here. What followed was a fairly consistent chorus of other forum users voicing their disagreement with the permaban. Some advocated punishments that were much less harsh, while others said they didn't feel it was even offensive in the first place. This continued until someone named User posted (post located here).
Figuratively, all internet hell broke loose.
He was immediately accused of being my sock puppet by the original moderator (located here), swiftly banned by another moderator (located here), and piled on by other posters in that thread.
Meanwhile, I had discovered that my ban had occurred. As soon as I was able, I fired off an email requesting an appeal (you can find an image of the email here). At this point, I was content to sit back and wait for the appeal process to unfold.
Unfortunately, that got shut down as soon as the administrator in charge of my appeal got wind of the alleged sockpuppetry going on in the Trouble Tickets thread. He quickly hopped on board that particular bandwagon (post located here).
Now, User has already been banned for sockpuppetry. Instead of doing what he should have done - sent an email to the admin account appealing the ban - he instead created a second account (User2) and posted again in the Trouble Tickets thread, disputing the ban (his posts were subsequently deleted by the moderation staff, but you can find remnants of their existence here and here). Frankly, I don't blame him. Given the moderation staff's eagerness to label him a sock puppet, I can't imagine he expected any e-mail he sent to receive any worthwhile attention.
He was, of course, banned a second time.
I was watching this unfold as I followed the Trouble Tickets thread, unable to provide input myself in User's defense. Instead, I was busy firing off emails to the admin account, explaining that I wasn't User (or User2, for that matter), and that they just banned some innocent guy who spoke up in my defense (you can find images of those emails here and here).
I also took a look at User's account (what little I could, being banned myself). He had been around for nearly a year (his account was created in March of last year), and had almost 150 posts to his name. It should have been obvious to anyone that this was not typical sock puppet behavior. I also found that he had posted in one of the threads I had recently participated in (located here). I had posted early on in the first page of the thread (post located here) in support of Mearls' post, and he then posted on the second page (post located here), offering criticism of it.
Of course, I wasn't the only one who noticed these red flags. Other users posted in the Trouble Tickets thread (posts located here and here) questioning why someone would sit on a sock puppet for a year (and bother building up its own posting history) only to eventually offer defense of the original account. I can only guess at why the moderation singled out User to accuse of sockpuppetry out of those who spoke up in my defense - perhaps it was that neither of us had an avatar, or that User's name was generic - but none of my guesses come anywhere near justification. Let's be clear: there was no actual evidence of sockpuppetry to be found, and ample evidence that User was an entirely different person. I would have gone back through his posting history to find further evidence to support this, but my ban prevents me from searching user histories. Those reading this thread may wish to do so on their own; if you locate further evidence that pertains to this matter, please post it in this thread.
I was, at this point in the course of events, content to let the staff take a hard look at what was going on. They had easy access to everything I had found, and they have a responsibility to their user base to take matters like permanent bans seriously, giving them the due investigation they merit.
I heard nothing, for two weeks. I had been incredibly accommodating and forthcoming, and made clear my willingness to cooperate in any kind of verification they might wish to pursue. In response, I received inaction and silence.
Deciding that I'd given them more than ample time, I wrote another email (image of the email located here). I outlined what I required, and provided (once again) assurances that I would provide them with whatever they needed to confirm the nature of my account. It was also at this point that I decided to make this matter more public if keeping it between the administration and myself proved fruitless. In truth, my promise to involve the community was half threat. I do have a genuine desire to make this public in order to alert the community to what I consider a really serious problem with the state of moderation at RPG.net, but I was hopeful that they might handle that themselves in a graceful manner.
I received the following in return (image of the email located here):
Immediately, I responded (image of the email located here). This time I provided a deadline: 48 hours to come forward with a solution. That was two days ago.
I've been following the Trouble Tickets board pretty regularly for the past couple of days, waiting to see if the administration has decided to come around. Today, I noticed another peculiar thread there (located here). Unfortunately I can't look up the user in question (and no link was provided to his posts), but the user 40,000 year old hang-nail was recently banned for sockpuppetry. They also didn't explicitly state the account the sock belonged to, but the capitalization of "User" in the first post and the note that the individual had been banned three times before (which presumably includes the acccounts itarakoturo, User, and User2), and the follow-up post (located here) noting that it should be obvious from the information posted in the thread all make it sound like they suspected this account of being yet another sock puppet. Of course, this user then created another account to question the ban of sockpuppetry (no doubt confused as to why he was banned - once again, I can only guess as to why, though my email requiring action on their part probably had them on alert for anything resembling more sock puppetry), which was then subsequently banned.
The possibility exists that this new account could have been owned by the same person behind the User and User2 accounts. I won't dismiss that entirely, since I can't speak for him. If this is the case, it was certainly unwise of him to create a new account given the staff's eagerness to hand out permanent bans, but if that was the case I'm sure he didn't expect that his original account would be restored to him. Either way, the responsibility for the situation lies squarely at the feet of the staff.
I was, of course, distressed that yet another otherwise innocent individual was hit by this clockwork ban hammer, and that this would probably be used as further "evidence" that I was engaging in sock puppetry. I fired off one final email (image located here) indicating that I was aware of the most recent banning spree and wanted to make sure that it was resolved as well.
That was a few hours ago, and here I am now. My deadline has passed, and so I am posting this here in the hopes that the community might read through this monster of a post and come to the conclusion that the actions of the moderation staff were simply wrong. I have little interest in discussing the circumstances of the original ban of my account. I don't believe it was justified, but the events that followed are far more disturbing.
This is not, as the RPG.net staff has so uncharitably put it, a "sad quest for attention," - I would have been ecstatic if this had simply been resolved two weeks ago - nor is this an attempt to attack RPG.net and its staff. I have, in the past, had wonderful experiences on their forums (indeed, I wouldn't fight so hard to get this reversed if I didn't feel it was a worthwhile community) and I haven't run into any issues with them in the past. I'm hoping that this is a (relatively) isolated incident that was caused by nothing more than a few irresponsible decisions that were supported and built-up unknowingly by the rest of the staff.
So here is my plea: if you're so inclined, and have the time to do so, please take a close look at this. I've spent way too much time dealing with this and documenting it, but I've become so incensed with the state of affairs that I'm determined to see this through. I'm confident that there is ample evidence to support my side of the story. If you do come to that conclusion, say so. If you believe this is unfair, say so. If you don't agree, you can certainly say so, too (though it's not really what I'm hoping for
). I am hoping that if enough people voice criticism of the actions taken surrounding this series of events, the administration of RPG.net will decide to reverse their decisions.
Thanks for reading.
So I apologize if I've been snippier than usual these last couple of weeks. I've been dealing with a pretty frustrating issue over at another forum community - namely, RPG.net. This is going to be a thread involving full disclosure, because the community needs to see all of this in order to come to a reasonably informed conclusion about what happened here. I'm going to document the exact circumstances of what took place, to the best of my knowledge, in chronological order. This is going to be long. Bear with me. It's a lot to absorb, but at this point there are (I believe) 3 different individuals who have been affected by this problem. I would also like to make it clear that posting this here was a last resort; as you will see, I provided plenty of opportunities for this sort of thing to be avoided. Unfortunately, this is the final method of recourse available to myself and the other individuals so affected.
Exposition: About three weeks ago, a thread was started (located here) in which I involved myself. Some of my posts were off-topic, and I knew it. Some of my posts were also of a confrontational nature. Something got to me, and I felt compelled to share my position. I apologized to the thread starter in a private PM, and we resolved the issue.
This, however, isn't really about those posts.
On page 9 of that same thread (link here) I was permanently banned from RPG.net by moderator Darren MacLennan. This action was the beginning of what would eventually grow to become a serious problem. Concurrently with this ban, I received the following notices:
First, an email from that same moderator, which read as follows:
Second, a notice upon logging in, which reads as follows:
Now, this was a permaban - the harshest disciplinary action available to forum moderators. This is not the sort of punishment reserved for a couple off-topic posts. The moderator in question very clearly failed to understand the intent of my posts, and that's fine. It doesn't excuse the punishment selected, however.
This is where things go really badly.
When serious disciplinary action is taken against a user's account, a thread is created to discuss and explain the decision in the Trouble Tickets sub-forum. You can find the thread covering my permaban here. What followed was a fairly consistent chorus of other forum users voicing their disagreement with the permaban. Some advocated punishments that were much less harsh, while others said they didn't feel it was even offensive in the first place. This continued until someone named User posted (post located here).
Figuratively, all internet hell broke loose.
He was immediately accused of being my sock puppet by the original moderator (located here), swiftly banned by another moderator (located here), and piled on by other posters in that thread.
Meanwhile, I had discovered that my ban had occurred. As soon as I was able, I fired off an email requesting an appeal (you can find an image of the email here). At this point, I was content to sit back and wait for the appeal process to unfold.
Unfortunately, that got shut down as soon as the administrator in charge of my appeal got wind of the alleged sockpuppetry going on in the Trouble Tickets thread. He quickly hopped on board that particular bandwagon (post located here).
Now, User has already been banned for sockpuppetry. Instead of doing what he should have done - sent an email to the admin account appealing the ban - he instead created a second account (User2) and posted again in the Trouble Tickets thread, disputing the ban (his posts were subsequently deleted by the moderation staff, but you can find remnants of their existence here and here). Frankly, I don't blame him. Given the moderation staff's eagerness to label him a sock puppet, I can't imagine he expected any e-mail he sent to receive any worthwhile attention.
He was, of course, banned a second time.
I was watching this unfold as I followed the Trouble Tickets thread, unable to provide input myself in User's defense. Instead, I was busy firing off emails to the admin account, explaining that I wasn't User (or User2, for that matter), and that they just banned some innocent guy who spoke up in my defense (you can find images of those emails here and here).
I also took a look at User's account (what little I could, being banned myself). He had been around for nearly a year (his account was created in March of last year), and had almost 150 posts to his name. It should have been obvious to anyone that this was not typical sock puppet behavior. I also found that he had posted in one of the threads I had recently participated in (located here). I had posted early on in the first page of the thread (post located here) in support of Mearls' post, and he then posted on the second page (post located here), offering criticism of it.
Of course, I wasn't the only one who noticed these red flags. Other users posted in the Trouble Tickets thread (posts located here and here) questioning why someone would sit on a sock puppet for a year (and bother building up its own posting history) only to eventually offer defense of the original account. I can only guess at why the moderation singled out User to accuse of sockpuppetry out of those who spoke up in my defense - perhaps it was that neither of us had an avatar, or that User's name was generic - but none of my guesses come anywhere near justification. Let's be clear: there was no actual evidence of sockpuppetry to be found, and ample evidence that User was an entirely different person. I would have gone back through his posting history to find further evidence to support this, but my ban prevents me from searching user histories. Those reading this thread may wish to do so on their own; if you locate further evidence that pertains to this matter, please post it in this thread.
I was, at this point in the course of events, content to let the staff take a hard look at what was going on. They had easy access to everything I had found, and they have a responsibility to their user base to take matters like permanent bans seriously, giving them the due investigation they merit.
I heard nothing, for two weeks. I had been incredibly accommodating and forthcoming, and made clear my willingness to cooperate in any kind of verification they might wish to pursue. In response, I received inaction and silence.
Deciding that I'd given them more than ample time, I wrote another email (image of the email located here). I outlined what I required, and provided (once again) assurances that I would provide them with whatever they needed to confirm the nature of my account. It was also at this point that I decided to make this matter more public if keeping it between the administration and myself proved fruitless. In truth, my promise to involve the community was half threat. I do have a genuine desire to make this public in order to alert the community to what I consider a really serious problem with the state of moderation at RPG.net, but I was hopeful that they might handle that themselves in a graceful manner.
I received the following in return (image of the email located here):
I can't be sure that their claim of "geographical data" isn't true; I do live in Southern California. The chances of someone else living close by enough to be considered a likely sock puppet are not insignificant. I am skeptical, however.
Immediately, I responded (image of the email located here). This time I provided a deadline: 48 hours to come forward with a solution. That was two days ago.
I've been following the Trouble Tickets board pretty regularly for the past couple of days, waiting to see if the administration has decided to come around. Today, I noticed another peculiar thread there (located here). Unfortunately I can't look up the user in question (and no link was provided to his posts), but the user 40,000 year old hang-nail was recently banned for sockpuppetry. They also didn't explicitly state the account the sock belonged to, but the capitalization of "User" in the first post and the note that the individual had been banned three times before (which presumably includes the acccounts itarakoturo, User, and User2), and the follow-up post (located here) noting that it should be obvious from the information posted in the thread all make it sound like they suspected this account of being yet another sock puppet. Of course, this user then created another account to question the ban of sockpuppetry (no doubt confused as to why he was banned - once again, I can only guess as to why, though my email requiring action on their part probably had them on alert for anything resembling more sock puppetry), which was then subsequently banned.
The possibility exists that this new account could have been owned by the same person behind the User and User2 accounts. I won't dismiss that entirely, since I can't speak for him. If this is the case, it was certainly unwise of him to create a new account given the staff's eagerness to hand out permanent bans, but if that was the case I'm sure he didn't expect that his original account would be restored to him. Either way, the responsibility for the situation lies squarely at the feet of the staff.
I was, of course, distressed that yet another otherwise innocent individual was hit by this clockwork ban hammer, and that this would probably be used as further "evidence" that I was engaging in sock puppetry. I fired off one final email (image located here) indicating that I was aware of the most recent banning spree and wanted to make sure that it was resolved as well.
That was a few hours ago, and here I am now. My deadline has passed, and so I am posting this here in the hopes that the community might read through this monster of a post and come to the conclusion that the actions of the moderation staff were simply wrong. I have little interest in discussing the circumstances of the original ban of my account. I don't believe it was justified, but the events that followed are far more disturbing.
This is not, as the RPG.net staff has so uncharitably put it, a "sad quest for attention," - I would have been ecstatic if this had simply been resolved two weeks ago - nor is this an attempt to attack RPG.net and its staff. I have, in the past, had wonderful experiences on their forums (indeed, I wouldn't fight so hard to get this reversed if I didn't feel it was a worthwhile community) and I haven't run into any issues with them in the past. I'm hoping that this is a (relatively) isolated incident that was caused by nothing more than a few irresponsible decisions that were supported and built-up unknowingly by the rest of the staff.
So here is my plea: if you're so inclined, and have the time to do so, please take a close look at this. I've spent way too much time dealing with this and documenting it, but I've become so incensed with the state of affairs that I'm determined to see this through. I'm confident that there is ample evidence to support my side of the story. If you do come to that conclusion, say so. If you believe this is unfair, say so. If you don't agree, you can certainly say so, too (though it's not really what I'm hoping for
). I am hoping that if enough people voice criticism of the actions taken surrounding this series of events, the administration of RPG.net will decide to reverse their decisions.Thanks for reading.
