[Tarquin]

I got temp-banned for "ignoring warnings to shut." I didn't see the warnings, but don't know what I did that would have warranted them...

The background to this is that Half-Duplex was on my team, talking a lot of trash in general and provoking many people to start vote-kicks against him. What I was saying was stuff like: "Congratulations, you have now made yourself feel better about yourself by talking shit on the internet."

Then Insomnia Princess said she was going to kick people for vote-kick abuse -- For starting vote-kicks against Half-Duplex.

Then I got kicked, about 10 mins later, after I made the following statement, which was a twisting of Half-Duplex's words: "Did you just say that you would not touch Insomnia Princess with a 20 ft. pole? Since when did you talk shit to admins."



OK but look I don't really care about getting kicked from a TF2 server has I can go find others to regular. But I thought I had found a good place to play with a good community of players. Does this demolish that opinion?

If I had a server I'd want to feel free to run it any way I want to, but I wouldn't kick-ban players because of the things that I said. Especially if I had a community of players establishing on my servers, I'd try to have a more "rule of law" approach than "kick anyone I don't like" or "kick anyone who talks trash to Half-Duplex."

When I got kicked, people in chat were complaining that the admin would kick people who talked shit to Half-Duplex, but not kick Half-Duplex for talking shit... Really...?

Is this how this server is to be run? I mean I'd want to keep playing here but not if this is typical.

[insomniaprincess]

I apologize if this is how you feel it went down. This is what really happened:

Half-Duplex was being harassed by a couple of players last night on #2. He came back to #2 this evening and one of those players started harassing him as soon as he joined the server.

Arguments between 3-4 players ensued and I asked everyone to knock it off. It was disrupting the server. 1-2 rounds later, Half-Duplex was votekicked and temp banned for griefing.

He was previously making negative comments and I discussed this with him privately and asked him to stop or action would be taken against him. He waited the duration of his temp-ban, returned to the game and didn't do anything wrong.

Yet every time he would make a comment, you, Tarquin along with 2 other players would tell him to shut up. You continued to make comments every time he spoke and then you attempted to votekick him for mic spam.

I then warned you a 2nd time that he was not mic spamming nor breaking any server rules and that anyone who votekicked him would be kicked for votekick abuse.

Another round or 2 went by and you decided once again to start it up with Duplex- baiting him, taunting him, telling him to shut up and just generally trying to start trouble.

You were temp banned for repeatedly ignoring my requests to drop the issue and leave Duplex alone. He had already been talked to and he apologized and agreed not to insult anyone on his team anymore. Then, he kept his word.

You were disrupting the server and harassing a player because you don't like him. You and one other individual tried to votekick him because you don't like him.

You disrespected me and the SourceOP servers by ignoring my multiple warnings to stop. And you insulted me publicly as a way of trying to continue to get at Duplex. You're lucky the ban I gave you was only for a few minutes.

Now you come here and make accusations towards me and my ability to admin when what you should be doing is apologizing. I work very hard to make sure the Source OP servers all remain a fun, fair, enjoyable place to play.

You did not start the issue but you perpetuated it. You ignored multiple warnings about it and then ultimately, you were temp banned.

Your ban was expired by the time you finished writing this post...

[insomniaprincess]

If I had a server I'd want to feel free to run it any way I want to, but I wouldn't kick-ban players because of the things that I said. Especially if I had a community of players establishing on my servers, I'd try to have a more "rule of law" approach than "kick anyone I don't like" or "kick anyone who talks trash to Half-Duplex."

I'd also like to address this since I feel it is directed in an insulting manner towards me. I can fully sympathize with anyone who feels angry at being banned from a server they enjoy playing on. This is why I very rarely ban people and practically never perma-ban players (unless they are hackers).

I am quite arguably the most fair and unbiased admin on SourceOP. I am also very lenient. I understand that games can get heated and people can sometimes get caught up in the moment and do or say things they regret later. This is why I always try to give people the benefit of the doubt and I always try to communicate with players first before resulting to bans.

Source OP does have a rule of law approach and as admin, I respect that and follow that at all costs. I never use favoritism or bias in my decision-making and I have NEVER abused my admin powers in any way.

I'd also like to add that I never ban anyone without fully investigating a claim against them. You Tarquin, have actually been reported to me more than once previously and as I was unable to show any proof of wrong-doing on your part, I never did anything to you.

You were out of line today. You were disrupting the server. You were temporarily removed for your behavior. End of story.

[Tarquin]

The fact is: Half-Duplex was talking non-stop trash and the closest things I said that could be considered trash talk were (1) shut up and (2) "Congrats on making yourself feel better about yourself for talking trash on the internet."

I didn't insult you, and didn't mean to. Didn't know you felt insulted, I was accusing half-duplex of insulting you. I think you misheard me.

But I think I'll just find another place to play


Edit: I want to make it very clear that many players on the team were complaining that Half-Duplex had free-reign to talk trash while others, like me, were threatened with kick-bans or just outright kick-banned for saying things that weren't even really trash talk, as mentioned above.

[Hell-met]

Permaban the fucker already, he's a public nuisance. It has been officially proved many times.

I mean duplex, not tarquin

[insomniaprincess]

Half-Duplex can be a jerk. He's been banned before and I wouldn't hesitate to ban him again if the situation calls for it. He knows this. This situation did not call for it.

You and one other player continued to bait him and harass him. This was a disruption to the server. (Action was also taken on the other player.) You tried to abuse votekick on him because you don't like him. Every time he spoke, you repeatedly said "shut up Duplex" and even when he muted you and the other guy, you continued to try to bait him. Other members of your team asked you to knock it off. 2 players even said "that admin really is going to ban you if you guys don't shut up."

You caused 10 times more trouble than Duplex b/c of the way you chose to handle it. Once you were aware an admin was present, you could have dropped the issue, played the game and allowed Duplex to dig his own grave, if you truly believe he was doing something wrong.

You were an instigator and you were wrong for this. No one blames you or faults you for not liking Duplex. What I fault you for is coming to our servers and making a scene, harassing a player who had already been dealt with and blatantly ignoring the admin who was trying to diffuse the situation.

Then you come here and insult me and the servers by accusing me of being unfair or giving favoritism to Duplex. I have no personal problem with you. I have a problem with the situation that was making it unable for other players to enjoy their game. I temporarily removed anyone who was involved in this situation. Duplex also went to play on another server. I considered the case closed and the server went back to playing an enjoyable game free of drama.

I don't hold grudges for past instances nor do I take it personal. If the same situation happened again- with you or anyone else- I would handle it the exact same way.

I'm only taking the time to respond to your posts as an attempt to help you fully understand the situation and why you were banned. It seems you feel you were singled out so I want you to understand that you were not.

[Reynolds]

Trolling/baiting/flaming are all slippery slopes that players in all communities must learn to manage. A common theme among all gamers seems to be an impression that it's ok to respond in kind, or "he did it first, so....". This is universal, and arises from flawed thinking.

When someone acting in the role of a moderator looks at a situation, they (should) be looking at it objectively from afar, and actioning any undesirable behavior, regardless of who may have instigated it. There is no self defense get out of jail free card.

While SourceOP doesn't have a fully structured conduct system in place (and it's hard to fault that if you have the slightest ken of how time consuming and hard it can be to set such up,) I've never seen anyone misuse any powers under the guise of conduct - This is, in fact, one of the reasons I play exclusively on SourceOP servers.

Fact of the matter? If someone like Duplex is being annoying (and he certainly can be)...Mute him. Forget about him. That's all it takes, 3-4 clicks, and you're done with him. There's absolutely no valid reason to respond to him in kind or get worked up over it (and trust me, I've heard them all). If his/anyone's behavior is unacceptable beyond just annoying you, get an admin, or document evidence of what's going on and post it here or send to DF or something.

If you go down any path other than the above two, it's your own fault.

//Not affiliated with SourceOP in anyway, I just play here, and manage these sorts of policies for an industry leader.

[unknown]

auto-muting duplex saves lives.

also remembering that he's a sad, sad man inside helps

[Adder]

I'd rather have duplex on my team instead of all the people that just fuck around and are useless on maps. At least he plays to win. People just get butthurt that they get called out on being useless by him.

[Hell-met]

He doesn't call anyone useless. He talks trash and goes on massive ego trips. And those big-ass arguments are higly disruptive to the server population. There has been enough threads about it.