Handled Ungag Request: MARIO

[mariohaddad92]

Ingame name MARIO
SteamID STEAM_0:0:112048073

Gag reason spam
Ungag reason
Greetings.

I have been muted for 30 minutes by admin "PAW" for having allegedly spammed.
The admin subsequently extended the mentioned mute for 1 day, that due to previous gags in the year 2015 and one gag in 2016.

The allegedly spammed content is sentences similar to "please type rtv to change map", occurring a maximum of one time per round, and distanced by intervals of time in correspondence with the following :

13:00:35
13:06:44
13:08:25
13:14:12
13:18:15
13:26:04
13:28:22
13:31:30
13:36:10
13:40:34
13:46:34

To my understanding, such distanced recurrence does not meet the definition of spam.
The admin asked me to "stop begging for rtv" and warned me, after which i formally explained to him that it's my right to write what i will as long as the recurrence and the content of what i'm writing is not against this server's rules.

In fact, no other player complained about my messages, because the repetition was unnoticeable; on the contrary it was mostly answered by "rtv" from other people who also wanted to change the map.
For me, my intention was specific and honest, it was to finally play a precise map (16-chambers) which i had previously nominated twice with no positive result in map-vote, for which i was motivated to point out in chat for other people, the possibility of changing map by accumulating "rtv" votes, had they been not enjoying the current map.

Hence I fail to find an explanation as to why the admin would have asked me to stop writing that specific sentence, and to why he then proceeded to mute me when i continued exercising what i thought and think to be my right.

I accordingly kindly request whom it may concern, in case they find my situation unjust, to cancel my mentioned mute and remove its record from existing logs;
and should they find my situation just and in correspondence to the server's rules' enforcement and therefore deem my described in-chat behavior inappropriate, then my sincere apologies.

 

[Paw]

Hello, Mario.

Spoiler: Chatlog (Mario): IMG:

What you were doing was borderline spamming, cause you kept sending the same message begging for rtv's but you waited a few minutes in between to skirt the rule about spamming, which you admitted to yourself. You were asked to stop by an admin but kept sending the same message every few minutes anyways. Which lead to me issuing a 1-day gag for "spam/provoking" and not a 30 min gag only for "spam" according to you (Which can also be seen at SourceBans.). The standard length when issuing gags is 30 min (Which is probably why you thought you were only gagged for 30 min since it says how long you've been gagged in chat.), but after gagging someone we check SourceBans to edit the length based on their earlier gag record/history. Since your last gags are almost 3 years old and you've made a request, I'll reduce the punishment from 1 day to only a few hours. In the future please listen to admin's instructions and don't try to skirt around the rules.

Here you can see some of the forum/server rules, but being an Ex-Admin yourself you are probably familiar with them already:
"Bannable offences: General (Forum & Servers)
3. Spamming, Heavy Flaming and Provocative Behaviour
6. Refusing to follow Admin instructions"
^ Link to rules ^

From an abuse report that was somewhat similar to this situation which lead to the gag(s?) staying:

Spoiler: IMG:

https://forum.elite-hunterz.com/threads/abuse-report-paw.10095/

Though I've already been contacted by one staff member any of the other SPA/HA's should feel free to comment any mistake(s) or if there's something I could have done better in handling this situation.

 

[mariohaddad92]

Hey PAW,
Unfortunately your reply did not solve the precise issue i exhibited, and in order to avoid repetition i will summarize my point of view in the following sentence :

Repeating the same sentence a maximum of once per round, and with recurrences distanced by at least several minutes of time, is a behavior that does not meet the definition of spam, and therefore is not punishable.

( Parallel or similar examples:
1- Rejoining the server after 10 minutes of quitting does not meet the definition of "rejoining to avoid death or to avoid playing as zombie", and therefore is not punishable.
2- Closing doors mid-game while no teammates are passing, does not meet the definition of "closing doors on teammates", and therefore is not punishable.
3- Destroying a deserted barricade in order to get within and rebuild it, does not meet the definition of "destroying cades", and therefore is not punishable. )

Thank you.