Tyrandis, Franberry, Rosbaningrad and Sharfghotten

[Praetonia]

This is with reference to this thread and this thread.

I was not implicated in either incident, but I feel the need to defend my friends while they are unable to defend themselves considering the woefully disproportionate treatment they have received. Franberry and Sharfghotten were deleted and banned for posting 2 image macros. Rosbaningrad was deleted and banned for posting 1 image macro. Tyrandis was deleted and banned for making a single alleged spam post. These things are not defensible in their own right, but nor do they justify anything more than a temporary ban. In fact, that is exactly the judgment they received in the first thread, taking into account any record they may have had, except in the case of Tyrandis, who was only warned.

All four were then retroactively deleted following a separate case of image spamming in the moderation thread above by two different people: Maldorians and 'ulan', who did not have an NS account. Jenrak has been made aware of this and given by ulan the passwords of all the proxies except one, which has been linked by IP to Maldorians, as proof of his ownership. There is no evidence that Franberry, Sharfghotten, Rosbaningrad or Tyrandis were ever involved in the subsequent spamming that resulted in their deletion, and conclusive proof has been provided that it was in fact third parties. Nor did Franberry, Sharfghotten, Rosbaningrad or Tyrandis post past or otherwise evade their temporary bans.

I understand that, following the spam in moderation, the moderators perceived it as being more important for someone to be seen to be being punished and so deter future spam than to punish the correct person. But all four accounts were large, established nations that had made a significant positive contribution to the RP game on this site; there is not and has never been a scrap of evidence against them for evading bans, or spamming moderation; and now that the moderators have been made aware of their mistake, and of the true culprits, there can be no reason to maintain these disproportionate and unfair deletions.

How can it be called just that Tyrandis, who did not post an image macro, and was not even online at the time moderation was spammed, should lose his nation of several years merely "by association" (as Jenrak put it) with others presumed to committed the crime? How can any of their treatment be called just? While I am aware that NS Moderation is loath to correct its mistakes, I implore you to do so here, with so clear-cut and egregious an error.

Failing that, I implore you to at least acknowledge the truth, if you are truly sincere in your actions:

- that you have deleted two established members for posting two image macros
- that you have deleted one established member for posting one single image macro
- that you have deleted one established member for making one single spam post

and for no other infractions that can be sustained by any evidence you can provide.

[NERVUN]

We're going to stop this right here. If said players wish to appeal the ruling they may do so through a Getting Help Request with any information that they think will show we made an error.

That information will be looked at and dealt with by a pannel of Mods not related to the case and a decision returned. In other words, let's do this by the book and not start to have more forum drama.

[Ardchoille]

A panel of moderators who were not involved in the original decision has reviewed appeals from Franberry, Sharfghotten, Tyrandis, Maldorians and Rosbaningrad over the deletion of their nations following their behaviour in this thread.

The thread in question was started by a moderator and was intended to be a serious discussion of site policy in a specific forum. In response to another player's comment, four of the players whose nations were deleted posted picspam and/or trolling after a moderator had posted a "knock it off", and then after warnings had been issued. Another, already deleted, player joined in using proxies.

After that, a game mod reviewed the thread and a further thread spammed by the proxy-using player, and also by Maldorians, in Moderation. The Game Mod concluded that the "threadbombing" that the players concerned had taken part in within the original thread was sufficiently serious to be regarded as equivalent to an attack on the site.

Forum mods see to the forums. Game mods see to the game. That's how it's supposed to be. A player who posted picspam after a warning would normally receive only a forum based penalty because his action was on the forums. However, the Game Moderator's review concluded that the five players' actions constituted, not only individual rule-breaking on the forums, but also a concerted, sustained and deliberate attack on the conventions under which the entire site operates. An attack on the game has a standard penalty: DEAT. Sometimes this is extended to DoS.

The penalty is severe because such actions by an individual or a group of players totally disregard the rights of all players, whichever part of the game they play, to simply enjoy the game. The penalty is the same whether they choose to demonstrate their contempt for all other users on the forums, or whether they misuse any of the other avenues for communication that NS provides.

We therefore find that Jenrak, as forum mod, imposed forum penalties consistent with forum offences -- ban for posting picspam, etc -- and these are UPHELD. The subsequent DEATs were game penalties imposed by a game mod for an in-game offence, and these are also UPHELD.

In the hope that the players concerned will learn from this and make an attempt to play NationStates with respect for other players, we do not recommend extending the DEATs still further to Delete on Sight at this stage, nor do we recommend the deletion of any existing puppets.

We remind the players of the deleted nations that if they choose to return with new nations they must still serve the forum penalties earned by them in their previous nations.