[Analbifida] Shouty - Suspected Metacomms

[Shouty]

Byond Account: Shouty

Banning Admin: Analbifida

Ban Type: From server

Ban Reason and Length: Suspected of metacomms with users Zkeleton and Stubbyfriend, due to Zkeleton and Stubbyfriend having the same ip and Shouty meeting Zkeleton and bringing him to Stubbyfriend without a word between them. This is a permanent ban.

Time of Ban: 2019-08-22 06:02 CST

Server: bagil

Your side of the story: Me and Stubbyfriend wanted to teach Stubbyfriend's brother, Zkeleton, how to play ss13. Zkeleton is actually the account of Stubbyfriend's roommate, who is somewhat more familiar with the game. He allowed Stubbyfriend's brother to use it, as the brother didn't want to make an account for a game he may not like. We purposely wanted to avoid metacomming, so we made a plan before we joined to meet in the kitchen, and use game chat to explain how to play from there. The moment he joined, he had a hard time figuring out how to move and to unbuckle himself. Because he couldnt reach the kitchen, he decided to dm me. He had a difficult time explaining this issue to me, so i went to the shuttle to see what he was doing, and dmed with him how to move, unbuckle, and a few other game mechanics. I then dragged him to the kitchen, where Stubbyfriend began to get bwoinked about being on the same ip as zkeleton. After this, zkeleton got bored, and wanted to play something else. So we all left, getting back into a discord call. Stubbyfriend wanted to keep in contact with the admins to make sure everything was ok, so he kept the game on in the background.

Why I think I should be unbanned: We weren't really metacomming, although making plans before a round starts is honestly a bit grey-area. The only communication we had during the game were the dms i shared with zkeleton about how to play. Along with this, we barely effected the round we were in, as we all left after a few minutes and our intentions were only ever to teach zkeleton how to play. However, after reading the wiki's rules page, I do think that we approached dangerously close to metacomming. While I don't think we deserve a permanent ban, I think a temporary one would be understandable. Finally, I want to mention that the true owner of the zkeleton account was never involved in this situation. He probably should've known the risks of letting a new player use his account, but I don't think he should be banned for something other people did.

Sorry about such a long appeal post, it's just that this whole situation is a bit weird and awkward. I really enjoy your servers and I feel really bad about this whole mess, so I hope that you will reconsider the permaban for all of us involved. Thanks.

[bobbahbrown]

The events upon which this ban was based occurred in round 116713 on Bagil (src, statbus, scrubby). The ban was placed around 06:00 UTC.

The players involved were the following...
- Shouty played Christiana Robertson, the geneticist
- Zkeleton was Donny Gadow, the assistant
- Stubbyfriend was Bonnt Noton, the cook

I have provided a graph below which helps to understand the time correlation between the three players. This is based on publicly available connection data found in the logs above. The time extents are that of the round, although I suspect they are one hour behind. The servers may be incorrectly logging time in UTC.



I feel it is worth noting that in the round there were only five in-character messages sent from these three players, and all five were by StubbyFriend/(Bonnt Noton). There were no other communications. (Determined with a regex of ^.*SAY: .*(shouty|zkeleton|stubby).*$ on game.txt)

Code: Select all

[2019-08-22 04:44:14.815] SAY: Stubbyfriend/(Bonnt Noton) "NEED WHEAT!" (Hydroponics (132, 116, 2))
-snip-
[2019-08-22 04:44:21.255] SAY: Stubbyfriend/(Bonnt Noton) "GIMME WHEAT!" (Hydroponics (132, 116, 2))
-snip-
[2019-08-22 04:44:29.955] SAY: Stubbyfriend/(Bonnt Noton) "NICE" (Hydroponics (132, 116, 2))
-snip-
[2019-08-22 04:48:32.448] SAY: Stubbyfriend/(Bonnt Noton) "butter" (Kitchen (135, 118, 2))
-snip-
[2019-08-22 04:53:37.795] SAY: Stubbyfriend/(Bonnt Noton) "Excellent" (Kitchen (134, 121, 2))

[Analbifida]

2. Do not use information gained outside of in character means.
I.e.. metagaming. This especially refers to communication between players outside of the game via things like Skype, known as metacomms. Characters are otherwise allowed to know everything about ingame mechanics or antagonists, as well as keep persistent friendships or relationships with other characters when not for the purpose of unfair advantage by teaming up together for little IC reason.

I have looked over the logs, and the lack of activity from the players and the logging off during my questioning with Stubbyfriend raised alarms for me. Considering they were in the same building, there was nothing preventing him from teaching his brother on a single account/PC, which would have avoided this mess entirely while introducing them to the game. Zkeleton is already noted for revealing IC information to other players.

If you are willing to jump to outside communications this quickly, then I am concerned for a repeat of this behavior in the future. I understand teaching someone is hard, but metacomms is metacomms, if I was to start deciding which is good metacommunication and which is bad, it would begin to invalidate the entire rule. For this reason I'm not going to be revoking this ban.

[Analbifida]

After getting a second opinion on this ban, I have decided to lower the permaban to a week ban for each account. This only applies to the appealer in this case, the other accounts involved will need to make their own appeal to have theirs changed.

Keep in mind that using OOC terms IC for the purpose of teaching somebody the game is fine, and doesn't go against our OOC in IC rules.