We have been getting a lot of questions about the BenKenobi ban and we just wanted to make a thread to clarify the circumstances of the ban.
He has received 8 violations in Main Lobby ranging from HC to Spamming to Trolling to Copied Mechanics to Lobby Camping and is currently banned there. Furthermore, we have gotten many reports from people complaining about the aggressive and overly offensive language that BenKenobi has been using in chatrooms and in games in the Survivor Lobby. Our first and foremost goal as moderators of the Survivor Lobby is to make the Lobby a fun and safe place for people to play in and BenKenobi was actively toxic and against all of these values. As a result, because of his actions in Main Lobby and Survivor Lobby, the Main Lobby moderators decided to siteban BenKenobi, an action which we support as well. Ben will no longer be able to play in the Survivor Lobby or Main Lobby, but he is free to play in Sandbox.
Finally, I'd like to thank the main lobby moderators for working closely with us for the past few months. They've been extremely helpful and we really appreciate their help.
I think benkenobi gets a thrill from baiting people and seeks attention that he doesn't even realize how offensive he is. I do this to some extent so I can't judge him too harshly. Ultimately, if the mods don't enforce rules there will be anarchy, and hardcarry doesn't act alone their are other mods to put him in check if he strays from the path.
@withered's big original post, because I want to answer it super duper directly as well:
Warnings are on a per-case kind of deal. Usually we decide to give warnings when we think a user will benefit from them because they either don't know their behavior is wrong or really just need to be told "hey, stop that." I think the trend is that we usually end up going with warnings for the younger/more immature members of the lobby. They're not made public and are usually just handled in pm. Last year, we had one user who was warned twice who ended up not receiving a vio because they said, "ok, I'm going to try my best." Probably a year and a half ago (?), we also gave a different user a warning, and they lied about their behavior to us, so they DID end up with a vio.
In almost all cases, we send a user a pm letting them know why they've been banned/received a vio - we didn't get around to doing this for Ben because a site mod actually banned him from the lobby before we did - which was kind of weird. It's also probably the reason why HC used that terrible phrasing in his original post and is now locked up in Tucker's basement.
And yes, the mod team acts as a unit on all decisions. We work democratically, so once a majority of us decide to handle something one way, we decide to act that way and all support that decision (even if there's disagreement). Though that's not to say there was any disagreement in this case - I don't believe there was.
I think it's important to note also that whether this report is temporary or permanent will be decided after a discussion with BenKenobi. At this point, in accordance with the Survivor Lobby rules the ban should be for one month. The moderators will be communicating with BenKenobi to discuss this and I'm sure you'll all be made aware of the final verdict. Thanks for reading my massive wall of text and I truly hope that you are having a great day :-)
Finally and on a personal note, I'd like to say that there is no reward for this role other than seeing the community happy, safe and functioning, enjoying their time playing survivor. We don't do it because we like the power trip etc, we do it because we believe that this community is a wonderful place filled with wonderful people and we all feel as though we have a responsibility to uphold that. When we make the decisions to ban people like BenKenobi and VWXYZ it isn't because of any kind of grudge or show of control, it's purely because their actions have demonstrated that they are a danger to our community. Certainly not in the same way as users like Lukie, but a danger in a different way if that makes sense. With that said, I personally really appreciate that you have taken the time to question our decisions and ask these questions, because it shows that you also believe that our community should be fair and respectful. So on that note, I welcome any more comments etc, but I would really love it if you guys could stop attacking one another and the moderators personally, because it's uncalled for and we really are doing our best here. Question us, hate us, support us, that's at your discretion... But don't attack us.
Cammy actually also talked with BenKenobi personally in a lobby chat where she asked him to stop spamming "f*ggots" in said chat. He refused to stop and continued to spam it which led to the report for harrassment from FFSierraDamnThomas.
Finally, BenKenobi has 8 vios in Main Lobby so he should be well aware of the rules put in place in the site. You cannot argue that BenKenobi didn't know that what he was doing was wrong because he has been banned before for similar behavior in Main Lobby.
Whilst our moderators endeavour to be a part of the community, we understand that this isn't always the case, however whether or not we know an individual personally does not dictate how we undertake our role. Can any of us say that we know BenKenobi's first name? No. Does this mean that his clear violation of our community rules should be ignored? No.
Hi everyone, this is probably going to be a couple of posts long as it's a bit long winded, so please bear with me and if you would be so kind as to not attack me until i'm finished i'd highly appreciate it!!! So, at the moment, the moderator team doesn't usually message the party who is being investigated for their opinion before banning them unless we're unsure of their intentions. This is because typically intentions don't define actions, and whilst a person may have good intentions if they are cheating etc it is still a violation of the rules. For example, at the moment, there is no differentiation between a new player not knowing the rules and breaking them and a veteran playing knowing the rules and breaking them. We try to treat everyone equally in this regard. Typically, however we do try to post an explanation of the violation when asked by the player so that they are aware of their error and can amend this in future games.
With this said, BenKenobi/Lucio was well aware of the site rules and Survivor Lobby rules because he was actually banned for cheating 9 months ago where we explained why he was banned as well as linked him the rules. You can find that report here: https://epicmafia.com/report/204511
