Link to the ban appeal where all this is discussed without any filtering from my end:
https://forum.dark-gaming.com/t/my-story-part-2/16787/2
Before I explain more, this is my last post regardless of the result of what happens from this.
Forgive me for any spelling or grammar mistakes in this statement.
A quick disclosure which I feel russ should have also said:
THIS IS MY STATEMENT OF WHY I WAS PERMINENTLY BAN FROM DARK GAMING. THIS STATEMENT IS FULL OF BIAS FROM ME TOWARD MY SIDE.
What is confirmation bias?
Confirmation bias is the tendency to process information by looking for, or interpreting, information that is consistent with one’s existing beliefs . This biased approach to decision making is largely unintentional and often results in ignoring inconsistent information.
What makes an attorney non credible?
An attorney can show jurors a witness is not credible by showing: 1) inconsistent statements, 2) reputation for untruthfulness, 3) defects in perception, 4) prior convictions that show dishonesty or untruthfulness, and 5) bias. An attorney may also enhance a witness’s credibility by showing the witness has always been consistent in their statements.
The judge or jury must determine in every case with respect to every witness whether the witness is credible in his or her testimony. This determination also applies to the victim in a stalking or harassment case.
It commented that a likelihood of bias by a judge that “is too high to be constitutionally tolerable” requires recusal. More specifically, it decided that a judge who has had “significant, personal involvement as a prosecutor in a critical decision regarding the defendant’s case” must recuse him or herself. A person cannot serve “as both an accuser and adjudicator in a case.”
This is simply to set the stage. Russ had a bias against me and therefore is unfit to be the judge, jury, and executioner in this case. As he has said his decision to ban me is final unless a higher mod says otherwise. This is simply an attempt to shift blame from himself to other higher up mods. Russ has stated that he has been watching me since I was first ban. There was about a 3 week gap between my bans. In this time he presented 4 points of evidence against me. This means he got one bad thing I did every 5 or so days. I would believe that almost anyone would make a mistake or two every few days, this may be due to external factors like other people or situations, or internal issues such as stress and simply how someone is used to acting. All this is to say that russ is unfit to be the judge of the thing i do that caused russ to be:
Russ taking out of context evidence
I never thought that a moderator would stoop to using out of context evidence to bogus a reason to ban someone, but in his own defense of why he ban me, russ provided the evidence:
Russ didn’t feel like he needed to provide the context for this screenshot, but I guess it would not have been evidence that I am un-necessarily toxic though.FROM MY MEMORY I remember the interaction between me and someone named “split” or something similar based on the screenshot to have gone similarly to this “Fuck you gamingman” then I responded with “split with equal amounts of respect fuck you ;)” this is why in the screenshot he provided I was saying “split” as a name and “with equal amounts of respect” implying someone said something rude to me first to warrant a response like this.
Russ taking everything personal
In russ’s second point of evidence, he provides a screenshot of me asking out of boredom what class I should go. You can see this is about 50 minutes before the server reset so I am preparing a plan for the next reset. I say JOKINGLY in response to something russ replied to someone else, “speaking of stalking what class should i go this map in survival?” in what i assume to be a joke as well, and unrelated to this point its self (but remember how russ will make a joke and act like he isn’t responsible for the outcome of that joke later) but anyways russ replies with “U should go ranger, and make sure to use shroomite/vortex and stalker’s quiver for maximum stalker rp.” I take this as a joke and then respond with “gotcha ranger phm tank hm” (take note how i specifically say i don’t intend on going ranger hm anyways when stalker’s quiver, shroomite, all that is actually obtainable). In his own evidence, russ says
This means both of us agree that it was said in a humorous way, and in my opinion, not to be taken very seriously then.
In this same point russ then starts stating that I am asking other people about 20 minutes later about what class I should go, Miles in the example he showed. I state “miles what class should i go and should i go tank” which miles responds “nah i think lmfoa is gonna tank” as russ himself said earlier (not saying he said this about this quote I am using a quote of his but bear with me please) “Nothing is of issue here”. I assume that is going to be the end of this, and that i might need to not go tank this reset, but then russ interjects in the conversation and states “i told you what class gaming”. I personally found this to feel like russ was trying to make things all about him, and that his opinion/decision is the best one. As I preciously stated though, both russ and I took that conversation between me and him to be a joke. In what i thought would be a lighthearted joking manor, I responded “russ idc” looking back on this, it came across more aggressive than intended, but regardless I thought russ was still trying to continue on the joke so I responded in what I INTENDED to be a joking statement, which yet again is a joke which russ takes far to literal (remember this joke russ takes far to literal later as well, I will tell you when these points are important).
In his statement, he claims the following:
Russ claims I am “simply showing my true colors, as a toxic player that us a pain to deal with.” I can counter state that this shows that russ is showing his true colors as a mod who feels they are the center or survival that that their opinion and statement is the law, no matter how jokingly it is said. Earlier in this same paragraph russ states that “I responded that I already gave you my opinion (which you asked for in the first place)” Yes I did ask for his opinion, but as stated in an article, “Many group decision-making meetings are doomed before they begin. Unclear roles, missing information, and a general lack of team alignment can all foil the decision-making process.” This states that in group decisions there is almost always a divide in opinions. This is why I was asking other people their opinions also, and not basing a decision that can affect my “free time” for the next 5-7 days.
Russ over-exaggerates an issue
Russ’s 3rd point of evidence is actually rather good at making his point, besides for slandering me even more, and overplaying the issue. For some context, russ’s 3rd point of evidence was taken during a solar eclipse event, and was happening at the public warp of locean. Russ states, and I will quote it below, “I have observed you intentionally ruining other players farms by using your tank gear’s aggro.”
For starters this is a one off event, but if someone wants to come forward with a statement that I have done this to them, I will happily it as a hit to my pride. I am not disputing that I was taking agro for the reapers, causing them to float down through their platform, down to where I was grinding the solar eclipse at ocean level.
Russ then goes on to claim “You were just sitting there, intentionally ruining Cxco’s and Raf’s farm. Also the fact that another player comments that we are having yet another dispute shows that something is not right with this situation.” One thing he mentions in this statement is that I was sitting there taking agro from cxco and raf. This is not true, but there is a lack of evidence toward or against this point, so I won’t touch on it more. Russ then goes on to mention KayZo’s comment of “is russ and gamingman fighting again lmfao”. Russ claims this is damning evidence that there is simply something not right with this situation. I WHOLEHEARTIDLY agree with this statement, one of the first I fully agree with in his whole argument. However, It takes two to tango, or two to fight, as some people might say. You can not have fights in chat with someone without both people being involved in the fight in at least some way.
Keep in mind that russ’s normal cause of action if a situation like this is happening is to kick the offending party, and since I was never kicked during this dispute, I thought that russ thought I was in the right to farm down there.
Russ proves he is a hypocrite
Russ’s final statement against me is that He “made an obvious joke in chat” and that “I immediately took it upon myself to point out that he is clearly in the wrong and that russ is a horrible person.” This is where you may want to remember where russ was hiding behind the “joke card” earlier, and even in this statement.
Russ makes the joke “if ur homeless go buy a house smh”. There is nothing inherently bad about this joke, it is some dark humor which everyone over the age of 4 has heard by now. I thought it was “joke-o-clock” and make a joke back in reference to the time russ started popping off at someone (maybe miles? idk for sure but that person might remember) as i was saying russ started popping off at someone for calling someone “short”. I remembered this time and thought i might jokingly call out russ, when he then proceeded to pop off at me for being so rude and making a clearly unfunny joke.
I said in response to his joke “ok russ so joking about homeless people is ok but calling someone short is crossing the line? ok”. I can understand it can sometimes be hard to convey jokes across the internet when you are just typing them out, but I thought this was clearly enough a joke. Russ then starts to pop off at me saying “gamingman you fr couldnt tell it was a joke”. Yes I could clearly tell it was a joke but so was the statement made by someone else about someone being “short”, but russ called out the army, navy, AND air force against whomever made that joke. I was simply trying to show russ the hypocritical-ness of this action, but i guess “russ you fr couldnt tell it was a joke”. Russ then decides I called him out too hard here and this is the last straw. Russ, Phill, and Miles proceed to gangb~ I mean gang up on me, and after they feel they have made their point, russ delivers the final blow, stating “im not gonna lie” “its been a pain ever since I unbanned u”. I personally do not remember if any other interactions happened after this, but russ went full sicko mode on me after this by banning me from the server in terraria, blocking me on discord after I asked him about the ban, and I can not say this for 100% fact, but I BELIEVE russ ban me from the discord server (I was 100% factually ban from the discord server but I can not be sure as of who did it).
Both of our final statements about the ban
Russ goes on to state I have constantly been fighting with him since he unban me (keep in mind he provided about 1-3 points of evidence of this in the statement its self, and idk if I call once a week on average constantly). He states “he first ban me for using invasion summons in a toxic manner, and that my toxicity has not really changed since he started monitoring me since I appealed.” (changed to my pov sorry if it’s not a word for word quote) I can partially agree with this statement. The reason he provided for my first ban was “summoning countless unwanted invasions” (no toxicity mentioned by him originally by him). Besides the ban reason being mostly right, everything else is definitively wrong, at least for the most part. I suppose I didn’t really change anything since I was ban since I assumed the only problem was summoning invasions that people didn’t want. Almost anyone on the server who played during the 3 weeks after I was ban can confirm I WENT OUT OF MY WAY to not spawn any invasions, even going as far as to give other crew the spawners instead of spawning them myself, even if nearly everyone/everyone wanted them spawned. (I am tired so ima speedrun this last bit) “Quite frankly, survival is a better place without players like you, who feed off of getting others riled up.” Russ you provided 1 real example of this in your statement, if you really want to die on this hill at least make that one of the main points you talk about with several points of evidence supporting it. " For this reason, I have rebanned you. This appeal is denied . I will say it again, I am fed up with dealing with you. Do not make another appeal, this decision is no longer negotiable. I am the one handling your ban appeal, no one else has permission to handle this unless I am told otherwise by those above me." As I stated at the start confirmation bias is a real thing, which is why someone besides you should have considered the evidence against me. He claims he is done with dealing with me, yet he has provided 0-1 examples, depending on how you want to look at it, of how I have made him fed up with dealing with me. The only sort of point he provided supporting this is the joke I make comparing jokes about short people and jokes about homeless people. If you want to die on this hill as well, you would think russ would provide a solid amount of evidence showing times I harassed him or fought with him (which rarely if ever happened just to state that), but he can not provide more evidence of this since there is none for him to use. His final sentence is that “I am the one handling your ban appeal, no one else has permission to handle this unless I am told otherwise by those above me.” As previously mentioned, confirmation bias is a real thing, and the only reason he would slip this into his denial is to try and get an ego boost (in my opinion) from banning me, and then stating only mods higher in authority can change the determination, and I believe he provided this comment since in my last ban, we waited a few days with no comment from higher ups regarding if i should lose my crew or not, which is why in my opinion russ is simply throwing around his power as a mod on Dark Gaming to do what he wants. This can be shown in previous examples besides just myself, right off the top of my head, russ perm ban someone and denied their appeal, and he did this just for killing blood moon fishing mobs from someone besides himself ONE TIME. not even a warning first, just kicked then decided “eh might as well ban him” (that quote is what I believe he may have been thinking it is not a quote from russ". With all the presented evidence, I believe russ is unfit to be a mod on Dark Gaming due to the multiple instances of russ banning people (including myself) with shallow evidence at best. On my perm ban, russ didn’t even give me time to respond with evidence, he just laid out his flimsy evidence and called a perm ban with no appeal. It is beyond the point of wanting an unban, I do not care about that anymore. This is simply me giving my opinion on how fit to be a mod russ is, and in my opinion is that he is not fit.
Conclusion
I believe that russ is unfit to be a mod on Dark Gaming based on the evidence I presented. I know fully well nothing is going to happen to him though, so I figure I might as well drag russ’s pride through the mud just like he did to me. In my opinion I an not normally a spiteful or hateful person, but if someone fucks me over I will happily fuck them over in return.
Goodbye
To anyone who may have known me on the server and had a positive/neutral relation with me, goodbye.