Minecraft Username: Tethers Reason of Ban: Attempting to kill a player in the Mining World. Rule violated: Clause 3, subsection 3: "Attempting to kill other players in any non-PvP zone also constitutes as harassment, and succeeding in killing other players in non-PvP areas is a very severe offence that will result in a ban." Though I contest that I tried to kill anyone (and no one was damaged). Please explain in your own words what the rule(s) means: Taking an action would could reasonably be presumed to cause a death to another player is prohibited outside of explicit PvP areas. If you don't just try, but also succeed, the punishment is always a ban. Reason you feel you think you should be unbanned: I don't believe I violated the rule. I'm unhappy, but I will try to be polite and collected. Thank-you for reading this. I was in the mining world, standing next to a chest (labeled with a sign begging not to be looted). I know anyone can take anything and it's not against the rules in that situation. I was relying on politeness, and knew it would only deter some fraction of people. Moving on. A player approached, opened my chest and removed a badly damaged diamond pick -- again, I know taking from a chest in the mining world is not against the rules, so that player had not broken server rules. It was rude, however. I did decide to retaliate. I recalled from reading in the rules that griefing in the mining world is allowed, if frowned upon. I considered this player taking from my chest with me standing there to be griefing me, allowed, and frowned upon. I retaliated by digging blocks out from underneath his feet. I believed breaking blocks to be griefing and not PKing. I was trying to be annoying in the hopes the player would go away. I was at level 11, so death by falling damage would not have occurred. There was lava a couple blocks down, but I did not know this. When the lava appeared, I stopped breaking blocks. The other player was floating in the air, and unharmed. Since he was not harmed, and could just float there, I did *then* continue to break blocks beneath him, in the equivalent of a rude hand gesture for this player taking my pick. He was looking down at the lava, floating there, and wielding a diamond pick -- possibly the one he stole from me. He did not seem perturbed and wasn't responding at all, so I put a 1 block thick cobble wall around him (he could break it, he had a pick), leaving a 2 block x 1 block window, and torches to make the window obvious. An ECC employee appeared and asked me what was happening. I answered that someone took from my chest, which I knew was [edit typo correction] legal, and that I was trying to grief him in response, because I thought it was legal to grief in the wild, at not very rude to do it in defense of one's own stuff. The ECC employee asked if I had broken blocks beneath the other players feet. I agreed that i had. I asked if that was against the rules, if I had done anything wrong. The ECC said nothing, and banned me immediately. There is a link that pops up when you are banned to show you that you can appeal your ban, and so I am doing so, because I do not think that was the proper response. No one was damaged. I *did* grief by breaking and placing blocks. I *did not* intend to kill anyone. I thought this was acceptable, if frowned upon. It appears that I was wrong? But no one would explain to me, I was just silently banned. The reason I did not think it was against the rules is the following: Clause 1, Subsection 4 "Grief in the wild is frowned upon, but allowed. Staff will not take any action in the case of wild grief." My request: Everyone who uses this server, even very new people like me, put in a lot of time to earn things and get a feeling of accomplishment. I think that, being new, being 100% cooperative with the Staff Member, and not having *intended* to break any rule that I should be warned, explained to, and not banned. No one was harmed in this. I did not know breaking/placing blocks that you really didn't believe would hurt anyone (except to annoy them) was an offense. So I did not do this in bold intention to break the rules, nor did I do it because I was too lazy to read the rules. I just have failed to understand them. I am upset. And I hope you reconsider. Thank-you for taking the time to read such a long appeal. I am willing to apologize to the player involved, to be fined, whatever. But I do not want to be cast out of the community for an early and honest misunderstanding of the rules. I also hope the rules will be clarified for me, but if they are not, I'll just act as if any griefing anywhere is forbidden, and thus avoid trouble. Again, thank-you. Philip (Tethers)
Hello Tethers! Thank you for appealing to return to ECC. You were banned for Attempting to kill a player in the mining world. Very illegal, not a good thing to do! However, you state you were unclear of the rules. I will be helping you understand them: Spoiler Clause 4 - Theft and Safety Items left in unlocked chests are fair game, no matter their location. It is your responsibility to use our LWC lock system to keep your stuff safe and to yourself. If you modify someone else to allow them access to a chest, they are allowed to take any of the contents. Please use our system with extreme caution. Clause 2 - Mining World Using any means (including water and fire/lava) to grief any protected area in the mining world (which can include protected warps and the main Mining World spawn) is not allowed. Legacy/Rising rules apply to all areas of the mining world, including trolling rules. As the mining world is not PvP enabled, this 100% includes rules about attempts to kill players in this world, no matter what the reason. Please keep in mind that the mining world does not allow LWC locks, and therefore anything you leave in chests in that world is free for all. Spoiler Clause 3 - Harassment Spoiler Harassment constitutes as any form of action (chat or game play wise) that makes another player feel threatened or otherwise ruins their game play. Griefing in the wild does not constitute harassment. Harassment in the wild is strictly chat/command based. This includes, but is not limited to; blackmail, bullying or any other form of harassment that occurs through our chat system Attempting to kill other players in any non-PvP zone also constitutes as harassment, and succeeding in killing other players in non-PvP areas is a very severe offence that will result in a ban. Spoiler Clause 2 - Trolling This rule is super simple. Don’t be a troll, and especially don’t troll others away from the server. Please look up “Troll (Internet)” for a more comprehensive definition. This includes flaming or attempts to start any form of chaos and discord within the server. Spoiler Clause 3 - Harassment Harassment constitutes as any form of action (chat or game play wise) that makes another player feel threatened or otherwise ruins their game play. Griefing in the wild does not constitute harassment. Harassment in the wild is strictly chat/command based. This includes, but is not limited to; blackmail, bullying or any other form of harassment that occurs through our chat system. Attempting to kill other players in any non-PvP zone also constitutes as harassment, and succeeding in killing other players in non-PvP areas is a very severe offence that will result in a ban. Clause 2 - Trolling This rule is super simple. Don’t be a troll, and especially don’t troll others away from the server. Please look up “Troll (Internet)” for a more comprehensive definition. This includes flaming or attempts to start any form of chaos and discord within the server. Spoiler Clause 2 - Mining World Using any means (including water and fire/lava) to grief any protected area in the mining world (which can include protected warps and the main Mining World spawn) is not allowed. Legacy/Rising rules apply to all areas of the mining world, including trolling rules. As the mining world is not PvP enabled, this 100% includes rules about attempts to kill players in this world, no matter what the reason. Please keep in mind that the mining world does not allow LWC locks, and therefore anything you leave in chests in that world is free for all. Clause 4 - Common Sense and Bending the Rules While this is a gaming environment, EcoCityCraft is also a very large community. As such, we expect that all players use their common sense. Be a good sport and a friendly community member. Common sense extends to not bending the rules. Bending the rules constitutes as very severe trolling, and is not tolerated in any form. Encouraging others to break the rules is not using your common sense. Finding ways around the rules is punishable at administration’s discretion, from warnings all the way up to bans. Please seeEcoCityCraft's General Disclaimer for more information. If you feel like a rule has a loophole or a way that it could be used to be trolly, we encourage use of our suggestions forum or contacting the administration directly in order to take a look at the rules that may need to be changed. You are not brand new. You are the Resident rank. Let's go revisit your Resident Application, which can be found here. Here is a direct quote from your Resident Application, and what you've agreed to: By agreeing to having read the server rules, I would expect you to understand a few things. 1, I would hoped you'd have understood that living in the mining world is not a safe way to live. LWCs are not enabled, so all of your items in your chests are up for LEGAL grab. All of your work that you do (i.e your home, your builds, etc) are up for grief, with no punishment. That being said, you griefing where a player is standing is not legal whatsoever, and that is clearly stated in the Harassment rule. You say "no one was harmed in this", but that does not mean you could have harmed him. You state he was AFK when you broke the blocks and saw the lava. Now, yes he was flying, but if he had logged out (since he was AFK), his fly may not have returned on his relog, which would have killed him since there was lava. Finally, you state that you did not do this intentionally, rather you said "I have just failed to understand them." If you at any point are unsure of something in regards to rules, ask staff. There is no punishment for asking before you do, even if it is illegal. If you do not do it, there is no punishment. Asking will not get you punished, only a clear answer I hope I have done a decent job. Please be patient, I will be handling your appeal soon. In the meantime, I suggest reading our rules thoroughly so this does not happen again.
I withdraw my request. I do not want to play on this server. Good day. Edit to clarify: I logged on to the server for the first time less than 24 hours ago. I was approached by staff, given 15k, and told to apply for residency. I did so. I had played maybe 4 hours? I think that counts as being new. Yes, I agreed that I understood the rules. Of course I thought I *had* understood them. Else I would not have violated them. I'm still not clear how I have. Since I did not try to kill anyone. He had not gone afk. He was not responsive, other than looking around. He was clearly looking around and present. I griefed in the mining world. That is not against the rules. Just like him taking from my chest isn't against the rules. I said several times that I completely understood it was not against server rules for him to take what was in my chest. That doesn't mean it wasn't rude. So I don't understand why you are trying to correct me there. Basically, all you do here is contradict me, imply I'm stupid, restate rules I've already quoted, and generally make it obvious that you're not interested in being reasonable. I don't want any part of a community where theft is legal, but defending against it is illegal - despite being claimed as legal in your own rules. And where I am welcomed with warmth and kindness one day, and treated like a disposable piece of crap the next day. You will not hear from me again.
I'm sorry you feel that way. Our staff member was simply clarifying the rules as you asked them to. I will be locking this, however, feel free to appeal in the future. I would like it noted that it is stated in the rules that breaking blocks underneath someone qualifies as harassment, which is what was done here. That is explicitly stated and I see no issue with the action that was taken regarding this. I apologize on behalf of ECC if you feel we have been unwelcoming, but the staff member involved was only trying to clarify as you asked. Locked
