[Harmless]

Steam Name: HARMLESS

Steam I.D: https://steamcommunity.com/id/Gotmypoloright/

Who banned you: TheUltraFish

Reason for ban: Alt Evasion

Reason for Admins to unban you: My actual steam name is Harmless, and I was banned for alt evasion because you thought I was Pastekeleton.  While I know Paste, I am not Paste.  I have played on the server at the same time as Paste many times, so unless Paste has 4 hands and 2 sets of eyeballs, I'm not Paste.  I changed my steam picture to Paste's, and my name to Pastekeleton.  If you check the chat logs, at no point did I say that I was actually Pastekeleton.

TheUltraFish directly asked me if I was actually "pastkeleton" to which I corrected "pastekeleton", and I was immediately banned for alt evasion.  While I can see that Fish might have interpreted that I really was Paste, I question the level of evidence needed to ban someone for alt evasion.

First, checking my profile would reveal that my profile is years old, and I own many games.  Since games cannot be simultaneously owned by two different accounts (aka buying the game once and having it playable on multiple accounts), I question the jump in logic that an "aged" account with many games would be an alt of Paste since that would require him to buy the same games multiple times.

If this is the level of evidence that someone needs to get someone falsely banned for alt evasion, then that is a problem.  All you need is someone with a vendetta for someone else to pretend to be them to get them banned (assuming they were already banned).  Please take a look at my account, see the playtime, and unban me please.

At most what I did could be considered trolling.  According to the PH rules:
"Be sure to know the differences between toxic trolling, and joking around. Don't punish for joking around, only punish for toxicity. (Someone breaking rules on purpose, harassing others, etc.)"

I would hardly call changing my name to Pastekeleton toxic trolling.  Considering that people say the N-word on the server all the time (which is actually toxic trolling) and they only receive a mute, I would like my ban to be revoked please.

[VolfVoss]

Your Steam ID: STEAM_0:0:162720733

[thaye]

Not a PH player, but they could just check the logs and see if your ip is the same.

[RussEfarmer]

I've done a little investigating, I would like to see evidence for this ban. I lean towards it not being alting, but there are a couple of red flags.

Evidence that you aren't an alt:

• At the time of writing, Pastekeleton is Online while you are playing CS:GO, which isn't normal for alt accounts
  
• Pastekeleton, your "main account" in the context of you supposedly alt evading, while older, is much lower level than the supposed "alt account" HARMLESS, and only has 100 hours more on Garry's mod. It is not likely that an alt account would have 1,200 hours in CS:GO unless you played Dinkleberg's and gmod exclusively on one and CS:GO on the other.. if that didn't make sense, point is, both accounts are active, have unique friends lists, and both overall "act" like independent steam users from what I see.
  
• This is the only time that the supposed alt account (HARMLESS) has changed their name to their supposed main account (Pastekeleton)
  

Evidence you are an alt:

• I am not sure why you would change your name and avatar to Pastekeleton's. This is suspicious..
  
• Playtime for the name HARMLESS only shows up on the server after Pastekeleton is banned (GIF), and only plays for about 20 minutes at a time. This isn't very strong evidence because Gametracker only tracks by user alias.
  

[TheUltraFish]

Not a PH player, but they could just check the logs and see if your ip is the same.

I understand where you're coming from but it is very easy to change IP.

[lacer]

Since games cannot be simultaneously owned by two different accounts (aka buying the game once and having it playable on multiple accounts)

Not sure where you got this from, it is 100% possible through Steam Family Sharing, and is a common method used by people using an alt.

[TheUltraFish]

Steam Name: HARMLESS

Steam I.D: https://steamcommunity.com/id/Gotmypoloright/

Who banned you: TheUltraFish

Reason for ban: Alt Evasion

Reason for Admins to unban you: My actual steam name is Harmless, and I was banned for alt evasion because you thought I was Pastekeleton.  While I know Paste, I am not Paste.  I have played on the server at the same time as Paste many times, so unless Paste has 4 hands and 2 sets of eyeballs, I'm not Paste.  I changed my steam picture to Paste's, and my name to Pastekeleton.  If you check the chat logs, at no point did I say that I was actually Pastekeleton.

TheUltraFish directly asked me if I was actually "pastkeleton" to which I corrected "pastekeleton", and I was immediately banned for alt evasion.  While I can see that Fish might have interpreted that I really was Paste, I question the level of evidence needed to ban someone for alt evasion.

First, checking my profile would reveal that my profile is years old, and I own many games.  Since games cannot be simultaneously owned by two different accounts (aka buying the game once and having it playable on multiple accounts), I question the jump in logic that an "aged" account with many games would be an alt of Paste since that would require him to buy the same games multiple times.

If this is the level of evidence that someone needs to get someone falsely banned for alt evasion, then that is a problem.  All you need is someone with a vendetta for someone else to pretend to be them to get them banned (assuming they were already banned).  Please take a look at my account, see the playtime, and unban me please.

At most what I did could be considered trolling.  According to the PH rules:
"Be sure to know the differences between toxic trolling, and joking around. Don't punish for joking around, only punish for toxicity. (Someone breaking rules on purpose, harassing others, etc.)"

I would hardly call changing my name to Pastekeleton toxic trolling.  Considering that people say the N-word on the server all the time (which is actually toxic trolling) and they only receive a mute, I would like my ban to be revoked please.

Well, here we are. This is what I get for listening to others instead of my own gut. I was suspicious of you not being the original Paste even after banning you, but people were convinced. The accounts of these two have no similarities whatsoever. No friends, hardly any games, similarity of names, profile pictures, nothing. That is, until the last week where for some reason @Harmless got the stupid idea of being someone he was not. Not just copying the name but the profile picture of someone who is currently temp banned. Copying the name is simple, copying someone's custom profile picture makes you kind of a creep if nothing else.

When you originally popped up on May 31st some staff immediately thought it was legitimate while I dismissed it after a short investigation. You asked a couple basic questions or made a couple of basic statements, didn't say anything over the mic and then left. Nothing that anyone who had not played with Paste after a couple maps would be easy to copy.

Which leads to when I got on today because once again staff members thought you were the original Paste with the same profile picture. I did not think the original Paste would be that stupid but I got on to check anyways as well as to check IP just in case. The means we normally go to catch alt accounts did not bring anything up so that makes things more difficult. While I was on I asked you a few questions like why you were not speaking over the microphone, if you were the real Paste, and that you understood that alt account evading results in a permanent ban. Another user, Flacko, flat out asked you "how are you on Paste while you were still banned". You responded with "I don't know. I just got on and it worked." Cause you know, that isn't suspicious at all.

The way you answered the other questions were dull, cryptic, if you ever decided to truly respond to them at all. For the microphone question, you said that it broke. Simple answer, kinda convenient, did not really use that as a basis to ban you. The 2nd question, I asked after doing a short comparison of the accounts to you which you responded, "Why are you even going through my steam archives, are you bored or something?" Answer, no. I was not bored it is something I have to do and there are sites that flat out list all the information I shared with you pretty easily. Your answer was unhelpful at best. My final statement was to you was that "alt evading while your main account is banned is a permanent ban." To this, you decided to say absolutely nothing. After a few minutes of you ignoring me, I banned you because either A) Pastekeleton would be indefinitely banned or B) an unban request would be created. (YOU ARE HERE)

You were not immediately banned for alt evasion as you claim, that is an exaggeration. Your account is younger than Paste's so your argument there is pointless. Many people have alt accounts with many games on them, family shared or not. Player time does not really help you either given the age of the accounts.

Pretending to be someone else in the community is fun when it is made clear to others but even then on the server, is against the rules. Since you want to quote rules to me I will direct you to rule 12: 

12. Do Not Impersonate Staff or Players

Please do not impersonate staff. Non-staff are allowed to help, but do not speak over a staff member when they are handling an issue.

• You're not allowed to copy a staff members/players name.
  
  
• Do not threaten with bans, punishments or saying that your Dad owns the server or Garry’s Mod
  

Most of the time when players do this, it is to pretend to be a staff member but was later altered to include other players as well. However, other staff were convinced that you were the real Paste, so you were banned as such. You were given every opportunity to come clean at some point and you decided against it, even with being made aware that alt evading results in a ban. You did not just change your name to Paste, you took his custom profile picture and pretended to be him on the server, even when confronted.

To answer your final little paragraph. Players who use racial slurs are not treated as trolls, they are treated as racists. Their punishments goes as follows.

Warning
Round gag or/and round mute
Map gag and/or map mute
Kick
Ban

Since I was the one that banned you, I will not be the one to give the full final say even though a good portion of me believes you. I will the other staff members decide on what should be done to you. Honestly, I believe your ban should be shortened to a 24 hour ban as in the guidelines for impersonation since you were confronted on the issue. With the knowledge that if you get on again impersonating someone that your next ban would be set for a week.

[Harmless]

@RussEfarmer and @TheUltraFish
Thank you for your comments, I appreciate you guys taking the time to read my unban request.
@TheUltraFish, I would like to address your comments at this time.  While I do not agree with the ban at all, I respect your right as Admins (and Mods) to make the call.
I did not see Rule 12, I was going off what Pixie said on PH tonight (what was relayed to me through multiple others, please check the chat logs) that the rule I broke was trolling.

In regards to what Flacko said, I stand corrected.  I was going off memory since I obviously couldn't get onto dinks to see the previous game's chat logs.
I thought Flacko would find it funny.  If I'm entirely honest, I thought it was pretty obvious I wasn't Paste (because as you state, you didn't think the original paste could be that stupid).

I actually think the time of an account does matter.  If you check Paste's account he played ~50 hours in the last 2 weeks while I played ~90 hours.
While it is true that some people may have family accounts, if my account was actually a family account, it should have the same IP as Paste when I play a game then.
True, I could spoof my IP address, but then we are saying that every time paste got on his alt account, he purposely changes his IP address.
This is pretty far-fetched if you ask me.  So that would put Paste at ~140 hours in 2 weeks.

In regards to the other staff members believing that I was Paste, I still would purport that the evidence for an alt evasion ban needs to be raised.
As you said, the methods you used to normally catch alt evaders failed.  In my humble opinion, that should be a litmus test.
If someone can change their name/profile and get someone banned easily, then it might be a good idea to raise the level of proof required.

I looked at the trolling rules specifically because of what I mentioned above.  After further reading the rules, I don't see a separate category for racism (just trolling).
If racism is separated from trolling, I think the PH rules should be amended for clarity.
You did mention that people saying the N-word first get a warning (which I honestly think does more damage than what I did).
I know for a fact that racism on the server has put off new players before.
While changing my name/profile to what Paste had was wrong, I would argue that the racism from players is worse.  However, my ideas for the rules about racism can be saved for a suggestions post.

To end my explanation, I would argue that while my answers to your questions were suspicious (again, I couldn't revisit the chat after my ban so I was going from memory, so I apologize for misremembering details), that shouldn't be enough for an alt evasion ban.
All it takes is someone to maliciously pretend to be someone else to get them banned.  While I'm sure you don't like the idea of some bad actors "slipping through the cracks", but still banning when your normal methods of alt detection fail seems dangerous.
However, I'm not an admin/mod and it's not my server, so of course, your word(s) are final.

Finally, @TheUltraFish, I don't appreciate the personal comment you made by calling me a creep.
On the applications for staff, you and the other mods consistently use "professionalism" as one of your standards for evaluating the applications.
I would ask that you refrain from your personal opinions of others when drafting your comments.

I will respect the decision of you and your mod team.  If you have any other questions/comments, I would be happy to answer them.  Have a good night.

[MissPauling]

Yeah what you did was really fuckin dumb lol. Considering, reading the relay while you were on, you did come off kinda weird and cryptic. But I agree with fish, at first I was like yeah paste is probably cocky enough to pull this, but watching and reading what others were saying made me pull my initial thoughts, I agree that we should remove the permanent ban and do the 24hrs instead for impersonating a player.

I get the point of the laugh, mess with friends, troll and whatever else. But given the mention of pastes ban in server and then not directly clarifying that this was a joke was a bad move unfortunately.

In all, yeah, +1 on ban reduction.

[TheUltraFish]

@RussEfarmer and @TheUltraFish
Thank you for your comments, I appreciate you guys taking the time to read my unban request.
@TheUltraFish, I would like to address your comments at this time.  While I do not agree with the ban at all, I respect your right as Admins (and Mods) to make the call.
I did not see Rule 12, I was going off what Pixie said on PH tonight (what was relayed to me through multiple others, please check the chat logs) that the rule I broke was trolling.

In regards to what Flacko said, I stand corrected.  I was going off memory since I obviously couldn't get onto dinks to see the previous game's chat logs.
I thought Flacko would find it funny.  If I'm entirely honest, I thought it was pretty obvious I wasn't Paste (because as you state, you didn't think the original paste could be that stupid).

I actually think the time of an account does matter.  If you check Paste's account he played ~50 hours in the last 2 weeks while I played ~90 hours.
While it is true that some people may have family accounts, if my account was actually a family account, it should have the same IP as Paste when I play a game then.
True, I could spoof my IP address, but then we are saying that every time paste got on his alt account, he purposely changes his IP address.
This is pretty far-fetched if you ask me.  So that would put Paste at ~140 hours in 2 weeks.

In regards to the other staff members believing that I was Paste, I still would purport that the evidence for an alt evasion ban needs to be raised.
As you said, the methods you used to normally catch alt evaders failed.  In my humble opinion, that should be a litmus test.
If someone can change their name/profile and get someone banned easily, then it might be a good idea to raise the level of proof required.

I looked at the trolling rules specifically because of what I mentioned above.  After further reading the rules, I don't see a separate category for racism (just trolling).
If racism is separated from trolling, I think the PH rules should be amended for clarity.
You did mention that people saying the N-word first get a warning (which I honestly think does more damage than what I did).
I know for a fact that racism on the server has put off new players before.
While changing my name/profile to what Paste had was wrong, I would argue that the racism from players is worse.  However, my ideas for the rules about racism can be saved for a suggestions post.

To end my explanation, I would argue that while my answers to your questions were suspicious (again, I couldn't revisit the chat after my ban so I was going from memory, so I apologize for misremembering details), that shouldn't be enough for an alt evasion ban.
All it takes is someone to maliciously pretend to be someone else to get them banned.  While I'm sure you don't like the idea of some bad actors "slipping through the cracks", but still banning when your normal methods of alt detection fail seems dangerous.
However, I'm not an admin/mod and it's not my server, so of course, your word(s) are final.

Finally, @TheUltraFish, I don't appreciate the personal comment you made by calling me a creep.
On the applications for staff, you and the other mods consistently use "professionalism" as one of your standards for evaluating the applications.
I would ask that you refrain from your personal opinions of others when drafting your comments.

I will respect the decision of you and your mod team.  If you have any other questions/comments, I would be happy to answer them.  Have a good night.

With a VPN one could change their IP on a dime and would be pretty smart if trying to alt evade. Time is questionable while in a global pandemic as well as getting into summer time. I do agree that it is a lot of time but as I said, school is letting out and global pandemic. Some people have a lot of time on their hands.

The rule of racism falls under Rule 11: 

11. Do Not Disrespect/Harass Staff or Players

Disrespecting and harassing our players and staff is not allowed and will not be tolerated.

• Some examples, though not limited to, include being rude to players because of their race, gender, age, mental/physical abilities, voice/wording, and/or asking a player to do inappropriate things.
  
  
• Please do not make fun of or imitate voice/wording of other players or tell them to shut up, there is an ability to mute players with tab, clicking their name and click toggle mute
  
  
• Instigating issues to amuse yourself and referencing past issues 
  
  
• Spamming players with trade requests or spamming the private message function are considered forms of harassment.
  
  
• References to suicide, pedophilia or rape. 
  

Which goes into further depth in the staff guidelines section:
Situation 11-
Disrespecting/harassing staff/players- all harassment/disrespect issues should be taken seriously when they are found out about. This includes general harassment/disrespect, targeting, racism, suicide jokes/threats, rape jokes/threats, pedophilia, gender, age, dialect, homophobia, mental/physical capablilities, spamming the private chat of a player, and spamming trade requests.

When a player is told to shut up in some sort of way, make sure it is done in a spiteful/hateful manner before continuing. General usage of some sort of shut up or jokingly asking some to close their mouth isn't player disrespect.
 
Suicide, rape, pedophilia
Procedure:
-Round gag/mute plus verbal/chat warning
-Kick
-Permanent Ban
 
Targeting (race, voice, homophobia, gender, age, mental/physical capabilities)
Procedure:
-Chat/Voice Notification
-Round gag/mute
-Map gag/mute
-Kick
-Ban length depending on situation
 
Trade Request Spam
Procedure:
-Verbal/Chat Notification
-Verbal/Chat Notification
-Kick
-Kick
-12 hour ban
-3 day ban
-Ban length at staff discretion
 
Disrespect/Harassment Towards Staff
Procedure:
-Verbal/Chat Notification
-Round gag/mute
-Map gag/mute
-Kick
-Ban length varies situation to situation

To go back on the previous statement of calling you creepy is because when you consider it, it's creepy. You took someone's name and picture and made them yourself. It has become more common in gaming to do such thing, but if anything like that was done in real life, it'd be creepy. Now the reason why the ban was immediately a permanent ban, was that the player you were copying or pretending to be, was already temporarily banned. If he had not been banned, you would not have been banned but would of gone through the process that is set up in rule 12 for staff to follow.