[Jammin]

Hello,
The following is my official unabridged response to the situation that occurred a few mere days ago. As Mr. Shitter has requested that I still post my elaboration onto here, I am doing so with the OK of the Web Admin. Here is my Declaration of Independence from guilt.

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In Mom's Basement, November 8, 2022

PREAMBLE
The unanimous Declaration of the one united Jammin of Dinkleberg's TTT, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the abusive bans which have disconnected them with a server, and to assume among the powers of the internet, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of the MOTD and of Dinkleberg's discord God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. I hold these truths to be self-evident, that all moderators are held accountable, that they are endowed by their Owner with certain unalienable Responsibilities, that among these are fspec, AWarn, and the pursuit of ban-happiness. The history of the present Dinkleberg of Florida is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these TTT players. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
Here ye here ye, my original shortened response found HERE can be counted as a TLDR to this post.

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Article I | Context & Factual Statements
In the year of our Lord 2022, on the 27th day of the month of October, several gamers were united upon a server running the popular game "Garry's Mod," under the gamemode "Trouble in Terrorist Town," under the server herein named "Dinkleberg's TTT | Fast Downloads! | Staff Needed."
During this gameplay session, several players were connected, who had various connections to the game. In the following evidence, the names of these individuals will be shortened for berevity purposes.
The issue at play is a certain door, located within the "Krusty Krab" building on the TTT map ttt_bikinibottom_v1b, found HERE. I giveth my official victorian-style Shouteth Outeths to @Hillrop for being the OG maker of that map.
This map has a building, modeled after the "Krusty Krab" restaurant in the hit animated Nickelodeon TV show "SpongeBob SquarePants." Inside, there is a door, located at the image below, in which a "door squeak" noise is generated whenever the door is opened or closed. Unfortunately, this noise can be exploited by spamming the action button ("E" by default) to cause annoying global sounds across the map.
The issue with this level of trolling is that KOS's in VC and other vital messages in a communication-heavy game can be obscured, and that the overall annoyance factor may dissuade newer players from joining.

The following players were directly involved with the incident in question. Their in-game name (IGN), STEAM ID, and rank, shall be given for their context. Their shortened initialism for the purpose of this report is given on the left:
I    | Jammin                                     | STEAM_0:1:243663343 | Moderator  |
PM | poop MANIAC(fecal frenzy!!!!!!!!) | STEAM_0:1:43140995   | Regular      | AKA Mad Shitter
MP | Mr. Proto                                   | STEAM_0:1:32459429   | Donor        |
X    | XeV                                          | STEAM_0:1:48159795   | Regular     |
A    | a whole tribe of piss goblins       | STEAM_0:1:155678652  | Regular     |
H    | HONG                                      | STEAM_0:0:181855199  | Moderator |
K    | I am a killah pls help                 | STEAM_0:0:89354850    | Trusted     | AKA Killahsasasin

Other individuals, either issuing complaints or indirectly involved, are listed below with initialisms on the left
SB  | SwiftBadger *No Monitor* | Regular
LT   | LemonTiara                     | Donor
/\    | /\Satanas                        | Regular
NM  | Norm Minder                   | Donor
S     | SUPAH                            | Supporter
Sh   | Shaye                             | Donor

Further listing witnesses here:
Chelllman | Guest  | Rank of Admin in Dinks PH server
Hillrop      | Donor | Some scrub who makes C-tier maps

Finally, I will define terms used below here:
CSAY: All Chat, sends a message to everyone in the middle of their screen
ASAY: Admin Chat, sends a messages to all connected staff members
R#: Round #, indicates the relevant round number of the connected map
FSPEC: Force into Spectator - this essentially slays the player mid-round, only used in extreme instances
VC: Voice Chat, verbal chatter system

The below video (direct link is HERE) is my full VOD of the entire round in question. The description of the video has timestamps indicating key events:

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Article II | Bill of Suppresion of Rights (Punishments Issued)
The following is a summary of actions taken/issued by staff members during the map, by round number and timestamp in the video

01:18 | R1 | I issue verbal warning #1 to all players via CSAY
01:27 | R1 | PM FSPEC'd. This is PM's 2nd warning
04:51 | R2 | K issue verbal warning #2 to all players via live VC (PM's 3rd). Also, X is killed by H during this round and warned via report to stop doorspamming, making that X's 2nd warning
10:50 | R4 | PM and MP FSPEC'd. This is PM's 4th warning and MP's 3rd warning
11:17 | R4 | X FSPEC'd. X's 5th warning.
11:18 | R4 | I issue verbal warning #3 to all players via CSAY (PM's 5th, MP's 4th, X's 5th)
12:03 | R4 | I issue AWARN to MP, PM, and X. Prior to 2nd round of FSPEC's and AWarn's, X and PM had 4 warnings, while MP had 3. Now, X has 6, PM has 6, MP has 4.
15:02 | R5 | I issue bans to PM and X for ban threshold, as both had been adequately verbally warned prior to getting their AWarn
17:52 | R6 | MP and A FSPEC'd. Prior to this, MP had 4 warnings and A had 3. Both issued AWarns, which went above the threshold, and subsequently banned.
After | R1 | PM formally banned 1 day vial ULX menu as GBan ban didn't stick

The following punishments were issued by player:
PM: Had 6 AWarn points prior to this map
R1 - Text warned via CSAY
R1 - FSPEC'd
R2 - Text warned via VC
R4 - FSPEC'd
R4 - AWarn'd for Trolling (6 pts). AWarn point total now 12
R5 - Banned 1 day for exceeding warning threshold
Next map - ULX banned as GBans didn't stick
Total non-point warnings prior to ban: 3 (1 CSAY, 1 FSPEC, 1 VC)
Total AWarn warnings: 1 (6 points total)

MP: Had no AWarn points prior to this map
R1 - Text warned via CSAY
R2 - Verbally warned via VC
R4 - FSPEC'd
R4 - Text warned via CSAY
R4 - AWarn'd for Trolling (6 pts). AWarn point total now 6
R6 - FSPEC'd
R6 - AWarn'd for Trolling (6 pts). AWarn point total now 12
R6 - Banned 1 day for exceeding warning threshold
Total non-point warnings prior to ban: 4 (2 CSAY, 1 VC, 1 FSPEC)
Total AWarn warnings: 2 (12 points total)

X: Had 4 AWarn points prior to this map
R1 - Text warned via CSAY
R2 - Verbally warned via VC
R2 - Text warned via RDM report by H
R4 - FSPEC'd
R4 - AWarn'd for Trolling (6 pts). AWarn point total now 10
R5 - Banned 1 day for exceeding warning threshold
Total non-point warnings prior to ban: 4 (1 CSAY, 1 VC, 1 RDM report, 1 FSPEC)
Total AWarn warnings: 1 (6 points total)

A: Had 8 AWarn points prior to this map
R1 - Text warned via CSAY
R2 - Verbally warned via VC
R4 - Text warned via CSAY
R6 - FSPEC'd
R6 - AWarn'd for Trolling (6 pts). AWarn point total now 14
R6 - Banned 1 day for exceeding warning threshold
Total non-point warnings prior to ban: 3 (2 CSAY, 1 VC, also many AWarns/bans on other players)
Total AWarn warnings: 1 (6 points total)

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Article III | A Modest Defense
In order to thoroughly defend my actions taken throughout this round, I will respond in kind to various points brought up by Mr. Shitter throughout his presentation.

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Section a | Introduction

What They Did: Unfortunately, Moderator jammin abused the awarn system to issue 8 erroneous six-point trolling warnings and four false warn level 1 bans. This report will have two parts; first will be the miscategorization of the 6 point Trolling warning, why it was wrongfully employed in this case, and how it led to four wrongful bans. Then it will discuss the position of the loud door feature which is included in some maps whose enjoyment is currently not against any rule in the Dinkleberg's TTT guidelines.

As clearly articulated above, I only issued FIVE (5) six-point trolling AWarns. In fact, I only issued seven (7) total AWarns, including a joke awarn to Chelllman for propkilling that was subsequently removed, and a slur AWarn to an unrelated user.
All 4 users were put above the banning threshold, as shown in the histories above. As per our guidelines, located in the image below, the proper ban for a 10-point threshold or higher is a 1-day ban. As such, the bans are valid assuming the warnings are. Thus, the only abuse comes from the warnings themselves.
I am prepared to discuss both sections of Mr. Shitter's arguments, regarding both the use of 6-point trolling warnings, and the efficacy of the door spam being an issue at all.

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Section b | Trolling Guidelines

The TTT warning guidelines listed here (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wzuX...skblnitkuj) give a clear and concise description of what the 6 point trolling warning is defined by.

Trolling is when someone either says or posts a provocative, antagonizing, irrelevant or offensive statement in order to bait other players' reactions for a laugh.

None of the players affected by moderator jammin's had been trolling any other player as established by these guidelines. The use of ttt_bikinibottom's squeaky door feature in the Krusty Krab location does not match the definition of saying or posting something to provoke or antagonize another player, nor was it an offensive or irrelevant statement. Furthermore, the community members jammin targeted were opening and closing the door as an amusing diversion and had no malicious intent. The 6 point warnings given to the community members involved were therefore entirely erroneous, which invalidates the subsequent related bans on each affected community member. At worst, in a generous interpretation of the rules this could be considered a 2-point spam warning.

I agree to some extent in principle. Yes, the exact definition in our guidelines is located below in the screenshot from the guidelines:

I would suggest that while this wasn't a verbal or text "statement" as defined in the rules, I would say that your action "spoke" in this instance as something that certainly was done for laughs. The rest of the statement that you left out indicates that trolling is usually "non-malicious done for the laughs and more of an unwanted annoyance to the player players." I do believe that door spam falls under this defintion, as the multiple complaints coming into staff from multiple persons is a clear indication of the general annoyance felt by many members of the playerbase.
"Furthermore, the community members jammin targeted were opening and closing the door as an amusing diversion and had no malicious intent"
This actually supports this falling into the category of "trolling" as the definition clearly indicates no malicious intent is to follow.
To ensure that the 6 point trolling warning was the appropriate punishment, I contacted an online TTT Admin, @bryanbrr, to clarify further the proper action. This exchange is shown below for transparancy:

For the record, I feel that a 2 or 4 point warning would have been more appropriate, and suggested at the time (and continue to suggest now) that a "minor trolling" or "excessive memeing" warning at 2 points be added. I also encouraged those banned to appeal their warnings to seek relief/reduction to a more appropriate level.

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Section c | MOTD

We will now further discuss how any warning at all for this activity would have also been erroneous as using the squeaky door feature on certain maps does not fall within the guideline's explicit statement on what defines spam. We know that the TTT Rules post that is the server's MOTD (https://www.dinklebergsgmod.com/site/sho....php?tid=4) follows as such:

4. Do Not Spam

Chat and mic spam are never allowed. Singing, yelling, voice changers, and excessive speaking are all mic spam. Arguments that prevent others from enjoying the game are also prohibited.

To quote directly from the guidelines (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wzuX...vi5tp5pvct) "The server’s definition of spamming is unnecessary words or sentences that are being excessively repeated in the in-game chat or voice chat. Mic spamming can also be defined as singing into the mic, playing music, yelling, excessive use of soundboards, annoying voice changers and excessively speaking. Chat spam/mic spam is NOT allowed, even during pre-round or post-round."

None of the community members affected were flooding either chat feature, not with text or microphone. In the past certain staff have accidentally misinterpreted the guidelines for spamming to erroneously punish community members for enjoying squeaky door features, which has established a precedent that as of now goes against the rules. I personally believe that this being a precedent should be a mitigating factor for the staff members who accidentally make this mistake, but think it is important to clarify for them so they don't continue to pronounce false sentences against community members who are not breaking any actual rule.

Now the guidelines do give some leeway into staff discretion for the severity of a "Trolling" offense, however we can see from the aforementioned trolling section that the discretionary note reads as such: "Use staff discretion when dealing with different levels of trolling, flaming, harassment and targeting as this is just a general guideline. Please ban fairly and appropriately based on severity. " This means that a staff member is entilted to some level of discretion on the severity of the punishment given for trolling offenses, however it does not provide leeway as to actually defining a trolling offense. Furthermore, the MOTD states: "Note that the punishments for these offenses are listed in the staff guidelines, but staff may issue punishment with some discretion depending on the context of a situation." This protects the community from abuse where rules are not quite so clear as to what is and isn't allowed, however as we have already discussed we know there is no prohibition to enjoying the squeaky door feature. The only mention of what may be colloquially called "door spamming" is in the MOTD post where a KOS is valid for:

Firstly, as for the precedent being set, I am not aware of any precedent being set for door spam not being against the rules.
As for the rules themselves, trolling isn't explicitly defined in the MOTD. The relevant section is below:

Although the act of trolling isn't defined in the MOTD, I think the rules of common sense would dictate that the action falls under trolling, especially as defined under the guidelines.
Just because things aren't an explicit rule in the MOTD, such as listen to the staff online (that's not listed anywhere in the MOTD), doesn't mean they can be ignored. The only relevant rule only speaks of arguing with staff, which thankfully none of you did. But, there's an implication that when a chain of command is provided in the MOTD, such as this one:

the implication here is that the chain of command is intended to be followed by the players on the server at the time.
Additionally, a blanket statement of staff discretion is provided at the beginning of the MOTD, shown below, as Mr. Shitter also acknowledged. As this does fall under Rule 6 of the MOTD and Trolling under the guidelines in my opinion, this granted me the authority to take the action necessary:

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Section d | A note from you

Other: Honestly, I hope this is a misunderstanding on my part, but after reviewing the rules and staff guidelines pretty thoroughly, I'm sad to say that I don't think it is. The last thing I want to do is get anyone in trouble. All I want is for us as  a community to stop punishing players for actions which are not against the rules. We all know jammin is a great moderator who really cares and never makes a decision lightly or without considering the innocence of the accused. I don't think he was acting out of malice in this instance, and I hesitate to suggest he acted in ignorance, considering the weight of his position as a community administrator. However, I do think that what we have on our hands is a mistake which we need to make sure doesn't happen again, so that innocent community members aren't attacked unjustly by the system which is supposed to protect them. In a perfect world, I think this accidental mistake would rather be an opportunity for education than a moment for punitive action against such an active pillar of the community. I like to think we live in a perfect world, or at least in something close to it. Do you?

I appreciate the compliment, and I appreciate your willingness to keep even upper staff/admins accountable for their actions. That being said, based on my evaluation, I don't believe I did anything wrong. The trolling was blatant and annoying, and affected actual potential gameplay by covering up VC/potential KOS's. In a mafia-style game such as TTT, where communication is vital, allowing such spam to continue frankly damages the integrity of gameplay. Additionally, as annoying as some guests can be, a consistent presence of new players into the server is infact vital to the long-term integrity and longevity of the server. As such, I don't believe I have anything to apologize, mediate, or otherwise enact reparations therein for.

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Article IV | Conclusion
I believe this matter should be closed without punishment towards me or any other user involved in the incident. As I have hereby hath now proven beyond any reasonable doubt, I took action proper to my rank, and satisfied both my general responsibility as a staff member to maintain basic gameplay decorum, and my specific responsibility to warn and ban for specific actions.
I, therefore, the Representative of the united Server of Dinkleberg, in Traitor Town, while in Trouble, appealing to the Supreme Nemesis of Timmy's Dad for the rectitude of my intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these shitty maps, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Admins are, and of Right ought to be found Free and Independently found innocent; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the trolls, and that all political connection between them and the State of Chaos, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Admins, they have full Power to levy War against the trolls, conclude Peace with the playerbase, contract Alliances among the servers, establish Commerce in the discord, and to do all other Acts and Things which Admins may of right do. And for the support of this response to this Abuse Report, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Staff Guidelines, I pledge to my playerbase my Life, my forum rep, and my sacred Gametracker Rank.

Signed in the year of our Dinkleberg 2022
Jammin