Toxic's General Mute/Ban Appeal

[Toxic 291 / 0]

Which platform(s) are you appealing?: All "Official" GFL Discords

Discord/TS3 username (Add your tag and ID if possible):

Toxic#1337

 

Why were you banned?: "malicious gif that crashes Discord"
“Banned”/demoted by Infra.

 

Why should you be unbanned?

(I was told to submit an appeal preemptively by Aurora in the case that Pyros does decide that I should be banned)
As a beginning note - not justifying what happened. This appeal is in no way saying what happened was "okay" and that I shouldn't be held accountable. I'm trying to explain my side of what occurred - I didn't know the full extent of the link or what it did.

While in a call with people I go to school with, they posted the link to the "malicious" GIF, 𝘶𝘯𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘥𝘦𝘥, in a Discord we're in together.
These people are aware of my positions in GFL as they've played on the servers with me before, and I will say they constantly barrage & troll me about it, making jokes about the community and the way it's ran and such.
One went as far to add Roy a while back - as far as I know he didn't harass Roy in any way, but (I think Drako) one of the mods told me he sent Roy the GIF as well. I don't have much of a way of stopping him from doing this, but I'm glad it didn't go worse than it could have.

Anyways - they told me to send it to GFL general. (As I mentioned before, the link was unembedded when they had originally shared it with me)
They told me it was a "fart gun" gif, I just assumed it was a dumb joke they were making, so I sent it, not knowing what came with the GIF. It crashed my Discord a few seconds later and it was deleted by the time my Discord had loaded up. My classmates were laughing by the time I got back in cause they knew what had happened since I'd disconnected from the VC. I was upset by what happened but by then Infra was questioning me in Teams so, that's where I wound up after leaving the VC.

I don't know what else to say, the actions aren't justified. What happened has already happened, and I can't reverse that. But I will say that I didn't intend to send a malicious GIF when I sent it, I did not know it was malicious. Clearly in the future I won't trust my them with anything they say I should do that involves others. I also understand that one of them joined in the past and messed with some people - which was brought up in the discussion in teams - but I'd like to point out that while neither situation was great, they are vastly different. In the first incident, the person I mentioned joined, complaining about the GFL Merch Store for no apparent reason after he'd heard of it. As far as I recall he didn't directly break any rules, but he was rather irritating in general and I understand why people would've gotten upset about that, too. Again, I didn't direct him to do this, and they have a problem with messing with me in regards to the positions I hold in GFL.

Anyways - as for why I should be unbanned. Please take into account everything I've said prior to this before reading this part.
What happened was unintentional. I should've known better than to trust peers about this, and I can take accountability for that. But I didn't know the link was malicious, and I wouldn't have sent it had I known. I apologize for any inconvenience the GIF may have caused to those who saw it when it was still posted - and I apologize for the actions of my peers and I. I'm asking for another chance, given I held several positions in GFL that I fulfilled passionately (and in my opinion, well) and that's what I'm a part of this community for. I'm asking for another chance to fulfill these positions - and another chance to show I can follow the rules of the Discord(s) and not be influenced by my peers.

 

Edited April 21, 2021 by Toxic

[Joshy 4,364 / 44,945]

Didn't want to be shown as recently browsing and then ignore the message.  I was looking at the appeal out of curiosity.  I've heard that I wont have a major say on this and they would like for Ben or Council to determine the outcome of the appeal.  It's known that I often ask or try for leniency.

 

My involvement: I was the one who deleted the GIF.  A little background on why I thought it was very minor while others might be more firm on their stance.  GIFs do not auto-play for me.  I didn't even know that they auto-play.  Quite honestly I still don't even know if all GIFs auto-play or if there was something special about yours that might not?  This is where it's getting interesting because it's very well agreed upon, that these type of images will at least warrant a warning, and if it false-triggers the antivirus we'll automatically ban.

 

The iffy part is when it just crashes Discord.  If it's on auto-play and it crashes Discord...  it's very hard to recover and enforce.  I happen to be online and was curious about that particular GIF.  It doesn't auto-play for me so I simply deleted it when I got back and just told you a verbal unofficial warning to please not post it.  You're already aware of reports versus user-notes.  I added yours to user-notes only to show why I deleted a message if anyone asked later, but things escalated when others were able to recover.

 

That's all I know and think I'm allowed to say.  Letting you know your appeal isn't being ignored.

[Toxic 291 / 0]

8 minutes ago, Joshy said:

Didn't want to be shown as recently browsing and then ignore the message.  I was looking at the appeal out of curiosity.  I've heard that I wont have a major say on this and they would like for Ben or Council to determine the outcome of the appeal.  It's known that I often ask or try for leniency.

 

My involvement: I was the one who deleted the GIF.  A little background on why I thought it was very minor while others might be more firm on their stance.  GIFs do not auto-play for me.  I didn't even know that they auto-play.  Quite honestly I still don't even know if all GIFs auto-play or if there was something special about yours that might not?  This is where it's getting interesting because it's very well agreed upon, that these type of images will at least warrant a warning, and if it false-triggers the antivirus we'll automatically ban.

 

The iffy part is when it just crashes Discord.  If it's on auto-play and it crashes Discord...  it's very hard to recover and enforce.  I happen to be online and was curious about that particular GIF.  It doesn't auto-play for me so I simply deleted it when I got back and just told you a verbal unofficial warning to please not post it.  You're already aware of reports versus user-notes.  I added yours to user-notes only to show why I deleted a message if anyone asked later, but things escalated when others were able to recover.

 

That's all I know and think I'm allowed to say.  Letting you know your appeal isn't being ignored.

Thanks for your reply. I'll just reply to the points I think I should reply to:

1. Yes - (by default, I think) Discord GIFs auto-play, and I see how this would cause issues with a GIF like this.

2. Also, I'm not quite sure what you mean by reports vs. user-notes.

3. I don't nor did I intend on posting anything with effects on other users, like this GIF.

Something I don't think I touched on completely in my original appeal post - when the link was originally sent to me, it was unembedded, so I clicked on the link and previewed it on the actual website the GIF was from. It seemed like an innocent GIF as a joke, so I didn't think it would cause any problems. Upon posting it in #general, I realized it crashed my Discord and the events that have occurred since you deleted it were what followed. It was unexpected on my part and I figured it was just a dumb GIF from the site preview.

Edited April 21, 2021 by Toxic

[Infra 714 / 12,401]

Hey Toxic,

 

As mentioned on Discord, your appeal is being discussed by relevant staff. I'll let you know of a conclusion as soon as possible.

 

Thanks!

[Infra 714 / 12,401]

Hey @Toxic, sorry for the delay.

 

I'm sure you already understand, so I won't go into great detail, but actions have consequences. As a server manager and a long-time member of GFL, in my opinion, you should have known better than to blindly go along with your friends that you have yourself admitted have malicious intents. I'm sure this serves as a good reminder to be careful of what people pressure you to do, and to be aware of your actions.

 

You are a respected member of the community, and I can see both sides of the issue here. It is also my responsibility to uphold and enforce the rules set in our community. I want to give you the benefit of the doubt, but I cannot emphasize enough that you need to be much more careful about that friend group of yours - they're obviously out to cause problems, and it is unfortunate if you get wrapped up in their antics. With all that said, my conclusion is this: I will shorten your ban to 30 days from a permanent ban. All you will need to do is make another appeal in 30 days, and whoever is responsible at that moment will unban you, as long as nothing occurs that may make this decision void (Example: Ban evasion.).

This is not a pass that I am interested in giving out freely, but I am happy to give it to you because you are a valuable contributor to GFL, and quite frankly I know you know better - this has influenced my decision, and I don't think anyone disagrees with it. That said, I am not interested in giving the exact same treatment to your friends if they were to appeal their bans.

 

Closed.

Shoot me a message on DIscord for any further queries - Infra#0001.