Excessive three week ban (imo)

TheDoc

Good evening,

This evening during discussing the steam sales I made the following post

This is turning into me simply rebuying my xbox catalogue for PC.

I already have Arkham City, somehow feeling the need to buy it for the PC.

Worth noting, I downloaded a pirated copy of Civ 5 after having issues with a genuine site whose steam keys wouldnt work. Have put a good few hours into it but havnt touched it in a week or two, but have bought the actual game now.

A positive pirating experience

I've bolded the relevant segment.

I'm fully appreciative that moderators are in place to uphold the charter , and at this point would like to thank Retrogamer for his swift responses to my PM's, and understand his position on the matter. At this point I'll refrain from posting any PM's, however there was nothing upsetting or unprofessional contained within, simply the moderator involved outlining his justification ( which is also appreciated as I know most moderators feel they never need to explain themselves).

My issue with the ban, and its length, is that piracy is regularly discussed within the Gaming forum and other wider forums. On a regular enough basis it appears in conversation when referring to

How second hand games sales damage the industry
Extensive DRM restrictions
Digital Distribution
Piracy affecting the industry directly
And more

I've contributed, as has the moderator, to these sort of discussions and while there has been and will continue to be widespread admittance of piracy by users, they never receive infractions. To this I'm happy as it adds to good discussion and hearing the side of those that pirate has to be heard.

I would also direct you to this thread

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055334444

A very lengthy and long discussion on P2P clients and torrenting on the networking forum. Nobody is nieve enough to think the that the people asking for help,setup advice and tweaks here are using torrents to download legally acquired material. This thread is there for one reason and one reason only.

However I don't want to stray into a piracy discussion. My comment was simply made to point out how I had illegally retrieved a copy of a game, but after enjoying it in a short space of time, went ahead and bought the game, highlighting

My enjoyment of the game and wanting to support it
The continued excellence of the current steam sale.

While I fully understand that there is an issue about directly linking piracy ( to which I've never done) I don't accept there is a sitewide ban on the discussion or piracy or obtaining software illegally, as thats simply not true. There are hundreds of examples of where it is discussed, users admit piracy along with other elements to the topic.

The moderator in question also stated

Anyone that admits they pirate games gets a 3 week ban.

which is not true, as I've stated there are and were numerous discussion threads, in the gaming forum itself, about piracy in relation to a number of differing topics where users admitted to piracy and no action was taken. I will accept that this might have been as the discussion was very good, mature and the admittion of users of pirating was adding to the discussion.

As a long-time contributor to the gaming forum and its subforums I would kindly request that this be reviewed to the following points

Ban not justified
Ban excessive
I did not directly link/elude to locations to pirate
Discussion on piracy is regular enough not just in this forum, but sitewide through various discussions

In relation to the reasoning's I've outlined above.

As I would interpret this as a very grey area( I cannot link direct examples due to me being banned, but they are recent enough) and considering I'm a regular with 9k+ posts, this wasn't a case of "**** the police" but a more mis interpretation of what I perceived as not being an issue.

My satisfactory expectation would be a warning issued ,that users admitting to piracy is not accepted and is zero tolerance on the site. Or at worst an infraction as a first offender on the gaming forum. (My rep is only on the airsoft one )

Thank you,
Dan

Mr E

Hi Dan,

I'll take a look at this. I'll review everything and reply this evening.

TheDoc

Cheers

Mr E

Resolved by PM.

This thread can be closed, cheers.

TheDoc

Mr.E has responded through PM after discussing with the moderator in question. They have agreed to lift my ban and issue a warning, which I'm thankful for and am now aware of the sitewide policy regarding this issue.

My thanks to Mr.E and Retrogamer for their understanding and quick dealing with this issue.

I guess once the ban is lifted this can be closed?

Case Study on how this DRP process is actually very good and works well

Mr E

I think I've had 3 DRP threads in my 2 years as CMod. We'll shoot each other in the head (with rocket launchers) on the battlefield, but this shows that the pen is mightier than the sword.

Thanks Doc.