How Suspensions Are Dealt With

[Timplar]

I recently received a 24 hour suspension. The suspension upset me, but not nearly as much as the mountain of trash surrounding it. Let me take you through the steps of me dealing with this.

I tried logging in one afternoon and received nothing but red text telling me I was suspended. I checked mogstation, which also said I was suspended. Confused, I checked my email for an explanation, and received the most vague not-reasoning I could have expected.



In this email I am first accused of harassment, then later told I used profanity. You can also see in the first paragraph it says that I did this on the 9th, which I was certain wasn't true as I worked late that day and hardly logged in at all. The two roulettes I remember doing were uneventful and I hardly spoke outside my fc chat and ls.

(cont.)

[Timplar]

24 hours pass and I'm unbanned. I haven't even received a confirmation email saying they got my report. I do check the service desk to see if there was a reason there, and it said I spammed. Now I have 3 excuses for what I did! Still no clue if any are true. So I make a silly sounding report to hide my anger. In it I address the real issue, albeit masked in a joke. They tell me they can't respond to this report.

I send another report a few hours later, this time longer and explaining how the unexplained suspension does nothing to help me or the community. This time I receive a response.

The GM informed me the incident wasn't on 7/9, but was instead on 6/30. I ask for information as to what I did that was wrong, since I try to remain respectful while I play and have no memory of wronging anyone. They tell me that telling me what I did wrong could result in "more harassment" of the player.

[Timplar]

This reasoning is ridiculous. If I was told what words I used only, there may be a small chance I remember the name of the person it was directed towards, but if I did that I could just be banned again. The harassment will end there with the second ban for harassing someone for reporting my harassment.

By not telling me the behavior I need to stop, I don't receive any feedback as to what qualifies as harassment. The harassment may never end until I'm banned longer and longer and eventually banned permanently, all because of what might happen if I'm told what I did wrong.

I was told what I did was "definitely harassment," and should avoid anything that could be seen as harassment in the future. As I already do, the only thing I can assume is that I was banned for making a joke that was taken seriously. I don't know what that joke could have been, so I won't know what is considered going "too far."

[Timplar]

This whole situation resolves no issues, and only makes me afraid I will be banned permanently eventually without a reason. And on top of all of this, the spam thing is never addressed either. So did they just add that in for good measure? This whole situation is making me believe they don't have a real reason for banning me. This authoritarian approach to dealing with ***ALLEGED*** wrongdoing has the potential to be useless and solve nothing but allowing GMs and people who report to vent their frustrations by taking away people's accounts. It must change, or no one in the community is safe from abuse of the system, both by players and by GMs.

I don't want a 72 hour ban, and as I don't know what I did that counted as harassment/profanity/spam, I don't know how to change my behavior. I will avoid speaking outside my fc and ls, as those are the only places I can be vaguely safe speaking until I know how broadly Square Enix treats the term "harassment."

[Canadane]

I'll just let you know first off, you can go beyond 1000 characters. Just edit your post and the restriction is gone.
Good luck in finding out what rule you broke.

[Timplar]

Oh thank you, it was infuriating having to wait 30 seconds between continue of this post

[Zari]

What confuses me is that it says "for the following harassment violations" Then does not show or say what you did at all. That is ridiculous

[Timplar]

Yeah, it's almost as if they accidentally left it out. But when I asked for it they said they can't give it to me.

[Ninster]

The two roulettes I remember doing were uneventful and I hardly spoke outside my fc chat and ls.

If it would help you jog your memory at all, could it be possible that something you said to your free company or linkshell offended someone enough for them to make a report?

[Iromi]

I wonder if they leave out what you did/said because they think some people may go harass the person who reported them even further...that is the only logical thing I can think of lol. But yea, not telling you exactly what is against the ToS seems counter productive.