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All For One, and One For All!

Those were fun times… It was back when the server was pretty solid and maintained a good population. Back when some people started setting up alternate DAF squads to try and rival the ATS incumbents. It was also soon after I put in my logging code that tracked people’s use of derogatory language, and right after the first wave of bans for said use.
This thread is also missing some key emails that I lost, or wasn’t able to save, but I’ll try to fill in what is missing.
This particular person tried to log onto the server one day, to find himself booted right out again, and a message displayed to them that said something to the effect of “You have been banned for derogatory language. Email Deathknight@hehe.com to beg for your rights to play again.” Like a good little boy, he emailed me about the situation, claiming his innocence. Unlike then, now when I get such emails, I usually just cut and paste from my log. But then, in order to keep my HD clean of useless crap, I would add people to the ban-list then delete the log. Thus when this person decided to ask for the log, I was not able to produce; not that it mattered, seeing as how he WAS on the list, and I had no reason, nor have any reason, to maliciously keep him banned. If I wanted to outright ban him, I could have easily just put him on the “I don’t like you, you don’t get to play here” list instead of the derogatory language list. But instead, he decided he wanted to be righteous, or stupid, or both, and claim that until I produced proof that he said what I claimed he said, that he would do… uhh… well, there’s where he ran into a bit of a problem. But don’t worry, he comes up with a solution:

Unless any proof of this other than your word is shown, I will boycot the server and have every other person I know boycot the server. There have been serveral people posing as me, most recently '**************' ect...ect... Until my unbanning, or showing of proof, the DAF clan of ***** will now longer be on the HappyLand server...
-******

All and all I figured it would be a valiant effort, if not wasted. But much to my surprise I soon received a series of letters from his leader, and another squad mate, basically reinforcing his decision, but also attempting to get him off the hook. I battered back and forth politely with the leader for a bit, but then he sent one last letter that demanded a more thorough response. I don’t have any of them in their original form, but I did manage to save my response, which contains most of the leader’s last e-mail’s content, as well as the post letter he sent, and even some small excerpts from the previous letters. The squad-mate’s I couldn’t find, and can’t even remember what I wrote back to him. Here’s my response to the leader however. The quoted material is obviously from his letter, and the following material listed after the “—“ is my comments on that quoted line:

"I have tried very hard to persuade you to take the ban off ***********. I only wish you would listen to reason."

--Listen to reason? What an Interesting, and somewhat insulting phrase. If this is your "hardest" then I you might as well give up right now. Your "Reasons" have consisted of little more then opinions, declarations, and technicalities. Pardon me for being skeptical, but I hardly think that your "arguments" (or what I could possibly find to being the closest things to arguments that you provided) that of which follows, are very effective by any stretch of the imagination:
-"this is very petty for such a harsh punishment" What an argument. It is a complete opinion, which I certainly do not hold. Unfortunately, this opinion of yours is of no consequence.
-"he is 15 and not every one is as mature, sensitive and as feminine as you" So what your saying, is that I should ENCOURAGE discrimination, and allow pardons for those who are "15" or "not mature;" in other words, I should let the stupid people off just because they are stupid. "no every one is as...sensitive and...feminine as you." Are you even daring to suggest that females are over sensitive? Is this what your "reasons" consist of? Ignorant declarations of discriminatory clauses?
-"I expect to hear from you soon." It is really to bad that I upheld this haughty expectation of yours. This probably would have been resolved much quicker otherwise. (Don't worry, I can't possibly view this as an argument, but... something HAD to be said about it... been an itch on my back since I saw it.)
-"************** is a very valuable member to my squad" I really hope you don't think that I care a whit about that...
-"... but he is very stubborn" Oh! So now stubborn people should be let off the hook.
-"I know it must sound lame but I do hold him in high regard" That’s nice. But what do I care? Or did you think that I somehow hold YOU in high regard, and thus, by a recursive reason must hold him in high regard?
-"As I said before he is extremely stubborn and unlikely to apologize" To bad for him. Btw, nice repetition of a straw-man argument. It almost worked!

"He honestly believes he hasn't done any wrong."

--Then he is either lying to you, who holds him in such "high regard[s]" (What a roll model!) or he has had a grave lapse of memory; unless of course he DOES recall the situation, and finds nothing wrong with it. At which point I will openly admit that I am VERY happy that I have banned him and he should not expect to be removed from that list in any reasonable amount of time, no matter how many people he has vouching for him with meaningless arguments.

"I realize that you would not ban some one with out just cause so I am afraid I'm at a loss for words."

--Gee… I couldn't possibly wonder why you are at such a "loss for words." Could it possibly be because you have no ground to stand on, and that this whole thread of letters are nothing more then a repetitious, ignorant, and completely useless waste of both our time?

"I have presented many arguments"

--I will leave it to you to imagine me laughing quite hard at this statement. Yes… your "many arguments." How could I have possibly forgotten the mammoth weight of such intense arguments like "But he is stubborn!" and "this is very petty for such a harsh punishment" crushing down on my poor psyche! Goodness! Let me zap him off the ban list right now before I am bombarded with more such ungodly "arguments"!

"in which all you had to say was 'my server, my rules''"

--Well shoot… I'm sorry... I thought it was my server and my... wait a minute! What are you tryin’ to pull fella! It is my server and my rules! I only BEARLY dodged that discrediting bullet!

"you don't even present a plausible argument."

--You must be thinking of yourself, because quite frankly, "my server, my rules" is an EXTREAMLY plausible argument. For you see, it is a very relevant fact that it IS my server and it IS my rules: Rules, which he BROKE on MY server. When he breaks rules on my server, and I levy a punishment unto him, he is being punished for breaking rules on my server, because he DID. Thus the statement "my server, my rules" means that it is MY server, with MY rules, and he broke MY rules on MY server, hence the punishment, which you are attempting to argue. And the most ironic part about this statement is that YOU’RE the one with no "plausible argument." Unless you count "he is 15" and "I do hold him in high regard."

"Can you seriously tell me that this could not be a miss understanding"

--I sure can cowboy! I had a log that said that a one ***************** at the IP now specified in the ban list, was profusely using derogatory language on my server. If that ain't his name and IP, then I would hope that you wouldn't even be here attempting to argue with me.

"you don't even have the log file to verify it was in fact his IP."

--Nope. I try to keep useless trash from cluttering up my HD. But unless that evil Microsoft company has specifically created a subroutine that "confuses" my clipboard when I copy and paste IP addresses from my personal logging files, then I'd say it's a pretty sure bet that that’s my boy!

“Jesus please work with me.”

--Come on now... your gonna make me puke here...

As you can see, it wasn’t a very exciting time argument wise. After that letter the whole situation was pretty much dropped, and he sent me this one last email before breaking the whole assault off:

Wow... that was un-called for. I wasn't trying to get into a fight with you. Tearing me a new ass hole wasn't necessary. After the first email I sent you, I have made an effort to be as polite as possible. I am sorry I pissed you off. And your right, I suppose I haven't presented much of an argument in any at all. So I give up. You were right, I was wrong. I am sorry for wasting your time but thank you for granting me this chance.

Chances are I sent back an email simply saying “No problem” or something similarly short and cruel. But we all have to have a little fun some times right?
And for all of you out there that are wondering, the “boycott” lasted no more then 24 hours before his squad-mates were coming on under different names, and it took about a week before they started coming on under their normal names. So much for team spirit and the “All For One!” additude.

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