Denied Ban Appeal / Reduction - REW789

Brief description of what happened before you were banned:
The ban was enacted once I was offline. However I was part of team in which the team leader was clearly pushing boundaries with the name. For this I will reference the screenshot that Jr Mod Alucard has taken. Link:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2061559052

This was dealt with when Jr Mod Alucard issued a warning to not just the team leader but all members of the team, in my belief as player and community member of the server was the correct action. This also seems to follow the excellent guide made by counter, on how to handle these situations:

FLOOD RULES PUNISHMENT GUIDELINES AND BASIS
(which will be mentioned again and may be found at
https://devinity.org/threads/flood-rules-punishment-guidelines-and-basis.6491/)

Upon trying to join the server was greeted with the following ban:
Targeted Harassment, Racism, Bullying.

Reason why you should be unbanned:
Racism:

I feel mature enough to understand that the name can constitute as Racism.
And I feel as a first offense, the warning from Jr Mod Alucard was the correct move.

From the Flood Rules Punishment Guidelines

"
Enforcing Server Rules
Unless the server itself is in immediate danger or the player is causing large disturbance that needs to be quickly irradiated, follow this simple rule:

Warn → Kick → Ban

• Warning Players

When dishing warnings out to players: please try to be nice about it. Avoid immediately dishing out kicks or bans if a player is breaking a server rule, politely inform them that they are currently breaking a rule and to not do it again."​

I do not believe the server was in any way at risk of me causing a large disturbance. As seen above from the guidelines.

I do also want to mention and fully understand this is a very low thing to mention. From having a 3rd party friend to join the server to read the rules and take screenshots of them and going over the guidelines Racism is not mentioned. I am in no way saying this nulls the ban or excuses the team leader of naming the team I was a part of something pushing the edge. I do think it may be something worth adding in. Again I will accepted responsibility for this and am not making light of it.

Possibly pushing the limit a little, I do want to mention this being considered double jeopardy. To be punished twice for same singular infraction or action. Considering I was giving a warning and a ban for as far as I could tell, the same infraction.
​

Targeted Harassment, Bullying:

I have nothing to support this ban, nor am I aware of what calls for this ban. Certainly in games not just this server or restricted to Gmod, I can engage in trash talk and get into the game. I also am up for friendly conversation and can admit to making friends and enemies. People you want to rocket off the bat and taunt, (which I would see being allowed considering there is a !taunt command), but also have friends who you want to talk with and give advice during the build phase as they build.

I will once again reference the Guidelines mentioned before to the following section.
"

[05] . . . . . Do not deliberately disrespect, discriminate against or offend players.

Before going about the situation, don't get too upset if a player seems to be joking around. However if you or another player is personally offended by this, tell the player to stop regardless and inform them that they are offending players and that Devinity strives for a friendly environment.

If the player continues to do this after a stern warning, kick them from the server. If they return and continue to harass players, ban him for 1-7 days based on the extremity of the disrespect.

If the player threatens to DDoS, expose personal information or anything to the likes, permanently ban him regardless of the punishment policy.​

"
I can state with absolute confidence I never was once told to stop, given a stern warning, or kicked, as the guide directs.
​

Ban Length/ Reduction:

The ban dealt to me was for 7 days, which is almost how long I have been playing on the server for. This really makes the server off putting to get back on after a ban of this length. What does this mean if I get banned again? It seems I was handed out a ban length that skipped way ahead of the outlined guideline and way outside of the normal from most game servers and certainly from this server.

Looking through Sotori's infractions handed out and sorting through ban reasons similar to mine, the max I have seen was 3 days. Some of these were even for ban invasions, I would imagine that to follow a harsher punishment. I will attach files showing this under evidence.
Also one ban was listed for a death threat and was handed a 2 day ban.
​

Thank you for reviewing this ban appeal / ban reduction.
Under the SteamID, I am going to add in the members of my team with the identical bans. If they need to each put in there own ban appeals, please let me know. I and them would find this extremely understandable. I just want to add them in, due to it probably following a close to identical post as this one.
All of the words mentioned above are of my own. I merely mention them since we seem to all be in this together and lumped together as appose to an individual basis.

I certainly hope this comes across as genuine, especially with the effort and research put into this. I can safety say I have read the rules start to finish at least 3 times.
The server has been great fun bringing back all the hours of flood played years ago.

​

Admin who banned you:
Sotori

SteamID:
STEAM_0:1:15154218 - Me (REW789)

STEAM_0:1:667299 - Mackey
STEAM_0:0:20661031 - Downey
STEAM_0:0:39279601 - Kyle

Evidence:
https://i.imgur.com/6IPmiJG.png - Comparison of Bans
https://devinity.org/threads/flood-rules-punishment-guidelines-and-basis.6491/ - Guidelines
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2061559052 - Alucard Screenshot