Accepted Unban request

I have have been playing on a flood server when mantis joined, I assume that he has been in an indigo mode before.
I welcomed him but he ignored me after about one round I asked him privately why didn't he remove my prop block infraction after we discussed it with him before
and he agreed that it wasn't prop block. however he ignored me once more, only about 2 rounds after it when my teammate left he came into my room explaining to me
that you can't change an infraction and that he will need to remove it and to do it he will need to contact Rick and then give me a new one as well as another one.
I had no idea what he was talking about and he then asked me if I really want him to do it, I asked him what other infraction and he told me that I was trucing a couple of rounds ago [Note, I wasn't told anything after that round or at the end of it but only 3-4 rounds after it]
I recalled the situation quickly and confirmed that we were indeed talking about the same round after I attempted to explain to him why it wasn't trucing he would just say that he knows what he saw and would just not listen. I tried seeking the help of Exotranc which helped us settle our previous dispute successfully but not to avail. Then I left the server and went to eat, as I returned I tried to join a battle royal server but I
saw that I was banned for 7 days. The round that mantis claims that I was trucing with another player started with around 5 people, I was the only one that built his boat outside. as you can see in the drawing below. at first, I shoot and destroyed the boat on the left before noticing that I am being shot by the boat in the corner. there was a boat between us but he was shooting them and not me, they were a team of 2 players. so instead of shooting the boat in front of me, I started shooting the boat in the corner avoiding the boat in front of me, as soon as the boat in the corner was left with only about 2 props and was about to be destroyed I started shooting the boat in front of me. :

Such action should be considered as self-preservation and not trucing since shooting the boat in front of me could have resulted in all of the 3 remaining players shooting me. Not to mention that I only had one infraction before this incident and wasn't even warned/kicked or banned after that round that it happened or at the end of it, or as a matter of fact nothing happened for the next 3-4 rounds. as well as Mantis seemed to be acting in a biased way towards me.
suggesting in his question that I mentioned above ("if I really want him to do it") that If I would just let it be nothing would happen and he would not have to give me another infraction.
Making it sounds as if this whole situation could have been avoided if I would have only let it be as it is. his decision to not warn me or follow up with any action after the following incident happened but only after 3-4 rounds later when he talked to me further emphasize this point, as well it happened only for one round, we weren't that close to each other and it didn't continue after it. as well I don't know or have any connection to the following person. nor did we talk about teaming up. :

Mantis:

STEAM_0:0:67812831:

https://devinity.org/pages/infractions/?steamid=STEAM_0:0:67812831:

 

Very well. While in this particular round you weren't necessarily trucing and it can be called self-preservation, the ban that was given to you doesn't come strictly from this one offense. Let me begin.

So, three days ago (August 16th), you were caught trucing. You were using one balloon as a prop to stay afloat, attacking a target that another team was also shooting at. You were closer to that team than the target was, and they shot you only after the further target was destroyed. Regardless of what argument you can make, this is quite blatant because the team you were trucing with had the infinite capability of destroying your boat with 1 shot and eliminating you from the game and they chose to shoot at the target that was not only further away, but much harder to destroy.

Additionally, on that same day, you were trucing in a different method via creating a boat, placing it in front of a team's boat to act as protection, and dying in the beginning of the round to effectively make it round delaying if they damage your props. This is definitely something you cannot do no matter how you choose to describe or justify it. There is conclusive proof for this as well, screenshots and chat logs.

You should have been punished twice for these two separate instances but you had only one warning. You were also abusing the balloon tool, which is abusing VIP.

Now on to the rest.

You wanted your warning to be removed because it says trucing and prop blocking (lack of a better term for building a boat as protection for someone else) while you only truced. Mantis did not have a bias against you for asking if you really wanted it because he questioned the intensity of such a problem. You would still have a warn but it would have just had one less parameter. He also questioned it because he didn't want to trouble Rick or a founder to do something so inconsequential.

Instead of being understanding about this, you couldn't stop arguing with us about your infraction. Mantis wanted there to be more clarity so he asked me to join the discussion, and we jointly agreed that it wasn't prop blocking. That would be a nice spot to end the argument but you also wanted the warnings for trucing to be removed for the team you were helping. You then went to logical extremes after I had told you that it's totally avoidable from the team that you were trying to help, whether it be moving their boat away in the build or fight phase (though yes, it would be harder during fight), even going so far as to say "why bother, it's a game". When it reaches that point, I can hardly believe you're trying to come to a conclusion in the conversation rather than trying to irritate us by not stopping. No matter how I answered your questions and no matter what points I brought up, you always had something to say back regardless of how correct or logical it may have been.

Your response to our decisions was quite childish. After we finished speaking about it, you launched a predator missile to attack Mantis with. I ignored it and just assumed you were salty and were going to settle down after a while, but the next time I came on a server that you were on, you repeatedly spawned a single balloon and kept relocating to wherever I was building my boat in an effort to get into the fight phase simply to damage my props. Had it been anyone else that you were doing this to, they would have probably became frustrated, asking you to stop or complaining about it, most likely getting a response not too different from what you said to us in our argument. What's even worse is that you tried to actively frame me. The only thing I can get out of this is that you do not respond well to not getting your way. It scares me that this might not change even after your ban finishes and I don't want to have to experience this every time I happen to be on a server with you and I don't want Mantis to experience it either.

Overall, staff have the final say and no amount of straw manning, logical extremes, and unnecessary analysis will get you past an infraction. The amount of special treatment you have received for arguing ad nauseam with us is ridiculous and I don't want to have to deal with it any further; the users that break rules and don't debate them don't ever get to dodge like you have so far. I pride myself on staying civil with my interactions as a moderator but sometimes it blinds me. I'm sorry that you have to live with a ban this long immediately after a mere warning but any of our moderators could conduct a close reading of your chats since all of our exchanges were over them and find that you are difficult to deal with and cannot settle with what you are told. I will not be giving you the final judgment since Mantis is involved with this as well. After his response, we will make a decision.

 

Just a quick response for a couple of things that I ought to think you got wrong:
after August 16th when I was caught trucing my main argument was for the prop block claim and my the other players claim for trucing, however after talking it through we came to an understanding about it and I was wrong about my claim that the other players weren't trucing but we agreed that the prop block claim was unlawful. what I personally expected is that the prop block part of my infraction will be removed. however, it did not happen.
Our argument came to an end with us coming to understanding about the prop block claim if I recall correctly. and didn't continue afterward.

I have started using the balloon tool after I have seen Pew Pew and Mayumi which both are JR mods using it as well as I had played a couple of rounds using the ballon tactic with mantis before the whole incident. I might be wrong to assume that something that is done by the staff members is okay and allowed as well as I have not been told otherwise by you or any other staff member.

I indeed was using a ballon for a couple of rounds when you next came on and I personally considered the whole thing over however you didn't seem to have the same mindset. after discussing and talking with you about other issues that I found troubling that had nothing to do with my infraction someone asked what is going on and you answered with something
along this lines: "He is just upset/salty that he was given an infraction so he argues with me" even though the topics that we were debating and talking about had nothing to do with it. I have only have placed my balloon for a couple of rounds next to your boat and you always shot me at the first 30 seconds of each round.

Moreover, your untruthful claim that I was "actively trying to frame you" Is bluntly untrue and you shouldn't have taken my words so seriously just like I said that when the other mod that was on at the time accidentally bumped into me with his prop I said that it was prop pushing. and later on, I said that you were prop pushing as well when you took a prop and pushed the other mod with it as well as saying that I got the whole thing recorded.(you can look it up in the logs)
all of it was done in a none serious manner if you can tell from my first message "What I find funny is that for a round or two I was on a ballon behind exo and he didn't shot me "
You should be quite aware that I am capable of reporting someone however you didn't get reported, and nothing ever happened form it because I wasn't "actively trying to frame you"

In conclusion, I don't want to stretch it any further than necessary It has been a headache for both sides. Nonetheless, I had to reply to your accusations.

 

After reviewing your ban and speaking to exo I've decided to shortern your ban to 5 days as a week is quite an extreme punishment. I've also edited your warning.

You have however clearly broken the rules, it is completely obvious that you are not allowed to make barriers to protect other teams.

Regarding the trucing, we would have to look into the situation more if you weren't friendly with the players you "inadvertently" truced with.

If you continue to timewaste and argue about this it's just going to annoy us. This is the final decision.