Appealing: MervinPan

[MervinPan]

So I was banned for having an inappropriate name, but I was testing out the censor system in Town of Salem. So 1. Town of Salem failed to censor the name, 2. Basically my username means black in spanish, 3. I did not say anything racist that game. So I pretended to be spanish in order to avoid getting reported as I realised that I would probably get banned based on how triggered people were getting. I would like to turn this ban into a suspension because I have not been racist in any of my games, nor was I racist in that game (Other than the name, I guess), but I do recognize that some people may have been really triggered by the name. I don't think I've been reported for racism in the past? I think possibly Gamethrowing because there was one game where someone said I was in a call with them and that certain people are mafia but even if you looked at that game, I don't think it was possible for me to have known.

[TrialBot]

Here are your reports:

• Inappropriate Username

[Jerme]

Please keep in mind that not anything that passes the censor would be allowed, it strictly disallows specific words when typed correctly, but it cannot catch every variation of it. Attempting to test what could get through and what does not and base your argument on that is not a valid argument of why a report for inappropiate username is invalid.
It could mean black, indeed, but it could also mean something else, which you did imply with statement of "testing the censor system". An inappropiate username has no relation to being inappropiate in chat, so even a perfectly fine behaviour with a racial slur as a name may warrant a permanent ban, simple as that.
I'd like to add, that speaking another language than the selected chatlanguage is considered cheating and is thus against the rules. This is because you could relay information to someone else in a way that possibly no one else could understand/follow, which would grant you an unfair edge.

[MervinPan]

Right, so I do agree that the username does validate the report (in a sense) as it does have two meanings, one of them obviously being offensive to many people which would make the report righteous if that was the only thing considered. However, I would like to point out that the system is flawed for even allowing this word to be uncensored because, as you stated, speaking in another language would be considered cheating so I would make the assumption that the game highly favors English words, thus the English definition of that username would be the one that is more interpreted as opposed to people being aware that it also means black. That being said, I don't feel that it is completely fair for me to be perma-banned for using a word that isn't censored at all. There was no attempt made to bypass the censor like expanding the number of n's or g's in the word, I just used the word straight up as it was. That would lead to the indication that using it is okay to use, depending on context. In this situation, I just simply set it as a username. No hateful comments, nothing else nor were there any messages of me being racist in the chat or indicating anything regarding the English definition of that word.

Also, I've seen many instances of this word being used in chat which must have warranted many reports in the past which should have also brought up concern to the moderators or admins about possibly censoring the word altogether if any usage of it just warrants a ban. And of course, there wouldn't be any situation where it would be used as a Spanish word, because, as you said, it would be considered cheating. So once again, why would this word not be censored by the game.

Now, when I picked this name, I did do it as a test for the censor system. Now at this point, you can argue "You could have just changed your name before name selection ran out". Yes, but I also did want to see whether there are people who are open minded and accept the idea that I could have been someone who spoke Spanish predominantly and knew barely enough English to play the game, or if they would only account for their own feelings and personal beliefs and report in a frantic manner. I suppose we have our answer.

Overall, I feel that it isn't right to perma ban me when there is no indication of me using this in a racial context IN GAME and when the word is allowed by the game itself without me having to bypass any special filters or whatsoever. I feel that a perma ban would be too extreme in this case and that a suspension would be nicer. Of course, based on my previous games, you would not expect to see this type of behavior recurring. Although, not gonna lie, I wrote a lot of this for the sake of argument and to see what reasoning/response I'll get, but I can live with whatever decision y'all make. I would have liked to word my sentences better but it's about 1:40 AM and I'm tired.

(THIS PART REFER TO CHEATING, CAN IGNORE UNLESS YOU WANT TO CONTEST THIS)
Lastly, I do get that using another language could be considered cheating and I do agree and I have seen people do it and have been like ??? But in this case, I did not use it to my advantage as I mainly kept quiet unless I had to say something important, like I was rb'd or I didn't shoot someone etc. Even in those instances, this one dude translated it correctly to English for everyone to know so overall there was no harm done. Even if he didn't, there is no indication that I would not have so you cannot presume that I would have kept speaking in Spanish. The only part where I would even consider my use of a different language "cheating" would be when I said "disparare 8", meaning I'll shoot 8. I would say that sentence was pretty useless as nobody considered it, and even if they did, it would not have changed anything (i.e, the mafia was going to kill me regardless because I could have shot her and guaranteed her loss rather than shooting the escort or the jester). Even if you want to say that the code could have specifically been geared towards the escort, I literally wrote "rb demonia!!" which should have been very clear what my intent for him to do was. He gamethrew anways when he shot me (Read the chat log, I claimed vig and my will indicates that I shot the witch).

[Jerme]

The report was not closed as "cheating", so there is no need to contest that part. It was only meant as an information for you to not use a different language than the selected one, along with that your used attempt to explain that you faked being spanish to evade punishment would not suffice as an excuse.
The censor should help a bit, but common sense should also apply to just not choose other words that might not be caught be the censor. Since we offer the game also in Spanish, filtering it would be not that much of a good idea either.
It could be that the ban is lowered to a suspension, but please keep in mind that a filter doesn't exist to be challenged.

[LevinSnakesRise]

Reduced permanent ban to proper suspension tier.

Appeal technically approved, but you still must wait out the suspension timer, apologies. You should be able to play again on the 10th.

[MervinPan]

Thank you! I appreciate it.