First of, I don't think many, if any, will actually read this whole thing. This is more of me documenting this whole deal since FDev have decided to keep me banned.
I was trying to not post about this but FDev have now officially said that they won't go back on the ban AND they refused my ban appeal. I won't go in short, because I want to write about everything and every little piece of information about my unexplained and unfair ban. I will be paraphrasing some stuff but for other I'll actually shared screenshots of emails.
Let's start before the day I got banned. I won't be talking about the beef I have with another squadron, basically because, even if it may have something to do with it, I have no proof of it and I can't confirm anything. TL:DR, we saw two of the higher archs of that squadron in our system undermining our influence. I won't comment on what I think of all that, like I said, not for this post. Some time after that, like 3 or 4h after seeing them, I decide to go into the system chat and only say two things: "o7" and "Come out and say hi, we know you're around here". This was the last interaction I had for the day in system chat.
Day of my ban (May 25th): I wake up early cause of online class and in the middle of it I decide to check up ED to see how the faction is tanking from the previous day (Look, it was a boring class, okay?). I get on at around 11am and after some minutes of doing missions I get disconnected with an unusual error that I hadn't seen before. Unfortunately, I thought it was something ordinary and brushed it off, so I didn't screenshot it, but I noticed it said something regarding my account. Immediately after, at 11:20am, I received an email from Community Safety (FDev) saying that they've became aware of my "abusive behaviour towards other users", saying that my account was permanently excluded from Open and Priv and no actions in the game would affect other players and gave me a warning that other breaches of the EULA would result in further punishments.
Me, obviously surprised by this since the only interactions I had recently other than LITERALLY saying "o7" or asking if people wanted to join our squadron were from the previous day, and so I sent them an email back at them telling them how I felt; Surprised, confused and obviously trying to ask them to contact back, explaining the same thing I've said here, that I didn't talk to anyone other than my squad really. Right after that, I posted here in case I wasn't the only one with this problem and then made a support ticket, received an email confirming said ticked and answered to that email. Basically keep insisting on trying to have some contact back to discuss and explain what happened.And so I decided to communicate the news with my squadron and wait. Surely there was a mistake and support would answer within or close to the 24h the ticket is supposed to be received. Specially for such a problem.
So, after 24h have passed since the ticket, I decide to open a new one just asking them to please take a look at the issue, since such a ban pretty much prevents me from playing anything in the game. Here's where some of the cracks of their ruling start showing:
- I came back to the game, could click to play on open as if nothing happened and it let me, although the email said I couldn't get either on Open or Priv.
- Even when the email said I couldn't "influence any players" I could still not only wing up, but also share missions, talk to the wing chat AND the squadron chat. Even if I could wing up, I couldn't see wing mates, as in phisically. The great inconsistency of this point is that I couldn't personally dm anyone nor talk in system (and I assume neither see what's writen in system chat).
- It demoted me automatically from leader of the squadron to the rank below and made one of the mates that was on that position leader. For some reason, idk if it's intentional or not, he now cannot promote anyone to be the leader. We even tried to promote me back up and then someone else, neither of the times worked.
- I couldn't land in ANY carrier. Yes, at all. I had a squad mate have their carrier open and still nothing. This is obviously for this thing down below, the " no actions made in-game will affect any other player".
- And speaking of said thing, I can no longer participate on CGs. Yes, I tried participating on the last one. I made a couple of trips back and forth with my Cutter, selling tritium, and I ended up with 0 contributions. I made sure I had sign in for the CG and I was at the right spot. Nothing.
So, when was the first time they really contacted about the tickets/ban appeal I was requesting? June 1st. JUNE FIRST, after almost a week since my ban, two ticket reports, 3 emails. And what was their answer? "Yeah, so we're reminding you that your account is restricted. Here's out code of conduct so you can read it" as if I was still on the wrong without giving me any explanation.
And then there's the cherry on the top. They said, and I'm going to quote word by word " We will not disclose further evidence regarding this matter as it could reveal trade secrets, and otherwise infringe on Frontier Developments PLC's intellectual property and security processes."
Now, I don't exactly know what "trade secrets" are, but a friend searched the meaning and this is what it's supposed to mean
So basically, they are saying they won't show evidence of when I was being abusive towards other players because it'd "reveal trade secrets", but trade secrets seem to sound like it's just what makes your game, aka coding, methods, etc.
And here's a little something from every single email they send. Apparently, the whole "trying to minimize damages" policy they seem to have also involves shutting up everyone.
My answer was clear to all this. I wanted to try and see things through to try and sort of negotiate my ban appeal. Here's what I sent them after they answered me with, what I can only describe as the biggest bs reason why they wouldn't reveal evidence (the "trade secrets" thing):
2 days pass. No answer, so I decide to send them another email:
Days pass and no answer until today, 9th of June, got an answer at around 8:30am UTC. This is what they had to say:
Now, if it was another game where I obviously knew I had been toxic I'd accept this. But the problem is, this is not any other game.
FDev won't show evidence, because they have none.
They won't tell me when it happened, because I never did harass anyone in this game.
So what did I answer with? Well…
I am thinking on going through with my warning.
A little of clarity first. This is Article 6:
Article 6 is basically "The right to a fair trial", "Innocent until proven guilty", etc. Thus, they are obliged to show whatever evidence they have again me.
I could also pursue with Article 14:
Now, this one would be for the case of them not wanting to show the evidence.
Look, I don't hate FDev. I love this game, but I'm tired of all this. I am tired of the unjustice I've dealt with for the past month and I will do anything to solve this, doesn't matter how far I have to go for it. We obviously have multiple theories of what could've really gone down, but I don't want to speculate, even more in the case this reaches legal grounds. I know that, in today's world, going public on social media is more effective for this cases than keeping it private, and it's the reason why I've made this.
I do have more, although not as significant, proof of stuff, like, I could send the whole email exchange and previous email exchanges we've done where I was in touch with FDev, helping them with bugs.
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDangerous/comments/v8knsi/unfair_ban_wont_show_evidence_refuse_to_ban/
