1 hour ago
Apologies for the delay in responding. Classes have just started back up and I’ve already found myself swamped with work.
That being said, I wanted to address a few things in your appeal.
First, I think you are significantly understating the nature of what occurred when you characterize your behavior as simply “bringing up politics.” What you did went considerably beyond expressing a political opinion. You repeatedly engaged in rhetoric relating to Nazism, racism, antisemitism, xenophobia, and other forms of real-world identity-based hostility. You also built a swastika, which is not merely a controversial political symbol, but one intrinsically associated with one of the most destructive and hateful regimes in modern history. I think it is important to call the conduct what it was rather than reducing it to merely being political.
The problem was not that you had political opinions. HomeTown has always had, and continues to have, people with vastly different political beliefs who manage to coexist perfectly well because they understand that there is a time and place for those discussions.
You made a number of people genuinely uncomfortable to the point that some no longer felt safe or comfortable playing on HomeTown while you were present. That is particularly concerning to me because HomeTown is, at its core, a place for people to relax, have fun, and to provide escapism for whatever they may be dealing with in their lives. Your presence had the opposite effect for a number of our players.
As I mentioned in your previous appeal, I have had multiple players independently come to me and express how thankful they were that you had been banned and how relieved they were that you were no longer around. In my 5.5 years on the staff team, there has only been one other instance where a single player came to me unsolicited to tell me that they were glad I had banned someone, notwithstanding situations revolving around unruly Guests. The fact that multiple members of the community expressed this sentiment about the same player is something I can't just disregard.
An apology and a promise to behave differently do not, by themselves, restore the trust that was lost. You were banned relatively recently, and you subsequently demonstrated a willingness to evade that ban by attempting to return on another account. That makes it difficult for me to conclude that enough time has passed for me to confidently say that the underlying behavior has genuinely changed. I sincerely hope that it has, but I have no reasonable way of verifying that at this point. I would be remiss in my responsibilities as a staff member if I took your assurances at face value when your conduct immediately following the ban demonstrated otherwise.
Ultimately, my responsibility is not only to consider whether you believe you have changed, but also to consider the experience and trust of the people who play here. I cannot justify asking those players to accept the risk of your return when the evidence available to me does not yet provide sufficient reason to believe that the problems which led to your ban will not recur.
The staff team remains in consensus that HomeTown is better off without you as a player at this time. That is not intended as a personal condemnation of you, it is a judgment about your conduct as a member of this community and the effect that conduct had on others.
For those reasons, this appeal is denied.
The framework of your ban technically permits you to submit another appeal in the future. However, I would genuinely advise against doing so unless you have had a substantial amount of time to demonstrate that the issues which led to your ban are no longer representative of how you conduct yourself. Repeatedly submitting appeals without meaningful time having passed is unlikely to change this decision.
I do appreciate the more reflective tone of this appeal, and I sincerely hope that the growth you describe is genuine. Regardless of whether you ever return to HomeTown, I hope you take this experience seriously and use it as an opportunity to become a more considerate person toward the people around you.
Thank you for taking the time to appeal, denied.
That being said, I wanted to address a few things in your appeal.
First, I think you are significantly understating the nature of what occurred when you characterize your behavior as simply “bringing up politics.” What you did went considerably beyond expressing a political opinion. You repeatedly engaged in rhetoric relating to Nazism, racism, antisemitism, xenophobia, and other forms of real-world identity-based hostility. You also built a swastika, which is not merely a controversial political symbol, but one intrinsically associated with one of the most destructive and hateful regimes in modern history. I think it is important to call the conduct what it was rather than reducing it to merely being political.
The problem was not that you had political opinions. HomeTown has always had, and continues to have, people with vastly different political beliefs who manage to coexist perfectly well because they understand that there is a time and place for those discussions.
You made a number of people genuinely uncomfortable to the point that some no longer felt safe or comfortable playing on HomeTown while you were present. That is particularly concerning to me because HomeTown is, at its core, a place for people to relax, have fun, and to provide escapism for whatever they may be dealing with in their lives. Your presence had the opposite effect for a number of our players.
As I mentioned in your previous appeal, I have had multiple players independently come to me and express how thankful they were that you had been banned and how relieved they were that you were no longer around. In my 5.5 years on the staff team, there has only been one other instance where a single player came to me unsolicited to tell me that they were glad I had banned someone, notwithstanding situations revolving around unruly Guests. The fact that multiple members of the community expressed this sentiment about the same player is something I can't just disregard.
An apology and a promise to behave differently do not, by themselves, restore the trust that was lost. You were banned relatively recently, and you subsequently demonstrated a willingness to evade that ban by attempting to return on another account. That makes it difficult for me to conclude that enough time has passed for me to confidently say that the underlying behavior has genuinely changed. I sincerely hope that it has, but I have no reasonable way of verifying that at this point. I would be remiss in my responsibilities as a staff member if I took your assurances at face value when your conduct immediately following the ban demonstrated otherwise.
Ultimately, my responsibility is not only to consider whether you believe you have changed, but also to consider the experience and trust of the people who play here. I cannot justify asking those players to accept the risk of your return when the evidence available to me does not yet provide sufficient reason to believe that the problems which led to your ban will not recur.
The staff team remains in consensus that HomeTown is better off without you as a player at this time. That is not intended as a personal condemnation of you, it is a judgment about your conduct as a member of this community and the effect that conduct had on others.
For those reasons, this appeal is denied.
The framework of your ban technically permits you to submit another appeal in the future. However, I would genuinely advise against doing so unless you have had a substantial amount of time to demonstrate that the issues which led to your ban are no longer representative of how you conduct yourself. Repeatedly submitting appeals without meaningful time having passed is unlikely to change this decision.
I do appreciate the more reflective tone of this appeal, and I sincerely hope that the growth you describe is genuine. Regardless of whether you ever return to HomeTown, I hope you take this experience seriously and use it as an opportunity to become a more considerate person toward the people around you.
Thank you for taking the time to appeal, denied.