Unban Appeal - JasonBarnes_Unban2 - GTA RP

[JasonBarnes_Unban2]

Unban Appeal for JasonBarnes_Unban2 

In-game Name: Jason Barnes

Server: GTA RP

Steam ID: 76561197990247051

Ban ID: Unable to get

Reason given for your ban: C1.6

In your own words, please type why you think you were banned.: Previous Appeals;
https://www.roleplay.co.uk/topic/146493-unban-appeal-jasonb_unban-gta-rp/
https://www.roleplay.co.uk/topic/142216-unban-appeal-jasonbarnes_unban-gta-rp/
https://www.roleplay.co.uk/topic/143293-unban-appeal-jasonbarnes_-gta-rp
https://www.roleplay.co.uk/topic/144039-unban-appeal-jasonbarnes_-community-banned/
https://www.roleplay.co.uk/topic/146773-unban-appeal-jb_unban2-gta-rp/#comment-834904
https://www.roleplay.co.uk/topic/148440-unban-appeal-jasonbarnes_unban1-gta-rp/

Why should we unban you ?: New year, new appeal.

I’ve appealed that many times since I was banned in June 2022 that I won’t repeat the same reasons for each ban as I have done every time previously, rather I will address the points that were made in the final reply in my last appeal as well as comments made in a ticket regarding my ban. As always I have linked my previous appeals above for reference.

I’ll start with Danoo’s final reply from when my last appeal was denied at the start of October.

“Sadly, we don't believe that you only posted the racial slur to disprove someone's theory. There is absolutely no way anyone would do that, as it'll only cause them more harm than good.”

I have no reason to lie about this. If I had posted it for malicious reasons, or because everyone else was doing it and I just wanted to join in, I would hold my hands up and say so. At this point, the reason why does not make it better or worse because at the end of the day regardless of the reason it should never have been said and I have apologised multiple times for it and expressed my regret at the situation. I have nothing to gain by changing the narrative and it is 100% the truth that I did not believe someone would ever share screenshots from the discord. We have seen mass 1.6 bans happen in the past for in game related issues, such as excessive bans or poor roleplay from an entire gang. I was almost certain and confident this was the reason Vagos were getting banned and so stupidly I joined in with the messages in the discord.
In my defence I know for certain you will never find legitimate proof of any other racist behaviour whatsoever from me and there is no pattern of behaviour to show that it is in my character to act in this way. I am not a racist person in the slightest and have no ill will towards any group of people.

“I don't think it'll ever be a yes to return to this community. You lot certainly did it with the racial slurs, the rule breaks over a consistent 6 months, then the doxing video which was certainly immoral and disgusting behaviour.”

I have never once appealed on anyone else's behalf, only my own. I don’t know why an appeal from me is being tainted by the actions of other people. I am only responsible for my own actions and I admit to 1 message containing a racial slur. Anyone else has nothing to do with me.

To add to this, the consistent rule breaks over 6 months didn’t involve me either. If anything I prevented more rule breaks by trying to hold Vagos together and attempting to steer people in the right direction in terms of roleplay and sticking to the rules. If I recall correctly before I was banned in June, I had a 1 day ban and a 2 day ban a year or two prior for NVL when I was quite new to Roleplay and that is it. There is no ban history to hold over my head that shows me as a consistent rule breaker.
As for the doxxing video as I have stated multiple times again and again I had nothing to do with that. I 100% agree that it is disgusting behaviour and no one deserves that kind of thing to happen to them over an online game.

I knew after being banned I would eventually be keen to return, as shown in my attempts via unban appeals. I was very very careful to keep a distance between myself and anything that could damage my attempts at being allowed back into the community.

It seems that the paragraph I am referring to from Dannoo, simply points to the fact that I was in Vagos and so I am guilty by association. In my opinion this is the wrong approach. It’s stated time and time again appeals are dealt with on a case by case basis however I do not feel I have been treated as an individual in my appeals.

On the final point in my denied appeal regarding a discord I was in with some ex-vagos members, the most blunt way I can reply to this is that it’s really not that deep. I had known these people for the best part of 2 or 3 years, spending a lot of time together in and out of RPUK. There is no secret banned group of people behind the scenes. As I said previously I’ve hopped in a discord and played a few games with some people, a discord that I have now not been a part of for 5 or 6 months as I often clear out my unused discords. By the same logic, anyone who has played games with me or shared a discord with me from the RPUK community since my ban is equally as bad as I am and should be punished for doing so if I am as bad as I have been made out to be in all of my previously denied appeals.

This appeal is already quite long so I will briefly touch on comments made by TBJ in a ticket that was opened regarding me.

Comments were made regarding the fact that people I am friends with may not have all of the information regarding my ban. Again this is false. I have been straight and up front since my very first appeal about the reasons I am banned and I certainly have no reason to lie to my friends about why I am banned. In terms of decisions needing to be made to protect the greater good of the server, I can fully appreciate and understand that. My only issue with that is, are these decisions being made based on my actions, or the collective actions of a group of 10+ people?
I am in no way a danger or a threat to anyone who decides to play on RPUK and anyone that has known me for any length of time will know this is 100% true. I can agree, almost all of the people who were banned from Vagos should never be allowed back. They had crappy ban histories, the roleplay was often sub standard and “frag happy”, and they definitely behaved inappropriately after the bans had been put in place. It would be unfair however to place this firmly on my shoulders as I only ever acted in the best interest of the server and the Roleplay I was involved in (apart from my bans obviously)

A lot has changed for me personally in the last 4 months. I have had a change in career which has seen me take on quite a serious and responsible job which can only reflect positively on my character as a person. This coupled with my personal life means that I no longer have time to commit full time to RPUK. I am looking at 3-4 sessions per week at varying times of the day at the most if I were to be unbanned. I have no intention of coming back and causing trouble as I never have in the past. I am looking for something to do in my down time to unwind and chill out and that’s about as far as it goes for me.

Hopefully I can be given this chance and you will soon see it for yourself. As always I am happy to discuss anything further.
Thanks,
JB

Please confirm that you have read the unban appeal process and rules: Yes

 

[Danoo]

Good evening @JasonBarnes_Unban2, I hope all is well with you!

Ban ID: Unable to get

Ban ID: 9507

Righty, there's a lot of appeals to look through. I know it's likely going to be a long process but I think our best shot at this will be starting afresh. 
During this, you may end up being asked some similar or the same questions as before. 

Now that some time has passed (I know you've answered prior) but please can you explain this screenshot to me to begin with? I do not want a copy/paste from a previous appeal.

 

[JasonBarnes_Unban2]

Hi @Danoo I'm doing good thanks, hope you're well.

There is probably a lot to cover so you're right it is better to start from the beginning so I can explain things one at a time and answer any concerns you may have.
I would like to pre face my replies by saying I have absolutely nothing to gain by lying or making up cover stories especially given the amount of time that has passed. I maintain that I have always tried to be up front and honest since my first appeal and I will continue to do so to the best of my ability and memory.

As I'm sure you are aware, back then a lot of Vagos members were banned for screenshots not disimilar to the one above that I posted. I have never denied being the author of the discord message and I can accept just how horrendous the language used is and how unacceptable it is. I have always insisted that I had no malice intent behind the message however I can appreciate that that is slightly difficult to accept given the context of what I wrote. I have apologised on numerous occasions and would again like to apologise to anyone that may have been offended by anything that I am responsible for. 

I can still remember that day quite clearly given so much happened...
I'm not sure if you are able to reference other banned members screenshots, however you would see that they are all from the same date/time.

On the day in question I was sat in a discord call with a number of Vagos members... I'm not entirely sure who was/wasnt in the call but there were a fair few members present. I can't remember how the messages in the discord channel initially got out of hand but I remember people in the call began to say that they had been banned from the server and couldn't log on any more (reason C1.6) 

Vagos had been having a lot of issues in game with poor RP, gun play over Roleplay etc and mass bans had happened to other whitelisted groups in the past. My inital thought at the time was that RPUK Staff were cleaning up the server and getting rid of Vagos members that were there for the wrong reasons. Just for reference, I was already banned at this point for stupidly using an emote in a gun fight however previous to this I wasn't much of a "shooter" and I had had quite a good ban record up to this point. 

At the same time that the bans were being handed out, people had started to throw around racist language and saying certain innapropriate things in a private discord text channel aimed at each other if i remember correctly. I can't really remember what triggered this but it was escalating and getting worse and worse over the period of maybe 10-15 minutes. People were just throwing round the N word etc like it was nothing. I'm not 100% if this began before the bans or as the bans began to roll in but people were certainly picking up bans after posting racist comments.  

As more and more people were being banned, people in the call started to suggest that maybe someone was sharing screenshots from the text channel. One of the reasons for this theory was that some members racist messages were being deleted by someone and others were left visible. The people who had messages deleted never did receive any kind of ban to this day which only confirmed the theory further down the line. 
With the gang being quite a close knit group of people myself and maybe 1 or 2 others were dismissive of this idea given that pretty much everyone would have considered each other a friend at that point. 

I'm not really sure why I made the decision to post my comment that you have shared... I'm not sure if it was over confidence or ego but I found it hard to believe anyone would share screenshots and so I made the comment that eventually was shared with staff and got me banned. 

The post was totally out of character for me as I had never done anything like it in the past and I remember the initial reaction of people in the call was of surprise that I had even joined in to begin with. I had always been seen as the sensible one in the group and I had always tried to encourage roleplay over anything else.

Again, I fully understand that it is hard to believe my reasonings for the comment. So much time has now passed that if I had posted it in malice, holding my hands up and just coming clean would be much easier than making up some elaborate cover story, which this certainly isn't. I can admit I may have been slightly influenced by the attitude of people in the discord channel at the time and it is something I have worked to correct since the day it happened. It is actually quite embaressing that I even need to defend such stupid actions and I have always regretted it. 

I hope this gives some insight into my thought process on the day and I'm happy to try and dive deeper into it if you have any follow up questions.

Thanks,
JB.

 

[Bowen]

Question:

Why a racist term? Couldn't you have got the same "snake test" effect from post "Bowen is a n**ce" or "Bowen interferes with donkeys" (I use my name but of course it could be any staff member)? Why go right for the racism? I've always found this mindset very difficult to understand. 

 

[JasonBarnes_Unban2]

Hi @Bowen

You’re absolutely right I could and should have used a more diluted message to the same effect and in hindsight I wish I had done.

It’s very hard to justify and the only answer I can give regarding my choice of language is that it is what everyone else was doing at the time. If my screenshot would have been of the entire channel it would have been surrounded by racist comments from other members and I regretfully just followed the trend. I can admit there would have also been an element of me just not giving a shit regarding any consequences however I have also regretted this mindset ever since and I was definitely swept up in the hysteria in the discord at the time. 
It’s not in my nature to resort to racism as a default setting and I understand the point you are trying to make. As I said I have no history of racism and there is no pattern of behaviour, it certainly was an isolated incident and one that I regret and continue to apologise for. 
thanks,

JB.

 

[Danoo]

Hello @JasonBarnes_Unban2, thanks for the responses. 

It does indeed clear up the thought process behind the message however, it still is extremely hard to believe due to the content of it.
As stated by Bowen, I can't understand still why you went straight to racism. If you've managed to become this toxic once, what's stopping you from doing it again?

You can get to fuck.

Denied. Don't bother us again.

You were also told this on your second appeal, why have you continued to come back after strictly being told not to bother us again? 

 

[JasonBarnes_Unban2]

Hi @Danoo, I appreciate your reply. I can fully understand and appreciate how hard it is to believe my motives behind the message. Looking back it actually baffles me just as much as to what my thought process was at the time. I was definitely swept up and influenced by what was going on around me in the discord. This does not excuse any part of what I did and I still hold my hands up and take full accountability for it.

It was 100% toxic behaviour and I’m ashamed that I now have this label associated with me. I have never had an issue with being toxic both outside of the server or inside. I’m not someone who loses his head very often at all and it’s just not in my nature to react to anything in the manner that I did in the discord. I see myself as a very mature person and someone that learns easily from his mistakes. There are plenty of things to learn from regarding this entire situation and I have had a lot of time during each appeal to reflect and think about things and how I would have changed so much about it. I can guarantee that I will never have an issue moving forwards of any kind not limited to any toxic behaviour. 

Regarding the reply on my 2nd appeal from Aiden, I can appreciate the bluntness of the reply, given that not much time had passed since the bans were issued and the dust had not had chance to settle. Knowing myself and knowing that I am able to conduct myself correctly and learn from my mistakes I was hopeful that I would eventually be given a chance to prove myself and be allowed to return to the server. Given that the offence is so serious and knowing that it is very very rare for people in my situation to be allowed to return I wanted to show consistent effort with my appeals to hopefully show how serious I was about returning. I can also appreciate that at the time of the reply by Aiden I was probably very much seen as one of the “Vagos lot” and so was tarnished with the same brush as well as all of the offences such as video which I had absolutely nothing to do with.

I can appreciate and I am thankful to staff for taking the time with each appeal to read everything I have said and to spend time replying no matter how short. 

Thanks,

JB.

 

[Bowen]

What actually makes you want to come back here? Do you still have friends here? 

 

[JasonBarnes_Unban2]

One of the main reasons I want to come back is just the overall experience of roleplaying on fiveM. I’ve been on a lot of whitelisted servers since I’ve been banned and none of them felt the same with them being US themed. Other UK/EU servers just don’t have the same feel or aren’t developed as well as RPUK. There is just something different about RPUK that cannot be replicated.

I was active on RPUK from the start of covid and like a lot of people had so many good times and made some great memories and stories with people in the community. The fact that I have been gone so long just intrigues me more given that it will be a whole new community of people to get to know and interact with. The server will feel fresh and new and with all the changes since my ban I’m excited to explore what has changed. 
 

in terms of friends on the server, I could probably count them on one hand and struggle to get to 5. I don’t speak to anyone in any factions or anything like that and have no immediate plans if I’m allowed to return. I came to the server with my IRL friend (Jack Smith in game) and would probably look to play with him most of the time, especially at the start (yes we have RP history to allow this). 
 

I put a lot of time and effort into building Jason Barnes as a character which is something I’ve never been able to replicate anywhere else. I have some ideas for him to move forwards and give him a fresh start away from his past and honestly I just want to get to know everyone that has joined the community in the last 18/19 months. 
 

You see it time and time again where people slate the server or the staff etc and end up getting banned claiming to not care. Eventually they all come back because RPUK is just different to other servers.

hopefully you will give me that chance. 
thanks,

JB. 

 

[Drex]

Hello @JasonBarnes_Unban2
RPUK is indeed different from other servers - Many of the leading communities within FiveM don't have the ten years of experience that we do.
Although through different platforms; From Arma 3 to DayZ to FiveM, not to mention all the TeamSpeak and Discord trolls - the main principle is the same when it comes to monitoring, staffing and enforcing our rules.

A TL;DR of a majority of unbans that come across our forums; People do stupid things, for stupid reasons, then tell stupid lies.
You did a stupid thing, definitely for a stupid reason, but you have been honest and forthcoming with your mistakes. This is your one saving grace.
JB, I am considering giving you another chance, but disappoint us and that chance will be swiftly removed.

It has taken you nearly two years of consistent, great effort appeals to get to this point, I am sure you can imagine how your chances may be should you find yourself banned again within a short period of time.


The 'FBS' timer is six months, you know the drill - If you get banned within that time-span, it'll automatically be upgraded to a permanent ban.


Don't blow your chance, there won't be another any time soon.


(P.S - Your 'Jason Barnaby' police character, had a police loadout. This has been wiped. The ban shouldn't yield any form of benefits such as gaining what is now known as 'legacy weapons'. You'll find out more in RP about this topic, I'm sure).