Gulag is only tolerable because of the flavor it gives security and it lets you perma people even when the station has gone to shit, brig is compromised, etc.
As far as a replacement for assigning non-perma sentences it is awful. It's the same as a regular sentence (when reasonable points are assigned, they often aren't) except the sentence is now variable from (apparently) 2 minutes to 20 minutes based on how much metaknowledge you've acquired (I played for over a year before I even realized that shovels were used for sand to make glass). My reaction (and you can confirm it in logs) was that Gulag is a perma sentence because its so goddamn awful at trying to give someone a reasonable regular sentence that the only time you'd go through the effort of shipping someone off there when you have perfectly functional brig cells is if you intended to lock them away forever. The fact that Saphira deliberately made sure that nobody else in security knew about me being sent to Gulag had me completely convinced this was her way of slipping me off station forever to "prove who's boss", Saphira KNEW that the science officer did not want me held without evidence and did not want me held up in interrogation for more than a couple minutes, Saphira KNEW that if word got out that she was gulag'ing the detainee that she had promised to release shortly, that there would be blowback, I'd be released, she might even be humiliated by being arrested herself - with her ego firing on all 4 cylinders I had no doubt that she wanted this to be hush hush since nothing would be more embarassing than having her reprimanded in front of me after going on her little powertrip.
@Saeg
Hey now that wasn't a tirade about spacewind, it was more like a dialogue. It was also more about syphon/air pump spacewind. But yea, no doubt that it's dangerous to go near a giant hull breach. More on that in a moment.
Saegrimr wrote:Here come the fucking precedent squad of "OH BOY TIME TO DO x FOREVER BECAUSE IT GOT RULED VALID"
You make plenty of reasonable points on other matters but you know that there are like 5 people on this server than can effectively run toxins and would be comfortable using bombs as a non-antag and likewise there are maybe 1-2 non-admins here who will read this ban request, see the admin opinions, and have it influence their perspective on what our rules mean. The odds of someone belonging to both of those categories and misusing this discussion to assume "BOMBING SEC NOW VALID 5EVER" is exceedingly unlikely. Also of all the people on this server I'm the least likely to continue a line of behavior just because it got le valid stamp. There's a shit ton of shit I've successfully appealed or gotten ruled valid that I wouldn't ever do these days simply because I don't get some sadistic joy from toe'ing the line and getting bwoink'd. Once I understand where the line exists in a vague part of the rules, I don't roll right up to it just because I survived an admin encounter before, I steer clear because I enjoy my rounds more when I'm not debating the finer points of our policy for half the round or the endless shit-talking that ensues when I do something questionable & powergamey. So regardless of how this turns out I don't think your fears are warranted.
Lastly, I have something of substance to add. I found the name of the guy who died in Gulag, it was Darin Hall - not Devin.
His opinion on the matter is pretty clear in Deadchat:
DEAD: Darin Hall says, "BAN OLD MAN META GAMING FAG"
But that aside he also admitted that my bomb didn't kill him, his walking up to a giant opening to space killed him.
DEAD: Darin Hall says, "I ran to see what the fuck happened"
DEAD: Darin Hall says, "only natural"
While I don't doubt that bombing Gulag didn't improve his situation, and I definitely regret that he was affected by the blast, even if he is a complete shit. He didn't die in the blast and he had a radio to report the Gulag bombing and wait for rescue on the shuttle-remnants to arrive. I wouldn't have detonated the bomb if I knew he was there and I think I've made my case for why I thought it was empty and disabling Gulag shuttle was OK. I'm not saying to discount what happened to him, or that it makes what I did more/less wrong, just laying out what I found in the logs.