[Spookuni] Mey39 - Banned for metacomming, despite no OOC knowledge being shared.

[mey39]

BYOND account: Mey39
Character name: Lyra Azari
Ban type: Manuel/All
Ban length: 5 days
Ban reason: Admitted to exchanging DMs with Gofawful5 (Tracy Abbenson)while observing the round. Claims their messages did not contain out of game information and were not used to gain an advantage. Upfront and honest about the fact that they were communicating out of game. Do not repeat this behaviour when you come back or the next ban will be a permanent one.
Time ban was placed: 2020-10-13 18:18:31
Server you were playing on when banned: Manuel
Round ID in which ban was placed: 148234
Your side of the story: Joined late to observe my friend playing as botanist. A little ways through, it was obvious that they were a traitor, and I asked about their goals ETC. One of their objectives was to murder someone they were friends with IC, and they didnt really want to do it, but I encouraged them to do their goals, citing "you know what the syndicate will do if you ignore your goals!" For the next hour and a half, I simply watched them do botany and we talked back and forth on discord about their current plants etc. Eventually they did kill their target, and I talked about how I encouraged it earlier in deadchat, which eventually lead to investigation and ban by Spookuni.
Why you think you should be unbanned: What was exchanged between me and Gofawful5 was entirely unrelated to me being within the game, and what was said between us on discord would have been the exact same even if I was not observing. No OOC knowledge was shared whatsoever, and no advantage was gained by us speaking to eachother. I feel as though me observing them make plants is the sole catalyst to this ban, and I feel like our exchange (me encouraging them to do their goals) would have been identical if this was over discord and I was not watching. Additionally, when speaking to spookuni via admin PMs, I mentioned that I hoped they wouldnt get a ban for this, as it was me who was observing (also they play significantly more than me, and I didnt want to ruin their week by getting rid of the one game they play all day). Because of this, I received a 5 day ban, and they received nothing. I feel like if this truely was as big of an issue as it has been made out to be, they would have gotten more than nothing (they mentioned over discord later that, even though I asked for them to be punished less, getting nothing while I was banned for 5 days seemed unfair). I dont think I should be outright unbanned immediately, but I do think it should be lessened to at least 3 days, as 5 days seems excessive considering.

[spookuni]

Metacommunication is normally a zero tolerance permaban on TG for very good reason, we have no way to know what was said between two people communicating using out of game messaging. As was, the fact that your ban is only for five days is due to your honesty and forthrightness when questioned about whether and how you were communicating in game, after mentioning in Dchat that you were doing it to begin with.

Upon reflection, and consultation with more experienced admins in adminbus, I should have banned Gofawful as well. Both of your testimonies at the time painted the conversation as a fair bit more one sided than I now believe it was. You are correct that it is unfair that only you received a ban, but that is my error in not having fairly applied bans to all involved.

In regards to your comments about observing versus sitting in a discord listening to whatever they say, assuming you are telling the full truth about what was said, and no information was passed, that hypothetical would merely shift the greater part of responsibility to the other player, communicating about the ongoing round using external means of communication is against the rules. As stated, we have no method of determining what was said in external communications, and knowledge gained from being told in a DM what is going on in the round can easily be relayed to another, with no logging or easy method of oversight.

I do apologise for the uneven application of bans for this event, but I will not be lifting the ban, as is, this could easily have been a permaban for metacommunications, and I stand by the fact that 5 days is a fair, if lenient, punishment for one of our most important server rules.