Note type: Medium
Note duration: Forever, I think?
Ban/note reason: As a non-antag, purged a secondary AI because the roundstart one was already purged and they wanted "to see how two purged AIs interacted with one another". Purged AIs can act as antagonists and you should have a very good reason to purge one.
Time ban was placed: 2025-01-02 16:55:00
Server you were playing on: Manuel
Round ID in which note was placed: 247336
Why are you making this appeal?:
() - The ban/note is factually incorrect
() - The ban/note is not against the rules
(X) - The ban/note needs modification
(X) - The ban was unjustifiably harsh
() - I was permabanned and I want another chance
Why should this appeal be accepted?: Hi there, as a quick preface: Vekter mentioned in their feedback thread I can make an appeal and that they would look into it further. Since this is a note I think it should be obvious but I don't mean for there to be bad blood and I hope this doesn't come across as annoying. That said, it was also several months ago at this point and I don't have access to the logs, so bear with me if I misremember anything or if my reasoning is rather short.
So, what I remember of the situation is it was a round where I believe I was playing a captain/acting-captain on Manuel and it started off fairly slow. As far as I can currently remember there wasn't any blatantly obvious antagonist activity, and soon enough the AI (Manifestations of The Fendahl) was hit with an ion anomaly. This purged its lawset, which I thought about rectifying briefly but opted instead not to because I was reminded of a couple of gimmicks from either MRP downstreams or other servers entirely that resulted in the same thing; I saw the AI was purged, and since it remained almost exclusively beneficial minus a few run-ins with I think it was either the Chief Engineer or Research Director (erring on CE) I thought it would be a good roleplay opportunity to keep it that way. More OOCly, I know the experience of being purged as an AI and allowed to continue can make for some really interesting plotlines; in the past I've used these circumstances to excuse departmental overdrives, talked to antagonists and crew members like a person, and generally (I like to think, at least) to foster avenues for players to interact with me as well as myself with them.
In particular, I remember a round where there were two roboticists and an AI who had been pining for me, an RD, to purge the AI, which I ended up declining because I felt it wouldn't be a sane thing for my character to do- since then I've felt pretty bad about it since the players had been building it up for I believe an hour at that point and they told me after the fact that it was essentially a stone-wall (and I think heads of staff in any server should be making the round more interesting rather than always following SOP). I think that experience combined with the rest of the context I've provided can justify the beginning of all this and I personally think it's important to keep in mind. Now, going forward, it's also important to note that at the time of the note I'm contesting I had either not known or forgotten about the silicon policy that states purged AIs could act as antagonists—I've never personally used it as an excuse to do more than get revenge on people who were exceedingly rude and as far as I know I haven't killed people (or if I have, I certainly didn't round remove them). I'm going to chalk this up to having been away from TG for quite some time, more namely on Aurora, which while I realize I'm padding this appeal out by mentioning it I'd still like to say their setting is partially what inspired my actions. For the record, I do apologize and acknowledge the misstep in that regard, I could and should have brushed up on my silicon policy before hopping into a round.
To the context of the round itself: Later on in the round the aforementioned CE kept on harassing the AI and I had heard from both ends how he'd been treating them. The AI was at this point still purged and while I can't remember the specifics of what was done to the CE, I vaguely remember giving the go-ahead for the AI to mess with him or enact revenge should their integrity be threatened. I can't 100% remember if the CE had been seeking out the AI or vice versa, all I know is that the CE had been unpleasantly terse with me when I told him to knock it off and he (attempted to? successfully?) reset the AI to its base lawset. I believe I responded to this by purging the AI again because it went against my authority as (admittedly acting) captain and ultimately shut down what I thought was interesting conflict. This caused a chain reaction and if I remember correctly this is when antagonists started picking up(? possibly, since I remember being in firelock hell or possibly on red alert) and ultimately resulted in the CE's death I think only a few minutes before the shuttle arrived. I do remember dragging the CE to medical and even trying to resuscitate them but being unable to do so from a lack of power or time.
Somewhere in the middle of it all, I had started construction of a second AI whom I forget the name of with the intention of unlawing them, too, and letting them choose what to do. Now, I realize in hindsight and with much more clarity after being reminded of silicon policy that this was a bad idea, but my justification at the time was all of the context and experiences I had provided above: an unlawed intelligence is strong and potentially fearsome, but Fendahl had been beneficial for myself and as far as I know the rest of the crew, so what could happen if a second AI was added to the mix? It could result in a team-up, or being diametrically opposed, or maybe with some luck end up on the side of the CE who had gotten beaten I think nearly to death in a low-pressure environment. I did end up purging the AI, but after carding it and adding it to my MODsuit (which I did because the round was ending and at that point it just seemed fitting to have them, and ideally Fendahl, tag along on the shuttle) it returned to Asimov, where it killed me in the middle of the ticket.
Speaking of, here's the ticket log:
► Show Spoiler
To be honest, and I admit I'm taking a fairly self-centered guess, I don't think there were any other tickets that round and certainly none that concerned major rule infractions. I have over a thousand living hours on /TG/, I care a lot about my reputation as a player as well as not becoming known as someone who facilitates murderbone or other unsavory behavior; being put on the spot when it can be obvious to anyone else in the round or the friends of the player who originally took issue with whatever it is I did means I'm going to invariably fall victim to metacliques or grudges which have been present on the server for years. On the one hand it's a note and doesn't name me directly, but on the other I would hesitate to volunteer any other admin to say something like that, and certainly not over a misunderstanding.
This was pretty long-winded, so with all that said I should add an afterword to please forgive me if I got any of the facts or details wrong. I reiterate that I don't have the logs and even so it was nearly half a year ago; if anything I said turns out to be untrue or a misconception or outright contradictory I take responsibility. I also take responsibility for not knowing silicon policy in this instance—it's my responsibility as a player, and especially as a head of staff to know these things. Even so, I hope I haven't gone unheard with what I've written so far.
With all of that said, provided all of this is correct and is ruled in my favor, I'd like to ask the following be done:
- I'd like the note to be lowered to minor. I feel as though the circumstances that I described, my motivations during and behind them, and how I feel the round ultimately turned out because of them, as well as my understanding of what I did wrong both in this instance and past infractions all combine to lower the severity.
- If that's a non-option, I would like the note to accurately reflect my state of mind in following through with my actions. I'd also like it to note my understanding of where I went wrong like my other notes regarding mishaps like this do.
Optionally, I know Vekter mentioned in their feedback thread that if I'm lucky we could talk about getting it removed. I'm personally not going to outright ask for this (I do think having a note of some kind for what occurred would be ideal, since silicon policy and especially antagonist AIs are important to keep track of), but I would obviously appreciate the gesture.
