[Staff Referral] Arachir Galudirithon (1 point - Impersonation) [FURTHER ACTION]

[Shankbot de Bodemloze]

User: Arachir Galudirithon
Infraction: impersonation
Points: 1

Administrative Note:

Impersonation

Message to User:

Arachir Galudirithon,

this infraction is part of a series of officially recorded moderation actions taken as a consequence of several postings you have posted in this discussion from February to May this year.

In the following quotes, you appear to convey that you will use your status as Moderator to support an illegal activity, which you are not but only a Local Moderator; furthermore you seem to misinform the members about the exact function, remit and power of a Local Moderator, which in the particular case amounts to nothing at all. Had they proceeded, feeling "supported" by your "office" they would have been penalised, and the penalty for you would have been considerably more severe.

If you have a sneaky way around it I will support you in my capacity as a moderator but it has to be squeky clean, sneaky but legal.

Please take note that there is no "legal" way to "sneak around" non-granted permissions to use the work of another modder, but this will be outlined in another officially recorded moderation action.

We can't be sure we have violated his work and he is the only remaining modder from the original vanilla team who actually cares about edits so it is tricky to pinpoint exactly what he has done and where. Speaking as a moderator, we can protect modders works from clear abuse but we can't hunt through everything for minor details. If he moans we can replace the units with something and if he doesn't moan we can carry on as we see fit.

The above quotes constitute a violation of the impersonation paragraph of the ToS. Therefor you're issued this infraction carrying 1 warning level and you're subsequently stripped off of any local moderation powers you have hold so far and are exempt from ever becoming a Local or Site Moderator on TWC again.

If you think that this is no correct application of the ToS you can appeal this in the Tribunal or seek for clemency in the Praetorium.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to pm me.

Regards,
Aikanár

[Shankbot de Bodemloze]

Defence requested.

Start the clock.

[Makrell]

We really need more context here, and i cant view the discussion linked. I dont know if he even thought that he was impersonating a site moderator. Seeing as local moderators(and often so in TATW forums) hunt and take down those bad submodders using others work without permission.

[Radzeer]

AG was a local moderator. The impersonation label is a technicality, because there is no specific term for "using LM powers to help circumvent the ToS" or something like that. So he was not trying to portray himself as a site moderator, but was discussing how to circumvent Louis Lux's embargo on his models. There were other penalties handed out to both AG and another member for promoting illegal activities and other violations, but those were either notes (that are not referred) or penalties given to the other member who is not a citizen.

[Shankbot de Bodemloze]

Dear Shankbot de Bodemloze

I wish to mount no substantial defence save for saying that I feel my use of the word 'moderator' has been lost in translation somewhat. I was well aware I was a local moderator with very little power, it is just easier to omit the word 'local' when typing. Secondly, as I mentioned to Aikanár I am a practising lawyer in real life and in English law the onus is on the other party (i.e. Louis Lux) to prove we were guilty, not on us to prove we were innocent. (mostly because the discussion dealt with a unit that we were not 100% sure was breaking any rules). Clearly it doesn't work like that on TWC so I was wrong and have rightly been stripped of any LOCAL moderation powers. Such is life to be honest. My personal feelings (and feel free to add this or not) are that because none of this effects my real life and is all a bit of fun, I am not particularly bothered at all. It was nice being a local moderator but most of what I did felt a but pointless so I except my punishment with relative ease.

Sorry if I have offended anyone throughout this and I of course never said out to commit wrong doing but clearly I did do wrong.

I am not bothered if it is public or private and if I can be of any further assistance through the process don't hesitate to contact me.

Yours sincerely
Arachir Galudirithon

[Quintus Hortensius Hortalus]

As Makrell already said, I want to see the whole discussion but I'm not able to see it. Right now I hae only vague idea about the context.

[Makrell]

So i think i understand.

A member asked Arachir if he could use another users models. Arachir replied that if he knew a sneaky way around(that was legal) he would give him support as a moderator, but only if it was legal. Im gonna take Radzeers word that he was promoting illegal activity aswell, which is very bad.

[Quintus Hortensius Hortalus]

Well, basicly you're right but what I don't really get if it really were models of the user to whom they referred. So I just want to be sure that I have all informations because I don't want to jugde on base of a bad feeling.

[Radzeer]

I am going to briefly paraphrase the discussion, including only the elements important here:

Members of the group: We can't use Loius Lux's models, he never lets it, this is not fair etc. [this was a long discussion, but this is the essence]
Other guy: well, he checks file names and makes a fuss, but hey, I may have a solution, I can come up with a sneaky way
AG: If you have a sneaky way around it I will support you in my capacity as a moderator but it has to be squeky clean, sneaky but legal. (quoted from the infraction)

So it was the other guy coming up with the idea, and AG instead of shutting it down, decided to encourage it. We investigated the whole conversation, and it has become clear that the proposed "sneaky way" was targeting the work of another modder, circumventing the permission issue which they were unlikely to get.

[Shankbot de Bodemloze]

Out of interest, would this not be better clarified as using modders work without permission? (even if they didn't they still attempted to before Moderation got involved). I don't see how he is impersonating a Moderator here, 'moderator' can be used interchangeable with Local Moderator, the WS mods for an example.

Still, I guess this is a separate discussion not for here (not for anywhere actually as this is all private) so Censors just look at if what he did was unbecoming of a Citizen.

[Radzeer]

A good question, but AG has not used another modder's work, he simply offered covering for it using his LM position. LMs, particularly those in hosted mod forums, are the first line of running the show. Such mod forums have considerable freedom to handle their own affairs, and site moderation does not intervene. The only exception is breaking the ToS, in which case we require LMs to report it. AG not only let ToS breaking going on (the insults penalized outside of this infraction), but also offered to cover some of it. From a site moderation perspective that is not acceptable.

We have debated the actual label to use in his case, and settled for impersonation at the end. However, as you correctly said, this is a separate question, which is not a subject of your procedure here.

[Quintus Hortensius Hortalus]

So as I see it AG did encourge an action which was clearly against the TOS. It was clear that the other guy suggested he wanted to work around the "name problem". And then AG enouraged him although he saidjust wanted to support a legal but I can't read that in a different way as "just don't get caughif you don't get caught I'll support you" because I don't see any reasonable possibility he other user had a legal way around the problem.

As a result his behavior was unbecoming of a citizen because from a citizen I expect that he respects other modders work and their conditions on sharing their work.

So I vote for further action.

[Makrell]

agreed

[Shankbot de Bodemloze]

Poll up.

[Shankbot de Bodemloze]

Further Action it is: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?690621