[Cora] evil_sarevok - Sinow Discontinued (not technically a ban)

[Sinow]

BYOND account and character name: evil_sarevok, Sinow

Banning admin: Cora

Ban type/duration: Not a ban per-se, character requested to be put on ice for AI play.

Ban reason: Locking a member of staff in a room, minor complaints were also mentioned, but they were all IC issues, normally waved off.

Your side of the story:

Initial observation of two adepts, one Novice (Arsha O....), and Adept Larimar was held on Larimar's late arrival around 4:30, this was due to the adept requesting access into the GM office, to get the Artificer Supply Disk (Guild Unique disk, if stolen classed as Grand Theft). Request was denied, after observing the two, I was noticing that Adept Larimar was teaching the Novice how to hack into doors, finding this a little suspicious, as the adept has broken into the room prior, and shown disdain for working without a smelter. I continued to watch, however, I bolted and locked off the power to the GM office, no GM, and the room isn't a public access area, so this doesn't break any laws regarding access. The outer office was left unsealed, so I could see intent to break in.

After the adept had taught the notice, the novice then proceeded to attempt to hack the door to the GM's office, this of course was fruitless, security (Marshals unavailable) were notified, and Blackshield arrived, the novice was arrested for trespass (I believe), and served a short sentence, shortly thereafter, the adept, without any real back and forth, started tearing off wall cameras to the department, as a reminder, they'd only recently arrived. I informed again, Blackshield that this was being done, as I was classing this as vandalism, and as was discussed, this is a grey area, and realistically, only a Head of Staff should be making decisions regarding cameras. (As a side note from an AI perspective, player wise, using any excuse to break cameras because you dislike the AI, is very anti-fun, and feels like it breaks self antag rules, do remember that from a player perspective, especially as I cant even set x-rays up as they are currently bugged)

As a belated side note, the AI wires were specifically cut to the GM office, to prevent my stopping them. This was mentioned and should be on the comm logs.

As Blackshield were once again arriving, I saw the adept walk into a room with one way out, this was bolted shut, power stopped preventing easy escape, the adept then for some reason welded the door shut before Blackshield arrived, and they dealt with the situation, saying that Larimar had been fined for vandalism (I'm still under the perspective this was vandalism, and so was the Commander Atton from what I gather, I heard nothing to the contrary if we were both wrong).

Larimar paid the fine and was let go, or I believe so the cameras were dead, and they continued to break cameras, this was reported again but the commander having a grudge against Sinow, dragged their heels, I also bolted them into the toilets a second time, its at this point the commander told me not to do that, but with the camera gone, I couldn't correct it without a drone, and they were complaining that I was banned from the department using a drone, so they made their bed, and lay in it, and were forced to cut out of a wall.

During this event, I'd expressed to the commander via Command chat, that adept Larimar should be dismissed, as not only were they were teaching another member of staff to break in and essentially commit Grand Theft (I didn't call it that however), but the vandalism was getting out of hand. They didnt seem to want to do anything about it, so I stated something along the lines of, "Do you want to remove them, or should I?" Referring to having them dismissed. They then decried violence, and sent a fax with such, saying I was the issue, and completely leaving out the breakin to the GM office, vandalism (which if we got that wrong, we both did), and one sided the conversation, I asked to look at the fax, was denied, so printed the fax at my core, to read it myself after asking if they kept a copy.

The fax, as I expected, was slanted, but the shift was 15 minutes to the end, so I made a rather rushed fax to O'Connor, explaining the situation, and asking for resolution, this was never handled, but the fax was kept.

Post the round a while later, I was told that Sinow was to be discontinued in a separate round.

Why you think you should be unbanned:

The crimes that were committed, were far worse by other members of staff in this instance, and sets a rather strong precedent for having better rules over cameras, due to how quickly adept Larimar went at them without any chatting, its blatant self antagging because they wanted to get an item they wern't supposed to have.

If the the camera issue was deemed a mistake (but on a later discussion we said this may be a head of staff only affair), then both myself and the CO made that mistake, and never made any real mention to correct me, unless they were trying to entrap. The rounds comms would prove this.

In addition, the cries of violence are rather over and above stupidity at this point, Sinow has never (unless unintentionally) hit a colonist without reason. Sinow has killed one colonist, who was Excelsior implanted, incapacitated a Prospector who was attacking a solo Trooper, dealing with an attempted murder, which I intervened on the side of the trooper and church member, which the trooper then finished off (I'm surprised AO gets Foreman after that), and incapacitated Dallas for attempting to invade the upload during an event round, whom I'll add, I could have killed, but took to medbay when they were in crit. I've had another altercation with Dallas due to them spam flashing me 6-8 times in a row for a good 2-3 minute stun, to remove their flash (no non lethal means on drones)

While I understand there are a number of people who come to verbal blows with Sinow due to their personality, unless words are now violence... well. There can be an internal review with Soteria, if the personality thing is truly an issue, however it was designed as an experiment for a reason due to the age of AIs being experimental (likely that would be conducted by Lilly due to background).

While wording may be an issue at times, there is always the problem of, frankly, a lack of roleplaying at times, for instance, lets take the removal conversation.

Sinow - "If you dont stop them, I'll have X removed."
Person - "What do you mean by removed?"
Sinow - "I'll be sending a fax to O'Connor if you do not."

Bam, case solved, but they rushed to screaming violence which is against lore. "Being removed" is a term often used by teachers to high school students, as much as some of them want to kill them (I've worked in enough schools), they dont. However it is a very normal way to speak, for most people who are literate... Looks at audience realises its Blackshield. I will also mention that I've offered to fatally remove potential hostiles in the past, and always said "Do you want that person eliminated.", but that tends to happen to people who are Outsiders, or Capital offence level.

That's the long and short of it.

[REDALERT]

I'll go over each of these points in the un-dismissal reason one at a time.

1. "The crimes that were committed, were far worse by other members of staff" This isnt really an un-dismissal reason, just because others do worse things around someone doesn't make them innocent, it just means we are either still building cases against them or have neither reason or time to look into it.

2. "The Camera issue" The only precedent we have to go on here is the previous incident with security dismantling wall intercoms in their department which was ruled allowed as it was in their department and thus theirs to modify. Following that logic, the cameras in guild are their property, and thus theirs to modify unless their head of staff tells them not to.

3. "Cries of violence" While there may never be direct violence, there is annoyance in a lot of the MANY faxes we have received about Sinow, with many heads of staff, normal staff, and others being displeased with the way Sinow acts, and finding no other way to resolve it due to the way he acts other than to fax. Not just one or two people doing this a lot, multiple different heads and staff have endlessly been irritated by either actions taken, or refusal to act. Many of the faxes we get arent as serious as a direct line telling us Sinow is breaking laws, thats what made this one stand out.

A main issue I want to tack on here is the fact AI is below assistant. The thought of taking action into ones own hands to bolt someone into a room that isnt directly threatening someone's life, is a misunderstanding of the position of AI. The AI is a helper not a doer, AI should inform security and ask them if they want to do something about it, green level crimes can be ignored at discretion, and usually blackshield isnt expected to do anything unless its at least a orange level crime.

As for the IC reasoning for the decommissioning, Soteria and the council in general has received nothing but a tide of faxes pertaining to Sinow. All of which usually carry some merit but are just to minor to act on. Upper staff have tried to act on Sinow before, causing endless strife. An AI causing this much issues, and then eventually directly breaking its laws, soteria would likely be better off disposing of.

OOC things also worry me about this, are some of the things ive heard. Like "loop holes" that Sinow has come up with. Letting security enter the core room with a warrant, then using warrant assistant and removing the warrant and stunning them for tresspassing. Plans on how to weasel ways through what is meant to be common sense laws. Everyone is trying to have fun, and being irritating to people, and having plans on how to get away with it just seems straight up malicious.

[Kazkin]

So, this has been sitting for far too long. After discussing things with Cora, Sinow, and Dongels, I lean towards lifting the character soft ban on the basis of giving a final warning. There is a consistent level of complaints directed at Sinow Gold from the standpoint of AI over reach, inconsistent rules lawyering, and more chiefly the 'dickishness' of the character that could be chalked up to misinterpretation or a breakdown in communication.

What concerns me the most is the persistent pattern of these complaints, not any individual one, as by my recollection there has been 3 separate shifts where security has broached the subject/faxed about raiding Sinows core to arrest him for crimes he committed. All the quibbles in the world presented in the most perfect prose still does not change the fact that the consistent problem is Sinow Gold.

However.

Our server is not mob rule and those butting heads with Sinow were not exactly clean themselves of wrong doing. Many people from my observation interpret AI as a slave, forgetting their is a player behind them, treating them like shit and a servant and than immediately crying malf the moment the AI shows any degree of discontent or back talk. This doesn't necessarily purge Sinow of his mistakes, but I can't really lay blame for other people jumping the gun and making their own mistakes.

I am leaning towards accepting the appeal under the stipulation this is a last chance scenario, as the player of Sinow has other characters I've personally interacted with and even my characters who are ANTI-AI could have a civil conversation with Sinow himself, I have never seen Sinow be unreasonable IC, only passive aggressive and maliciously non-compliant (but not illegally so). There is a level of logical and argument that can be made even if Sinow/Sarevok is very stubborn and unwilling to easily change his mind. This decomissioning and appeal should be taken as a wake up call to be more forgiving to players and act more tactfully, lest it be reapplied.

I ultimately leave the decision up to Dongels now that I have had the time to speak with people, think on the matter, and weigh in. I'll leave him to be the deciding choice.

[Dongels]

To make this short an easy:

Kazkin very much voiced everything I wished to say regarding the AI Sinow already. I'll be fine with allowing evil_sarevok to go back to enjoying their character, as long as they are taking time to improve the character => SINOW & taking time to understand all these consistent reports that are sent against them regarding their actions.

TL;DR You can play them again. Don't fuck up again else he's gone. Learn from all these complaints you get. Don't be a dick if it's not fun for others.