The admins need to grow a sack if they think this is trolling to them.

History of trolling. As in, trolled admins in the past with things other than mentioning tf2stadium.
Anyway, I've included the chatlogs with Cookie in my previous post. I'm not here to take a side and justify the actions of the tf2c admins or condemn them. As i said in the previous post, that was what was said to me, and you guys can interpret it in any way you like.

True, but I still don't get how his is the "last straw" to ban him.

My guess is that it's a set punishment if that particular "offense" is seen, and he'd have gotten in trouble for not taking action.

The admin response on the ban makes it clear that the ban is in regard to "inappropriate advertising". There is no mention of additional trolling in the response.

That's either really clear or incredibly sloppy.

Their rule and, especially, their interpretation of it IS within their rights....but it is terrible, terrible PR. You don't see that type of response from any successful business because rules like that only end up generating ill will and negative PR. The message TF2Center is sending is that they're scared of competition, and they're getting that message across by reiterating that if you want to use their site you have to do things within their ever-limiting rule structure.

What's more, every time something like this happens, it's generating more positive PR for TF2Stadium and other potential competition whilst making the differences between those sites and TF2Center even clearer. It's not as though TF2Center is the only place to share information about TF2 or even a main method for doing so; they're not actually accomplishing anything except infuriating their user base and drawing more attention to their competition.

It's not smart business and it reeks of pettiness and insecurity. I'd say it's like watching a car crash in slow motion, but, unlike with a car crash, TF2Center has had so many chances to hit the brakes and fix things. Every bit of controversy and outcry was a chance for them to slow down and listen to what their players are telling them, but they instead just keep hitting the gas, because where else can their users go?

But now, with actual competition on the horizon, they're nearing the point where they HAVE to slow down and listen or they'll crash and burn.

I don't know which direction they'll choose, but I do know I hopped off that ride months ago.

Organizations make mistakes; I fully expect TF2Stadium and other potential lobby sites to make their share of them. What interests me is how they respond to them. Did they learn from their mistakes? Did they change things so that that type of mistake couldn't happen again? Did they make any amends needed? TF2Center failed me (and all of us) in that regard, but I'm hopeful that TF2Stadium won't do the same. So long as TF2Stadium meets my expectations, I'm on board and looking forward to its launch. TF2Stadium hype train away!

(I guess I've pulled a Doc Brown and traded in the broken car for a snazzy train. Here's to the future!)

remember tf2lobby

when having no admins at all was better than having tf2center

I kindly miss some things of tf2lobby. Like overall stats on your profile or giving shitty names to lobbies...

Kinda funny, cause I have seen Fairy advertise tf2pickup...

if you can't beat the competition ban em B)

Try not to judge too harshly, since you're only seeing the chat logs selected by the guy that got banned. People say offensive shit all the time on the UGC forums then act like their ban was for criticizing the league or something.

If the ban truly was for advertising, then this ban is better advertising for TF2S than anything...

floormaster why have you abandoned us

It's not like he's banned from the site altogether. Just a chat ban, he can still join lobbies, play games, and use the forums.

Also they just released the rules about a week ago, and they very clearly state that advertising irrelevant/competing sites is not allowed... not sure why people are upset http://tf2center.com/rules#2

Every single community has problems like this. UGC and ESEA admins are no better than the tf2center ones. You can get banned for 3 months from UGC when they catch you hacking (or you can just be bo4r and probably pay the admins like $3 and not get banned) but when you get caught having two accounts one of which never plays you get 6 months???

Yea remember all those times people got one year bans for advertising UGC in ESEA or ESEA in UGC.

You can't be rostered on 2 teams at the same time
You can have 2 accounts but one of them has to be unrostered.

Take Arc for example, he now uses a new UGC account named Yuki. Arc isn't rostered but Yuki is, no issue.

If you're a big enough asshole to have an alt account in a lower division so you can get easy wins then you deserve a 6 month ban.
UGC bans players for 3 months when they are caught cheating outside of matches. Players caught cheating during matches are banned for a year.

If you wanna shit talk the league you may wanna lay out the facts right instead of carefully wording your post using incorrect information, fam.

The fact that they updated their rules to drop season long bans on players caught cheating in scrims/pubs/pugs/lobbies at all should be seen as a good step in the right direction

Like all admins should, I’m going to reserve judgement on this particular case until we’ve heard both sides of it. I’m very interested in seeing the response from TF2C’s admin.

With regards to the banning of the phrase TF2Stadium.com or any such variation, it’s their site so it’s really ultimately up to them what their policies are. However other posts (mainly Digresser’s) have alluded to the Streisand Effect where the attempt to suppress certain information leads to its spread, an effect which is demonstrated very clearly by this thread. So it’s really not in TF2Center’s interests to do this.

On the other hand people shouldn’t use our name to antagonise the TF2Center admins. Our purpose was never to be used as a way to taunt TF2Center staff and I would recommend that if you don’t like the rules of a site then you either politely and calmly campaign for reform of said rules or failing that you should “vote with your feet” as the British would say and boycott said site.

To make it abundantly clear, while we appreciate the excitement and anticipation many people have for our project, please avoid spamming or pestering other websites about it, especially ones that fill a similar niche to our own. Thanks in advance.

Imo, American hosted server, American rights to the data. Freedom of speech would be applied so the users may say whatever they wish. A year bar is an extreme that is entirely unappealing to the newcomers we should be welcoming with open arms to this community. Especially if either tf2 stadium or center prides themselves on their opennesss to all levssa of game play. Very despicable, and easily just comes down to an admin getting a little too full od themselves. Let's just hope there's a purge of this type of behaviour when there's 10x the users roaming these sites so we don't build a caustic reputation. And imo, one of the only redeemable qualities the game at this point in time can stand out for. Why ruin it because of one plauer acknowledging another contributor of this great game and community wishes to expand the service of ease of access competition?

Edit phone typos get over it you probably can read it anyway

Freedom of speech as listed under the First Amendment does not apply to private organizations it only prohibits government from censoring speech.

Freedom of speech does not apply to private institutions, fyi
Common misconception

wow that's not how the 1st amendment works at all

1st amendment protects you from being thrown in jail for what you say. it doesn't mean you can be a retard without consequences

i,e if i go into a bar and start talking about how all black people are evil they have every right to kick me out

yes a year long chat ban is ridiculous but it's not because of the first amendment

edit: double ninja i guess a lot of other people knew that too lol

Something people keep forgetting
It's a >>CHAT<< ban

Having an alt is usually a month ban or so, tops. The extra time for you is because you were dumb enough to lie about it to Snow's face and get caught.

I'm aware.

** IMO

it should be treated as such if everybody involved is American. The easiest form of justice to arbitrate this debacle could be resolved without issue if you don't pick and choose your politics willy-nilly. Especially considering this platform we are communicating with cannot have physical laws of "throwing" somebody out. This guy is going to switch his IP, get his free steam account and play again but keeping his mouth shut. The most you can do to prohibit it from happening is to make an example out of him and literally never enforce it again else it snowball into some more terrible excuses to maintain authority and banning the world.

if its just your opinion on how to run a site then why bring constitutional rights into it?

nevermind I misread something

Fairness I guess. I only say it because freedom of speech is everywhere in the modern world, and if you're on this site, then you're in the modern world. You are used to freedom of speech and being an adult (I anticipate.) So why not for the sake of damage control, arbitrate to what we are used to and go along our merry ways with no harm done to the community? Or the fragile egos we have here trying to fight tooth and nail to be "right" when this is just another run of the mill troll that this whole community is bred upon in whole generations. Gotfraggon protect me!

We're just dudes enjoying a hobby. Let's not make a whole fucking lawsuit out of this shit.

.

Not gonna play devil's advocate here, I already said as much in my previous posts. I was simply pointing out something that everyone seems to have forgotten.

Didn't masternoob or some admins say that they would absolutely support a new lobby medium if it came forth, but that it was "too hard" for anyone to end up doing in a reasonable amount of time? [Citation Below]

How is showing support banning someone for a year? I could understand if it was direct and blatant advertising, but they purposely put an ambiguous rule in about TF2Stadium just to do things like this.

Edit: Found the quote! From: http://forums.tf2center.com/topic/6069-a-personal-statement-from-masternoob/

Notice how he says that the competition is healthy. All these actions are doing is making sure TF2Stadium will be very healthy.

TF2C can do what they want, since it's their website?

But tbh I am bored of defending them, I gave them advice on how not to behave and what not to do if they want to improve their relationship with this community and MN just tells me "to go to bed", so they have zero interest in whether or not they are liked, so it shouldn't surprise you if they continue to make poor PR choices. For the record they probably have a good reason to ban that guy, looks like an idiot trolling. It's if they ban people like me for criticizing them, that is where shit gets bad.

fucking idiots since day 1, let any alternative come out and it will take over