[Ban Appeal] silveryfish

In Game Name:

silveryfish​

Have you changed your Minecraft username since being banned/muted? If so, what is your previous name:

I don't think so? probably not​

Which of ECC's services are you banned/muted on:

the Minecraft server​

Reason of Ban/Mute:

"Banned on 2014-09-02
Banned by SKSocceroccer
Reason: Advertising"​

Rule Violated:

1.2 - Advertising​

Please explain in your own words what the rule(s) means:

From my understanding, the advertising rule was made to deter players from creating a toxic chat environment by seeking attention towards any products or other servers they feel the need to endorse on a Minecraft server.

Being banned from EcoCityCraft left me with a few very strong opinions about this particular rule. Personally, I'm not a fan of it at all and I think the rule can be streamlined into something more effective without being as overly heavy-handed as it is currently. I'm disappointed that this rule became as widespread as it did throughout Minecraft's history as a popular multiplayer game.

I could probably rant about this very topic to someone for upwards of an hour. Regardless of my personal opinion and views on this rule, I'm not going to argue them since the issues I have with it fall under gaming politics that have no place within a server ban appeal.​

Reason you feel you think you should be un-banned/un-muted:

God, I joined this server when I was about 13.

ECC was the first non-LAN server I had ever joined. I learned about it from one of my closest friends who lived down the street at the time. One day, he told me about an economy server he had recently started playing that he enjoyed enough to try to convince me to join.

So, I did.

When I first logged in, I remember being completely overwhelmed by the chat - it was the first time I had ever joined any kind of multiplayer game from the internet and not from LAN. I saw all of the colorful ranks, all the eye-catching chat formatting - I envied all the players that had higher ranks than me (literally everyone at that time, lol). Mostly however, I remember the sheer size of the server and how insignificant everything I did felt; I remember aspiring to change that, to build some kind of elaborate city people admired. Most of all, I wanted what I built to matter.

I frankly can't remember exactly what happened before I got banned - it's been nearly five years. I do remember sending a link to answer a question someone else had and being hit with the resulting advertising permaban.

Back then, I viewed the act of getting banned as something on par to getting convicted of a crime IRL. So when the connection dropped and the ban screen showed up, I went back to the menu and tried to reconnect a few times because I didn't think it was real; I thought one of the staff was pulling a prank or that it was some kind of network problem. After I realized the ban screen wasn't going to go away, I kind of stared at it in shock for a few minutes. Somehow I still didn't think it was real, that it was a nightmare that wouldn't end. Eventually the tears came out and I cried for a few hours. I was totally shattered because I had lost a place that I loved spending time at, a place where I felt valued and looked up to.

I felt empty for a long time afterwards and I wasn't able to play the game for a few weeks because I missed the server so much. I mourned the friends I had made there as well as all of the assets and buildings that I had poured my boundless time and energy into. I couldn't play multiplayer for a long time afterwards because I kept thinking back to the time I spent at ECC and how badly I missed playing there. I wasn't able to create anything close to the experience I had here, so I ended up playing at a lot of PvP servers until I was able to move on. Afterwards, I played on a few towny servers and gave up Minecraft more or less entirely for a while.

It was a surprisingly morbid experience - kind of a pathetic one, lmao. It taught me a few important lessons about moving on and I learned to be a lot more careful about reading and obeying the rules on every other server I played after that.


After I did end up bringing myself to move on, I had assumed the server had died with the time I had spent on it. Not until very recently did I know the server was still up - let alone *alive*! I'm surprised and definitely impressed that so many people still play here.

Nonetheless, I'm sure a lot has changed in five years; I know I've changed a lot as a person and whatever goals I end up setting for myself will be different than they were before.


I hope you enjoyed that story - I think I'm ready to come back and give it another shot.​