[Resolved] Straight Outta Sped's spray is blatantly antisemetic and a vault f4 admin did NOTHING about it

[mdgcreeper]

In-Game name: mdgcreeper
Time of Day:8:50pm
Date:9/11/22
Steam ID:76561198167228070
Reason for Ban Request: offensive spray and general antisemetism
Link to Demo or other evidence: attached below as a file.
Additional Comments:Skuna Tuna, a VAULT F4 ADMIN was on the server at the time of this incident and did NOTHING about it. Please reprimand his failure to do his job


I have spotted this spray numerous times during my play on the official standard servers. Straight out of sped's spray is a parody of a popular antisemitic cartoon of a jewish man drawn in a a very ugly style rubbing his hands together and "scheming". A vault f4 admin "Skuna Tuna" was on the server and even after I commented mutliple times about the spray and mentioned the admin he did jack shit to adress it. He didn't even fucking talk he was in his own little world and as an admin that's not how you should be.

the spray in question is very similar to this image (couldn't find the original iteration for some reason and didn't want to look through a bunch of antisemetic vitriol to find it.

please get better admins who aren't so fucking """"neutral"""" about issues like this, it actively hurts the game's lifespan and audience by making this an unwelcoming environment for all but the insane raving lunatics of the alt right.

 

[VintagePC]

Your complaint/ban request has been received and will be looked into. Typically I'll follow up with any finding(s) in a day or two.

 

[VintagePC]

I've already blocked this spray in our system and if there are further incidents the player in question will be dealt with according to our standard policies.

However, I would like to review more about your concerns regarding your interaction with the staff member. can you give me some more specifics about when and where this transpired? I watched through some of the STV footage surrounding your report but did not immediately see it so if you can help me locate it that would be appreciated - e.g what server/map and approximately how far into the map's timelimit/rounds you were, for example.

Also, for future reference, the form for a ban contest should be completed with the details of the player you are requesting to have investigated, as opposed to your own.

Thanks.

 

[mdgcreeper]

My bad, here are the details of the player in question. Also Skuna Tuna isn't responsible he just didn't do anything to stop it is what I'm concerned about.

In-Game name: Straight outta Sped
Time of Day:78:11pm
Date:9/11/22
Steam ID:VirtualRetard
https://steamcommunity.com/id/VirtualRetard

Reason for Ban Request: offensive spray and general antisemetism
Link to Demo or other evidence: attached above on original post as a file.
Additional Comments:Skuna Tuna, a VAULT F4 ADMIN was on the server at the time of this incident and did NOTHING about it. Please reprimand his failure to do his job

When I was trying to get the admin's attention regarding the spray I was met with nothing but cold silence as he kept playing the game. It may have occured a bit earlier around 8:11 or something like that now that I'm remembering and looking at the time of the screenshot. I will say I didn't outright say "hey admin can you please look at this spray" because I KNEW that I would be made fun of for it. So I was being more subtle at first just saying "hey sped your spray fucking sucks" turning to "sped can you explain to me what the joke of the spray is? I dont get it" to "sped could you explain to TUNA what the joke means?" I was too nervous and anxious to be more direct about it.

The map was vip_trainyard, time around 8pm, I lost count of how many rounds we played because it's vip trainyard and I shouldn't have to keep track of how many rounds into a game we are for a report when a vault f4 admin is on the server to enforce the rules.

 

[VintagePC]

In light of this information I'm going to take issue with several things here:

• I don't disagree with your assessment of the spray, having encountered the referenced imagery before in other community dealings. However, if you have not seen the original caricature style in context, I think it is conceivable that someone might not follow why it is antisemitic. There are some subtle alterations that make it blatantly so, but at a glance without context it could be mistaken for "oh lol, tf2 character spray". There's so much vitriol out there that unless you make it a full time job to lurk in the crappiest corners of the Internet you can't recognize it all.
• You said yourself you did not attempt any direct means of communication with the staff member. You have more effective options at communicating your concerns, such as via discord, steam DM, etc. Different people have different thought/attention patterns and I cannot fault a person for not cluing in to someone else's particular subtleties or passive-aggressive attempts to get their attention in the middle of what can be an action-filled game.
• The staff are human too, which means things can get missed and they have personal lives. In this particular case I'm told they received a phone call while playing, but there are other legitimate reasons someone might briefly have muted their audio. It's a volunteer position and I'm not going to be overly draconian and make it more of a chore than it has to be.
• I don't think your attitude is appropriate here either. Obviously you're upset, but painting it as though the staff member was *actively* aware of the situation and doing nothing is uncalled for if you haven't received any sort of acknowledgement they've heard you.
• Cursing out the staff in general ("get better admins who aren't so...") also isn't helping your case in any way. It's a thankless volunteer job and there's enough BS/drama to deal with without it being artificially created.

TL;DR: I let them know this happened and they feel bad, but none of the details outlined here justify any sort of reprimand or repercussion unless it becomes a chronic problem.

You're welcome to disagree with me and ask me to get a CM to step in and issue a final and overruling verdict, but other than that, I think we're done here.