Is Scrap.tf becoming a "TF2 Monopoly", and is it treating it's users right?

[Bucket]

Now, don’t get me wrong. I don’t hate Scrap.tf, in fact I think it’s a wonderful site that is very helpful to the community, especially to anyone who is starting off in the economy or simply banking weapons. But lately, to me at least, it seems that they are beginning to care less and less about the community.

If you think about it, you could say that Scrap.tf has become a powerful “TF2 Monopoly”, in that they are the most used site for scrapbanking and other forms of banking, much more than any other sites like Scrapbank.me. This wouldn’t necessarily be bad, except for that they really have control over you making any form of profit, and if they ban you it could mean the end of your scrapbanking in the TF2 economy.

Now, if you are more of a “casual” TF2 player, who doesn’t try to make the upmost profit day-in and day-out and rather plays the game for fun, and it’s cool if you make a profit every now and again, like me, then you don’t use scrap.tf that often. But a huge problem I’ve found with scrap.tf is their lack of trust in the community – for example the whitelists. Both me and my sister use scrap.tf, and because of this I was once banned from scrap.tf while entering the raffles. At first I thought I had done something against the rules, but when I made an appeal I was unbanned without knowing why I was really banned in the first place. So after figuring out that Scrap.tf was trying to stop people from using alt accounts, I understood it and tried to make an appeal for a whitelisting so both me and my sister could continue to join the raffles. I simply stated all the info I could, and that if there was any other proof I could show I would do so. And I never got a response, and am still not whitelisted. Now, you can say “Well why don’t you just go ask again and do whatever they say you should do?” But like I said, I don’t play TF2 that much anymore, and have no desire to join the raffles anymore(I never win anyway, but that’s not the point). But the fact that I still never got a response or whitelisted bothers me.

Now for what really bothers me about Scrap.tf – some of the admins. I noticed that a new admin, Jessecar, who from what I can see happens to be a brony(which doesn’t necessarily bother me) was the one who banned me when I didn’t understand the Anti-alt account hunt that was going on. So I don’t hold that against him/her, but what I do hold against Jessecar is the seemingly endless ban spam, namely for my sister. There was a raffle going on during the Archimedes Cup, and other users were excessively rioting in the comments. My sister made a single comment as a joke, which compared to the riot spam from other users seemed like nothing, but received a 3-day ban for it, again from Jessecar. When she tried to appeal, she received a prompt “Your ban will remain” from Jessecar, showing that this admin has no patience for anyone who does the simplest of things wrong, and also doesn’t have the patience to look at proof that is being provided in a whitelist request. In my own honest opinion, I feel like Jessecar is a ban-hungry child that does what he/she wants simply because he/she is an admin, and will not help people who actually need it. And again, let me emphasize that I DO NOT hate Jessecar, but am getting very tired of his/her s***.

Finally, I’d like to talk about Geel, who is to my knowledge the creator and/or main admin of the site(if I’m wrong, feel free to correct me). To begin, as I’m sure everyone has noticed, there are never keys to trade for on Scrap.tf, and if you ever try to you are simply told there are no keys in stock. Yet Geel has the audacity to put up a huge raffle for a large amount of keys, rather than putting them in the key bank, pretty much as a big f*** you to the community that is clearly obsessed with keys. Now again, I DO NOT hate Geel, but bringing this back to my point about Jessecar, I feel like the admins of Scrap.tf no longer care about the community, and rather than having respect for the users, will ban anyone who “speaks out of line” and dangle keys in your face when they never have any there on the site to take out. These are just 2 examples, but I’m sure other users feel the same way or have similar problems with the site.

This may just seem like a rant, but I really want to share the BS that we get from the admins and the site in general. And again, I’d like to point out that I DO NOT hate the site itself per say, but the s*** that comes with it if you don’t follow the rules, but how you really DO need the site to survive the TF2 economy – very much like a monopoly.

Lastly, I’d very much like to see myself get banned from simply voicing my opinion, be it that the admins themselves read this or whatever, as even more proof that they are childish, can’t handle any criticism towards them or their site, and are unfair to the community. If you had the time to read this entire thing, thank you, and if you’ve had similar feelings about the site or problems feel free to comment them. I’d really like to hear them.

[god bless da troops]

Geel #scrap.tf: scrapbank.me is a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ ripoff that's cashing out
shrub | memecenter.com: ripoff or not, still better than scrap.tf
Geel #scrap.tf is now Offline.


ROFL

[Bucket]

That comment brightened up my day, sir.

[JarateKing (very rusty)]

Messaggio originale di FINAL Antonio Perez:

Messaggio originale di Commonly Called Giggles/Mark:

No administration would bother to check if someone only wrote 2 comments in a spamfest. Your fault for commenting in the first place. They have a right to moderate their content.

So what you're claiming is I just shouldn't comment at all ever on scrap.tf's raffles? Sounds like a very opressive statement if you ask me. As a user of their site I have the right to use it for it's intended purposes, such as harmlessly commenting on a raffle.

Jessecar, is this your alt account?

You said yourself that you joined in. Not an ambiguous grey area "I used it for its intended purposes and commented harmlessly without spamming" but an "I only did it once or twice."

1 thing posted by 100 people is just as much spam as 100 things posted by 1 person.

And again, it was a three day ban. That'd be more of a warning than anything. And warnings mean "don't do it again", not "I'm a big arrogant dictator."

Jessecar's not that great but he's not the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ antichrist either.

[Juno Brier]

Messaggio originale di http://tf.gg/thread/21756/:

Messaggio originale di FINAL Antonio Perez:

So what you're claiming is I just shouldn't comment at all ever on scrap.tf's raffles? Sounds like a very opressive statement if you ask me. As a user of their site I have the right to use it for it's intended purposes, such as harmlessly commenting on a raffle.

Jessecar, is this your alt account?

You said yourself that you joined in. Not an ambiguous grey area "I used it for its intended purposes and commented harmlessly without spamming" but an "I only did it once or twice."

1 thing posted by 100 people is just as much spam as 100 things posted by 1 person.

And again, it was a three day ban. That'd be more of a warning than anything. And warnings mean "don't do it again", not "I'm a big arrogant dictator."

Jessecar's not that great but he's not the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ antichrist either.

Ditch that white armor and lance, it doesn't look good on you.

[Bucket]

Messaggio originale di http://tf.gg/thread/21756/:

You said yourself that you joined in. Not an ambiguous grey area "I used it for its intended purposes and commented harmlessly without spamming" but an "I only did it once or twice."

1 thing posted by 100 people is just as much spam as 100 things posted by 1 person.

And again, it was a three day ban. That'd be more of a warning than anything. And warnings mean "don't do it again", not "I'm a big arrogant dictator."

Jessecar's not that great but he's not the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ antichrist either.

Hey, notice how this guy has "tf.gg" in his name and is defending the admins actions. Which moderator's friend/alt are you this time?

[god bless da troops]

Messaggio originale di Juno Brier:

Messaggio originale di http://tf.gg/thread/21756/:

You said yourself that you joined in. Not an ambiguous grey area "I used it for its intended purposes and commented harmlessly without spamming" but an "I only did it once or twice."

1 thing posted by 100 people is just as much spam as 100 things posted by 1 person.

And again, it was a three day ban. That'd be more of a warning than anything. And warnings mean "don't do it again", not "I'm a big arrogant dictator."

Jessecar's not that great but he's not the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ antichrist either.

Ditch that white armor and lance, it doesn't look good on you.

de_stroyed

[Bucket]

Oh my, reading the new rules for scrap.tf made me laugh.

[YelloJello]

Messaggio originale di EONStingerRPG:

Let us hear it
Post their new "rules" here so i can laugh at it

agreed

[FinalAzure]

Messaggio originale di Sir Zorba:

They may have the right to not bother checking it and to ban someone for commenting in the middle of a spamfest, but that doesn't make them not ♥♥♥♥♥ for doing so. I'm not taking sides here, but a moderator not checking the posts of someone he bans is pretty lame. Equally lame is commenting in the middle of a spamfest and not expecting the possibility of an accidental ban.

Respectfully I agree with you in both points. Initially I thought it was an accidental ban. I was actually questioning whether on not I was going to be put in with those that have been banned. The thing is, when you are banned, they have this section written on the bottom of their ban page. I'll use this screencap for example: (Ignore the fact that reason is for being an Alt)

http://i.imgur.com/qghTUxB.png

"If you feel you were wrongly banned, appeal your ban here."

And the thing is I did just that, as proven by my above statement of when I sent in my appeal. When in doing so, and recieving a very short ended answer, this was proof to me that not only did admins not read or listen to my appeal, but that they don't care to check the 'very obvious' evidence that I hadn't done anything other than make 2 very small comments.

If Jeseecar might have shown more proof as to the reason why I was banned, then maybe I would have understood and respected their desicion, but all I got was 'No, you're still banned. Idc.'

[JarateKing (very rusty)]

Messaggio originale di This is a Bucket.:

Messaggio originale di http://tf.gg/thread/21756/:

You said yourself that you joined in. Not an ambiguous grey area "I used it for its intended purposes and commented harmlessly without spamming" but an "I only did it once or twice."

1 thing posted by 100 people is just as much spam as 100 things posted by 1 person.

And again, it was a three day ban. That'd be more of a warning than anything. And warnings mean "don't do it again", not "I'm a big arrogant dictator."

Jessecar's not that great but he's not the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ antichrist either.

Hey, notice how this guy has "tf.gg" in his name and is defending the admins actions. Which moderator's friend/alt are you this time?

tf.gg is the testing site for teamfortress.tv, which is basically the only NA community for competitive. It also happens to be the starting point for a ton of huds.

That thread in my name specifically is a hud and mod I released.
I used tf.gg instead of teamfortress.tv in order to fit the URL into my name.

Ask any regular on these forums and they'd have seen me for a long time. In fact I've been posting here for longer than scrap.tf has existed.

I'm defending the admins' actions because they're not all that farfetched, and in any case I don't see how "yeah they're pretty strict with bans and will ban often" means "the entire site is worthless and don't go on it ever."

[Ferozill]

Messaggio originale di EONStingerRPG:

Let us hear it
Post their new "rules" here so i can laugh at it

Site Rules
Services
All users must not have a dirty reputation, such as SteamRep scammer tags.
Using methods to gain advantage over other users (e.g. automation, scripts, external tools, bug-abusing, tampering) leads to a permanent ban.
Trying to intentionally disrupt our service (e.g. exploiting bugs, bypassing limitations, server scans/attacks) will lead to a permanent lockout.
The website marketplace.tf is not the same as this website. You may not ask for support or ask questions here.
Bot Issues
It is the users' responsibility to make sure the trade is correct. Do not accept bot-trades containing miscounted, wrong or no items at all.
Bots are prone to malfunction. We apologize for any issues, but we ask you not to annoy us with senseless and unproductive complaints.
Bots can not be filled by staff. All bots are filled by user trades. For example, key bots will only sell keys they get from other users.
Refunds can be requested in the event of a bad trade. Use the refunds section of our forum and read the guidelines there.
You must provide the required info/proof in order for the staff to fulfill refunds. Providing fake or incorrect proof will lead to a site-ban.
All Community (Chat, forums, servers, raffles, and comments)
Your avatar must not contain any suggestive, questionable or explicit material. Avatars are up to the discretion of staff, but final decisions made by site owners only. Offenses will result in the removal of your avatar privileges and a report to the Steam Community.
Telling users to hurry up, harassing users, or repeated unconstructive complaining will lead to a community-ban.
Posting malicious URLs, including phishing links, Steam Wallet scams, shock links, or other scams will result in a site-ban.
Explicit, flashing or seizure-inducing material is not allowed. Posting will lead to a kick from chat or community-ban.
Posting of any personal information without the owners consent is forbidden.
Trading, begging, trolling, spamming, advertising, or offering illegal activities is not allowed anywhere and will lead to a community-ban.
If a user has a badge saying they did not read the rules, you cannot guide them to how they can remove it. They have to figure it out for themselves.
Racism, sexism, harassment, discrimination or other bigotry will not be tolerated at all, even if you are just "joking" -- we do not like this kind of "fun" here and it might still hurt others! You will be given extensive site-bans if you cannot tolerate other people.
Use common sense and remember that you are our guest, do not wear out your welcome! If you think you'll be punished for something, don't do it.
Chat
Without reading these rules fully you will not be given the right to post links, post videos, raffle items, or join rooms other than #home and #support.
Help and Support may only be given in the #support room. Type /support to check if live-support is currently available. If live-support is closed, you have to use the help pages or the help and support forum! Users asking for support in other rooms will be kicked.
Occasional role-playing is allowed in the #home room. Other rooms are provided for these activities.
Immature behavior, trolling, or acting obscene will lead to a kick or community-ban.
Bypassing the word filter is not allowed. You will be given 1 warning at first, then a kick or community-ban if you continue.
Posting links or videos of flashy seizure-inducing or "ear rape" material will result in a community-ban.
Posting of illegal content will lead to a permanent site-ban. We may also report you to your local authorities if we feel the need.
Raffles
Raffles are a free service run by ourselves, and rafflers are volunteering to do so. Abusive language will not be tolerated.
Using alternate accounts to stack the odds of a raffle in your favor will result in an immediate site-wide ban.
Gaming the Tip system to artificially inflate your total lifetime tips will result in an immediate ban.
Attempting to use scripts to automatically join raffles will result in an immediate site-wide ban.
Do not create raffles promoting your trades or to make users visit a referral or malicious website.
Do not create raffles that are demanding users to give you tips. However, you may politely ask for them. Example: "Tip if you would like" is allowed. "Tip for more raffles!" is NOT allowed.
Advertising in raffles is not allowed without explicit permission from the site owners (Geel or Jesse).
Bot space is precious. For this reason, we have certain policies regarding undelivered items.
If an item has not been collected by the winner after 1 week, the item is assigned to the raffler.
If the raffler delays receiving the item for a further 1 week, the item is then assigned to a Scrap.TF admin for collection.
The Scrap.TF admins will, in the event of any valuable item being recollected, hold onto this item for a further 1 week. At any point the rightful owner may request to retrieve it.
After this time period of 3 weeks has elapsed and the item(s) in question have not been retrieved, the item is forfeit.
Any raffle can be closed for any reason at any time. In this instance the raffle items will be returned to the raffler or the raffle will be rolled.
Mods, Admins and Owners cannot and will never "rig" a raffle. Any staff member known to be doing so will be immediately terminated.
Important Notes
The owners reserve the right to ban you for any reason and for any amount of time.
You must listen to all staff. They have control over your access to this site and its services.
If you find an exploit or security problem you are responsible to report it to staff immediately. If you abuse the bug without disclosure to staff you will face a permanent ban.
Staff decisions cannot be questioned. Reasons for punishment do not have to be said and should remain private.
All staff shall use their own discretion to provide punishment. If you think you received an unfair ban, please make an Appeal.
Our website is powered by Steam, we relate to their Rules and Guidelines For User Generated Content.
By using this site, you agree to these terms and conditions and you must click here to confirm reading the rules.
Definitions
Trolling - The act of trying to annoy/anger others for self pleasure.
Obscene - Behavior or content that is unacceptable in a public location and would be found "offensive" by the average person.
Questionable - Anything which contains sexual content such as exposed or strategically covered nipples or nudity on human characters, fetish material (if it's not explicit and still overtly sexual), sloppy kissing, groping, (including characters in sexy poses/outfits).
Explicit - Content which contains gore, exposed genitals, implied or overt sexual acts, even without visible genitals, or masturbation.
Personal Information - Real names, phone numbers, addresses, self pictures, or other content that can lead to locating the person.
Owners - The owners of Scrap.TF, Jessecar and Geel9.
Staff - The Moderators, Administrators and Developers that run this site and who have final say in all matters. All of them are listed on the About Page
See derpiboo.ru's definition of tags for more detailed explanations of what we define questionable and explicit material as.

[Juno Brier]

So they want you to go to a site with explicit content to figure out what they mean by explicit content.

[Ferozill]

Just found this new warining on Scrap.tf's raffles page:

Make sure your comment conforms with the rules our you will face punishment. You have been warned!

[Bucket]

They're just trying to cover all their bases, so if they ban you for a dumb reason they can be like,
"NO SEEEEE THE RULES SAY NOOOOO"

[Ferozill]

Make sure your comment conforms with the rules our you will face punishment. You have been warned!

now the warning is gone :/