FoLT - My Request for High Pardon

Your profile link: http://www.sythe.org/members/300847-folt.html

Report/post/reason that got you banned: http://www.sythe.org/dispute-forum-archive/1891727-folt-requesting-high-pardon.html

Proof of contacting victims for repayment or repayment of victims: No victims involved.

Anything you weren't banned for but want to confess to now: Nope.

Detailed description of the events that took place and why you think we should forgive you:

Good evening Sythe Staff,
I am writing here another plea for forgiveness from the community. For the members of staff who I have not yet had the opportunity to meet or for those of you who have forgotten about me; I wanted to introduce myself. My Alias is Folt, and I am known by friends in the community as Aaron. I’ve established a reputation in the rare names market that some perceive to be fairly successful. Despite all of the negative energy that revolves around OG names market, I have always taken my business in this market very seriously. Through passionately operating business in the OG names market for over a decade now, it’s painful to me not being able to participate on Sythe. Sythe was the uprising of a new beginning for me, and has been a large contributor to my inspiration and passion within the Runescape Black-market, which over the years has become a very large part of my everyday-life.

Over the course of the past few years, I have accumulated over 1000 vouches (231 coming from Sythe.org) and have completed multiple trades totaling to over $1000 USD. I am always looking for ways to expand my business and have been actively planning to immerse myself in the Runescape gold merchanting market. With that being said, less focus will be put on rare names as it will be redirected towards spending time doing other things. If I am able to return; I plan on participating on the forums in a more social manor rather than business-related. The forums used to be a fun hobby of mine, which is something that has been missed.

I am mature enough to reflect upon the negative strings that come attached to my activity in rare names. The aggressive nature of the OG names market is a large contributing factor as to why there are some negative connotations associated to my alias. I have made a personal decision that If I have the opportunity to return to Sythe, my activity in the names market will be limited. This decision was made for two main reasons. 1. I am doing business at a very successful rate elsewhere since I have been banned on Sythe. 2. I want to focus on improving my reputation overall and having the negative thoughts fade away through exercising helpful activity in other areas. With that being said, I love providing my friends/customers with helpful advice and insight and I will never stop doing that as long as friends choose come to me for help.

I apologize if I have strayed away from being specific with regards to my ban reason. This is my fourth request for pardon since I’ve been banned for this offense and it’s difficult to respond to the same case without repeating myself and sounding like a broken record. I will paste several links below of my past pardons. They will help newer members of the staff who aren’t familiar with the topic get on track.

As always, I appreciate any of you who have read this far. For any of my friends and supporters who do choose to offer me a hand in coming back to Sythe, my Thank-You’s are extended greatly. None of my supporters will be let down, and to have the opportunity to plea my case has always been appreciated.

Take care, and I hope to hear from some of you soon.
If any extra information is required of me please let me know.

- Aaron

Did you fully read and follow this sticky thread in the pardon section?: Yes


Footnotes:
ORIGINAL DISPUTE (Denied): http://www.sythe.org/dispute-forum-archive/1743047-folt-disputing-ban.html
Pardon Nov 2015 (Denied) - http://www.sythe.org/dispute-forum-archive/1891727-folt-requesting-high-pardon.html
Pardon April 2015 (Denied) - http://www.sythe.org/dispute-forum-...esting-pardon-selling-amazon-chargebacks.html
Pardon Nov 2014 (Denied) - http://www.sythe.org/dispute-forum-...esting-pardon-selling-amazon-chargebacks.html

Other Useful Links
Sythe Vouch Thread: http://www.sythe.org/vouches-forum/1345203-folts-vouches.html
Powerbot Profile with 183 Feedbacks http://www.powerbot.org/community/user/235983-folt/
Playerauctions 587 Feedbacks http://www.playerauctions.com/offer/myfeedbacklist/?username=folt

 

Curious about how you obtain your RSNs, in particular the name "go"?

 

Hey. Being a member of staff that’s actively participating in the names market – I’m happy to see you weighing in here. I appreciate your question and curiosity and I’d be happy to provide you with additional information about how I retrieve the names that I sell, as I’ve been more than open about this in the past. Even though this question doesn't exactly relate to my previous ban reason or my pardon, I feel like it's great because some of these things should be addressed and I'm more than happy to respond about it.

I don’t hide the fact that the names I own have been “sniped” by definition. But I do standby the fact that they cannot be classified as “stolen” goods. I intentionally retrieve names that could classify as “inactive” or “abandoned” for lack of better terms. You know as well as I do; there are names that sit on previously known as accounts that are released due to abandonment, those are the ones which I focus on. If a name is abandoned and released, there’s no hurt in me retrieving it for resale, even through the use of automated retrieval methods. By definition, this is “Sniping” but without the intention to ruin a trade, or steal from someone; this is harmless to the market.

In an instance where I have accidentally compromised a name from someone who was in the process of transferring or purchasing on any market website – I have contacted original owners or purchasers that were at a loss and have been able to make ends meet. Whether this be on a personal level, offering discounts through purchases or by directly refunding users that have been affected.

Examples of this was shown where I refunded 3 high valued usernames without hesitation in 2014. I can find the link for this but Dave MAY remember the situation enough to vouch here as he dealt with it. As a response to your question with regards to the name “Go”. Personal bridges were rebuilt with the original owner that was at the loss. In fact – we have done much repeat business since that happened and I’ve offered him discounts in the form of refunds for purchases that he’s made from me since then.

If a name is for sale on any market which I am currently aware of - I have no desire whatsoever to interfere with those transactions. I admit that mistakes were made in the past, but I take much more caution now when acquiring "dead stock" from abandoned and non black-market name retrieving now. Through experience I've learned to do this in a market harmless manor.

On a side note, I haven’t had the chance to connect with you on a personal level (yet), but had we had the opportunity to get to know one and other better – You would know that my intentions are great and that I only wish great things for the people who participate in the names market (or any runescape market for that matter).

Thanks again for weighing in. If you ever want to connect – Feel free to chat with me over Skype, that is regardless of this pardons outcome.

 

You sniped "Go" from Glarex. You also sniped "Purple", "Dark" among other names that certainly were not inactive or abandoned, as you claim. While you have built a friendship with Glarex, that does not change the fact that you have sniped that from him.

 

Purple and Dark were obtained through the method/intentions mentioned in my previous response. Those two names were abandoned from the previous accounts that they were on. (Expired last known as). If I hadn't taken them then they would have been freely available for anyone to take as they weren't being transferred.

Also, These names have been on the market (and I'm aware that they both still are actually). To this day since I sold them, they have moved SEVERAL times. Since I've been aware of this, I have had no intention to ever interfere.

 

From everything I've read and been told, it seems like the name GO was sniped. You would have to refund that prior to anything else.

 

Of course, and It's actually been settled already as I mentioned previously through offering Glarex purchase discounts. If need be, you can cross reference with him to check and confirm that the whole situation has been sorted.

 

Restitution will need to be made for all names sniped before this pardon can be voted upon

 

Any names that have been reported as sniped by me from the market have already seen restitution. I've done this for "Go" sheerly out of my own goodwill, and this was one year ago. As mentioned in my initial reply to dunworry - The names I focus on obtaining are abandoned inactive names and obtaining those pose harmless threat to the market itself as they are available for any user to take while not being in transfer.

 

Last I talked to Glarex about this (roughly 5-6 months ago) he was not compensated for this. I'll reach out to him and confirm, however.

 

Once Dunworry posts back that Glarex has been refunded/compensated, we can go from there (no pun intended).

 

You never refunded glarex for Go, I have just confirmed this. You owe him a 1.2B RS3 refund

 

Re:

As mentioned before, I did not deliver a refund directly. Over the course of several months of doing business there were sympathy discounts deducted from transactions. These discounts were literally offered in sympathy of the case that happened with "Go". For example: Glarex wanted to purchase an RSN for 1B RSGP. Instead the name was sold for 800M as compensation for his loss (200M price undercut). This is just an example of how the transactions that were done. There were several transactions that were done like this, however amounts weren't tracked because they were offered out of goodwill.

Over the course of repeat business and offering Glarex sympathy discounts he grew accepted with the loss of "Go" due to flipping profits which opportunities were made through me giving him names at a good price. Don't get me wrong - He spent a great deal of time and effort selling the names off to make his profits and I applaud him for doing a great job with it; but that doesn't change the fact that my prices were reduced for him before reselling or keeping the names for personal use.

To clarify what is being obliged of me here:

I am being asked to refund Glare, after I have already satisfied him by a means of offering RSGP sympathy discounts on transactions that have ALREADY BEEN COMPLETED. I don't think that the obligations you're requesting of me are fair and feel like you are asking me to provide a double discount due to the events that have already taken place.

If you'd like to share your conversation that you had with Glare on this subject I'm sure that the other members of staff will see that doesn't really care what happens from here out with regards to this because he's satisfied with the way I handled the situation a year ago. First and foremost, I’d never ask Glare to share any parts of your conversation with me that you guys have had, so I'm not sure how your conversation went, but Glare and I have open and honest communication, and he wouldn't tell me that he doesn't care about this anymore if he actually did. When I brought this up to him again last night, first of all I had to apologize to him for it being brought up again (since it’s already been dealt with), I asked him how he felt about it to this day since we haven't spoken about it for some time now. In summary he responded saying that he was surprised it's being brought up, because him and I have already sorted it out, and it's been over a year since I handled it with him.

Directed towards Dunworry: With all of this being said, and due to your persistence on this specific case; I feel like you are handling this from a biased standpoint to intentionally keep me away from the forums for personal reasons. I have heard several rumors revolving around the community that you consistently drag my name through dirt and warn users not to purchase from me. I don't mind that - I'm a banned user here and I wouldn't direct my customers to purchase from other banned users either unless I could definitely trust them. I hear about things through the grape-vine where you mention hateful things about me by MULTIPLE users. It honestly don't bother me on a personal level, I would just rather have this handled by someone that doesn’t share hateful remarks about me and that can respond to this on a less biased platform.

With all due respect to Dunworry and his position as a moderator, I would like to request that the situation with "Go" be reconsidered by another member of the Staff. I will be more than happy to clear up any other details with regards to this situation if need be. Please let me know if my obligations with regards to this situation change, and if restitution can be justified as it has already taken place.

 

Provide some proof of these said "sympathy discounts" through your conversation history. Also if the case with Glare has previously been resolved - please get us proof of that. Word alone isn't going to go anywhere.

 

Here's an example of one of the transactions that included a "Go" Sympathy discount.




We've got ALOT of chat logs to sift through. If you need more examples I can keep looking through but this one took a while to mine and find.

I understand what you mean by word only holding a certain amount of validity. To shorten and simplify the process, you could also contact Glarex yourself and ask him his thoughts about how I handled the situation.

This is the closest thing I could find relating to Glare coming out and saying "Thats it, were even" , I believe this was the last time we brought it up and called it settled. June 2015



Side note: I did not snipe "Ha".

Let me know if there are any other obligations.

 

If Glarex really did confirm that they were even, I see no issue with it and don't think that case should stand against Folt's pardon. Still this whole "sympathy discount" mess is not something that you should do in the future, Folt. Instead make your deal with the other person clear if/when something happens so it can be accurately tracked.

 

dont see why he should get away refunding 300m instead of 1.2b just because the other guy thinks 300m is better than 0m (rightfully so)

 

I'm assuming that you just looked at the pictures when you replied here. As I mentioned though there were multiple discounted transactions that lead up to us being "even".

I didn't mention refunding 300M anywhere though, that was just an agreed on price which was negotiated as sympathy for what happened with "Go". This happened multiple times.

As mentioned multiple times as well, if a staff member would like to contact Glare and get his take on this - that will be the ultimate confirmation that restitution has been made with the victim.

PS. I know there is a lot to read, so I don't blame anyone for skimming through the psots. However, I do put a lot of thought into my replies because this actually does carry weighted meaning for me.

 

If Glarex is fine with it, then sure, that's up to him and as Superman said, it shouldn't be a factor to vote no.

However, what I don't understand is, you sniped 'GO' from Glarex, so you did scam him, so how in the world do you keep saying 'sympathy discounts'? You scammed him. It's not as if he lost 1B staking, and you felt sorry for the bloke. You owed him money, it wasn't out of goodwill per se. That just annoys me. I might be misunderstanding, but that leads me to believe you don't really care about sniping/scamming the name.

 

This situation isn't exactly a typical situation for a couple of reasons. And for these reasons I feel like it needs to be treated a little differently.

1. Exactly like staking RSGP, Transferring a display name comes with assumed risk that the process may be interfered (This is also outlined and explained by Jagex). And to be quite real; the odds of success when buying a name from Sythe.org these days could be considerably worse than the in game staking odds - This can be agreed upon by other experienced name market users.

2. The "Sympathy discounts" that were given were offered selflessly out of my own goodwill. I didn't have to offer him anything, I also didn't need to confront him about he situation at all if I didn't want to. Correct me if I'm wrong but I personally feel like the situation was handled maturely. There weren't any authorities or staff members on any forums obligating me offer anything in return, not even an apology was required of me. I took actions into my own hands and reacted in a way which was purely out of personal good intentions. I couldn't agree with Superman more though - These sympathy discounts have turned into a big mess and they weren't even meant to be used as a plead in my case to get unbanned here. I gave those discounts out of goodwill to call it even with Glare. We both didn't even think this would come up again because it's something in the past for both of us. I also want to mention that sympathy discounts are not a standard procedure by which I do business, this has been a one time thing for me.

3. Since the situation is so unique, and Glare vouches that the situation is in the past and dealt with - Does it really need to be continually brought up?

The fact of the matter is - we can debate over this for days on end. Some people will disagree with how it was handled and others may think that I handled it maturely and professionally (like Glare does himself). This is why decisions like this are voted upon as they are hard to resolve in a concrete manor.