Invalid Appeal: 76561198065701002 - (Baloo / BANNED BY SR)

Appeal for BANNED BY SR

Steam profile: 76561198065701002 (Baloo)

Appeal Plea: I commited the offense(s), but it was minor or I disagree with SteamRep policy
Appeal Reason: [Other] Another reason (Not commonly accepted)

Victim Repayment: No, I committed no fraud or had no direct victims
Previous Appeals: No, this is my first appeal here​

Alternate Accounts:

http://steamrep.com/profiles/76561198057177466​

Appeal description:

I am appealing a ban related to my alternate account which has led to a ban on my main account.

Yesterday I was skimming the recently banned users listed on SteamRep's homepage when I noticed one had the same profile picture of a Fortress of Gamers (FoG) administrator. I was curious for the ban reason, so I followed the ban to the FoG report only to find a lack of any concrete evidence of intent to scam. I quickly located a second FoG report accepted with the same reasoning. At the time I was surprised to not see any screenshots of a chat screen or trade history. I have worked at TF2Outpost for a couple years, and have had to turn away reports due to lack of sufficient evidence, or missing evidence, so I immediately had a personal disagreement with the ruling. I made an informal status voicing my disapproval on backpack.tf's forums. There were multiple other users who found the ruling a bit unsubstantiated, and one stating he was tempted to try and create an alternate account just to see if it would be banned.

In a lack of judgement, I decided to follow this user's idea use my old account (which has been inactive on Steam for over 600 days) to recreate the scenario of impersonating a FoG administrator. I then added Richard O'Malley and alerted him to the account telling him I only found the account suspicious, but had not actually been in contact with the user. He then filed a report on FoG which was instantly accepted leading to the ban of my alternate account which led to a ban on this account. Richard O'Malley is welcome to either confirm or deny this encounter.

I personally believe in the ideal of "Innocent Until Proven Guilty" in cases of people reporting potential scammers. I believe this is the case with SteamRep, and other communities, as well. I have even seen SteamRep reports closed for insufficient evidence in the past. However, I have since learned of SteamRep's policy for banning users impersonating administrators without a need for evidence. While I still hold in my aforementioned ideal; I can understand the need to comply with SteamRep's policies.

Retrospectively, I wholly understand the misjudgment made on my part. I was thrown off by the condemnation of accounts which may potentially be innocent simply because they share a profile picture or username of an administrator. I tend to be more robust in my actions of disapproval of a status quo, as can be verified by backpack.tf administrator, polar. However, this time I was unaware of an official policy. While I do not fully agree with it; I certainly understand the sentiment behind it.

I apologize for my actions, and for any unforeseen "drama" caused by them. I am requesting the SteamRep ban be lifted from my account, and I promise to discuss any personal issues I have with policies in a formal setting instead of placing myself in the middle of the situation.​