[raw nug eater]

Ingame Name: overwatered weed plant

SteamID: STEAM_0:1:529292838

Who Banned You: Prince Nicky El Conmemorativo

Reason For Ban: Using an autoclicker to spam popcorn, apparently this is considering a hack.

Length of Ban: 1 week.

Reason for Admins to Unban: Using an autoclicker isn't a cheat, nor is anything mentioned in R5 of the TTT rules as seen here:
"5. Do Not Exploit, Hack, Metagame or Otherwise Avoid the Game's Intended Limits
This includes ghosting*, metagaming, hacking, and exploiting maps. Ghosting includes sharing any type of information with someone from the grave that could affect the outcome of a round, including staff. 

• Do not try to escape the map bounds or exploit map/server bugs. 
  
  
• Do not team, which is aiding people you know are not on your team. 
  
  
• Do not put your client into 3rd person mode. 
  
  
• Do not intentionally attempt to crash the server. 
  
  
• Do not exploit or abuse the grappling hook to gain an unfair advantage such as flying horizontally with it. 
  
  
• Do not abuse console commands to exploit the way ingame items work. "
  

So I am not exploiting the game, the program which can be found as the most downloaded autoclicker on sourceforge does not use any game files nor does it interact with the game in any way. This is not a hack, as again, it doesn't talk to the game or touch it at all. And lastly, this doesn't avoid the game's limits, it avoid my physical human body limits on how fast I can click a mouse.

So because it doesn't seem to be well understood, what is an autoclicker?

It's a simple program, and here's a picture of it:


Very simple, you set the interval of how many seconds or the like in between clicks, you set which mouse button, and then whether you want it to repeat or not etc. The only setting it has are two other buttons below which aren't pictured which allow you to set the hotkeys and, "record & playback" which I have no idea what the heck it does because I don't use it. That's it, that's the whole program. Just clicks the mouse for you.

Now, a few things I know are going to be asked;

1. Why are you using this? To spam popcorn.

2. Can it be used to exploit the game in any way? No, it cannot. If you used it to fire a weapon rapidly, you wouldn't be able to as the game already limits the fire rate of weapons. You also cannot use it to break the game or exceed those limits.

3. Did you use this program knowing it may be in a grey area? NO. I thought most people, and most on the server did know, what an autoclicker was. I had no idea that this would happen or that I would be here appealing a fucking ban for spamming popcorn with a free program that ISN'T AN EXPLOIT OR CHEAT. I'm honestly baffled and quite miffed that this has happened and would appreciate to hear from a standpoint of the staff of this server why on earth this would be considered cheating.


Have you been banned before (Link relevant threads): No.

Other:

Edit: Found name of who banned me.

[Vrilly， ze floofy derg uwu]

+1 free this man, quickly throwing popcorn is not a crime

[lacer]

Banned for using an autoclicker?

omegalul, lots of people use an E spam macro to spam doors but I don't see anyone being banned for that

+1 for unban

@"Prince Nicky La Flama Blanca" is the one who banned you

[HONG]

+1
nooo you dont understand, having fun and throwing popcorn for 1 round was endangering the server rules!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i had to ban him!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[【ｐｉｓｃａ】NXT⭕⃤]

He was using it for the Popcorn gun. What guns even benefit from that besides the meme guns? Pretty much harmless as far as I'm concerned +1 for unban.

[Here lies Eggroll's Eggrolls]

+1 for a reduction although using a 3rd party program outside of gmod is still considered breaking the rules under “ 5. Do Not Exploit, Hack, Metagame or Otherwise Avoid the Game's Intended Limits”. An auto clicker makes you click fast up to incredible in-human speeds. Although there might be a limiter in the game (I’m not sure) it is still considered doing something that you are not supposed to. I already feel the negative rep comin but yk.. I’m still in favor for a reduction on your ban since you used a 3rd party application to modify your gameplay. Just because it does not modify your game files does not mean that it is safe to use on the server. Yes it’s popcorn but still.

Edit: I never mentioned the reason I think your ban should be reduced. I am in favor for a reduction because it is just an auto clicker and you cannot really do much with that. Also, you only used it to throw popcorn (from what you’ve said) and to me that’s fine but I would not recommend doing it again since like I’ve said it is considered avoiding the games intended limits but since you only used it for popcorn I believe a week is too long. You’ve learned your lesson (I hope) and you like to the server enough to make an unban request. Just don’t use an auto-clicker again pls.

[La Flama Blanca]

I was asked by another player almost immediately upon joining whether an auto-clicker was allowed. I responded to him that I did not know what an auto-clicker was, but it sounded like something that would be disallowed. 

I then inquired in our staff Discord as to what an auto-clicker was and whether it was allowed. I learned that it was a disallowed program known as a script. I was also informed that anyone found using an auto-clicker, since it was a script, should be permanently banned.

While I was still gathering a response in the staff chat, weed plant posted the link to the auto-clicker to other players in the chat.


I kicked them for this (advertising hacks is usually a permaban), and they quickly rejoined. Shortly afterwards, I got a full response in our staff Discord and thereafter upped the punishment. At the same time Mr. weed plant openly admitted to using the auto-clicker in the voice chat.

I banned Mr. weed plant for just two weeks, rather than permanently because I was uneasy about instituting a permanent ban for something I did not fully understand and which did not seem as inherently problematic as outright hacks.

[Jammin]

Using anything outside of the physical limits of the human body/keyboard+mouse physical inputs, I feel falls under "scripting." Yes, there is a differential between the two because scripting manipulates only inputs, without speaking with the game.
Allowing for an auto clicker to be used on a no-damage meme weapon is inherently harmless (unless it crashes the server somehow); however the same tool used on a semi-auto removes the need to concentrate on clicking and makes it a simpler mission of move the mouse.
I feel that due to confusion within the rules, a reduction is appropriate. I've seen confusion over this rule before, which has had to be clarified before. However any future use of any form of macro/autoclicker/script is to result in a permanent ban.

Also rules should be updated, but that is a subject for a different thread.

[^aethy]

No spam popcorn plz, you are heating my laptop.

[Battons]

It doesn't matter to me what you were using it for, what you were doing gives you an advantage over other players. It may be free and it may be common but does that mean all our users now have to use it to compete with you on semi auto weapons?
Anyways we have never allowed auto clickers or scripts of any kind and I don't plan on changing that anytime soon.
Bryan and I will give our official verdict on this once we discuss the matter.