I'm still unconvinced that Vladimir coudn't connect the dots that the information regarding Abd being in the cells was metagamed considering that literally 3 minutes and 40 seconds after you told him that you needed to be in Tehlrog for something and he saw Dugh follow you wordlessly, Dugh came back and told him (and Julian) that Abd was in the cells. If he didn't know at that point in time, he should have realized after he quite literally saw Ehri with Abd about 5 minutes after the whisper.
The only burden of proof mentioned in the ruleset is the clear and convincing standard. There are three burdens of proof in the U.S. and clearly whoever made the ruleset must have taken inspiration from some legal dramas (I didn't make this rule, or the ruleset generally).
Preponderance of the evidence: is one type of evidentiary standard used in a burden of proof analysis. Under the preponderance standard, the burden of proof is met when the party with the burden convinces the fact finder that there is a greater than 50% chance that the claim is true. This is the standard of proof for most civil cases.
Clear and convincing: means that the evidence is highly and substantially more likely to be true than untrue; the fact finder must be convinced that the contention is highly probable. This is the standard of proof for a select few civil cases.
Beyond a Reasonable Doubt: The standard that must be met by the prosecution's evidence in a criminal prosecution: that no other logical explanation can be derived from the facts except that the defendant committed the crime, thereby overcoming the presumption that a person is innocent until proven guilty.
As the only evidentiary standard mentioned in the ruleset is clear and convincing we'll go with that. Perhaps I am an outlier, but I believe the correlation and realization there is clear, as much as you might believe otherwise. A reasonable person in his shoes would have realized that the information was metagamed.
I commend you for writing an 8 page appeal. It's usually rare that someone writes an appeal with such zest, and you should be commended for that. Hopefully everyone can look at you for inspiration in future, and this hopefully serves as a warning to others who would otherwise be tempted to break the rules.
I'll bring this to the rest of staff. I do not believe that the events with Vladimir were unmoored from your actions, but i can appreciate a good unban appeal as well as anyone. If your ban length is shortened after speaking with the rest of staff, i suspect it will be on account of the latter and not the former.
