I'm just wondering what the official stance is on "creative" sentry spots. I've been on the servers quite a few times when they've been used and heard different things from different admins.

I guess the main spots in question would be:

Gravel Pit, on top of B
Gravel Pit, on top of C
Gold Rush, stage 1, cap 2. On the small flat roof left of area (from red's perspective)
Hydro, turbine room, small flat roof in the corner.

There are probably others but these are the ones that spring to mind.

So what's the story? Should we be allowed to use these spots or not?

On my watch every spot is legal.

Im going to let this run before I say anything

as long as the sentries can be destroyed, i dont mind

its the ones you get that can be built behind the maps that arent allowed.

Personally I think any sentry that a spy cannot get to should be disallowed.

Also there's 2 spots I have seen now on goldrush stage1 that are questionable, one you have pointed out DJ, the other is the flat roof that is before the paths split up for blue. there's a place there that blue can hide a tele that's almost impossible to kill and add a sentry up there and it takes away the backstabbing ability of red (to clear the ledge and the opposite house) far too effectively for my liking. Totally un-sappable by a spy again ofc and demoman is your only hope against it, but good luck when the blue team is constantly respawning behind you :/

Any sentry that clearly clips through the map; i.e. any sentries in the sky, and behind a wall that cannot be accessed by foot (DB stage 1, the chicken wire on the left as you move from cap 1 ==> 2), any sentry under the floor and any sentry placed somewhere that required map exploits is illegal.

Anything else is fair game, including everyone of your suggestions. This is all my opinion of course and would want to hear other's input on this. Essentially, I'm with 47

I played Goldrush with a few regs yesterday, and I think it was Sam that managed to get up onto the shelf to build a SG up there. Although it was unreachable to Spies, I was able to destroy it fairly easily with the Demomans grenade launcher from the balcony of the right side building (attackers perspective).

I've yet to see an engy place a turret on the roof of B or C on Gravel Pit, I guess that getting rid of them is a fairly costly exercise, but not impossible. I have seen a video of what an engy has to do to get onto the roof of B, and i think if they manage to get set up in time before the first assault then fair play. It's unlikely that once it's destroyed it will be going up again.

So as it stands I'm with 47 and FJack, but I'm sure that there are some compelling arguments for not allowing certain positions, i'm looking forward to hearing them.

It's annoying to go on the server and get threatened with a ban for putting a sentry somewhere, then to go on the next day and see a different admin putting theirs in the same place. If the rules change depending on the admin watching then it gets very confusing.

The spot on Goldrush that Jesus mentioned should be allowed, as the method to get up there isn't particularly glitchy and it can still be taken down. If demomen/soldiers can get up there, why not engis? This position is very similar to the roof of Gravelpit Cap B/C (I have seen people kicked for using those places, although when I asked other admins they said it was perfectly fine to go up there).

I don't agree that sentry positions which spies cannot sap should be banned either. In many of these places a soldier/demo can get up, but you wouldn't say they shouldn't be allowed up there because they cannot be stabbed. You'd also have to stop people from using the tunnel from Red's spawn to Cap 1 in Dustbowl stage 3.

You mean the balcony?

I think that's what it's called. One of the red spawn rooms has a door that leads directly to it, that is shut when Blu caps the first point.