It's come to my attention that certain people are getting banned from Enworld....for simeply talking about another person that was banned from enworld, and worse yet, that others are getting banned because they are suspected of being the same player that was banned. Now I realize there are rules to how you can act here, and what you can say, but from what I've been told, both by the original person that got banned, and the victums, yes I said victums, of the magi's decisions to banned these other people, I find it appualing that the magi have taken up a kind of witch hunt attitude about the banned person and anyone even mentioning them. I'm not saying they shouldn't do their jobs, but they should exercise better judgement in how they handle this matter, and if they cannot....then perhapes this version of ISRP is not as good as we thought it would be.
Troubling news
Magi_Siani
First Post
No one will get banned for asking. I explained all of this in the Nexus to Sir Dieterich when he asked to talk to me about things some days past.
We won't discuss the particulars of banning with anyone but the people directly involved. However, I can perhaps explain a bit behind how banning works.
When we come across someone who is disruptive, initially it gets noted as nothing more than a passing situation with soft warnings or some sort of reminder to the individual to pay closer attention to the rules.
When it gets beyond that, we Magi as a group begin to note down each complaint, each incident, with snippets from the screen and sections of the logs to back up each infraction. We can see private messages in the logs as well as open ones. We compile this information in a thread specific to each case in a Magi only section where all of us can see it/check on it each day.
Three chances, excluding reminders or soft warnings, are all any patron gets before having their name removed. Done again, it results in IP banning. The banning of an IP will happen, even if there are multiple people using the identical computer/nexus or what have you, if only one person goes too far. If a patron allows others to use their characters, their computer, or has the ill luck to share a nexus with other patrons who don't care about obeying the rules, they can find that they are *all* banned via the IP.
We don't much like to do this. In the case you all are hearing things about, it went on for months with us trying to avoid having to use the ban. It went too far and we finally had to ban the IP. And the individuals who are banned continously try to find new ways to return to the site despite knowing they are not allowed to.
A note on IPs. We cannot prove, nor disprove a statement that someone else is using a person's computer or character or what have you. Warnings and bannings accrue to the player, not the characters. Multiple players of one character can get that character revoked or the IP banned for everyone. Telling us that multiple people use a character, a computer, or whatnot does not get around infractions of the rule. For the purposes of the rules, we will simply warn whomever is playing and count them all the same. So when the banning occurs, if there really are multiple people, they all suffer the same consequence..even if some of them didn't do anything to merit it.
So don't let others use your characters, don't let them use your computers, or at least don't without your own supervision. If they get themselves banned using your characters under your IP, you get banned too.
Banned patrons may appeal their status after a 6 month period. We are happy to provide this. Some of you will recall that at Wizards an IP ban was permanent and irreversible. Note however, that all attempts to access the site during the 6 month waiting period count against any reinstatement.
The banning was put in place for good reason after giving far more opportunities than we are required to give. The 'hunting' spoken of here isn't quite what may be imagined. When we deal with someone from a disciplinary standpoint for a time, we begin to note certain things typical of this player's style, or we note a new character name with a dessie that is essentially that of the banned character. When we see those on site after a person is banned, we will check to logs to ensure the ban is not being broken. We do our jobs, we use the tools we have to do so, and how we do the job hasn't changed at all since the site was moved from Wizards.. Everyone gets the same treatment, no one gets favored over others.
We aren't going to change the way we run the site. I am not going to rewrite the rules without some very clear and very necessary reason to do so. As we have said before, if this site does not provide the space to do what a person wants, there are others out there that will and we have no problems with people playing on them. I hope this helps explain how we go about banning people.
Bright Blessings
Magi Siani
ISRP Lead
We won't discuss the particulars of banning with anyone but the people directly involved. However, I can perhaps explain a bit behind how banning works.
When we come across someone who is disruptive, initially it gets noted as nothing more than a passing situation with soft warnings or some sort of reminder to the individual to pay closer attention to the rules.
When it gets beyond that, we Magi as a group begin to note down each complaint, each incident, with snippets from the screen and sections of the logs to back up each infraction. We can see private messages in the logs as well as open ones. We compile this information in a thread specific to each case in a Magi only section where all of us can see it/check on it each day.
Three chances, excluding reminders or soft warnings, are all any patron gets before having their name removed. Done again, it results in IP banning. The banning of an IP will happen, even if there are multiple people using the identical computer/nexus or what have you, if only one person goes too far. If a patron allows others to use their characters, their computer, or has the ill luck to share a nexus with other patrons who don't care about obeying the rules, they can find that they are *all* banned via the IP.
We don't much like to do this. In the case you all are hearing things about, it went on for months with us trying to avoid having to use the ban. It went too far and we finally had to ban the IP. And the individuals who are banned continously try to find new ways to return to the site despite knowing they are not allowed to.
A note on IPs. We cannot prove, nor disprove a statement that someone else is using a person's computer or character or what have you. Warnings and bannings accrue to the player, not the characters. Multiple players of one character can get that character revoked or the IP banned for everyone. Telling us that multiple people use a character, a computer, or whatnot does not get around infractions of the rule. For the purposes of the rules, we will simply warn whomever is playing and count them all the same. So when the banning occurs, if there really are multiple people, they all suffer the same consequence..even if some of them didn't do anything to merit it.
So don't let others use your characters, don't let them use your computers, or at least don't without your own supervision. If they get themselves banned using your characters under your IP, you get banned too.
Banned patrons may appeal their status after a 6 month period. We are happy to provide this. Some of you will recall that at Wizards an IP ban was permanent and irreversible. Note however, that all attempts to access the site during the 6 month waiting period count against any reinstatement.
The banning was put in place for good reason after giving far more opportunities than we are required to give. The 'hunting' spoken of here isn't quite what may be imagined. When we deal with someone from a disciplinary standpoint for a time, we begin to note certain things typical of this player's style, or we note a new character name with a dessie that is essentially that of the banned character. When we see those on site after a person is banned, we will check to logs to ensure the ban is not being broken. We do our jobs, we use the tools we have to do so, and how we do the job hasn't changed at all since the site was moved from Wizards.. Everyone gets the same treatment, no one gets favored over others.
We aren't going to change the way we run the site. I am not going to rewrite the rules without some very clear and very necessary reason to do so. As we have said before, if this site does not provide the space to do what a person wants, there are others out there that will and we have no problems with people playing on them. I hope this helps explain how we go about banning people.
Bright Blessings
Magi Siani
ISRP Lead
Last edited:
Tyrian_Spellstealer
First Post
Magi_Siani said:
I may be mistaken on this, but it was my understanding back on wizards that after a 6 (or 12?) month period any 'strikes' (or 'chances') against a particular player was no longer considered (ie, removed, assuming the player had been good)... at least that was the very vague (and I do state her VERY vague, hence my asking) understanding I was given form the boards at wizards, not sure if it applied to the chat... just wondering if I made that up inside my head or if it did/still does apply? Just checkin' is all
Magi_Siani
First Post
Strikes, yes. That is, warnings. If you get warnings or you've lost a character but have nothing further for 6 months, we start you from scratch, clean slate.
IP bans were something else and always were permanent. I tried on one occasion, with another WizO, to get Wizards to hear appeals on them, but they wouldn't hear of it. These types of bans come about because a person or people simply will not heed the warnings and reminders of the Magi and continuously flaunt the rules and ignore all requests to cease and desist. Often with a great deal of attitude and snickering via PMs to their friends about how we stupidly listen to their excuses. We just treat everyone the same, give everyone the same chances, unless they clearly demonstrate they simply cannot be given such consideration.
The 6 month appeal here was written in because we thought everyone should have a chance to have their case heard and maybe show us that they could indeed play within the rules.
This appeal is only given once however. Someone who manages to get back on site via appeal and then gets banned again isn't given another chance.
As a further note, we don't hunt the logs looking for infractions. If we did there'd be a whole lot more warnings and bannings. We are very well aware of people doing things in violation of the rules when no Magi is about. We only go into the logs when we suspect someone is violating a ban, when there have been complaints about behavior, when we witness an infraction and are securing necessary proof for the other Magi, or when we are on Out of Uniform and note infractions.
Siani
IP bans were something else and always were permanent. I tried on one occasion, with another WizO, to get Wizards to hear appeals on them, but they wouldn't hear of it. These types of bans come about because a person or people simply will not heed the warnings and reminders of the Magi and continuously flaunt the rules and ignore all requests to cease and desist. Often with a great deal of attitude and snickering via PMs to their friends about how we stupidly listen to their excuses. We just treat everyone the same, give everyone the same chances, unless they clearly demonstrate they simply cannot be given such consideration.
The 6 month appeal here was written in because we thought everyone should have a chance to have their case heard and maybe show us that they could indeed play within the rules.
This appeal is only given once however. Someone who manages to get back on site via appeal and then gets banned again isn't given another chance.
As a further note, we don't hunt the logs looking for infractions. If we did there'd be a whole lot more warnings and bannings. We are very well aware of people doing things in violation of the rules when no Magi is about. We only go into the logs when we suspect someone is violating a ban, when there have been complaints about behavior, when we witness an infraction and are securing necessary proof for the other Magi, or when we are on Out of Uniform and note infractions.
Siani
Tyrian_Spellstealer
First Post
Magi_Siani said:
Cool, thats all I wanted to know
Curiousity satisfied.
Magi_Gabriel
Foppish Technocrat
Unfortunately for you we do hold to not discussing the specifics of any one persons bannings and why with people other than the person who was banned.
On that note if you feel that you were warned/banned/etc as part of some misunderstanding or mishappening then it is best to email us yourselves at:
isrpmagi@gmail.com
That way we can look into it and if there was some misunderstanding etc correct it, or at least discuss the specifics of the case with you. Which we can't do on public boards.
On that note if you feel that you were warned/banned/etc as part of some misunderstanding or mishappening then it is best to email us yourselves at:
isrpmagi@gmail.com
That way we can look into it and if there was some misunderstanding etc correct it, or at least discuss the specifics of the case with you. Which we can't do on public boards.
