Restore Final Say on 'Who Plays HC' to Staff

[Dsawemd]

It is now apparently commonplace knowledge that a few players have been banned yet find ways around these bans to remain on the server.

Allowing this to continue will lead to greater abuses by all parties concerned, and will encourage others to do likewise to avoid punishments/obeying the rules.

If at all possible, the upper staff should preemptively take action by preventing measures that make members able to disguise their true online identity. Note: online identity.

Among these could be:
1. Disallow connection by proxy, which I have seen an admin tout as a possible solution.
2. Ban, in a completely permanent and public manner, the problem players who have returned multiple times through their alt accounts. Let there be no successful appeal for these problem accounts, in an effort to prevent them from returning.
3. Reward players who help discover in a real and proven way problem players who have been able to exploit back onto the server.
4. Other internet magic.

TL: DR People snuck back in, slipppery slope argument, ban them quickly and don't let them proxy back in.

 

[0xNaomi]

Disallow connection by proxy, which I have seen an admin tout as a possible solution.

If the proxy detection was based on a DNSBL like the wiki's then I'd be preemptively banned for nothing.
There's been a few cases here of that detection failing.
Otherwise, I see nothing wrong here. Cruel, maybe, depending on one's interpretation (no opinion atm) but not wrong.

 

[Dielan9999]

This is why I suggested wiping EXP upon bans, because it's such a set back that there isn't much reason to try all this internet magic to come back on an alt.

 

[Sirdemonic3]

This is why I suggested wiping EXP upon bans, because it's such a set back that there isn't much reason to try all this internet magic to come back on an alt.

that makes no sense, isent it more of a reason to just use an alt when ur main is level 1?

 

[I_Love_Miners]

the problem with permanently banning problem players is that I'm not sure the staff actually wants them gone. I mean, I'm sure they don't want people hacking and exploiting on their server, but at the same time, a lot of these people that hack and exploit tend to pump the most money into the server via tier donations and xp boosts (correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the pvp community are the main source of donating). I could probably say things that are more conclusive but for fear of getting banned myself, I'll just keep my mouth shut.

Im not sure I love the idea of perma bans, because there are flaws in any investigation and sometimes bans are not deserved, but what I would recommend is a more structured ban system where a first time offence would be 'A' length, second time 'B' length, and so on. So if there was a problem player, by the time he became a true problem, he would be banned from the server for a substantial amount of time, but also giving him the chance to grow up irl and maybe get another chance 6 months down the road.

But yeah, it sucks balls being a player who goes out of his way to try and be a legit player, attempt to fix any possible griefs, and not cause any other sort of trouble in the community, while other guys get banned over and over again, play on alts, use hacks, and exploit the shit out of game mechanics. It's bad enough I have to defend myself for having a lot of money from people who just assume duping from rich players, but it's a real kick in the nuts to have the people caught doing shady shit get chance after chance with only a 3 day, week long ban for doing the same dumb shit multiple times

 

[ytiggidmas]

for fear of getting banned myself, I'll just keep my mouth shut.

This right here is part of the problem, we should be able to voice ourselves without fear of being banned/punished. We ARE the community, we have opinions, and we have feelings too.

 

[Angyles]

Issue we have here is this:

We have no idea these people are on the game UNLESS they are caught with an IP match. The way around this? Disallow proxies, which is being stated as a possibility. People can bypass the whitelist by buying premium, so they would never have an IP scan done by Shadow or myself when they apply.

The only way around this is a proxy block.

 

[I_Love_Miners]

Issue we have here is this:

We have no idea these people are on the game UNLESS they are caught with an IP match. The way around this? Disallow proxies, which is being stated as a possibility. People can bypass the whitelist by buying premium, so they would never have an IP scan done by Shadow or myself when they apply.

The only way around this is a proxy block.

wtf? is this a herocraft thing or a minecraft thing? if it's herocraft policy to not whitelist premium members, then..... I think this is something that needs to change.

also sam you should not say youre the community unless you wish to be globally muted lol

 

[Angyles]

wtf? is this a herocraft thing or a minecraft thing? if it's herocraft policy to not whitelist premium members, then..... I think this is something that needs to change.

also sam you should not say youre the community unless you wish to be globally muted lol

hc.to/premium: A way to bypass the whitelist application process. You pay $5.99 USD and you are automatically whitelisted.

 

[Dsawemd]

hc.to/premium: A way to bypass the whitelist application process. You pay $5.99 USD and you are automatically whitelisted.

And by bypassing the process they "never have an IP scan done by Shadow or [Angy] when they apply"? Does this mean that without further cause for investigation they will not be IP scanned, or does it mean they will never be IP scanned?

Either way, it seems to mean that any player who can convince staff they are two different people can whitelist an alt for $5.99, at least until either account gives cause for any investigation.

Realizing that permanently banning people who are interwebs ninjas and who put a lot of money into the server isn't realistic, what other solutions will we find to improve their impact on the server?

 

[UltimateOptics]

In my opinion people who get banned should be IP banned. I don't know if its possible on herocraft at the moment but there are plugins that stop their ip from joining the server. (Block the IP)

 

[EvilThor]

Issue we have here is this:

We have no idea these people are on the game UNLESS they are caught with an IP match. The way around this? Disallow proxies, which is being stated as a possibility. People can bypass the whitelist by buying premium, so they would never have an IP scan done by Shadow or myself when they apply.

The only way around this is a proxy block.

This is another reason to shut down the premium stuff.
No ip check, no age check, no matureness check, no alt check, no ban check...

 

[0xNaomi]

In my opinion people who get banned should be IP banned. I don't know if its possible on herocraft at the moment but there are plugins that stop their ip from joining the server. (Block the IP)

IP bans are not the best thing to have as your first weapon. Since WAN IPs are usually DHCP, they change periodically. Once you add more IP bans you'll eventually have a pretty commonplace case of "I wanted to try this server, but it said I was banned. I couldn't have done anything wrong yet?" which isn't good.
(Which, by the way, is the same case with trying to auto-blacklist proxies)

 

[Angyles]

IP bans are not the best thing to have as your first weapon. Since WAN IPs are usually DHCP, they change periodically. Once you add more IP bans you'll eventually have a pretty commonplace case of "I wanted to try this server, but it said I was banned. I couldn't have done anything wrong yet?" which isn't good.
(Which, by the way, is the same case with trying to auto-blacklist proxies)

Not to mention how fair is it to a sibling of a perma banned member?

 

[Acherous]

Not to mention how fair is it to a sibling of a perma banned member?

hahaha, so true. If it were ip bans on ever ban I'd have been SOL so many times. Damn zachimon causing trouble. But then again, even if our IP was banned ours changes like every day so I would be fine I suppose.

 

[globjako2]

Not to mention how fair is it to a sibling of a perma banned member?

The sibling thing is an excuse more than never. Sure there might be some case with some sibling but the banned player could easily access that account. I remember a similar circumstance and the friend not sibling in this case, was banned.

 

[0xNaomi]

The sibling thing is an excuse more than never. Sure there might be some case with some sibling but the banned player could easily access that account. I remember a similar circumstance and the friend not sibling in this case, was banned.

Oh, really? So it's impossible to not tell your computer's client to save the password and make sure the sibling doesn't know it?
Anyway, yes, the "Sibling got on my account and did XYZ" normally is a stupid excuse, because of the above being so simple to implement.
There's a difference between policies of "If one user is banned, anyone ever there shall be banned" (what you're apparently supporting) and "You are responsible for what happens on your account" (which is a valid policy and what you used the example as)

 

[Angyles]

hahaha, so true. If it were ip bans on ever ban I'd have been SOL so many times. Damn zachimon causing trouble. But then again, even if our IP was banned ours changes like every day so I would be fine I suppose.

This was exactly the point I was trying to make in regards to siblings.

As for the IP changing, that is also another issue. I think we should just blacklist the known proxies.

 

[Scycor]

This was exactly the point I was trying to make in regards to siblings.

As for the IP changing, that is also another issue. I think we should just blacklist the known proxies.

If you block the known proxies, wouldn't other people just get a unpopular proxy?

 

[Angyles]

If you block the known proxies, wouldn't other people just get a unpopular proxy?

And when we find that, we block it.