- Hello everyone, since the staff team had an overhaul recently we were told the rules are going to see some change. So I believe this is the most pertinent moment to bring this issue to the Staff's attention. Some players are abusing the way bypass punishments are enforced, and a tweak in the rules/punishment system needs to be done to avoid this.
There's three possible situations in which you may "Abuse" or get away with the bypass of a ban,
Situation #1
- I hack on account #1, get banned (by staff) and punishment expires.
- I hack on account #2, same IP, get banned (by staff) and punishment expires.
- I hack again on account #1 and get perm banned (by staff) This means I had the opportunity to hack three times until getting perm banned on one of my accounts, (which if I tried to bypass would end up in both accounts being banned) And the illegal clients punishment track only allows hacking twice, hence I've outsmarted the rules.
Situation #2
- I hack on acount #1, get banned (by staff) and the punishment is undone because I'm innocent.
- Regardless of having been innocent, I attempted to bypass my ban with another account.
- I've been acquitted of any infraction since my ban was wrong to begin with, regardless I did break the rules bypassing such a ban. But I didn't receive any punishment for that.
Situation #3
It's up to the moderator's decision wether they extend a punishment for bypassing or not:
This makes no sense and is completely unfair, everyone should be governed under the same rules and consequences.
Now what are the solutions I propose?
- Firstly, punishments should stack on IP addresses rather than on individual accounts. This would mean that if I have been banned on an old account some time ago (by staff), and decide to join in a new one I already have that one hacking infraction in my history. And if I hack a second time, even if it's not the same account, I will be banned permanently. I know that this would probably harm players who live with siblings for example, and they see themselves affected by their sibling's past actions. But: They shouldn't be hacking in the first place. And second, people are already affected by IP bans regardless of them specifically not being guilty, so it's not really that valid of a reason, if it's already an ongoing (and I would say necessary) issue.
- Together with this, something that may seem very exceptional but it's not quite, since I've presenced a case of someone who blatantly bypassed a ban three times and got away with it because the punishment was fake to begin with. So for this case I'd suggest adding a section to the rules about bypassing, that completely forbids it regardless of your ban being correct or not. Hence, it should be considered an infraction separate to the one being bypassed.
- Have a more strict policy against the bypassing of bans, and extend the punishment (until it gets to its maximum) every time a player bypasses. Don't wait for the second of third bypass, that makes no sense at all. Do not let these punishment enforcement under a Moderator's decision, please standarize it.