1. Server name (.net / .org ): skyblock.net
2. In-game name: TimRiker
3. Full exact Ban Message: Illegal Trade. Appeal @ www. SkyBlock.net ~SuperMonkey
4. Did you read the rules ? Apparently not
5. Why do YOU think you were banned? Traded water bucket for empty bucket
6. Was this an incorrect ban? I thought this was legal. Not trading buckets, just giving water
7. Were you ever banned before on SkyBlock? If so, what for? no
8. Why do you think you should be unbanned? one for one bucket trade. effectively no trade

Please don't take any of this personally. As a server owner myself, I appreciate the time owners, ops and mods put into this. Please take this as constructive feedback.

I've been on the server for a few days. Someone else invited me. I entered spawn, read the instructions on creating and island. Someone pointed me to /warp faq, so I read that as well. I didn't notice anything that pointed to /warp rules at all. Later, I happened to overhear someone mention /warp rules, so I went there and read the posted rules.

Note: nowhere in any of this process do I recall reading anything about illegal trades.

I do recall reading about no island looting and I can see from that train of thought that gathering up buckets from islands is clearly not inline with the server game play.

However: This is not what I did. Someone claimed they only had one water. The island starts with two ice, so an infinite water supply is trivial. I told him how to make one, and traded a water bucket for his empty bucket. No "bucket" count changed here. just the water count, and water should not be a scarce resource.

Now, with no warning, no chat, no alert, I get banned. not temp banned, mind you and not just kicked, but actually outright permanent banned.

Fortunately, there's a pointer here to the forum to appeal.

Now, it get even more complicated.... The forum does not use game credentials to authenticate, but a separate registration is required. To appeal, I have no choice but to create yet another online registration. OK, I have no choice other than never returning to Skyblock.net anyway.

So, I register. The forum sends my mail server an email so I can verify. Well, here's the gotcha with that. Here's what the mail server thinks:

Sep 16 23:44:48 slick postfix/smtpd[23597]: connect from unknown[174.138.168.74]
Sep 16 23:44:48 slick postfix/smtpd[23597]: NOQUEUE: reject: RCPT from unknown[174.138.168.74]: 450 4.1.8 <[email protected]>: Sender address rejected: Domain not found; from=<[email protected]> to=<[email protected]> proto=ESMTP helo=<11.13C7.securedservers.com>

The mail server sends a helo of 11.13C7.securedservers.com and DNS finds:

# host 11.13C7.securedservers.com
Host 11.13C7.securedservers.com not found: 3(NXDOMAIN)

that this dns entry does not exist and so (correctly!) my email server rejects the forum registration email and I'm unable to appeal my instant kick/ban.

Now after the kick/ban I look around for the rules, I search the forums and completely fail to find any indication of illegal trades. I get someone else to login and explain my plight (as remember, I can't yet login here) and they can't find the rules either. They ask around and eventually we find that:

1. there is no mention of any illegal trades anywhere in game
2. need to go to Skyblock Forums which is not mentioned anywhere in game
3. there is no link for "server rules" on skyblock.net anywhere
4. someone in game suggests trying page 2 on the home page
5. Joy joy! here is a old news item post with rules! (note: no mention that they are Server rules)
6. expand "The Rules in the Most In-Depth Form" and only then do I discover they are server rules and not forum rules.
7. expand the "Toggle Spoiler" button (why do I want a spoiler?!? won't that ruin the fun?) and we find at last! actual Server Rules.
8. The first seven rules are just better explained versions of what is in game.
9. alas! Rule 8 is the mythical illegal trades rule explained!
10. and we find point 8.1 that mentions trading buckets.

so finally I find what I think is the reason for my ban. No warning for what is listed as a Medium level offence, and it's still not clear to me that since neither of us ended up with more or less buckets than we started that we've actually done anything wrong. If as a non-donor I could teleport to his island I clearly would have taken that approach. teleport, drop water, teleport back. Alas, as both of us were non-donors, that's not an option. I did what still seems reasonable to me.

Summary:

Sounds like Supermonkey000 is trying hard to be a good moderator. I'm doing what seems reasonable to me in giving away a free water, that everyone should have an unlimited supply of.

If what I've done is determined to be not allowed, then I won't do it again.

I would suggest that this be made very clear to new players.

1. /warp rules should list non-tradeable items.
2. /spawn should have clear signs places to /warp rules
3. the rules should be on Skyblock Forums home page
4. warn people first or change the rules on illegal trades to be clear that this is a Offence Level: Very High as it seems that's how it's treated.
5. The forum email server should get fixed so it does not send invalid emails

Thank you for reading. Again, I hope these comments are useful. I would appreciate being unbanned. I can understand if you don't want to. Let me know either way and thank you for your efforts.

 

Supermonkey000

 

Thx StrayanPenguin, already tagged Supermonkey000.

Any idea who needs to be contacted about the incorrect email server configuration?

Note: I don't see any email updates as the comments are placed here. I expect other forum accounts are also not getting email notifications due to the incorrect email server configuration.

 

Read the rules here: The Rules in the Most In-Depth Form | Skyblock Forums

 

Yes, Thank you. This is exactly where I pointed in my initial post.

The point is that this is not linked from the home page, nor is there any indication in-game that one should go read it. So when you ask if I've read the rules, I assume you mean those at /warp rules because that's all you find in game.

How should a new user know to read the useful post you point me to? Did I miss something?

Am I still banned? Just curious because you did not say one way or the other.

 

Your appeal has to be accepted for you to be unbanned

 

Thanks, Supermonkey000. Who accepts the appeal? I was under the impression that you were the one that did the ban, and so you would also be able to accept the appeal? The appeals post on the parent forum here does not really say who would accept an appeal. It only says what I should do, which is, as far as I know, what I have done.

 

The banning moderator decides wether to accept the appeal or not.

 

Thanks again for the reply.

The banning moderator is you, right Supermonkey000? Have you decided? Is there something I should be doing at this point? Do you accept my appeal?

 

Well, Even thought you guys traded a bucket for a bucket it is still bucket trade which if you read the rules it is illegal. Why do you think you should be unbanned?

 

As I mentioned, I didn't think this was a trade. He needed "water" not a bucket. I can't get to his island to dump water, so in effect I just filled his bucket. The buckets are a Zero-sum trade. We have no more or no less than we had before.

The rule you mention that I've violated is in the The Rules in the Most In-Depth Form which as I explained I had not seen mentioned anywhere in game. No links to it, no mention of it being official. I didn't at the time have a forum account. As explained above, it's non-trivial to find.

Now I've found it and read it. I violated a rule I didn't know existed.

How should I have known about this rule?

I'm fine with not doing it again. I'll just tell anyone asking for water that I can't help them and they will have to nuke their island and restart it if they want to get back to 2 ice/water blocks.

I hope the guy I helped out didn't get banned for it. He didn't mention anything about a rule either, so I assume he didn't know.

I should be unbanned because I plan to abide by the rules, now that I know they exist, in addition to the /warp rules rules which were the only ones I knew existed before.

 

Your ban appeal has been accepted.
Thread locked and moved to Ban Appeal Archives.