Cause for concern

A recent suggestion that ALL bans come with a name and a reason, was declined and closed today.

It was closed with the final ruling stating that bans with no message are very, very rare and:

No one will be banned without a message unless they:
- Have a very bad reputation and/or
- Pose a threat to players

Now this is just not true. There are many bans in the appeal archives where no reason was given, and most often, the reasons arrived at in these ban appeals did not come close to matching the severity or reason that is given above. In fact after a quick search, I found several bans, issued with no message, that were found to be incorrect and the staff apologized and unbanned the player.

Other reasons for bans without messages were:

· Reselling of map art.
· Inappropriate name
· Staff Disrespect
· Bans overturned with no reason given at all.
· Making illegal, coloured books
· Glitch exploit
· No reason given and player seems to have given up.
· Duping
· Spamming a moderator
· Ban evasion
· Chargeback
· Etc.

The most recent ban in the archives with no reason stated was issued in April to Drogo and this was overturned stating reasons that were not even against the rules.

Now Drogo has been banned again, along with his friend, AllGoodMate, and again no reason was given. Neither of these players know why they have been banned, and now staff make suggestions that they have very bad reputations, or they pose a threat to players which is incredibly defamatory.

AllGoodMate is fairly new to the server, has barely had any interaction with players in game and has never been banned before so I find it very hard to believe he has done anything as severe as is being claimed. He created a ban appeal 17 days ago in an attempt to find out why he was banned, but despite over 100 views, he has not had a single reply.

I find it incredibly concerning that a fairly new player can be banned without reason and is simply ignored when he attempts to find out why he has been banned. He is very confident that he has broken no rules and if that is the case, then Skyblock has violated its own terms and conditions by banning him. (As they did when they banned Drogo in April)

Now many people might not think this isn’t a big deal, it’s just a game, it’s just a forum for people to come and have fun, but that's not the case.

Skyblock is owned my Mineverse LLC which is a company like many others that provides a service. We, the players of Skyblock are the customers, many of us having paid 100’s or even 1000’s of dollars. Like any other company offering a service for which they receive money, they need to adhere to their terms and conditions of sale and consumer law.
If your internet service provider deliberately cut your service for no real reason, kept any money you had paid and then defamed you in a public forum, they would likely find themselves in a bit of trouble. Skyblock is no different.

Now there’s not a great deal we can do about it, no one’s going to any great lengths to take action. It’s just not worth it. But we can report it quite easily and if enough reports are made then the authorities might investigate. It’s not just bans that can be reported, any inappropriate action by staff member can be reported, be it inappropriate chat, defamation of players, etc. Anything that wouldn’t be accepted by any business or their staff.

As Skyblock is played by people all around the world the best organisation to report to is www.econsumer.gov they are an international consumer protection group that partner with many consumer protection agencies around the world, one being the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) which is the American consumer protection agency that would act in the case of Skyblock, most likely through the Florida Attorney General as that is where Mineverse LLC is based. Note if you are of a young age, no personal details will be required, but your report will still be taken seriously and will go on record with econsumer and the FTC.

Another thing I find concerning, is that discussion or suggestion threads, that raise serious concerns seem to be closed too quickly or not given proper consideration. So, I say to any staff reading this thread, before you close it or delete it because it puts Skyblock in a bad light or because you don’t want players knowing there is action they can take against Skyblock if need be, or maybe just because Noobcrew won’t like it and you want to be the one to message him and tell him, look what I did! Realise that what I am talking about is a violation of Skyblock’s terms and conditions, a violation of consumer law. And violation of consumer law constitutes a crime. Serious stuff right? Maybe something that really requires serious consideration, potentially by somebody with some legal nous and closing or deleting this thread might not be the best look.

Also, banning me for making this post, might not be a good look either. I’m just here raising valid concerns and informing players what course of action they might take should they need.

And leaving AllGoodMates ban appeal sitting without a response for more than two weeks, that is a very bad look.

To the players, If it wasn’t clear as to what I was wanting to discuss, it is.

1) The banning of players without reason (as this happens often for many different reasons, sometimes trivial or insignificant even.)

2) The closing of threads before they have run their course.

 

im not gonna reply in depth to anything, but personally, there is no real reason NOT to include a ban message, even if its v simple. If they pose a threat to players, say that, if they have a bad rep then fine, but still give them a reason on why they were banned?

 

That's correct. Bans can't be issued unless rules are broken, so why not state the rule broken in the message. This info has to come out in the appeal anyway. It can save a couple days if you don't have to ask what rules were broken, then wait for staff to come back with a reply (assuming they do) and then proceed with the appeal. I understand the need to hide some specifics and that is done already.