Global ban list? Is this a thing?

I was recently on a server being hosted by some kid named "jmeillente" who was ranting about how he was gonna get some "fag" banned from a bunch of servers soon for changing the name of a beacon to Penis. I asked this guy what he's talking about, and he said that there's a big list of roughly 3,000 players who have been identified as griefers and added to a list of people who will get automatically banned from a bunch of servers when dedicated servers come about. He gloated about how he personally has added 300 people to that list. I asked him about how one could add people to that list, and what would stop some random guy like me from adding everyone I don't like to that list, but he said that I can't do it because he's an admin and I'm not. I asked him for clarification on this, since I've hosted servers as well, but he told me that hosting servers doesn't make you an admin, but he is. I asked him again what the difference was; what makes somebody an official "admin" instead of just a guy hosting a server, but instead he just told me that I must be a "hardcore griefer" if I care, and then banned me.

So now I'm curious as to whether there actually is a huge, shared list of people who are going to be automatically banned from a bunch of servers just because some "admin" (not a server host but a true "admin") thinks you're a griefer or a "fag." If kids like this have the power to add people to it, then it may not be a good idea.

 

Ah, I see. I guess what I should be asking is, is there actually such a thing as a group of "admins" for Space Engineers that might possibly be sharing a ban list? Because it'd be really shitty if, when the actual ban feature comes around, I end up not being able to join a bunch of servers I've never even played on, just because of one power-hungry kid.
By the way, I greatly appreciate that this forum does not allow blacklists. I'm sure by now you can tell what I think of the idea.

 

I'll brave the rules to say this. There is probably such a thing being managed by random people. There are probably a bunch of people ignorant enough to adhere to and support such initiatives. But rest assured, there is a bigger bunch (I believe) of people who frown upon such a thing. I'd like to believe that any server worth joining (with wise admins) will not subscribe to such flawed systems.

So if you ever find yourself trying to join a server only to see a ban message, rest easy. You were better off not playing there to begin with.

 

Indeed, the sort of people that would follow that type of initiative are probably similar people to the host of the server that banned you for inquiring. Better off we just leave them to their servers, else we lose what we build there by getting banned for no reason.

 

I'm also going to brave the rules for this. This used to be a massive problem in Garry's Mod. You'd get quite a few new players who would join DarkRP (a RPG gamemode) for the first time, with no clue on what to do since it lacked a tutorial a long time ago. Most of these servers had a shared ban list. So the new players only had to make one silly mistake, even if it was truly accidental and get banned by a trigger-happy admin. Those players were then unable to get a 2nd chance since most of the DarkRP servers shared such a global ban list.

I used to be part of a community that wasn't part of said list called Joker Ice which had a DarkRP server for a while, and many of those players came to try it out. If they messed up we'd warn them and try to explain where they went wrong. Most were fine afterwards.

Its not hard to tell a griefer from a genuine player. Most griefers can't keep their excitement in their pants and its never long before they start blowing crap up or stealing your stuff.

You really don't need a shared ban list to figure out who is a griefer. If your server is part of one, then you're not really the admin(s) you think you are. All those lists do is get in the way of genuine players who may have made a silly mistake on their first day, or met a raging/griefer/ban-happy admin.

Obviously if you're part of a community that runs several servers, then a cross-community ban-list would be an acceptable way to keep things under control across all of your own servers. But across multiple servers that arn't even related in any way besides hosting worlds for the same game, is certainly not IMO.

 

Very good points. Indeed, I do remember that global ban list in Dark RP, as my friend and I both got added to it shortly after starting - my friend for making a simple newbie mistake, and me for telling the admin that he was just a new guy who didn't know what he was doing and suggesting that perma-banning him may be a little harsh. The boy king admin could not have his powers questioned, so BAM! No more Dark RP for either of us.
Since Space Engineers is a billion times more fun than Dark RP, I was mildly worried at the idea of the upcoming server admin community doing something similar. But indeed, anyone foolish enough to give power to such a man-child as jmeillente is probably not worth playing with anyway.

 

Wow look at the sticky threads just above this one...........

 

You... did not read the second post of this thread din't you ?

 

I would suspect that your "Official' admin is really a 12 year old with a napoleon complex.

I wouldn't worry too much.

 

exactly what I was thinking

 

Looking at this from my perspective, this is a classic "Scare tactic" and is used in such case where the admin wants to prevent something from occurring. I have used this before in a similar manner not on this game but others and it can be very effective way to prevent things from occurring. The basics are to state that something bad will happen if they do something "The Scare" (In this case YOU WILL BE BANNED FROM LOTS OF SERVERS). Now this is just a lie but a convincing lie to the average person. As you could tell you tried digging deeper to find out the truth and well there was no truth behind it. Once you had started to annoy him he just stated that you must be a griefer if your asking so much about it (Another good way to maintain that Lie, because at this point most people will shut up because they don't want it to happen to them)

So to be clear this is just a Scare Tactic and a big lie, to try and stop people griefing.

On the note of a List of names to be banned and who controls said list.

I totally disagree with this, Minecraft has done it with some of its plugins and I would not like to see it happen here. People can be stupid and sometimes things get out of hand not to mention drama that can happen between and Admin and another player, these are all reasons not to have a ban list. People deserve a second chance, not al people get it right the first time or the second, others sometime need more help then others. As a Community founder of Emerald Immersion I have had my fair share of drama in my community but I do my best to help people not just get rid of them or ban them from the community because its not right.

Kind Regards

MrKoronas, Emerald Immersion Community Founder

 

Something else about the story that person told you, he said he banned 300 people.

No, he hasn't.

I'm sorry, I've played with a TON of small games in my life, been involved in independently run servers for most of that. If you have banned 300 people, you have no population and no respect amongst any community.

I believe that griefing is a problem, its the main reason I run my server as friends only and only do people in my community... I don't want to deal with people like who you ran into. But I've worked on staffs that ran privately funded servers before, and banning even 1 griefer isn't something you do on a whim. I mean you'll get someone roll in and start causing problems, yeah... but one off incidents you just Fix, and people who stick around for periods of time you typically start working around. To really get Banned, like requiring intervention, isn't something a server owner or a server staff member takes lightly. To say: "I've banned 300 people" means even if there were some kind of list somewhere (Which, btw, there absolutely is not), someone who had that kind of turnaround would never in a million years be trusted to provide input. Given how long the game has had multiplayer that kind of guy would be banning people for speaking in the wrong inflection, or because he didn't like loosing to someone... and SOMEBODY, who would run something like that kind of list, would notice that they were so stuck up their own rear they couldn't be trusted as a reliable judge of character.

 

Edit: To MrKoronas (Ash87 posted while I was typing.)

People have already given true examples of where this was NOT a "scare tactic" and where people were added to the ban list just for asking or questioning a judgement. There is no way to tell if it really was just a lie. But even if it is, banning people for doing rightful questioning of the authority is evil. Of course we are talking about a game here. But in real life you see that same mindset used in despotic countries where the wrong word at the wrong time gets you killed.

Oh ! It's effective. Most people do tend to behave... they don't want to get killed. But that doesn't make the system fair or provide with a fun environment to play in. Ruling a server in the same way that the worst dictators of mankind history ruled their country/empire is just as evil in my opinion. There is no excuse for using such "tactics" and I sincerely hope that you feel ashamed for having ever used it. That being said, emerald immersion sounds like a well managed and fun community. One that I have considered joining. So I guessed that you have learned from your past. Still, I'm shocked to learn that you used such evil "tactics" in the past.

 

Sorry to clarify on this, I used it during a game called Planetside 2. In this situation players have been team killing others, So I would simply state that "You will be banned from the server so I suggest that you stop doing it." then i would follow up with "Well me and my outfit are contacting the admins now if you do not stop". Simply put the Devs do not care much for in-game moderation so I had to make them believe that something would be done about it. What I said is not wrong but this can happen if the game devs were online but they never are so hackers/Griefers take a long time to get banned and can play for several hours, and days.

Sorry I would never go to this extreme but as part of being an admin, you can win the war with words and not actually have to ban them.

What that person said to the OP is never right and I would never speak like that but tone it down and be tactful with your words you can change the way a person sees the situation and help them understand that what they are doing is ultimately wrong.

 

Yes I did so what ?

This whole thread breaks the rules, read the sticky by Doc.....

 

To MrKoronas

It seems that I misunderstood you and what you are saying. Sorry.

 

Its fine I hope you now understand what I was saying

Best wishes

MrKoronas, Emerald Immersion Community Founder

 

Well lets' read that rule carefully. The big black text certainly sounds like that the mere mention of the concept of "black list" in any shape or form is illegal. But the description that comes with it sounds more like you can't discuses an existing list or perhaps the idea of implementing one. You can't provide a link to one and you can't talk about people on such a list.

OP did mention the possible existence of one. But beside that... no one confirmed the existence of such a thing or provided a link to one. On the contrary some people even claim that such a thing do not exist. Also, no one is naming griefers or people that are or should be on such a list.

The only thing that is really being said about this subject is how bad it is and how it should indeed not exist and how right the mods are from keeping this away from this forum. Reading the rules as worded, I can't tell for sure that agreeing with mods on this subject is illegal. I think that we are swimming in shades of grey.

Which is probably why this thread is still going. I'm willing to bet that mods are watching this thread with their finger on the lock delete/lock button. Ready to press it the second this thread take a step in the wrong side of the fence.

Either that or they are slow to respond...

 

Probably because we are against the idea. Rather than for it. We reinforce the opposition to the idea that the moderators don't want discussed.

 

Blacklists may not be discussed or mentioned. While we cannot control whether a list is created or maintained, they are to be kept entirely off the forums. Posts that mention the existence of a blacklist, or whether an player is on such a list, will be deleted immediately.


Rule seems pretty clear to me.

And there isn't a 3000 person list of banned people, what a joke, banned from what server ? hahaha
And if you own and run the server from home yes you are an admin sheesh.....hahaha

Stupid thread, as soon as Doc see's it, its gone !

 

I also had a run in with this guy. He's full of sh*t. He claimed he spent 8,000 USD on his personal computer and that he talks to the devs directly (who he claims are full of sh*t for releasing a sh*t game). He didn't seem to understand the concept of an alpha... But I wouldn't worry too much (or at all) about him.

Edit
I should also add this is a 38 year old man from Longview, TX with no job. He might have a mental disorder...

 

Well, it's more about: Posting a Blacklist, is how I am reading it.

We aren't posting a blacklist, a guy asked if there -was- one and everyone has said: "No, and the guy who said there was is an idiot."

Pretty sure Doc's seen it by this point.

W/e though.

 

This is day 3. How long can it take for an admin to "see" a thread ? I mean at the latest ?

 

Alright guys, I know the admin personally, and would like to clear up a thing or two.
He is a grown-ass man, a retired veteran. Please show a little respect. It pains me to see everyone disregarding him with such ideas as 'He's crazy,' et cetera. He's not some kid putting people on a list, he's taking note of people who do major and serious griefing. If you accidentally crash into something, no big deal. If you get in some petty verbal dibate, whatever. Now if you're the type to repeatedly spawn ships and crash them into someone else's work, that's a problem.
Just because you disagree with the idea, don't take it out on him.

 

Well OP misunderstood the intentions there-- while he may have referred to whatever guy in question as a 'fag,' don't we all blast profanity every now and again when we're upset? Trying to keep a clean server is nothing short of a nightmare. It's only natural to get frustrated. People aren't getting listed for being a 'fag.'

 

Well simply put: does he attest to speak to devs directly, does he say he's posting these people on a list that will get people banned from the game, etc etc. I mean if you are going to come up here to explain why we shouldn't be critical, is what is being said false?

 

Dude... I don't even know who we are talking about here... A name was never even mentioned (or I miss it). How can we be sure that we are even talking about the same guy here ? That is a pretty tall assumption given the circumstances.

There has to be more than one admin who ban people from their server. I still don't know who's honor you think you are defending here, but we know so very little about whoever it is we are talking about that we might as well be talking about an imaginary mister X. Your friend, who ever he is (I still don't know), hardly requires you to step here and defend him. If anything, you might slip up and actually expose him.

Now, banning legitimate griefers is one thing. Using a global ban list on the other hand is evil and should be frown upon. Regardless of if it's done with the bests of intentions. They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions for a good reason after all.

It not a simple matter of leaving people to their opinions. It's more serious than that. For example in the past most white people were of the opinion that black people where nothing more than slaves and that was normal. Nowadays this is frown upon. Humanity has finally wised up and after millenniums of dark age and Barbary, we are well underway to eradicate slavery around the world.

Global ban lists is in the same category of evil for online gaming. Now I'm sure your friend is a nice person and served his country well, but if he actively support such ignorant initiative he is being very wrong and I will continue to claim so and you will have to kill me to silence me.

But the epitome of what I currently have against "mister X" is the habit of blindly banning people for rightful questioning of authority. As a soldier, I'm sure that he have a firm belief in democracy and protecting his way of life. Why should that go out the window on his server ?

Now if you are saying that "your friend" is not using global ban list and is not banning people for rightful questioning of authority then you can safely assume that "Mister X" we are talking about is not your friend and move on.