Now I appreciate the Aloha Admins, they work very hard to keep the community clean and safe. And for that I thank you.
But as always, nothing is perfect. And since nothing is perfect there is always room to improve. And tonight, I shall show you a couple ways you could improve the community as a whole.
Stop being so confident.
Let me explain myself. Whenever a person appeals a ban and says they weren’t hacking the admin that bans them is always like “YOU WERE TOTALLY HAXORING U NUUB!!!1111!!!ONE!!!11”
This annoys me as you can’t be 100% sure a person is hacking without looking at their screen. There is always a chance that the person may have been having an extremely good day or was on a lucky streak. Now I am not saying you should just unban people like this, keep them banned just in case. But don’t be so in their faces about it. This is just a personal thing I guess and maybe it doesn’t concern anybody else.
You are too easy on hackers that admit to hacking. While admitting to hacking is good and should be encouraged, I feel you are to lax on people who admit they were hacking. Reducing the permaban to a temp ban is good and I wholly agree with that. But make it longer, they still aimbotted and they still have to pay the consequences. I would say 1-2 months would be a good lengthy amount of time.
Yes, thank you admins for making Aloha the best servers out there I do agree on #2, the people who tell the truth still should have a nice, long ban. Part of #1 is a bit of an exaggeration.
You can't be 100% sure a person is hacking without looking at their screen.
[url=https://www.dropbox.com/s/ht0nz4y44j2qxkt/ovl075.exe]Well, what if we are?[/url] This tool is publicly available on the BnS frontpage.
You are too easy on hackers that admit to hacking. While admitting to hacking is good and should be encouraged, I feel you are to lax on people who admit they were hacking. Reducing the permaban to a temp ban is good and I wholly agree with that. But make it longer, they still aimbotted and they still have to pay the consequences. I would say 1-2 months would be a good lengthy amount of time.
I can't completely speak for other admins, but generally, I go through some steps:
Is the person being honest about hacking?
Does the person realize the guilt in using an aimbot?
The aimbotter only gets unbanned if “yes” is the answer to both questions.
The purpose of the ban isn’t to punish, entirely, but also let those who are banned reflect on their actions.
If they’re clearly already remorseful about what they did, I don’t really see a problem in reducing the punitive ban to a fortnight.
Furthermore, admins also have access to two things.
The first is the banned guy’s IP address and username.
The second is a running log of the aloha servers, which also happens to display IPs and usernames.
By combining these two things, it’s fairly easy to track people.
I’m not suggesting that our protocol is the best way to run servers, but sometimes you need to give, other times you need to take. I personally feel that the whole point of running a public admin is to maximize the number of players as well as the overall enjoyment of all players. As such, keeping people banned for long durations if they already feel sorry seems contradictory, though even a week’s worth of time-out serves as a stern reminder that hacking is frowned upon.
I disagree. Admins are admins for a reason. We have gained enough experience to do bans with confidence.
Speaking for myself, I don’t do bans unless I’m 100%. I don’t go “well this guy is probably botting, I mean he got a good killstreak and whatnot.” No, if I’m not sure they are hacking then I stalk them until I’ve decided if they are legit or not. I’ve followed suspected players for hours at a time, and in a few cases through several several game sessions.
I haven’t had many ban appeals, but I did have one rather recently where I unbanned the guy because for one it had been months since his ban, and two I didn’t have the memory recollection or proper documentation to prove he was hacking. (Which is weird, I usually write each ban down with side notes)
If I get an appeal for a hacker I can be certain they were hacking. I treat permabans as a really big thing, and don’t just give them out like candy on Halloween night.
I would rather unban a person who hacked in the past if he said he won’t do it again then keep him banned; the more players the better after all. Though if I do unban someone for hacking then I instantly put them forever on the list of people who can never be trusted 100% while in game.
This annoys me as you can't be 100% sure a person is hacking without looking at their screen.
Absolutely true, although I like to turn it around. You can never say with 100% certainty a person is [b]not[/b] using cheats, unless you're standing physically behind him. As mentioned above it is in fact, with the current methods, possible to know for a fact that someone is using cheats, since with a bit of experience it's rather easy to recognize.
Me too have spent hours (and I still do) chasing the same person, suspecting him of aimbot but not banning him in the end, because I was not 100% sure. We can’t ban someone if there’s even a slight possibility the person is legit.
About giving people a second chance. In my opinion they deserve this second chance if they come clean with it from the start. From that moment it’s pretty easy: is the person caught again there won’t be any mercy anymore, ever.
I didn’t really read through all of your posts really well as I am kind of in a rush, but here are some short answers.
@Reki: The person may be remorseful that they hacked, just as a murderer can be remorseful that he murdered. It doesn’t change the past though the hacker still hacked just as the murderer still murdered. Thus the bans should be a bit longer.
The thing with banning is it’s done by IP. It’s not terribly difficult to change your IP either, hell some change randomly for no reason at all.
So at the very least, someone who’s truly sorry about aimbotting may as well be given a second chance before they pursue other avenues of getting unbanned. This way they keep their gamer tag and get to stay known in the community. Otherwise they’ll just change their IP, change their name, and be a more careful, PITA aimbot later with anger and resentment issues towards Aloha. It’s better to encourage good gamers who may have slipped off the path to stay.
TL,DR; there’s good reasons for giving breaks to aimbotters.
So you are basically saying that if someone is truly sorry they aimbotted they should be given a short sentence because otherwise they will just evade and aimbot?
If they are truly sorry they aimbotted they won’t aimbot again, no matter the sentence they are given.
Again the analogy of the murderer. It doesn’t matter if he is sorry. He still murdered the person, thus he needs to be punished.
Now you are going to argue, “Why must he be punished?”
That is a very good question, it is to serve as an example to others that they should not aimbot.
Basically what it is telling others is “Oh I can go ahead and aimbot and if I say I am sorry and give them the puppy eyes then I can get off with a 2 week ban and aimbot again!”
The point is, punishment isn’t just to punish the offender, it is too show an example to others as to what happens. Currently the punishment isn’t really that bad.
If the player really is sorry about his behavior he won’t cheat again. If it’s just a way to get away with it, and he falls back into his old habits,well, we’ll catch him again. He won’t get away with it a second time. To add to that: I personally keep track of people we unban after an apology.
So far we didn’t have to ban someone again after he was unbanned earlier. So, to be honest, I see no problem there.
What i’m getting at is that you wish our banning style changes, Am I right? If I am then I suggest sending a message to izzy and telling him your thoughts.
This is covered in a basic, 100 level psychology class, and certainly any criminal justice track.
In this country (US), and most the western world, Deterence, Protection of Society, Rehabilitation, Restoration, and Education and Denunciation are the main reasons behind punishment. Retribution is only a small part and is all but gone in some countries (look at Anders Brevik 20 year sentence). There’s good reasons behind retribution (serious felonies), but it’s only one piece of the pie, and we’re talking about aimbotters. Retribution and Societal Protection kicks in when dude aimbots again. So far this hasn’t been the case as Rehabilitation has worked just fine.
An analogy implies a similarity of some kind, which I fail to see here.
If you like to use an analogy closer by I suggest a game of hide and seek with some friends. For example after a couple of rounds you discover one guy always takes a peek during counting down and he knows exactly where you hide. You think ‘hey that’s not fair’, and you tell him.
You’ll say: ‘come on man, don’t do that’ and he apologizes and promises not to do it again. You pat him on the back and enjoy the rest of the game in the greatest fun. Hurray, everybody happy.
I do agree on 