[bluespace] Sneaqi - Banned but I don't understand why

[Sneaqi]

Byond account and character name: Sneaqi, don't remember character name

Banning admin: bluespace

Ban reason and length: metacommunication with Badgirl420, griefing (murdering whilst non-antag), permanent

Time ban was placed (including time zone): Don't know

Your side of the story: I haven't been logged into the server all day and I think it was a day ago the last time I joined a round. And from what I recall, I didn't talk to anyone named Badgirl420 and I certainly didn't murder anyone. No admin contacted me on that round regarding me doing anything wrong. And from what I recall, I just logged off at some point...nothing eventful. But just now, I tried to log into the server and I got a message that I've received a permanent ban. I don't understand how this happened as I haven't been logged on.

Why you think you should be unbanned: I think there's a case of mistaken identity? Or some mistake was made somewhere? I really don't understand what happened and how I got banned. Please advise me on what happened and how I should proceed.

[GoogleMyName]

Something might be up with the servers, I was just banned for a similar reason, something that didn't actually happen at all.

[Sneaqi]

I think I might know what happened. I think someone hacked my account and acted badly while logged in as me. As I try to log onto other servers now, i see that I've been banned on a couple others...ones where I've never actually played rounds on before.

I'm not sure if you'll take my word for it, but let me know if there's some way I can help you verify this. I've changed the password on my BYOND account and will now be going around to a few other server forums to see if I can have my bans lifted on those servers as well.

Please let me know what next steps I should take. Thank you.

[Bluespace]

Are you using any sort of proxy or public computer?

[Sneaqi]

Nope, I'm using my own computer. Although I have been travelling around for the past week and a half so I've been using various public and private wifi networks at hotels and friends' houses (depending on where I'm staying).

And also, admittedly, when I first signed up my byond account (about a month ago), I didn't use a very secure password...mostly because I had vaguely heard of this game and didn't think it would actually capture my attention as much as it has. I think that was the primary cause of my downfall.

[Brotemis]

I'm going to go with my gut on this one and call bullshit. Hacking a byond account is one thing. It's another to be relatively new and be hacked as well. There's no point to it. Add in the appearance of proxies. Add in metacommunicating which would take two people. There's definitely something you're not telling.


If this isn't resolved by tonight, I'll look into it

[Bluespace]

We've had people complain about this ban before, and it seems to be randomly catching the same CID.
It may go away as soon as you change networks, if not, post here.

[Sneaqi]

I think everything might be moot at this point. I tried logging in again just now and I was able to connect fine now. Perhaps the ban has been lifted?

As for something I'm not telling, I don't know what you want to know to convince you otherwise. If you doubt my word in that I've been travelling, do you want me to PM you my itinerary, hotel receipts, plane tickets, etc? I can, but it seems kind of excessive. Or a screenshot of my byond account page to show that I am new? It shows that the account was created just about 3 weeks ago.

As for proxies, I'm not sure what that means, really. I assume you're referring to the fact that I've been logging in through different IP addresses while travelling? On one of the other servers where I've found myself banned, the admin there told me they ban by IP only, and not by byond account name. So I'm thinking perhaps someone unsavory previously played from the IP that I'm currently on? I'll be back in my own home in about a week, so at that point, when I log into that server, I'm hoping that the ban won't still be in effect as I'll be logging in from my home's IP.

As for metacommunicating, it definitely wasn't me. I don't know who Badgirl420 is. I actually don't know anyone on this server since I've played maybe only a round or two ever since I started playing this game about 3 weeks ago. (I am still bouncing around a bit from server to server looking for a "home", so to speak)

So overall, as I said, perhaps this is now all moot because when I checked just a little while ago, I was able to connect to the server and it appears the ban is no longer in effect. If the ban was lifted, then I thank you. But if you doubt my word and think there's something more that I'm not telling, well, I've told everything that I can think of. But by all means, ask me more questions to which I'll gladly reply. I'm not hiding anything, am being upfront and honest, and would like to resolve this whole thing appropriately.

[Sneaqi]

We've had people complain about this ban before, and it seems to be randomly catching the same CID.
It may go away as soon as you change networks, if not, post here.

bluespace: The issue seems to have gone away. Thanks for the reply.

brotemis: As I said, let me know if you require additional information from me. I don't want to leave you feeling as though I've been hiding anything from you.

[Brotemis]

The ban reason should list "you or another user (name)" has been banned," etc. Who was this ban originally for?

[Sneaqi]

The ban is no longer in place and I didn't take a screenshot, so I can't refer to the original text to confirm. I'm not sure, but I think the text MIGHT have specifically mentioned my user name (Sneaqi), but I could be wrong about that. Sorry I can't be more precise.

But basically, the text of the ban appeared in the byond loading screen similar to this:

Untitled.jpg

[Hornygranny]

Brotemis, if you search for the computer id associated with Sneaqi's account in the connection log you'll see the issue. I can only assume it's some kind of byond bug, because connections from multiple continents have been logged without any obvious pattern. Nic131 is the banned account responsible for this issue.

[Brotemis]

Yeah, I saw the thread concerning it. These are so rare it's strange to ever see one. My apologies, sneaqi. When you've been around as long as I have and see the same CID appearing at different IP's, one of which was banned for metagaming and griefing, you get suspicious.

This would likely be the occasion where byond goofs in how it obtains the CID.

On that note, I think we're working on a fix for this.

[Sneaqi]

No worries, brotemis. In the short time I've been playing, I've come across some great people but also plenty of not so great people, so I totally understand.

In any case, I think everything is resolved now on my end. Do let me know if you guys need me to take any further action!