Tell me about your bans

[Dreadling 14]

I had to ban someone yesterday (from the Star Wars RP forum I admin on) for posting a fake ID and claiming it was his. We just put it in google and found it on a site called "fake ids"... lol. He kept saying he was 27 years old and the members wern't buying it. Staff are certain he's a teenager because most of his IPs are from a high school, and he said he doesn't work in one. We haven't told him about the IP thing or asked him for his age because he doesn't need to disclose it, but he's lied about a dozen other things and had two other warnings so he finally got dinged for 30 days.
 

Edited May 23, 2019 by Dreadling

[Sammiie 40]

We've unfortunately had to ban quite a few people on our site...

 

First was a member that despite telling him to stop dropping f-bombs in the Discord, he'd still pop in once a day with a "MOTHERFUCKER" or a "FUCK my day sucked" and we'd have to tell him over and over that we don't want that language in our public chat, in case we got some new members that were sensitive to it. He'd agree, apologize, and say he'd never do it again, and then he'd do it again the next day.

 

The last straw was when, again he came in and dropped the f-bomb for maybe the 12th time, and we reached out to him, asking him again to stop and it was his final warning. So... instead of stopping like he said he would, he started spelling FUCK and FUCK YOU in emoji letters in reactions to people's messages in the Discord. By that time, our admin was fed up with him and we chose to ban him from Discord and site for literal lack of respect and basic insubordination.

 

 

Another... was an IP-jumper, who still comes to visit every now and then even though we've told them (and banned them) about 50 times that they're not welcome. They'll visit the site and claim that we've killed off their characters or were using them without their permission... when they haven't even been on our current site not once. Their character's names are listed in our past leaders, but nothing about them is written down. Literally, there is one character's name at this point, that they can't even prove. They'd been banned from a previous version of our site when we found out that 1. they used an IP-jumper and pretended to be two different people (even picked up their own adoptable, which I don't understand) 2. Would NOT follow our basic writing rules whatsoever. Despite promising that they'd try harder to write in the proper tense, they'd still revert to the wrong one; they'd ask for every one of their posts to be proofread and never actually apply them or apply any type of effort into their RPs. We were lenient up until we realized they were impersonating two people, and then we banned them.

 

But of course, they're not really banned because they just hop around all over the place and evade the ban and come back whenever they want to accuse us of whatever. Luckily, they haven't been back for a while. Hopefully they won't come back ever.  

 

Another time... Player 1 came, and invited his two friends along (Player 2 & Player 3; they will get their own paragraphs). At first, Player 1 seemed really nice, very active, an all-around likeable guy... but he was a terrible godmoder, which earned him two warnings and as a result, he threw tantrums in response to these warnings. We were really lenient with him because he was active, but the issues got worse as time went on. This went on about 6 months. Aside from the continued godmoding, he became very sneaky. He'd wait until the staff wasn't around and post inappropriate jokes in the public chat (and when confronted, edit his messages and lie). He posted racial slurs in his posts and sexual content on a fade-to-black site. By this point, we were babysitting his posts. He knew it, we knew it.

 

My paragraph is unorganized, but the rape joke in the public chat in the middle of the night was the last straw. Even more so because he lied about it. A member came to us with a screenshot, and we made the decision to give him his final warning. He threw the most epic of fits, told us he didn't have to listen to some admins that were half his age (mind you, we're in our 20's), and decided on his own to leave... He deleted all of his accounts, but his two friends remained on the site.

 

The next morning, we sign on to find that their friend, Player 2, sent a PM sent to a handful of other members including staff - a general goodbye and at the bottom, calling out the member they suspected reported Player 1. Now.... as staff, we're fucking livid. The accused member's apologizing profusely to everyone, feeling terrible about reporting Player 1, and we're scrambling, trying to not make her feel discouraged because it all around helped everyone in the end. 

 

We send a message back to Player 2, ban her and Player 1, deciding that we didn't want their toxicity on our site even though they were leaving. (low and behold, they tried to join again later on lmao)

 

The only one who's left now is the last friend - Player 3. This guy I thought was alright. I rped with him on another site before and he seemed ok aside from drowning out the chat box with useless shit, I hadn't gotten any bad vibes from him. Except Player 3's blowing up this group message with about 10 other members in it, arguing with us that it wasn't fair that we banned his friends, we had no right, that they didn't do anything to get banned, etc. etc. Airing out all the dirty laundry. We eventually disbanded the group message, and stopped replying to his arguments.

 

Well, a week or so later, three people join our Discord, claim to know Player 3, and spam the shit outta us. Another member began mentioning that one of the guys claimed to know him in the Discord, and at this point, we're very suspicious. We're watching to see what he says and we're not stepping in to help him. He didn't like this. He leaves a really passive-aggressive message and leaves the Discord.

 

Dumbass me, I private message him (in hindsight, I should've left it at that). I felt bad because I didn't want him to feel like we didn't stick up for him, but at the same time, wtf dude. We argue some more about the reasons why his other two friends got banned, to which I leave the pc for a moment to go potty (it was a loooong drama), and when I come back, I see this huge paragraph about him being sexually abused as a child (had NOTHING to do with the conversation we were having previously). I'm blocked at this point. 

 

I get a message from a particularly normal mutual friend of theirs that was part of the site (she wasn't part of any of the bullshit aside from being absorbed up to her eyeballs in the drama), saying that Player 3 was "having an anxiety attack" because he claimed I said something insensitive back to his sexual abuse story, but then I deleted it, and blocked him.

 

At that point, I was like you know what? We're not playing this game. He got banned, too. Good fucking riddance, circus. 

 

 

Later on, we find out that Player 1 has attached himself to a 14 year old player still a part of our site. She tells us in the Discord that he's her "best friend" (mind you, this guy had claimed to be in his 40's when he was a part of the site, and this girl is 14 years old - what's going on). We later find out that she's messaging members behind our backs, spreading some bullshit lies about us. We decide, with heavy hearts and knowing that she was being manipulated by this guy, to ban her as well. 

After that shitshow, luckily, we haven't had to deal with anymore bullshit afterwards. No more bans, yay! 

 

Our headcount is..... 6. JFC.

Edited June 21, 2019 by Sammiie

[Phantom Wolf 9]

I recently got banned (two months ago) from an rp because I had copied three lines of text from a fandom wiki article (i was trying to turn that character into a character for that setting) and instead of asking me to rewrite those sentences, the admins swung the banhammer on me. Of course, it was a long time coming since I had gotten in trouble before for accidentally triggering other users on their Discord several times. (emphasis on "accidentally"; I would never intentionally trigger someone and even though they have a "Do Not Discuss" list, I slip up and accidentally post something triggering and they punish me as if I intentionally did)

 

But the thing that really pissed me off was that the creators of characters I was given on that site revoked said permissions for me to take them offsite and they claimed they were following the DMCA by doing so. To make matters worse, they threatened legal action against me (a cease and desist to be more specific) and got access to some of my social media accounts (two of which I no longer use) to effectively doxx me across the fandom so that other people know of my "theft".

 

All this over a bunch of fanfiction and trying to claim ideas as your own. smh You can't put a claim on an idea, yet this admin team thinks otherwise. And I'm not the only one who's butted heads with them....

Edited June 21, 2019 by Phantom Wolf

[Jaxx 317]

I've not had to actively ban anyone yet, fortunately. People always seem to show themselves the door when I put my foot down over something. I do, however, have a few 'preemptive' bans of people that have been so toxic towards me in the past that I'd never allow them on my site for my own sanity. Two of them are an admin and member from a site I was on, oh, about a year ago now, who ended up being a part of the only ban I think I've had. 

 

The member in question had been stalking and bullying me, but I really liked the site we had in common at the time so I foolishly decided to just cut ties with this individual and stay on the site with no interaction with her. There was some drama over a wanted of hers that I'd dropped, the admin got involved, and I informed her of the member's bullying me thinking she'd do something about it. The admin said she'd known but had no intention of confronting the member about it as they were friends in real life. 

 

I left the site about thirty seconds later. At this point I had about fifty characters on the site, including about a dozen canons/high-ranking characters, and made up some 60% of the site's activity. Members were swarming me wanting to know why I had left and what was wrong. I kept it relatively vague but did say that the admin had admitted to knowing there were significant issues between me and another member and had refused to address them because she was friends with the other person. 

 

The site was dead as a doornail in three months. A couple mutual friends who kept me updated on the drama after I left said that the admin had banned me after I'd left. Wasn't much point in doing that but I found the whole situation pretty funny. And even funnier when the bully contacted me about a site search I had up on a resource site (I had a different username) to offer me one of the canons I'd just dropped. I  also ran into one of the members a few months ago and they demanded I apologise for killing the site because their feelings were still hurt over it. Nah, fam, your admin did that all on her own. 

[gelly 32]

I have a couple that stand out in memory:

 

1. There was this girl who had a very aggressive personality. Not aggressive in a mean way, but aggressive in.... always needing to be the center of attention and if she wasn't the center of attention, then she'd just talk and talk over people until she finally was the center of attention. We gave her multiple warnings. 'Hey, I know you're excited about your plots/games/characters/yourself, but you need to tone it down. We're getting constant complaints that your behavior is actively driving people away from joining.' She'd apologize, but the continue to behave the same. Finally, I cracked. I wish I had let my co-admin handle her, 'cause she was annoying af and I had let it get personal.

 

But she was booted. I made the mistake of not banning her right away (I like to give people the chance to get their writings if they want), and had someone contact me letting me know that they had received a PM inviting them to join her new rp, which was just a knock off of mines. I was stunned. I was even more stunned to find established members had joined her site and definitely felt a sense of betrayal. But then I figured she must have told them something awful and I couldn't blame them, y'know? I wish, however, they would have had the decency to actually ask me what happened since they had known me for much longer...

 

2. This one I regret because I let one very loud, pushy member dictate my actions. I banned a longtime member and maybe even friend because he had gone off on this fairly gross rant about racism and how white people have it bad because the internet is mean. Obviously, it's bullshit and a very shallow view of internet vs real life. We've had sort of... fiery discussions before, where I was like 'dude, hush, this isn't the time or place to share your political/religious views' and he would always be like 'you're right. i'm sorry. never again'. And he never would. He was a good and very dedicated player. Unfortunately, on this day, I came in late to the discussion and he had let his mouth run before I could get in and tell him to stfu.

 

By then, the member who he was arguing with was gathering the pitchforks and made him Enemy #1. I had to ban him for crowd control tbh and it did not feel good. It was fucked up because... he was a dedicated long time player who could be talked to and would humble himself to apologize if he had done or said something wrong. And she was a flaky rper who rarely replied, rarely showed up, and if she did show up to chat, it was to start some discussion about the news. I wish I had gotten in before it got out of control, y'know? Now I make it a point to ban any discussion of politics or religion or social issues 'cause it just never ends well. I don't want to know what people believe in online.... I just want to write :/

 

3. I had to ban this one girl because she would NOT stop harassing this other player for a romantic plot. I wish I had saved the convo because when I confronted her about it, she was defiant! 'Yeah, I am pushing for a romance! Why wont they write a romance with me? Can you ask them? I really like their character and I want to write this romance. Tell them they should write the romance with me.' And I'm just like ??!?!! So yeah. Yikes.

[Brie 51]

Cross posted, but meh. I ban so few people. If this post is any indication I give way too many chances. 

 

We’ll call this person player Y.

 

Player Y: makes transphobic jokes in chat. Pouts when told to stop and then makes lame passive aggressive jabs about how he’d have a response to that but it’s “inappropriate.” Told to stop doing that. Does. Proceeds to ask the same question five million times in different ways. Staff stop answering the question and instead direct him to the rules (where the answer is located). Offers to make five million characters...but abandons them when no one immediately jumps to worship his choices. Still finishes one or two. Never posts. Begs everyone for plots, but when they ask him what he had in mind or who he’d like to plot with in their roster he ghosts the conversation and logs off of chat. When staff post for him he ignores the posts. Complains when his character gets marked inactive. Told to post within 30 days to reactivate said character. Said post can be as little as a single period in a specific forum or an open or whatever. Says he doesn’t do opens. Okaayyyy. Doesn’t post. In fact, disappears. Loses character. Gets kicked. Confronts staff about it and says he prefers 1 on 1 roleplay anyway, but was gracing us with his presence. Oh and he was gonna app so and so don’t we want so and so on our board? If we’d just let him back in... *facepalm*

Edited June 23, 2019 by Brie

[Pallas 14]

I just got banned for violating other people's art when I didn't do anything wrong. All art was appropriately credited, either on the image or below it. This is hot off the heels of my favourite Weyr closing due to the mod not having enough time for it. I actually volunteered to run it if that was something that was possible because despite the fact that I have a few surgical procedures upcoming, I adore the site and was hoping it could continue. Sadly, the mod said no and I respected that. I quit the server because I'm just wrecked at not being able to play my characters anymore and I can't sit through a month of goodbyes.

 

I was heartbroken and sobbing, which surprised the hell out of me but I didn't do anything save leave the server. I didn't do anything but gave this site pretty much everything I had and I kinda think I have a right to grieve that loss. I messaged her that I'd be blocking her for a bit until I could get my emotions under control. I wasn't angry, I was just...really sad.

 

I go back to the site to at least recover my few profiles and find I've been suspended until September. The other Weyr I was gonna join because my friend was in it suddenly banned me out of nowhere when I was debating on apping a character. I also complimented the art, which was lovely.

 

I asked my friend what was going on and she said I'd been banned for violating the rights of Pern images belonging to other individuals.  So now I'm being blackballed from anywhere that I might possibly go.

 

I deleted everything that was asked of me, I deleted the templates, I deleted my imgr account, I don't have a single piece of art on my hard drive because that went in the trash folder, too.

 

I'm gutted that the person I thought of as my friend turned on me like this. I have had nothing but respect for her and her site and have no idea what I did wrong. I'm utterly, genuinely devastated and hurt.  I unblocked her this morning hoping I could talk to her but she's blocked me. 

 

So. I'm exhausted and keep hoping there's something I can do in my own defence, so I guess I'm leaving this here because I have nowhere to turn. I just want to be able to play with my friend and the few other friends I know at the game.

[Everglow 30]

I feel like I should have a picture of the Dos Equis guy when I say this, but 'I don't often ban people, but when I do..."  

 

I've only ever banned one person from my forum(s).  I'm older and I like to operate my boards with a 'no drama' atmosphere as much as possible because we're all here to have fun and make stories.  This person went behind the scenes and approached many of the new members on the site and spread lies about me and how I ran the site in order to sow seeds of discontent.  She had a group of people outside of the discord where she would just encourage lies and attempted to twist words to make them into something they were not.  Then when everyone was close to leaving because of it unbeknownst to me (because everyone was too afraid to talk to me) she came to us like the good samaritan to tell us that people weren't happy and that a whole bunch of people were leaving.  Then when I asked her to tell me who so I could talk to them and started to figure out that this group was simply made to sow discontent I told her if they weren't going to talk to me they could leave.  

That was enough for people to step forward after she twisted it into me telling her that I was going to start deleting people.  After a REALLY big day of settling the drama, listening to complaints, working things out and settling down ruffled feathers, members started coming to me with screen shots of what she'd said to them and how it'd turned them against me.  The other admin on the site and I confronted her and asked her about her behavior to which she denied everything and blamed it on everyone else and how she was being used as a scapegoat.  When she couldn't own up to her role and take responsibility for her actions and wouldn't apologize or tell me she would work on it I didn't give her a chance to make excuses anymore and immediately banned her.  

Her 'discord' for lack of a better term, lost me 3 people that day alone (counting her and 2 other people who just left without talking to me) and over the course of the next 3 months, we've cycled through almost every person that was involved with the drama.  That kind of stuff is like a plague.. it just infects people.  We're finally at a point where we're back on track and new members are joining and creating plots again and it's back to the way it should be.  

My decision was only validated when a friend let her on their site after all of this as a 2nd chance and ended up having to ban her for the same behavior as well.  

[Captain Luna 4]

I  have only had to ban someone once. They were just being rude to members, strong arming them into their plots, and calling them names.They threw fits if RP didn't go their way.   I was just starting out as an Admin.  So that was an experience. 

[Indio 11]

The one time I banned someone was the most satisfying ban of my entire admin career.

 

We'd been dealing with this person on and off for a few years. There wasn't anything about her that screamed 'problem child' from the outside, it usually took a bit before the crazy came out. Her characters NEEDED to be the center of attention. She was pushy, demanding, and shoved her ideas down people's throats. Plots needed to move in a particular way or she would lose her marbles. On top of that, she was a well known loophole finder, one of those people whose defense is "well it didn't say I couldn't do it!' when we tell her her new character cannot have these godmodding qualities/abilities. The final straw was when we found that she was the instigator of a particularly rough wave of 'he said, she said' drama. I remember talking with another member during most of my vacation and talking her down because what this person said upset them so much. We banned her and our site went back to normal, though it took a long time a recover.

[Eloquence 13]

I don't think I have banned anyone from my sites.  I am pretty lenient when it comes to things but so far have never had many things happen.  

 

However, I was recently banned from a site when me and a few others had finally had enough of the emotional and mental abuse.  It wasn't always blatantly apparent but when I or they look back on it now, we can see it.  I waited until they left, as they were the most affected and said their peace.  I then saved my characters information and then deleted my profiles and left.  Come to find out, I was banned as well.... for leaving.  It makes you wonder, did they really feel as though they needed to get the 'final say'?  "They aren't allowed to leave but I'll ban them!"  My entire time on the site I just felt, gosh I couldn't even begin to explain.  But once I left, I felt like I could finally breath again.

 

Now the ones that left and I have a new place to RP where we vowed to never treat anyone like that.  Best feeling ever.  

[Sara-Zorah 18]

I might have an itchy banhammer finger, buuut...

 

If you're a bigot OOCly? Goodbye, The Draft is not for you.

 

If you are creeping on my members because you think the nature of my board should allow for that? You're going to Bantown and I'm not even going to do you the courtesy of warning you. 

 

If you leave voluntarily and then turn around and start harassing people for not leaving with you? Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. 

 

If you leave voluntarily and then turn around and make a board that blatantly rips off mine and one of your staff gets caught ripping characters from one of my members? You and your entire staff are going to Bantown. Later days. 

[Mab 58]

I do not like banning folk, but if  your making my members uncomfortable, and your acting like an ass when it comes to the rules, then yea, not happening.

[Izayuki 5]

I've been dared by people to ban them after they broke numerous rules and had many warnings. I did, then then they sent me death threats. That was fun.

 

Also I was banned once on a forum a very long time ago for reporting an admin to the owner and the rest of the admin team for trashtalking the owner and posting porn in group chats where minors (including me at the time) were present.

[Libby 100]

I have never personally banned anyone from a game I've adminned on. I have however agreed with my Co-Admin banning someone who bullied me out of a site, and then stalked me to the new site to harass me there. (She went so far as to create a character to ship with one of mine, under false names and fake IPs and when she was caught couldn't understand WHY people were upset)

I was then banned from her game, because she got banned from mine. Zero shits were given, in fact I didn't even notice until months later when doing linkbacks on ads. I laughed, and moved on.

Also that's the only time I have ever been banned from a game. (though I have been fired once in my sleep, I did not get banned...)