Quote:
Originally Posted by Rager and Quitter
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gets an IP ban.
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If only it were so simple.
A big part of the reason IP bans aren't used that often these days is that they're not particularly effective. Many users don't permanently have the same IP. A lot of regular ISPs assign IPs as-needed and they do change periodically. Second, such bans are very easily circumvented via means such as VPN. P1999 can't ban based on things like real name or credit card info because as a free service it doesn't collect such information. It's hard to get rid of someone who doesn't want to be got rid of, hence why P1999 had to resort to some in-game measures like level 5 requirements for many zones--in the past they had trouble with certain individuals making new level 1 accounts over and over and causing trouble. The level 5 cap was largely enough to defeat even those individuals' patience.
There ARE ways around this. It requires work that the P1999 staff hasn't had the time or inclination to put forth and which are no longer realistically viable for existing P1999 servers because the proverbial horse is already out of the barn. For example, some emulators use login software of their own creation that ties accounts to specific devices--lose your account, can't just create a new one. Depending on the quality of said login program, virtual machines may or may not be able t get around it. It also has side effects such as making account sharing problematic, again that horse is long since out of the barn. This type of measure would be most appropriate for a fresh server, if anyone were inclined to implement it.
Account bans are of course plenty effective and all but the worst of the trolls and troublemakers don't usually want to have to keep starting over. The existing P1999 rules already provide for account bans so at that point you're arguing with the staff about their own rule enforcement. My experience in thirty-odd years of using the 'net is that arguing with site admins is seldom a productive pursuit.
Danth