A ban is a restriction administered to a person to prevent them from accessing a certain rescource, for reasons such as hacking, criminal offenses, severe rule violations or attacking playerbases.
In Blockland, the banning function is usually called the "Banhammer" and is administered by server administrators for players who break the rules of their server. However, there are bans from Blockland aswell, such as key deactivation, which can only be administered by game devs.
Banning[]
Bans are commonly administered by players who run servers along with their administrators for players who break the rules of a server. However, there are also automatic banning programs on some servers which automatically ban people depending on an offense registered in that database. Game developers can also administer bans from Blockland servers, usually for players who cheat continuous times.
The moderation system was upgraded on November 11th, 2011 starting with a new forum moderation system. Forum accounts were linked to a license key/steam account, and rule violators would have both their keys and their forum accounts deactivated. Most first-time violations would only result in keys being deactivated for a few days, but permanent bans are also very common. Further upgrades were continuously released from that point onward, including the 2012 addition of the "Ultimate Ban".
Types of Ban[]
Server Bans[]
Server bans prevent users from joining a certain server. These bans are not administered by game developers, but the administrators of that particular server.
Forum Bans[]
Forum bans ban a forum account linked to a certain key. The key may also be deactivated.
Hosting Bans[]
Hosting bans prevent users from hosting dedicated servers. This is usually administered to users who create "trap servers" which are servers that have malicious plugins installed.
Key Bans[]
Key bans are administered to users who continuously break the rules of the game. It is commonly administered to users who cheat or commit criminal offenses. However, some users are also banned for continuous behavioral issues in the game. Keys that are banned are permanently retired and can no longer be used. Steam accounts that are banned will be banned until another key is ported over to Steam.
Purchase Bans[]
Purchase bans prevent users from buying new license keys. Keys may also be deactivated with this ban, which is used to fend off cheaters and problem users. Payments are still able to be made, but keys will not be processed and sent through. Key bans usually last for up to 6 months before they are removed, but using different credit cards can circumvent this ban. The ban will usually last until the user has a new credit card.
Computer Bans[]
In some extreme cases, the adapter for the computer which has a violator using it will be banned. Most bans like these are only temporary, but permanent bans can also be administered.
Steam Bans[]
Sometimes, game bans which are administered by Valve are sometimes used on problem users who commonly play Blockland on Steam.
Ultimate Ban[]
The "Ultimate Ban" was first administered in 2012. This ban prevents the user from playing any gamemode on Blockland, including Singleplayer. The players' IP address is permanently banned from using Blockland, and forum accounts are pruned. The user can also no longer purchase new keys, or host any dedicated servers.
Offenses[]
Breaking Server Rules[]
Servers can set any rule they wish, and can ban players if they break them. Some servers have been criticized for banning players for no reason, and in most cases complaints have been made on the forums. Usually, administrators who do this are deactivated, or the community would mark them as "Ban On Sight".
Cheating[]
Most cheating programs are detected almost instantly and deactivations occur depending on how severe the program is. Most cheating programs have resulted in more severe bans than deactivations.
Breaking Forum Rules[]
The forum has rules, and breaking them results in a ban depending on the severity. First time offenses result in lenient administration, but repeated violations result in permanent bans, and possibly key deactivations.
Criminal Offenses[]
Most criminal offenses result in ultimate bans.