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Complaint Form / Ban Information

Why were you banned?

If you do not do anything to cause your address to be banned then most likely it is another users on the same network as you who has been abusive to others in the chat or intentionally ignored chat policy as stated on the login page. Banning can not be made totally specific and in some cases a ban is put on a person with the same address and this results in an innocent people not being able to get into the chat. Nothing can be done about this currently because most internet browsers do not supply a user login name to uniquely identify each user. There is a cgi variable defined for the user name but 99% of the time this value is not set, if this changes then banning can be made to affect only one person.

People get banned for not following the guidelines displayed on chat entry or for harrasing other users on the chat. Because some cases of harrassment involve private messages some person may get banned for no obvious reason. Operators don't have the time to explain every action to each and every person and if harrassed enough about a /ban will in some cases /ban the person for secondary harrassment rather than dealing with it. The best solution to any conflict is to just change rooms and leave the person alone.

How to get Unbanned

A ban is not sufficient reason to send e-mail because they are in nature temporary and by the time email is recieved and read ( 12 hours later ) the ban is already long gone. Email sent asking a ban to be lifted is just deleted. The only thing you can do is just wait. Operators can remove a ban placed by them and may do so if asked nicely by other users or resolution of the misunderstanding. The server automatically removes bans after a period of time. The server is rebooted usually once a day to add in improvments and this deletes all existing bans. Alamak administrators are online frequently and check for existing bans and if appropriate remove them all with a single command. Some very problematic addresses get put on a permanent ban list but this will show up as a screen saying you must register for use from your address rather than a regular ban and individials are added back with a password to bypass the permanent ban.

Operator Complaint

If you wish to file a complaint against an operator you may do so but must follow the regular procedure. Make sure you have the Operators regular nickname and thier machine IP address. E-mail the Operator Committee with a RETURN ADDRESS, the word COMPLAINT, the operators NICKNAME, and the operators IP ADDRESS included on the SUBJECT LINE. If you do not include these the committee will ignore it because it can't return your mail or handle the problem. Multiple complaints from different people about one Operator will result in suspension and eventually removal of Operator privledges. Complaints in the body of the email without the required info on the subject line will be ignored and deleted. You may explain what happened in the body of the mail if it will make you feel better but in most cases it will not be read, the exception being if I decide to suspend someone and need concrete examples.

Occaisonally I get email with someone demanding action be taken, cussing me out, and / or threatening to close us down, put us on a web blacklist, or even get thier friends to cancel thier Operator account here. I don't respond positively to this sort of e-mail and will not be pushed around no matter who it is. System administrators take email from other system administrators much more seriously than user mail. Offensive email either gets sent to /dev/null (electronic trash), gets a "I can't help you reply", or if serious enough generates an email to the person's internet provider or school with a copy of the harrassing e-mail. If serious enough the provider will revoke the persons account.

Regular User Complaint

Complaints about other users are frequent and should be directed to Operators. Harrassment through private message can be best dealt with by using the /forward command to forward your messages to a specified Operator. If a person threatens you just remember that they can not find out who you really are through the computer. The best they can do is find out who is your internet provider and so possibly the town you live in using the IP address. Email complaints about other users can also be directed to the Operator Committee but make sure you include the offenders IP address with a short description of what happened. Nothing can be done about complaints unless the IP address is included. If serious enough or if there is a routine problem the persons address may be added to the permanent ban list.

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