PSA of the Day: What to do when your friend gets b

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Diana

LOOK HOW CALM SHE IS
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It seems like every other day an account gets banned, and uuuuuusually it's just those annoying spambots.

But SOMEtimes it's your friend. Someone you enjoy talking to or roleplaying with. Suddenly they're banned and you have NO idea why, or they're bitching up a storm to you over skype about it.

The sad fact is, sometimes our friends get banned. It is ALMOST ALWAYS because they did something stupid and preventable. We don't like having to ban people, and when possible we try to find ANY alternative we can before we result to a ban. And because we try so hard for alternatives first: once someone does get banned, there is no going back as they already exhausted their chances.

This PSA is to help you understand HOW AND WHY a member gets banned and what to do if it's your buddy!


THE #1 REASON MEMBERS GET BANNED: BREAKING THE AGE-GROUP RESTRICTION RULES.
For reals. This is probably about 85% of all our bans. D: The majority of accounts banned are people who lied about their age to access the other age group, or they are people who ignore the age group rules and try to play sex scenes over PMs or invite people to do it on skype/other mediums, thinking that they won't get caught or that it won't count.

This is the one rule on Iwaku we enforce SUPER STRICTLY. We allow members A LOT of freedom when it comes to what you can write on Iwaku. But to get that much freedom, we have to have this rule and we have to enforce it. We make sure when new members signup, they know immediately about this rule. There are no excuses. So when we catch people - they are gone. You don't get a warning or a second chance, you get banned on the spot! Along with ALL of the people you broke the rule with too!

That makes a handful of people all banned at once, because of something stupid and easily avoided. SO DON'T BREAK THIS RULE AND DON'T LET FRIENDS BREAK THIS RULE.

THE SECOND MOST COMMON REASON MEMBERS GET BANNED: BEHAVING COMPLETELY BANANAS AND BEING TOO FAR GONE TO FIX.
This is those situations where people are doing something really WEIRD, DRAMATIC, or EXCESSIVE that has reached the point of becoming disruptive to the community. That includes things like using multiple accounts to pretend to be different people, posting up fake medical emergencies and death/suicide notes, creating mean-girl style dramastorms within friend groups, creepy member stalking, aggressive flirting to the point of looking like a sexual predator, becoming hysterical over every day situations. And not just ONCE, but MULTIPLE TIMES, despite interjections by friends and/or staff members who try to help resolve situations.

Bananas Bannings are the hardest for friends to take, because the person getting banned might really BE a nice person. Often the things they're doing might not TECHNICALLY be against site policies, but their behavior is too disruptive. The problem is that they just can't learn, and they can't face reality or consequences for how their behavior is causing the problems. Eventually we have to remove them from the site just to spare other members the entanglement.

THE LAST MOST COMMON REASON MEMBERS GET BANNED: BEING A TURBO ASSHOLE.
As it turns out Iwaku is REALLY tolerant of assholes! Most asshole problems can be fixed simply by using your Ignore features. This is because "asshole problems" are pretty subjective. One person may think someone is a huge dick while someone else thinks they're just a flirt. So we don't tend to ban people just for being a dick, as long as they are still being a contributing member to Iwaku society and we can find alternative methods of keeping it under control. Eventually, though, we do finally run out of patient and your local asshole gets the boot. So if you think your buddy is starting to sound TOO much like a jerk, you might want to elbow them and tell them to simmer down.

So my friend got banned? What do I do now!

If you don't know what happened and want to know (or just want to hear the staff version of the story), just ask @Diana (that's meee!). I have full access to all the case logs, even when I am not involved in that case. I'll be able to explain things to you in a clear and polite way.

Second, DO NOT allow your friend access to your account, no matter what their reasons. EVER. NEVER EVER. (You shouldn't be doing this ANYWAY even for non-banned members.) If you do this, your account is going to get flagged as a multi-account login and as ban evasion. In extreme cases we may not be able to differentiate between you and the banned person. You will end up banned too, as we will no longer be able to trust that account OR you.

Third, pleading your friend's case and asking for extra chances WILL NOT WORK. :( They were not banned suddenly or out of no where. They were not banned out of spite or because we just don't like them. Before people get banned there is a long investigation. There are usually several warnings, so your friend knew they were headed in a bad direction. It usually takes us a couple weeks or a couple incidents before we decide to ban someone. Pleading for them to get unbanned just disappoints you and makes us really sad because we can't make it better. T___T

Finally, you CAN save content for your friend, get people's contact info for them, or send a message to others if they need it - AS LONG AS THEY WEREN'T BANNED FOR SOMETHING LIKE SEXUAL HARASSMENT and as long as they are not trying to send messages to someone they were in a fight with. Stay out of their fights, you don't wanna get mixed in to the middle of that.



And as always, if you have any question, you can aaaaask!
 
I request to ban Diana because she posted about Vampire Butts.
 
Geez. I feel rather sorry for all the people who lost friends to bans. If it was enough people to warrant a PSA, it must be a real thing.
 
Geez. I feel rather sorry for all the people who lost friends to bans. If it was enough people to warrant a PSA, it must be a real thing.

I'd prefer this kind of transparency rather than a Ninja Admin who stealth-bans everyone without even telling anybody why. Been there, saw that, in the past on another site.
 
THE #1 REASON MEMBERS GET BANNED: BREAKING THE AGE-GROUP RESTRICTION RULES.
For reals. This is probably about 85% of all our bans. D: The majority of accounts banned are people who lied about their age to access the other age group, or they are people who ignore the age group rules and try to play sex scenes over PMs or invite people to do it on skype/other mediums, thinking that they won't get caught or that it won't count.

This is the one rule on Iwaku we enforce SUPER STRICTLY. We allow members A LOT of freedom when it comes to what you can write on Iwaku. But to get that much freedom, we have to have this rule and we have to enforce it. We make sure when new members signup, they know immediately about this rule. There are no excuses. So when we catch people - they are gone. You don't get a warning or a second chance, you get banned on the spot! Along with ALL of the people you broke the rule with too!

That makes a handful of people all banned at once, because of something stupid and easily avoided. SO DON'T BREAK THIS RULE AND DON'T LET FRIENDS BREAK THIS RULE.
Out of curiosity and for the sake of clarity, I'm assuming this bold and underlined bit doesn't apply to anyone who gets swindled by a person who lied about their age when making their profile won't get banned, because they had no way of knowing that the other person actually didn't belong in their age group so punishing them would be a little excessive. Is that how it works, or do you go full scorched earth method and destroy all tainted individuals to prevent the disease from spreading? :P
 
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I'm assuming this bold and underlined bit doesn't apply to anyone who gets swindled by a person who lied about their age

That is correct! There's no sense in banning people who genuinely had no idea someone was lying. o___o

That's about the people who can CLEARLY see the member they are playing with is not in their age group, but they chose to do it in PMs anyway. >>
 
I request to ban Diana because she posted about Vampire Butts.
YOU SAW NOTHING!
566734_md-FAB%201.JPG
 
Also, because more than one person asked today:

If a member suddenly becomes a GUEST and has no account - that means they SELF DELETED!
We have nothing to do with that. O__O Iwaku prunes dead accounts maybe once a year and that is for accounts that have been dead forever.
 
Also, because more than one person asked today:

If a member suddenly becomes a GUEST and has no account - that means they SELF DELETED!
We have nothing to do with that. O__O Iwaku prunes dead accounts maybe once a year and that is for accounts that have been dead forever.
Literally Forever?

If that is the case then does that mean...... O.o


DIANA YOU BANNED ADAM AND EVE DIDN'T YOU!?

Le Gasp, The truth is revealed Diana truly is God, and this truly is the holy garden we have all been searching for.
 
Literally Forever?

If that is the case then does that mean...... O.o


DIANA YOU BANNED ADAM AND EVE DIDN'T YOU!?

Le Gasp, The truth is revealed Diana truly is God, and this truly is the holy garden we have all been searching for.
This one knows too much! Prepare plan Alpha! PLAN ALPHA GUYS, PLAN ALPHA!
 
This one knows too much! Prepare plan Alpha! PLAN ALPHA GUYS, PLAN ALPHA!
I Shall...


Never...



Surre-


*Is consumed by the holy light of cleansing*
 
*Puts on sunglasses and searches for the "flashy thingy" *
 
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Have faith in your Staff team!

Seriously: as a person who was a normal member of Iwaku for most of my time on the site before coming on to staff, I was pleasantly surprised with how thorough the actual process is regarding bannings once I became Staff.

There is a LOT of discussion, a lot of warnings, and a LOT of leniency (except in the age circumvention cases). If someone got banned, it means we as Staff tried really, REALLY hard to fix the problem however we can!

Keep in mind that Staff members are still members of the community just like everyone else! We're not "out to get" anyone, we just want to make sure everyone has a healthy environment to (safely) RP in!
 
Just to reiterate, we are NOT kidding about strictly enforcing our Age Circumvention rules. And you WILL eventually get caught. @__@ If we catch you in the lie, you will get banned for this. There is no second chances. No exceptions can be made. It doesn't matter how many friends you have on the site, how cool of a person you are, and how much we like you. If you break this rule we are OBLIGATED to remove you. This is the ONLY reason we are able to give all of our members so much freedom in writing any kind of content in roleplays they want. If we did not have this rule, we would no longer be allowed to have members under 18 on the site.

MAKE SURE TO CHECK YOUR ACCOUNT FOR THE CORRECT AGE. If you come to us and have us fix it, you will not get in trouble. Even if you had already been playing sexy content out of your age group. As long you get it fixed and stop doing that, you'll be fine. If you are under 13, we will lock your account until you are old enough to be here.

If you don't and get caught, there is no back peddling, making excuses or giving apologies though. >:[ You know what our rules are.

Don't get banned for something preventable!
 
people who ignore the age group rules and try to play sex scenes over PMs or invite people to do it on skype/other mediums, thinking that they won't get caught or that it won't count.
Question on a potential loophole that dawned on me while reading this.
What if the request to sex RP wasn't made over Iwaku and/or it wasn't a concious intention?

For example say a blue star and red star added each other off site for completely different reasons.
And then, after a while of talking off site they decide to start mature roleplaying, and all of the planning and rp'ing itself remains off site.

Would that still get them banned simply because they both know each other on Iwaku and their age groups?
Or would the fact that none of it had ever occurred on Iwaku protect them?

And note I mean where it was legitimately something that happened/developed later, not people or purposely only discussed off-site in an attempt to dodge said banning.
 
What if the request to sex RP wasn't made over Iwaku and/or it wasn't a concious intention?

For example say a blue star and red star added each other off site for completely different reasons.
And then, after a while of talking off site they decide to start mature roleplaying, and all of the planning and rp'ing itself remains off site.

Would that still get them banned simply because they both know each other on Iwaku and their age groups?
Or would the fact that none of it had ever occurred on Iwaku protect them?

And note I mean where it was legitimately something that happened/developed later, not people or purposely only discussed off-site in an attempt to dodge said banning.

That is a good question, and it would probably come down to circumstances. o__o If it is ALL off-site, the chances of us even finding out is slim to none, so it wouldn't matter anyway. Or, if we found out people were doing it on a different website but never on Iwaku. And was never using Iwaku to get partners to go to the other site. That would not be our problem.

BUT it WOULD make us suspicious and we'd start investigating those two people to see if there is anything on Iwaku. Usually when someone ignores ages like that in one place, they do it in -everyplace-. So we'd look in to it to be sure. >>
 
As a point of interest, adding on to what Gwazi said; how are different country's age restrictions handled when off-site (and potentially on-site) smut occurs? The current system is based off America's nationwide laws as that's where most members are. But let's say, 2 people are in the UK; one is 19 and the other 17. How is that handled? That's perfectly legal there.
 
As a point of interest, adding on to what Gwazi said; how are different country's age restrictions handled when off-site (and potentially on-site) smut occurs? The current system is based off America's nationwide laws as that's where most members are. But let's say, 2 people are in the UK; one is 19 and the other 17. How is that handled? That's perfectly legal there.

Basically sites and the owners of those sites must abide by the laws of the place they live in. o___o Because everything is registered in my name and I live in America, I am subject to American laws. So even if some of our members are outside of the country and their own laws are different, we still have to enforce our local laws or stupid annoying legal bad shit could happen to us. If I allowed someone 19 and 17 to write smut on the site, regardless of what country they are in, I could still get in trouble if someone somewhere decided to be a pain in the ass and filed a report. D:

Again, if it's off site, it's really not our problem unless something shady is going on. >> 19 and 17, who cares? That's close enough in age, we're not worried about perverts and stalkers. 27 and 14? That's kinda creepy and the snooping happens.
 
... your local asshole gets the boot.
... I am not going to imagine that literally...

I don't even know why I even thought of that. Must me some of my friends' influences.
 
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