Grosseschnauzer
TNPer
Statement from the forum moderation team concerning a player ban:
Based upon the information summarized below, a player has been proactively and permanently banned from these forums by concurrence of the forum moderation team.
Several days ago, the admin were brought the following information from a source who has asked to remain anonymous, but has given permission to share it.
The information concerns a player known as Dromund Kaas.
Some of the information deals with details about a real person (and is relevant to the problem we were made aware of) but I am going to generalize or omit that information for privacy reasons.
The information on this player provided to us includes the following:
- Recently returned to the game after being gone for a few years.
- Pro-communist raider from [specific location], formerly known as Soviet Sindorin and The Soviet Republic 2.
- Has destroyed at least six regional forums in the past.
- Formerly associated with The New Inquisition and The Land of Kings and Emperors (as recently as February).
- "I've destroyed the Forums of The Galactic Senate, The United Regions, The Che Guerillas II, The United Commonwealth Organisation, A Political Party board For The Galactic Republic and a few others."
- Sometimes, he pretends to be a neo-Confederate and a Southerner. He likes Star Wars.
- He used these e-mail addresses earlier this year:
[specific e-mail addresses]
- Specific real life information omitted for privacy reasons.
- These are IP addresses that he has used:
[specific IPs]
Anonymous also provided links to their sources, and requests concerning some of the other information dealing with this player’s current activities in other regions.
The source recommended to TNP that:DO NOT TRUST DROMUND KAAS UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES. BAN HIM AND ALL OF HIS KNOWN IP ADDRESSES.
Anonymous also messaged that:
P.S. He recently has threatened to do whatever it takes to destroy a certain region's forums.
Dromund Kaas does use proxy IPs on occasion, and he might be able to hack.
Eluvatar advised the admin the following:
As a note, I have observed him using a proxy on this forum, in the RA application that he quickly withdrew. He used a clean IP in the Council of Five elections however.
The forum moderation team was also made aware of additional personas and accounts after the above information was received. The ban was extended to include those personas and accounts as well.
For the benefit of those who may not be familiar with the Court's decision on Residency and Forum Administration, that decision is highly relevant here because it, in fact, directly dealt with the issue of a direct threat to the forums themselves:
A forum administrator’s primary obligation is to protect the integrity of the designated official forums on behalf of the regional community. If the constitutional process so permit, the members of the forum administration team not otherwise holding a government office, may exercise a very limited form of government power within the Bill of Rights, the Constitution, and the Legal Code, and subject to the protections and limitations provided by the three central documents of TNP law.
Thus, in response to this question:
Specifically, if I as Admin were to preemptively IP ban a player who has no nation in TNP, and presently no account on this forum, what would be the legality of my actions under TNP law?
the answer depends on whether the grounds for such an action are based upon a perceived threat of violation of the body of forum rules, or a threat of violation of TNP law. If it is the former, then the Admin is acting within the Admin's proper authority to protect the forums; if it is the latter, then the Admin should secure from an appropriate government official approval under paragraphs 8, 9, and 11 of the Bill of Rights [4] before imposing such a ban from the forums. Inasmuch as there are distinct review processes for these decisions under the Constitution and Bill of Rights as to government decisions, and by the moderation review process put in place by the forum moderation team for the team's non-governmental decisions, the requirements of due process are met so long as the review processes are followed in good faith. Thus, where the reason for the imposition of an IP ban is based on protecting the integrity of the forums, then the Admin is exercising their core responsibility to the forums and the community. If the IP ban is to further any other governmental policy or purpose, approval by the appropriate "governmental authorities of the region" under paragraphs 8 and 11 of the Bill of Rights is required.
Since this matter is being presented to us as a direct threat to the forums, the underlined passages apply, as we have the authority to ban this persona without a governmental proceeding.
The provisions on forum crashing and destruction from the Legal Code:
Section 1.5. Crashing, Phishing, or Spamming
11. "Crashing" is defined as any unauthorized action which could cause a forum to go out of service or lose information, including the deletion of posts, the deletion of a forum, spamming, or any other act of such kind.
12. "Phishing" is defined as any attempts to gain access to off-site property controls or passwords by deception, especially by posing as administrators or moderators for any unauthorized use.
13. Phishing also includes the collection of personal information kept at the Forum.
14. "Spamming" is defined as any action by non-region nationals to waste space or cause shock on any off-site property or regional message board to make it unusable.
15. Spamming includes any attempts to force a DOS error on forums and any attempts to flood the RMB of a region which is not that nation's normal abode.
16. No Nation of The North Pacific may perform, order, condone, or accept as legal, Crashing, Phishing, or Spamming.
And on the current provision on use of proxy servers:
Section 1.6: Proxying
17. "Proxying" is defined as use of a proxy server to render a forum user anonymous or any practice which allows a member multiple accounts.
18. Forum administrators will inform the Government and Court of Proxying they observe.
The forum moderation team concluded that this is that rare instance where forum administration needed to proactively ban this particular player for the protection of the forums from crashing, hacking and destruction.
