888 needs to be muted

[-=[AZ]=-]

Are we able to mute 888? He's on there all day every day spamming the same shit and harassing players. Every time I'm on and see him, it's the same routine with him. There's no substance or thought to anything he says. On top of the "hack" spam shit, he spams a lot of questionable, weird and perverted stuff. I think I'm speaking for everyone when I say something should be done about this guy. It's really not funny what so ever and has gotten old.

I see that [BTF]Fatknitty made a complaint to mute 888 in the shout box just yesterday, which got a reply. I was unaware and came on here to write this before I saw Fatknittys complaint. I figured 888 got a mute as he was quiet today, but then he started up his same routine again after a game or two.

[|iR|Focalor]

My 2 cents: His "hackusation" bullshit is lame and I wish he'd stop. The rest of it I can handle. Par for the course. I spew dumb shit sometimes too. It's America. And while cancel culture might be fucking with peoples heads, I think it's important to view it from a somewhat optimistic perspective that "it's still okay to say anything you want, even if it's really dumb... because it looks like the dumb shit is actually WAY more commonplace than anything else these days. Freedom, sort of."

As far as the hack shit: Some of it is stuff that he types, some of it is chat binds that he busts out when he gets tired of having to type his crap. I dunno if he's being 100% serious or just trolling, but I usually re-troll him in response for my own amusment. I don't care if he's a bad sport and thinks I cheat, or if he's just fucking with me. I can handle it. The issue I have with it is when OTHER PEOPLE on the server start seriously asking him, "Does he really cheat?" or saying other things to indicate that they feel like he's telling the truth. People change their names so often, I have no idea who anyone really is anymore. I don't know that we can rely on everyone being regulars and being smart enough to know that he's just the village idiot shouting dumb shit at anyone who'll listen. The last thing we need is even ONE PERSON thinking cheaters play here and deciding to go somewhere else to do their Q2'ing.

[quadz]

My 2 cents: His "hackusation" bullshit is lame and I wish he'd stop. The rest of it I can handle. Par for the course.

Indeed, the "hackusation" buffoonery from a handful of players on the FFA servers grates on me the most.

Particularly as relates to the occasional new player who connects, sees all the bellyaching and wonders if they've joined a server full of cheaters.

As for 888, I've added a half-mute to curb his spam a bit (one chat per minute.) Let's see how that goes...

[-=[AZ]=-]

Quadz is my uncle, in case anyone was wondering

[haunted]

But I am your daddy.

[[BTF]Fatknitty]

As for 888, I've added a half-mute to curb his spam a bit (one chat per minute.) Let's see how that goes...

Thank you kindof.  I wish we could have a vote mute or vote kick for some of these idiots. 

[|iR|Focalor]

I mentioned to him that he should cease with the shit talk and hack accusations lest he earn a full mute next. He didn't seem to care and kept right on going.

If he replied to what I said, I mostly ignored it. But I do remember that later he was still using words like "hacks", so thats why I say he didn't seem to care. And I didn't care enough to get a condump. So

I know pickled{bob} specifically expressed that he hoped 888 would earn a full mute.

The partial mute makes him entirely tolerable for me personally. With him muzzled, now it's the other assholes with their dumb binds that are annoying. But... if he doesn't care... and if everyone else would prefer a nice warm venti sized cup of shut the hell up from him... *shrugs*

[pepp5]

Some wonderful console spam in one match from our friend 888. He makes a match so much fun.

888: holes
 888: scream my name
 888: fatpuss take it
 888: fatpuss take it
 888: scream my name
 888: nacho love it
 888: scream my name
: 888: fatpuss take it
: 888: fatpuss take it
: 888: That's it, take it ALL bitch
: 888: scream my name
: 888: hoes.
-----------------------
Pepp: I don't know if you got off your meds or what
888: That's it, suck my cock with passion like your name is [AZ]/Clown and my name is quadz
888: perfect
]say see what I mean?
Pepp: see what I mean?
]say thanks for proving my point. lol.
Pepp: thanks for proving my point. lol.

[Admin]

He's switched to using VPNs once he got muted.

So it's a game of whack-a-mole now.

Most of these IPs are from the past 24 hours:

|      888|      ffa|  45.91.20.232|  4 days ago|
|      888|       dm|  45.91.20.232|  4 days ago|
|      888|       dm|  45.91.20.135|  2 days ago|
|      888|  unrailz|  45.91.20.135|  2 days ago|
|888 - CTF| unrailz2| 45.131.192.92|18 hours ago|
|888 - CTF| unrailz2|    45.8.17.15|18 hours ago|
|      888|      ffa|    45.8.17.15|18 hours ago|
|      888|      ffa|136.144.33.188|18 hours ago|
|      888|    railz|136.144.33.188|17 hours ago|
|888 - CTF|  unrailz|136.144.33.188|17 hours ago|
|      888|       dm|136.144.33.188|17 hours ago|
|888 - CTF|ctf-match|  154.6.28.169|14 hours ago|
|      888|ctf-match|  45.91.20.232|14 hours ago|
|888 - CTF| unrailz2|  154.6.28.169|14 hours ago|
|      888| unrailz2|  154.6.28.169|14 hours ago|
|      888|ctf-match|  154.6.28.169|14 hours ago|
|      888|  unrailz|  154.6.28.169|14 hours ago|
|      888|       dm|  154.6.28.169|13 hours ago|
|      888|       dm| 45.86.203.208|12 hours ago|
|      888|    alamo|72.199.170.223|12 hours ago|
|      888|    alamo|  45.91.20.232|12 hours ago|


It's tempting to code something so that if a player connects with an IP WallFly has never seen before, the player is automatically half-muted, for some probationary period.

 

[|iR|Focalor]

It'd be more tempting to ban him for a period of days, weeks or months on a per occasion basis for obviously knowingly evading administrative disciplinary measures.

He's switched to using VPNs once he got muted.

So it's a game of whack-a-mole now.

Considering what some have chosen to do in the past with VPN's, I would be more inclined to have a zero tolerance approach to people who show a clear intent on following that route.

But you're a way nicer guy than I am.

[Admin]

It's tempting to code something so that if a player connects with an IP WallFly has never seen before, the player is automatically half-muted, for some probationary period.

It'd be more tempting to ban him for a period of days, weeks or months on a per occasion basis for obviously knowingly evading administrative disciplinary measures.

That's the catch though. How do we ban someone who can obtain a random IP at will, without banning every new player?

(Actually it's not just new players, but also longtime players who periodically get assigned never-before-seen IP addresses, caught up in the ban as well.)

There are various partial solutions, ranging from easy to code (like the above half-mute probation idea) to more complex ideas.

But there are no built-in tools to handle it. (The standard approach in modern games is requiring a fully authenticated user account.)

[pepp5]

Can a mute/kick/ban be done on a regex formula on the known various common phrases for the duration of a playing session or ip connection?  Or the common names or nicks being commonly used?

How about deputized players that can apply a 48 hour mute or something at will in real time, like how panjo-bot was handled? Like again, for the duration of an ip address used?  I mean someone might get sick of being muted or being kicked repeatedly even if they can vpn around it shortly after.

Also, before mutes, kicks, and outright bans, usually are discussions and warnings. Has any of this happened?

 - Pepp

[Admin]

Also, before mutes, kicks, and outright bans, usually are discussions and warnings. Has any of this happened?

The reason we start with half-mute is it's light weight, and directly targets the issue of "too much chat text" by limiting the rate, without preventing use of services like goto/invite/mymap. So it's a nudge. Deliberately designed as such. (Often it's light enough to not trigger an evasion response.)

The rest played out as we already discussed over email last week:

- When the half-mute was first applied, he started grabbing other IPs to evade it, and he was WARNED that measures would escalate if he persisted in evasion.
- Initially, after that, he seemed to accept the half-mute, and in my opinion the chat-annoyance rate seemed within typical/acceptable limits.
- Then you mentioned still seeing a lot of spam from him.
- I checked and found he had started EVADING the half-mute by rapid disconnect/reconnect, to chat more frequently.
- I replied to you that because he'd already been WARNED and was now continuing to evade, that his half-mute would escalate to a FULL MUTE. I also CAUTIONED that "may just switch to VPNs" in response. (This ain't my first rodeo.)
- I followed up in an email the next day, noting that indeed: "he saw he was fully muted, and came back with a VPN."

tl;dr: Yes discussions and warnings occurred.

Can a mute/kick/ban be done on a regex formula on the known various common phrases for the duration of a playing session or ip connection?  Or the common names or nicks being commonly used?

It's always a cost-benefit tradeoff. Not infrequently, making obvious-but-heavy-handed moves just spurs people to be more creative with evasion.

But yes, chatbanning obnoxious phrases can certainly be a useful nudge sometimes.


Frankly, for effectively targeting the spam of repeated binds, more-modern "stealth" techniques would probably do well. Though they're not currently in our toolkit.

[B. C.]

.

[pepp5]

The rest played out as we already discussed over email last week:

Doh. Yeah I reviewed and see you mentioning that he was warned, I guess my brain was tuned for remembering the more technical part of the discussion.  Good. I guess that explains his attitude...

Well, I'm sure lessons would be learned if some player with rcon were to do a one-warning (or zero) and then mute for his current ip address, forcing him to re-vpn to talk again. And then repeat if he does it again.

- Sincerely, Part-time Mole-Whacker