BuzzerBeater Forums

"In the unfortunate situation that your account is banned, you may send an appeal to the GMs. All of these appeals are read, and each situation will be carefully reviewed again by the GMs and BBs."

Ok I won't, but I can't understand this is in the rules of conduct since it's clearly not true.
Makes me want to whine about it in the forums.

Since you have absolutely no way of knowing how carefully the GMs and ultimately the BBs review cheating reports and appeals, please do not make statements where you state otherwise.

I have just one question. Do BB or anyone else contact people that are accused of cheating through email, either by just informing them or by asking them to explain themselves? From information in this specific case I have had information from one user that there have been no such information or even response from email requests regarding the bannings.

My questions are not related to whether the cheating was correct but just to have information about how BB have their contact with users they think are cheating. I therefore don't think that my questions can any sense be discussion of specific cases or so.

Hope my question is not considered as a provocation and certainly not as an attempt to judge whether the banning are correct or incorrect. I just think that if someone is found guilty of cheating that they should be informed about it, no matter if it is possible for them to defend themselves or if the decision already is definite.

Thanks for the word.

I regret to inform you that the GM staff is not in position to discuss this in public nor privately. Play by the rules and you need not worry.

This is what said in the rules so I guess I got my answer there:
"In the unfortunate situation that your account is banned, you may send an appeal to the GMs. All of these appeals are read, and each situation will be carefully reviewed again by the GMs and BBs. If your account is unlocked (this is VERY rare), you will receive an email letting you know; if you do not hear from us, it is because your appeal was denied."

Even if it is a clear case of cheating I find it a bit odd that you do not always send an answer to an appeal. And now I am not speaking about this specific case. I find it extra odd if the cheaters bought a supporter package.

To inform does not mean that you allow to have the decision overruled but at least you know that your chances of being unbanned is zero.

What also surprises me is that accounts where there no longer is a possibility to overrule a decision is not botified. In Sweden we now have a lot of users in both Pro A and division II that are banned and clearly will not be unbanned. Why not remove these accounts before new season? Do you have any idea what the reason for this is. Why not make banned accounts into bots much earlier so that we can get rid of them?

What also surprises me is that accounts where there no longer is a possibility to overrule a decision is not botified. In Sweden we now have a lot of users in both Pro A and division II that are banned and clearly will not be unbanned. Why not remove these accounts before new season? Do you have any idea what the reason for this is. Why not make banned accounts into bots much earlier so that we can get rid of them?

One of the reasons why banned teams are not botified sooner is to allow for the appeal period which may result in unbanning of the team (although as the rules state this is very rare). Since the process of making teams bots is completely automatic (take a look at the Report cheaters tool to get an idea how many teams we have to close due to cheating every week, it would be hard to do it manually) it needs to be the same for them all. Additionally, there should really be no apparent difference between teams becoming bots due to inactivity and being closed due to cheating.

I agree it would be much more fun if we could guarantee active top level leagues. If you have a good solution in mind, please use the Suggestions forum to inform the BBs.

Last edited by GM-WallyOop at 2/24/2009 1:08:13 PM

I can't see a reason for waiting with botifying teams when you already decided to not accept any further attempts to clear their team from suspension.

But maybe there never are such decision until after 6 weeks. Really boring though that teams that have 0% chance of getting alive again are saved for 6 weeks resulting in a lot of inactive teams in higher divisions in Sweden coming season as there were so many teams involved in this affair.

The problem, if I understand it, is that botification is automatic. This makes sence as doing it manually may result in unnecessary work for the GMs as well as inconsistent handling between teams and leagues.