Strange IP Ban/Warning on my Daughter

[vellamint]

Okay so my daughter Mulligirl played VMK for quite a while yesterday...did not report anything unusual happening.

Today she tries to sign on and she gets the warning about inappropriate blah blah....sorry I did not get a picture of that.

Then I try to sign on and this is what comes up first:

Then this is what comes up next:

An IP Ban for 24 hours - isnt that unusual...none of us in the house can sign on till about 9 tonight (I HOPE!!).

And no we cannot figure out what she did or said that would cause this.....hope I can see you guys later

 

[disvaclub92]

That is weird!! It would be nice to know what you are banned for. The least they could do is to send an email to the parent/guardian. Hope to see you tonight Vellamint!!

 

[VirtuallyMe]

They should send an email to the parent/guardian or in the case of an adult the player so that the action that caused the ban isn't repeated.

I really think VMK needs to work on their practices for enforcing their policies it is fine that they have the policies they just need to work on their method to enforce them to make them fair to all and to prevent incorrect bans/warnings.

 

[Tampa]

I'd need a new pair of pants if I saw that ban message.

 

[PrincessDonnaT]

I'd need a new pair of pants if I saw that ban message.

LOL...

 

[Maleficent2]

I think VMK needs to send a email to parents if a child is banned for any lenght of time and for any reason...they really should do this for everyone who has been banned.


I am so sorry to hear this Mint.


Mal

 

[vellamint]

You know what....how can they ban the IP address for only 24 hours...if what was said or done (allegedly) was that bad to ban the IP address why only 24 hours. Not that I am want it to be longer but I never heard of such a thing.

 

[KidGoofy]

That is sad.I would hate for that to happen to me.I am really getting annoyed with VMK now when i see it on Dis.I hear of CL getting booted from the game,and all these weird stuff.

 

[tigressjewel]

I think VMK needs to send a email to parents if a child is banned for any lenght of time and for any reason...they really should do this for everyone who has been banned.


I am so sorry to hear this Mint.


Mal

Totally agree, in fact I think they should go a step further and include a copy of the log showing why the ban. We all know they keep such things and should be no problem to produce a copy of it. Seems to me it would cut down on their mail considerably if they sent each person an email saying.. we banned you for X number of hours/days/years and this is why..

 

[PirateSteve]

Your IP address is assigned by your ISP when you connect. You are likely to get the same address for a couple of days in a row but most of the time, reservations from the "DHCP" server expire after a week at the most. Some people pay extra for a "static" IP address for business reasons but otherwise, it's entirely possible that someone else in your city, with the same ISP got banned and you got the IP address next.

I agree with the previous posters - it would be an excellent idea for VMK to email the player or parent with specific details as to why a player is banned. I assume the staff member who does the banning has to fill out some sort of electronic form that says why they did it (even if it's just choosing a reason from a list) and that process should email the player within seconds of the banning.

 

[SorcererDonald16]

Over on the online encyclopedia (aka Wikipedia), sometimes I'll get messages saying I've edited a page and made incorrect changes even when I never touched the page. There's an explanation along with it that says AOL and other ISPs can change IP addresses every time you open a new page and that AOL users share IP addresses when connecting to servers, so most times messages on there aren't seen by who they should be seen by because someone else now has the IP address of the guilty party. I'm assuming the same kind of thing could have happened with your computer/account. That being said, that's really a problem because say for example one person with AOL does something horrible and gets banned for 10 years. That could be banning thousands of other AOL users as well and not even banning the guilty person if they create a new account. I don't know how they should correct all this, but it seems like innocent players are getting punished for the bad actions of others, which is a shame.

 

[RiceOwl]

I've wondered why VMK would ban based on IP address. Any programmer who would be smart enough to work on the VMK program surely knows about dynamically assigned IP addressess. I can see that they'd want to ban the person and not just the account since so many ppl have lots of characters and could just sign back on with a different character. But really, it just doesn't make sense to ban based on IP address for the reasons already listed in this thread. I got a warning the other day when I said "I like text as" in response to the question "Where are you from?" I apparently went brain dead for a moment, since I certainly know better than to answer such a question. But really, how could you ever find someone just by knowing what state they live in? Regardless, I did break a vmk rule and deserved the warning. (which basically said do that again and you will be banned for life). The day after that happended, a Guest sat down next to be and the first thing she said was "Where do you live in real life?" I immediately left the room without even saying we can't talk about that. It was rude of me, but no way can I risk even being in the same room with that question!

 

[DarkSideMoon]

Yeah, A friend of mine got on his account from my computer, was in an empty room, and got warned for innapropriate behavior. The good thing is I feel technically able to change my IP with the proper instrutions.

 

[HollyJoy]

How STUPID! I am really starting to get ticked with vmk... they are losing control.

 

[puckstopper55]

yeah, i agree that the IP ban will only keep people off the game for a few days, if that. Most people with some computer knowledge can easily change their ip being most people with broadband have dynamic ip's. Also, you can request a change of IP from your isp. You could also go into the masking of IP, but thats too technical for the regular computer user. What would make some sense is a combination of character and ip. The ip ban is also not fair to a family of users, who either share the same pc or use a router which technically everyone is using the same IP. They could take it a step further and use MAC address which is computer specific and combine that with character name, but that is still unfair to a family with 1 pc. Either way, the best way around a character ban is to use a mule, and the best way around an ip ban is changing your ip or go to a friends house and use their pc.

 

[tigressjewel]

...The day after that happended, a Guest sat down next to be and the first thing she said was "Where do you live in real life?" I immediately left the room without even saying we can't talk about that. It was rude of me, but no way can I risk even being in the same room with that question!

Very interesting.. a guest huh? And they just happened to come and sit right beside you asking you the question you had been warned about..
They are always watching aren't they? In fact, a staff made that comment to me just yesterday.. "We see everything" Even if they don't I like that they want everyone to think that.

 

[Tiinkerbelle]

Disney is very strict on the rules, if your daughter bent the rules even the slightest bit and someone reported her that could be the problem. You can get 24 hour bans I imagine from either doing boy girl things, or "mommy baby" things as a warning. If you get reported 3 times (a ban for 2 or more hours, a warning, and a ban till 2015) then you have to wait 10 years before getting back in.

 

[Rodolfito]

oh thats bad..

 

[tinkandhook]

yesterday my daughter got the same message about being banned until 12/12 . All it said was something about inappropriate behavior, and then i get the technical difficulty message. I asked what she had done and she said nothing. said she was going around getting her credits.
is there a way to find out why you where banned and why for so long?
tinkandhook
tinkandhook on vmk