The Information Desk: Ask questions about the site here!

[EpicGamer12]

Well, why has it taken so long? Along with that, why wasn't ZR banned on the spot for giving out her password (idiotic move, by the way)? Why is she still a mod, today? Though, I know her usertitle says Hiatus, that's bull****. I know it, you know it, everyone knows it. So, what's the deal with that business, then?

Okay, well here's why it probably took "so long" which was probably approximately a month:
- Mods need to learn about the incident for the first time
- Mods need to learn the details of the incident
- Mods need to make a fair decision on punishment for all parties involved

It was also almost all offsite action. The mods wouldn't have known that oath had ZR's account info. Or what IPs were involved in the process. Now that they have learned about it, they have handled it accordingly. Jamie is stepping off as mod for lack of account security in one way or another (although we are not sure exactly what way oath knew, but that does not matter!!), and oath was banned for 6 months for logging into ZR's account.

In case you were not aware, oath could not do anything with your IPs other than block you from reading his blog. He can get your IPs through you visiting his blog anyway, so it really does not matter that he saw some from the site. He is not doing anything with the IPs, and even if he tried to, say, find your location, he would only be able to find a vicinity of a city or two (although he doesn't know how to do this). He could also DDOS you if he knew how, but that's unlikely to ever happen and what good would that accomplish for him? He's not going to find your personal information or do anything malicious.

It doesn't matter that he has IPs.

 

[radical6]

tbh I'm not sure why people are worried as others have already said he can't do jack **** with your IP. maybe know your general location but that's it. I was the one who found out coz I noticed his blog redirected me (smh he copied me I had him and someone else blocked on my blog) so I looked into his source code. I wouldn't really care if it was just me or a couple friends he had on there, but I was worried when he had members IPs that he shouldn't have had. He didn't know them and there's no way they would've ever went on his blog.

felt like people had to know that but ok

it's just more a problem of how he got it really

 

[Bowie]

What's done is done and I'm just glad we got an answer from the staff. I'd like to think everything's fine now.

 

[Temari]

it's just more a problem of how he got it really

^^^^ this. I could care less if someone has my IP address unless they knew how to use it for something illegal. He wanted to block some people which I don't think is that big of a deal. But the real problem is how he got the IPs and how it was an invasion of privacy. I think people are more concerned about the situation with how the mods have responded more than anything.

 

[Bowie]

^^^^ this. I could care less if someone has my IP address unless they knew how to use it for something illegal. He wanted to block some people which I don't think is that big of a deal. But the real problem is how he got the IPs and how it was an invasion of privacy. I think people are more concerned about the situation with how the mods have responded more than anything.

I do have to agree that the staff have been quite hesitant to reveal the details, but I don't know what the situation is, so I can't judge them for it. We've got as good an answer as we're probably gonna get for now at least, so I'm just patiently waiting to see how things turn out in the end.

 

[X2k5a7y]

tbh I'm not sure why people are worried as others have already said he can't do jack **** with your IP. maybe know your general location but that's it. I was the one who found out coz I noticed his blog redirected me (smh he copied me I had him and someone else blocked on my blog) so I looked into his source code. I wouldn't really care if it was just me or a couple friends he had on there, but I was worried when he had members IPs that he shouldn't have had. He didn't know them and there's no way they would've ever went on his blog.

felt like people had to know that but ok

it's just more a problem of how he got it really

The fact that he got the IPs is not even the point. You're all focused on that, when there are much serious things going on.

 

[Prof Gallows]

I do have to agree that the staff have been quite hesitant to reveal the details, but I don't know what the situation is, so I can't judge them for it. We've got as good an answer as we're probably gonna get for now at least, so I'm just patiently waiting to see how things turn out in the end.

Honestly, you guys deserve to know what went down and maybe seeing it from our perspective will help the situation.

What is it you want to know exactly?

 

[Bowie]

The fact that he got the IPs is not even the point. You're all focused on that, when there are much serious things going on.

Like what? We don't know a thing! All we're doing is speculating.

Honestly, you guys deserve to know what went down and maybe seeing it from our perspective will help the situation.

What is it you want to know exactly?

I can't speak for everyone, but a lot of people seem to be curious about why ZR wasn't banned like Oath, and how exactly Oath gained access to ZR's account. Every other suspicion was unrelated to these matters and I don't think it would be appropriate for me of all people to mention them.

 

[Kaiaa]

Like what? We don't know a thing! All we're doing is speculating.

Understandable, because we haven't said much on the situation. If you have a question about this situation please ask it instead of speculating so that we can tell you what it is that you need to know.

 

[Temari]

Honestly, you guys deserve to know what went down and maybe seeing it from our perspective will help the situation.

What is it you want to know exactly?

Idk a timeline of events would be pretty nice. When exactly did this start and how long has it been going on? The way Jer told us made it seem like oath is a pro hacker but the deets don't really add up if ya know what I mean :/

 

[Bowie]

Idk a timeline of events would be pretty nice. When exactly did this start and how long has it been going on? The way Jer told us made it seem like oath is a pro hacker but the deets don't really add up if ya know what I mean :/

This, really. Don't get me wrong, I have faith in you guys and trust you to deal with things like this appropriately. It's just that a lot of things have been left unmentioned and that's probably why so many people are confused.

 

[Jeremy]

What's done is done and I'm just glad we got an answer from the staff. I'd like to think everything's fine now.

Everything is fine, but some people are addicted to drama and will go to extreme lengths to keep it going. It's almost shocking how far some people are willing to go in that sense. It's equally shocking how easily others take their word for it.

ZR contributed a lot to this community, so it would be irresponsible to forget that over one mistake. What actually happened here is nothing too extreme either. The only difference is that we told you what happened, while other websites would never even consider that as an option. There seem to be a few people who respond to honesty and straightforwardness with conspiracies and exaggerations. Fortunately, that's a minority, but their constant hunt for drama continues either way.

Idk a timeline of events would be pretty nice. When exactly did this start and how long has it been going on? The way Jer told us made it seem like oath is a pro hacker but the deets don't really add up if ya know what I mean :/

You may have missed one of my posts in here explaining why that wasn't the case. As for a timeline, I'm only aware of the timeline once it came to our attention. Which started one month ago when oath was banned for logging into the account, as I mentioned in my first post regarding this.

 

[Temari]

You may have missed one of my posts in here explaining why that wasn't the case.

If you could link it to me that would be great c:

 

[Ramza]

Hey, everybody. What's up! ! !

 

[Bowie]

Everything is fine, but some people are addicted to drama and will go to extreme lengths to keep it going. It's almost shocking how far some people are willing to go in that sense. It's equally shocking how easily others take their word for it.

ZR contributed a lot to this community, so it would be irresponsible to forget that over one mistake. What actually happened here is nothing too extreme either. The only difference is that we told you what happened, while other websites would never even consider that as an option. There seem to be a few people who respond to honesty and straightforwardness with conspiracies and exaggerations. Fortunately, that's a minority, but their constant hunt for drama continues either way.

Well, I'm pretty content with that answer. It's just hard to get your head around things when so little has been said about it, you know? All we've been doing for the last few pages is speculating 'cause we didn't know what else to do, but the fact you guys are indeed willing to disclose details of the incident and ensure our privacy and overall comfort is extremely reassuring and I for one don't feel there's anything left to worry about now, if that's all there is to it.

 

[PrayingMantis10]

I have a question about the Easter event. If Oath had access to a mod's acount does that mean he had access to insider information about the Easter event and consequently his gold easter egg was fraudulently won?

 

[Prof Gallows]

I can't speak for everyone, but a lot of people seem to be curious about why ZR wasn't banned like Oath, and how exactly Oath gained access to ZR's account. Every other suspicion was unrelated to these matters and I don't think it would be appropriate for me of all people to mention them.

This is the first time something like this has happened and at the time we had no idea what the heck to do. ZR is one of our best friends and it was a tough decision to ask her to step down but that was just something we couldn't forgive and forget. We don't ever permaban members, way worse things have gone down on this site from members and even they weren't perma banned. There isn't much of a point to ban ZR temporarily when she's already being asked to leave the staff. In regard to Oath's ban I'm going to break our typical rule where we don't discuss bans and say that six months is our top ban time. Other, longer times were being suggested but we all agreed on the six months.

Idk a timeline of events would be pretty nice. When exactly did this start and how long has it been going on? The way Jer told us made it seem like oath is a pro hacker but the deets don't really add up if ya know what I mean :/

I can't give you exact timeline but I can try my best.

A month ago I was going through one of the IP lists that normally don't get used and I noticed ZR's account was logged in from an IP that is vastly different from her own. I went and checked it and it registered with Oath's account, which I quickly brought up with Justin and mentioned the reports on Oath somehow getting IPs from our members. We investigated further and found out that he has had access for at least a few months, I think Jake made a post earlier in this thread detailing his theory on how long he had access and it's pretty spot on.

We had no idea this was happening and if we had known we would have taken action way back then. But as it goes we put a lot of trust into each other in the staff so we never even considered something like this ever happening.

We spent a few hours trying to piece together everything we could with the little bit of info we had and finally tried to contact the rest of the staff to discuss what we should do. After talking the whole night(roughly 7pm-5am EST) we managed to get ZR's side of the story and she admitted to giving Oath access to her account. We all decided to ask her to step down from the staff and banned Oath's account.

The reason it has taken so long is because we've been pretty exhausted. Not going to lie, this took a lot out of all of us and we really didn't want things to explode in our faces by just demodding ZR and everyone wondering why. It was all going to be explained in a TBT Direct but the situation managed to escalate itself so this happened instead.

I have a question about the Easter event. If Oath had access to a mod's acount does that mean he had access to insider information about the Easter event and consequently his gold easter egg was fraudulently won?

Yes, hence his golden egg being forcibly removed.

 

[Temari]

Thanks for the details Prof Gallows. I really appreciate it c:

 

[Geoni]

You guys should probably just get that direct out there and get it overwith, I think that if anything, keeping the drama going longer is going to feed people hungry for it. Until then this is the forum (the red tank is this thread):

 

[Bowie]

Well, that answers all my questions. Again, thanks for disclosing all of this so honestly.