[cgfirecoral]

Been banned. I have no idea why. Please let me know.

(btw, I've tried very hard to avoid any bannable offense. Specifics would be preferred to a random 'griefing' or 'looting' response).

[SilentCitizen]

I was called out to two areas by two players where your bridge cut through their claimed land. Both had asked for you to be banned. I had tried to contact you multiple times in game through private message so this issue could be resolved without a ban, but received no response.

The bridge in question is here: http://map.minerealm.com/map/#/3300/64/1308/-4/0/0

Edit: Seems like the world overviewer is having some issues. I'll take a screenshot and post it here as well.

Here is the bridge in case the link didn't work:

[cgfirecoral]

I appreciate your attempts to contact me. I'm sorry I was afk at the time. It would have been better if we could have talked through this.

I did receive a pm from ColdF3ar, but had been banned by the time I returned to the game.

Although you did not say it specifically, I assume I was banned for building through claimed land. I have to admit I'm very confused by the concept here of "Claimed Land". ColdF3ar had plenty of signs on his island to the north making claims to it, so I intentionally backtracked and avoided it with my path over the ocean. Obviously, the realm I used was unowned or I wouldn't have built there. I'm sorry that he had plans for it and wanted me banned, but I really find it hard to see how it could have been claimed based on the minerealm rules. There were no signs up around the area he is now claiming, and no effort at all was made to delineate a border. In fact, according the map he sent me showing his plans (http://i1066.photobucket.com/albums/u41 ... 92d6cd.jpg), he has claimed a huge amount of area. With no realm purchases, construction, or signage, it's kind of unfair to expect people to recognize the actual claim. I'm honestly a little upset that you considered my build grounds for a ban.

ColdF3ar also sent me a reference to RaiderLove's area. Again it was hard to say that this area was claimed. Note that rule 2 says: Please place a sign on your property, to claim the area. I'm not trying to split hairs here, but there was no sign and the realm was unowned. Both of these players have been in the game for over a year. What is so hard about actually buying the realms you want to build in with a whole year to earn the credits? In any event, even in this location it would not have been hard to work around or move my build had we actually had a chance to discuss it.

The project that I'm working on is to create a ride-able path (for horses) from my territory out on the edge of the world as close as I can reasonably be to the spawn. During this build I have annoyed Tornado at least three times to deal with minor things that I felt required staff permission. (In two cases, he let me just build through. In the third, the area I was going through was fresh and not abandoned, so I went around). But honestly, I can't call staff every time I move through an area that someone might consider their own backyard. And I'm happy to work with people who have issues my build, but I can't do that if I keep getting dumped in ban-land. And since I'm building through unclaimed realms, I can't really figure out who may be offended to work with them up front.

In ColdF3ar's case he claimed to be reasonable, but his demands for my banning don't bear that out. Although it would be some effort, my route could be moved to the south. Who would do that work is up in the air.

A little more info on my build. I find transportation in minerealm pretty messy. You don't have to go very far from spawn to a point where you're dealing with griefed builds and dangerous cliffs. For a new player, it can be really difficult to actually find their way out to the unclaimed, un-built areas to find new land. The subway system (even with Cob's hard work) is very difficult to use. The nether is faster, but pvp is a major turnoff there. So I decided to spend my time and resources building a road that can be used by anyone to get somewhere. I struggled to route it through areas that weren't built and weren't owned. I also made a strong effort to keep it straight, wide and level so that horse riding was actually practical on it. I hoped to do something generally useful. Instead I've ended up banned.

I've been on minerealm for something like three to four months now. I've carved out my own little piece of it, built a bunch of stuff, and generally stayed out of trouble. Given the stream of idiots who come through and get banned every day, I think I'm the kind of player you should want. Up to now, all my interactions with staff have been pleasent and professional. I realize with the volume of time staff has to spend dealing with the various idiots and banning can becomes a way of life, but sometimes it's better to just talk to people and try to work things out. Leaves less hard feelings all the way around.

[ColdF3ar]

I think the reason for your ban wasn't even really for the island. To be honest, yes you were fine in building off that side of the island because it appeared unclaimed. Although it was in a strange area, I called burt over to check it out and tell me who built it so I could discuss moving it with you. This section of the bridge admittedly was a gray area.

However, as Raider and I walked down further, we noticed you cutting straight through our shared dam.

and here



It appears your orignal plan here was to cut straight through this section but you made a hard right turn when you discovered that Mcquistan_2015 owned a realm right on the path you wanted. In fact, he owns several that you cut straight around in "public" areas next to these protected realms.





Despite this RaiderLove was more angered by the fact you cut straight through that mountain and yet again straight past his house and a glowstone wall he has had built for awhile:




Raider owns several realms right about 10 or so blocks away from your bridge path at points and was upset that you never thought to ask him before cutting straight through this area. Admittedly we both have been away on vacation for a few days and just came back yesterday to find this. But with the signs so obvious that several different people are active in the area, we were wondering why you continued to go forward and even cut very close around private realms without asking any of us first?

[mcquistan_2015]

I haven't been on in a while, but I can give my opinion.

Yes, you are probably unaware of the "claimed land" idea, but I can assure you that you are in the same boat that I was with Cold and raider nearly half a year ago when i first started. I tried being smart just like you but the mods and staff will always win when it comes to something like this. When signs are placed saying that the land has been "claimed", it means that they intend on buying the specific area that is claimed. Buying the land and refusing to sell it back would normally result in a warning and if the specific action continues to happen it will result in a ban until you agree to sell the property back at the normal 9k credits to the server.

The tunnel thing, is, in my opinion, extremely confusing. My question is, why would you build a tunnel straight through an area that has "claimed land" signs all over? Why would you build the tunnel in the first place? Considering it's right between two other builders where there are no apparent realms that are open, it's probably the biggest reason of the issue we have right now. If you hadn't built that tunnel or anything else, we more than likely wouldn't have this issue right now.

With this being said, I am voting your appeal down with the reason being that you are not only interfering with Cold and raider's plans to expand, you are also intruding on my realms and areas that I have claimed as well. If you seem to know so much about how this server is run and have been on for so long, maybe you would have thought to think twice about building in that specific area. Don't think that writing large posts will make you seem smarter, because it doesn't. It's suppose to be aimed at your appeal and you are trying to make yourself look better by putting others down that get banned every day for petty things like stealing from chests and whatnot. I can assure you this is a little more than that.

Other than that, good luck in your appeal. Even though I'm not wishing you the best, I do however hope that we can fix this issue and come to a conclusion that will benefit everyone as a whole.



~mcq

[cgfirecoral]

I find nothing that I disagree with in ColdF3ars analysis of my build. I do have a somewhat different take on it, though.

If I had felt the need to contact staff every time I entered a new realm, or locate adjacent realm owners, this project would have gotten nowhere. I did contact staff anytime I wanted to remove a placed block. I wanted to get this done, so I chose a path that by my understanding of the rules was legit.

I've been on the server for maybe four months. I really don't have any feel for what people own what sections and how much they feel they might possess. The tools available for doing this are woefully inadequate, so I simply tried to follow the rules as best I can.

Of course I was aware that there might be some blowback from my build. I chose the path that was primarily the most efficient to ride on and the most efficient to build. But it's a five block wide road for gosh sakes. I figured that if there were issues we could negotiate a reasonable compromise. While I like straight for obvious reasons, there's no reason I can't go up, down, north or south (other than getting bumped into someone else's unclaimed, unowned realm and going through this process again). Ideally to me would be actually integrating the road into other players realms and builds. I would think that a clean, maintained road towards spawn would be a benefit to neighboring players.

I saw Raider's wall. From my intial look at it I assumed that I was outside of it. Taking another look at it now, I guess it could have been deliniating the side I built on. But he didn't own the realm I built through. I've been in this game for maybe four months. I have 34 realms. If I feel the need to claim something, I buy it. It's not that hard.

I'm still not convinced that I broke any rules here. And there was nothing done that couldn't be modified with a little discussion and a little work. However looking at the punishing rollback that Burt did, I'm not certain that there's really anywhere to go from here. (Although I wouldn't begin to claim that Tornadiac approved my route, Burt removed some small areas where I had Tornadiac's permission to build).

------

In response to mcquistan's post:

I know the mods and staff will win. I don't expect this to end well, other than by my leaving minerealm. New players only have the rules and what we can eke out of the forums to go by. Springing this subtle "claimed land" thing blinde-sided me.

I didn't see any of these claimed land signs anywhere on the realms I built through. It would have changed my plans if I had, much as the ones on ColdF3ar made me change directions. I only have access to the world map. I don't see any there.

I built the tunnel because it was a straight shot with no grade change. My chosen path avoided owned and built up areas because that's what I was trying to do.

[DragonSlayer155]

Can I ask a question? Cold and McQuaistan,

Where are the signs/blocks that clearly say: Claimed

When its answered ill probably leave this appeal.

Hi.

[ColdF3ar]

Where are the signs/blocks that clearly say: Claimed

A very old but still existant sign that is now in a protected realm on the island


Newer-ish signs claiming a few unpurchased edges of the same island right infront of where the path ran by:


Separately, Raider has his things right here in a private realm literally next to the wall where the path cut above:


This is a very old screen of the wall before we redid it in glowstone. However it shows the signs that were plastered all over the place before. Raider's section is the one covered by that huge dirt wall. The path cut right in between the cobble wall and house surrounded in this dirt curtain.


Admittedly, there were a few signs that were griefed and missing on Raider's section; however, its clear Raider's protected realms, visible chests right next to the floating path, and house that is in plain view a realm away were either missed completely or "overlooked". This path that was cut through this section took advantage of a realm gap in between Mcq's place and Raider's place.

[cgfirecoral]

I am withdrawing my appeal. I came to minerealm to build, not for drama.

I continue to have a lot of respect for staff. I realize that with the number of trolls and griefers you deal with that there is a tendency to fall back to banning and move on to something else. I think in this case Burt, you reacted to some misinformation since I remain convinced that other players didn't follow the appropriate rules for claiming territory. No hard feelings.

Coldf3ar, I think your letters were polite and reasonable. I still believe that your island contained the only realms that were clearly marked with signs. But for the ban, I think we could have worked things out to both our satisfactions.

I saw some posts early on in my months on Minerealm about the lack of new players. Although I presented some ideas back then, I'd like to offer one more observation. You could probably rename the server "Minefield" because that's what it's like for a new player. There aren't enough staff available to deal with the many pitfalls a new player is faced with, and the penalties are quite severe. I'm not sure it really matters at this point, but it's something to consider if you ever choose to try to grow your player base again.

One last thing. My son and wife have minerealm accounts and while I don't expect them to be on much, if you see them on from our shared IP address, I can assure you that it's not me. I don't operate that way.

[DGannon]

I'm really confused by this situation. My first thought is that perhaps the notice "You have entered a public realm. You may build here," should be changed to, "You have entered a public realm. You could get banned if you build here."