Are people Idiots?

I banned 6 people just now due to giving out illegal backpatcher info, do people just not see the rules in the global sticky??? it says Forum Rules

and the very first rule is

Warez Is NOT Allowed
-This includes the transfer of any copyrighted material, including EQ Files and backpatches. Requesting files, even in a PM, will result in a ban.

so are these people fricken idiots?????

[Ghost Fire]

To answer your question. Yes.

[mikenune]

I'm with Ghost on this. . .

Did you even have to ask? :p

[RangerDown]

This seems to be where most of the people that break the rules screw up: they link to a server whose patcher distributes copyrighted Sony files.

This, too, falls under the category of "linking to sites that distribute copyrighted files" and is a TOS violation.
If the server distributes ONLY customized zone files, then mentioning it is permissible.
If it distributes any of the EQ executables or SOE zone files, then it is distributing copyrighted files. In that case, you are NOT permitted to link to it, nor mention it as a way to solve client version problems.

Hope that helps for anyone who was unclear on that.

[Cisyouc]

<offtopic>
Someone should add <blink></blink> to the DO NOT PATCH warning again like it used to be. Dunno if it will help, but.. :/
</offtopic>

[Cisyouc]

<ontopic>
Check the sig!
</ontopic>

[image]

The yellow text hurts my eyes I can barely read it :-/

[killspree]

Yeah that yellow text is pretty painful to read.

[Doodman]

Admins:
Please try to warn offenders in PM (so they have a good chance of seeing it) before banning people.

Sometimse people break the rule but don't know that they are, if we can let them know what they did wrong and why it might help more that just banning.

[mikenune]

Originally Posted by Doodman

Admins:
Please try to warn offenders in PM (so they have a good chance of seeing it) before banning people.

Sometimse people break the rule but don't know that they are, if we can let them know what they did wrong and why it might help more that just banning.

I would tend to agree normally, but this isn't something where the person can reasonably say "Oh, sorry. I didn't know."

1. There's a big announcement that says "Forum Rules" at the very top of every single page in the forum.
2. The very first rule is:
   Warez Is NOT Allowed
   -This includes the transfer of any copyrighted material, including EQ Files and backpatches. Requesting files, even in a PM, will result in a ban.
3. And then you have the fact that Warez is completely and totally illegal in the first place.

Even assuming that people fail to read the forum rules, they should have enough common sense not to post an illegal request on a public forum.

I say they get what they deserve.

READ THE RULES PEOPLE!

[Ibix]

As someone who has a good deal of perspective on this, since I recently (admittedly) broke this rule out of ignorance, I feel qualified to contribute to this conversation. Here is how it went; feel free to just think I'm a newb or say that I deserved it, but remember that you likely have been involved in this project much longer than the newbs (such as myself) have been.

I was tired of all the endless patches, the grind of EQ... I wanted to play a classic server, or just ... something different... but none of the other games did it for me like the original EQ. So, I find this project called EQEmulator that seems VERY shady just because, SURELY it's illegal to emulate Sony's servers and bypass their subscription processes. I search the forums, read the Acceptable Use policy for Sony, and realize that these guys might actually be on to something; but it still seems too good to be true. I find out that I'm out of sync with the most recent working version which means I cannot currently play, which is sad. I'm FULLY aware that I cannot mention or ask for a back-patcher or anything else that I should clearly know is warez.

I post, asking if there is any way to get up and going right now with EQEmu (a somewhat common question) and I was basically told I'd have to wait by most people (though no one mentioned that I could download the version checker, install my unpatched fresh copy off of my cds, run the checker, and then see if there's an older EQEmu version that would run with it). This would have been fine, and the end of everything, but people respond both in the thread, and through pm's, telling me of certain things I could do to play. There was never mentioned a 'back-patcher' by that name, and none of the people seemed worried that their suggestion would be construed as being warez, so I thought "Great!". I see a post by Mattmeck saying no talking about back-patchers or warez, which the rules already clearly stated... but none of those messages I had seen had been denoted as being illegal references to warez or back-patchers... so I figured I had a legal solution. The next person who asked the same sort of question I had asked, I tried to be helpful and mentioned one the 'solutions' that had been mentioned to me. Next thing I know, I'm banned.

I felt it might be helpful to mention the nature, though not the name, of the illegal solutions out there, so that people would understand that just because someone doesn't say "Hey, here's a backpatcher, use it and you can play" doesn't mean that whatever solution they give you is not illegal.

Basically, it may need to be said something like:

If you do not already have an EverQuest installation that has been legally patched by Sony's patcher, up to but not beyond the date (09/13 in this case) of the most recent version that EQEmulator has caught up to, or your own backup copy of such a version, then any means by which you can modify, patch, or overwrite any of your client files in order to be able to play on any EQEmu-based server is in direct violation of the rules against backpatching and warez.

I may be an idiot such that I would need it spelled out like that, but I honestly read the rules, had NO intent of breaking them, and merely did not realize that what I was doing WAS in violation of the rules.

Sorry for the trouble, and hopefully this will clear it up for someone else out there before they get themself in trouble.

Ibix

and I was basically told I'd have to wait by most people (though no one mentioned that I could download the version checker, install my unpatched fresh copy off of my cds, run the checker, and then see if there's an older EQEmu version that would run with it).

I am glad nobody sayd that to you, because there is NO version of eqemu that will work with a fresh install.

The very first rule is:
Warez Is NOT Allowed
-This includes the transfer of any copyrighted material, including EQ Files and backpatches. Requesting files, even in a PM, will result in a ban.

notice the

including EQ Files

part?

also http://www.eqemulator.net/forums/showthread.php?t=19952 I flat out told you there.

[Ibix]

<<Taken to PMs>>

[iamjooish2]

hmmm, kinda going out on a limb here...

Keep in mind while it's completely against the forum rules to ask for or give out files copyrighted by SoE, it's not against /anything/ to simply look for them. Certainly sifting through search engine results is better than getting banned.

Just sayin'....

[Jarin]

I think the admins of this site need a little moderation skills. I mean honestly, what kind of administration bans people without prior notice? Did you ever stop to think that people didn't find the rules and read them?

Your answer to that is no, simply because the rules are there. But did you take into consideration the fact that there is *no* link to the rules *anywhere* on the front page OR the forum home page? You might want to step the user-friendliness up a notch and actually put a visible link to the rules post so that people don't miss it. You said yourself people are idiots, so if that's the case then they won't search for the rules. Unless of course you're just luring the people in so you can ban them just for that reason, in which case you, my friends, are the idiots.

Not to mention, yes warez is illegal, but did you ever stop to think that this entire project is illegal? If you're going to break one law you mightaswell break one more and let them have the files. There's idiocy for you.

My two cents: Get some better administrators, learn how to run your forum, and find someone who has people skills, because you sure as hell don't. Yeah, go ahead and ban me, I could care less about this underfunded, dead-end project.