Community Bans - A banning solution for the MC community.

Discussion in 'WIP and Development Status' started by Sh8kezula, Jul 29, 2011.

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  1. Offline

    Sh8kezula

    Update 9/23/11

    Goal:
    CommunityBans was founded on the idea that no players should be community banned from servers without proof of guilt that is available at the time the ban was issued. We also believe that all proof should be publicly available for reference. If a community ban is issued, then there will always be data available for the community.


    In an effort to reduce abuse in the system and prevent players from being banned by malicious server owners, CommunityBans will require the use of other protection plugins, such as LogBlock to issue bans for grief, and NoCheat to issue bans for hacks, before a community ban can be made by the server. Even if a server does not meet the requirements to issue a community ban, they can still be protected by the database of previously banned players.


    CommunityBans understands that not all server owners have the technical skills to setup a secure server. Our goal is to not only help protect these individuals from malicious users by giving them access to the CommunityBan Database. It is also to provide server owners access to much needed tutorials, information, and a community of players as well as server owners.


    If all servers owners become educated on how to prevent grief and hacking, we can reduce the need to issue community-wide bans. We only want to remove the most malicious users from the community. We are not looking to ban everyone that has removed a single block of sugar cane.


    [​IMG][​IMG]
    [​IMG]

    Working Features:

    • Kicks, mutes, unmutes, tempbans, server bans, and unbans anyone.
    • Fully configurable
    • Incorporates an external language file for different languages and custom messages
    • Supports Permissions (2.x/3.x), Bukkit "SuperPerms", FlatFile, and STRONGLY DIS-RECOMMENDED ops.txt
    • Can automatically gather data from: LogOres, BigBrother, and IPNotify! (Used for community bans which have not been implemented yet
    • Fully supports an internal database with no user configuration required!
    • Lets you decide which types of Community Bans you consider go against your server's rules (You can uphold bans for griefing, but ignore bans made for flying)
    • Authenticates with the CommunityBans Database on startup
    To Do List:

    • Make CommunityBans contact the CommunityBans Database when a ban is issued
    • Automatically creates and sends proof to the CommunityBans database whenever a Community Ban is issued
    • Will gather data from AntiXRay, DataLog, HeroChat, Log, LogBlock, NoCheat, and XRayDetection (PM someone on the development team if you want your plugin added to this list)
    • Support collective IP banning. This means that when multiple people submit Community Bans against multiple accounts with the same IP address, we automatically blacklist that IP (can be disabled)
    • Allow you to lookup if a user has already been community banned, for what reasons, and how many times
    • Alert admins whenever a player joins with any community bans on record
    • Allow players who think that they were community banned without merit to appeal their ban
    • Give people very clear instructions when they get community banned how to appeal
    Changes:

    • Added tempban support
    • Switched everything from flatfile to SQLite (internal database with no user configuration).
    • Major bug fixes
    • Officially in closed beta! (however all of the source code is available on GitHub)
    The Team:

    Thanks for reading. :)
     
    microskies and poiuyt580 like this.
  2. Offline

    Sh8kezula

    Working features, and To Do list updated in the top post.
     
  3. Offline

    rakiru

    So, the difference between this and MCBans is that this automatically pulls the evidence from specific plugins when a ban is made?
     
  4. Offline

    Sh8kezula

    Correct.

    This allows for all evidance to be refeanced.

    Most server owners do not keep back logged data... Most servers dump their LB and BB logs after x number of days to aviod huge query times.. This makes it very hard to uphold bans over time if no one can referance the data..

    With our system no ban will ever affect a players ability to log on to servers if there is no data attached to the ban.

    Evidance is requred 100% of the time to issue a community ban.. Not just when a player makes an appeal.
     
  5. Offline

    Supersam654

    I would also like to add that if you are making a server ban (ban just for your server), that absolutely no proof is required. The only time that CommunityBans automatically fetches proof and requires that there is enough proof is when a community ban is made.
     
  6. Offline

    Sh8kezula

    Also... we will never Mass ban accounts just because someone mentioned the name aVo, or has personal issues with any of the staff.

    If no evidence can be referenced and put on public display.. no player will be removed from public servers.

    If a player has been issued a community ban, that player and the entire community will have access to the evidence provided. Evidence will not be held by us in secret for staff eyes only. It will all be for public viewing. 100% of the time.

    Evidence = Data auto uploaded by the Community Bans Plugin at the moment the ban is issued. (We will never look as screen shots or personal opinions. Only raw data.)

    If a player looks at his ban report and feels that the data does not show that they griefed.. The player can appeal, and the data will be looked at. No one will get the chance to lie about their grief, or fabricate reports. No statements will be taken. The data will be looked at by staff and a decision will be made based on the data only.

    If there is no evidence there is no ban. Period.
     
  7. Offline

    rakiru

    While MCBans only requires evidence if a ban is appealed, this is due to the large amount of storage space required, as well as the fact that bans can be appealed very easily, and if the evidence is non-existent, then the ban is removed, and that server's reputation is lowered. If a server makes several bans without holding evidence, then we have no hesitation in disabling their server from our system. While still allowing these servers to access ban data on players, and thus keep out known griefers, it makes all global bans by that server null and void, and as I stated before, it is incredibly easy to appeal a ban.

    As for your point on fabricating reports, there is no difference in the ability to do so between the two systems.

    Edit: Regarding the auto-uploading of data, what data exactly do you plan on storing, and for how long? If the system becomes as large as MCBans, I can see the amount of data becoming a problem if you plan on storing it forever, and collect logs from the many different plugins out there. If you are only storing data from a select few plugins, you are limiting the choice server admins have as to what they run on their server, and are completely ruling out any server with custom protection plugins running (i.e. several of the big servers).

    I may be a little over-defensive here, as a member of the MCBans dispute team, but I do feel that I raise valid points. I also have one last question: why should a server move from MCBans to this new system?
     
  8. Offline

    Supersam654

    I am not sure if your edit is exactly referencing your first point, but the report systems are completely different. With MCBans, global bans are made with no proof, a user can then appeal it, and if the server owner can provide proof of the ban, it holds (basically). With CommunityBans, community bans are made with proof that is automatically extracted from log files. If someone wants to appeal a ban, they need to actually be able to prove the proof incorrect. Looking beyond the automatic proof-creation part, these systems are complete opposites. With MCBans, players are guilty until they can figure out how to appeal a ban. With CommunityBans, players are guilty because of evidence and can only be found innocent if they can prove that the proof is wrong.

    As far as storing data goes, it will not be a huge burden to store all of it. Because CommunityBans is aware of the size of log files, we are not going to make servers upload entire log files just to prove that someone griefed something. Instead, CommunityBans will automatically extract the relevant pieces of information from the log file and send this "mini" log file to us. Using average lines from a log file (not 5k characters, but not a "hi" from a person either), we have come to a pretty firm conclusion that 200 "average" lines from a log file is 15KB. We also have come to the conclusion that 200 lines of a log is plenty to prove if someone has done something wrong or not. With these simple numbers and a calculator, we can fit almost 70,000 accused players' data in just a GB of storage.

    As for protection plugins, we will be supporting all protection plugins available on Bukkit that export their data to a log file or database. We are currently undecided as to what support server-specific protection plugins will receive, but we can assure you that they will be covered one way or another.

    And as for switching from MCBans to CommunityBans, I probably can't convince someone from the MCBans dispute team to do it, but we (the CommunityBans team) feels that our system is far superior and will lead to a better Minecraft Community compared with they system presented by MCBans.
     
  9. Offline

    rakiru

    I'm going to start from the bottom as that's what I read last (obviously).

    Yse, I wasn't meaning why should I personally switch, but any other server admin. As for yours being superior, the only thing I can see is that proof is automatically uploaded instead of having to rely on admins to save it until such times as it may be needed, which I can well see being useful in many circumstances. However, I would like to present an example of the kind of griefer we often get. They come on the server and mine, build, etc. Their intentions may be to gain trust, or indeed, purely innocent. However, for some reason, they then decide to go around a town breaking glass, torches and emptying every chest within site, and then continue building thinking they'll never get caught. By the time they have griefed, and they have then been found out, the LogBlock/BigBrother log on them has become rather big (a few thousand blocks). This is more than the coupl hundred lines of a log file that you mentioned.

    But returning to your MCBans = guilty until proven innocent against CBans = innocent until proven guilty, appealing a ban on MCBans is not at all difficult, and servers that abuse global bans are quickly removed from the system. Having the system automatically upload proof (griefing - upload LB/BB log, racism etc - ?) doesn't protect from a server banning people at random either. Sure, the log that someone broke blocks will be available for everyone to see anyway, but without context, that data is pretty useless. For all you know, that user could have placed those blocks, or their friend could have given them the building, or they could be working with someone else, thus destroying someone else's blocks, even though they are actually shared. That is a major flaw, because unlike MCBans, you do assume the player is guilty. You claim that the auto-matic uploading of relevant logs is evidence that they are so, but you have not properly considered what happens if someone is wrongfully banned. That "evidence" is still uploaded, and there is no way to tell whether it is legitimate or not. With an appeal based system, such as MCBans, people are welcomed to appeal an invalid ban, and anyone that does so is severely punished, and that player rewarded.
     
  10. Offline

    Sh8kezula

    In this case you will use the banning tool. You place the Tool block in place of the broken (griefed block) It then uploads all edits within an hour of that block by the player that broke it. Not the week of play time... just the 1 hour around the grief.

    When ppl grief they do it all at once... and within a small time frame.

    If your said griefer has slowy in a one week time span has broken 20 glass in 20 diff places this is not a reason for a community ban..

    People seem to be under the impression that every instance of grief requires a community ban. We only want to remove the most malicious of users from the community. We will not be banning any players for 2 blocks of glass or a few trampled wheat... or one gold block placed at spawn as bait.

    It is our goal to remove malicious players as well as malicious server admins....[/quote]


    This tread is about our plugin Community Bans..

    It is not about MCbans policies or their plugin. We do not work for MCbans and can not make acurate statments about their product. So we wont....

    We will however continue to support our product and answer questions related to Community Bans only.

    EDIT by Moderator: merged posts, please use the edit button instead of double posting.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: May 18, 2016
  11. Offline

    Sh8kezula

    Working Features:


    • Kicks players from the game
    • Mutes and unmutes players - Logging out and back in does not remove the mute!
    • Bans players just for your server (ServerBan)
    • Fully configurable
    • Supports an external language file so custom messages can be made, even in other languages!
    • Permissions, Bukkit "SuperPerms", FlatFile, and STRONGLY DIS-RECOMMENDED Ops supported
    • Can automatically gather data from: LogOres, BigBrother, and IPNotify!
    To Do List:
    • Make CommunityBans contact the CommunityBans Database when a ban is issued
    • Lets you decide which types of Community Bans you consider go against your server's rules (You can uphold bans for griefing, but ignore bans made for flying)
    • Lets you customize how many Community Bans someone can have
    • Automatically creates and sends proof to the CommunityBans database whenever a Community Ban is issued
    • Will gather data from AntiXRay, DataLog, HeroChat, Log, LogBlock, NoCheat, and XRayDetection (PM someone on the development team if you want your plugin added to this list)
    • Supports collective IP banning. This means that when multiple people submit Community Bans against multiple accounts with the same IP address, we automatically blacklist that IP (can be disabled)
    • Allows you to lookup if a user has already been community banned, for what reasons, and how many times
    • Alerts admins whenever a player joins with any community bans on record
    • Allows players who think that they were community banned without merit to appeal their ban
    • Gives people very clear instructions when they get community banned how to appeal
    Changes:
    • Added support for Bukkit SuperPerms
    • Partial/Complete support for BigBrother and IPNotify
    • Lots of behind the scenes code cleanup that will make the plugin run much smoother
     
  12. Offline

    andreblue

    I dont like systems like this much, as i have been screwed over by mcbans due to my brother and some idoit who win-gated off my router. So i got banned globaly for nothing. The best best best thing that i think is a warning system. As because of mcbans, i lost access to a) My own server b) a regular server i played on. I got the ban lifted by someone who listened to what i had to say. To prevent things like bad owners, you could just warn, i find a warning is best. Its also in part to the owner to also protect them selves.

    Note:
    Mcbans is a goodish system, and This one looks like it will be better then mcbans, because you seem like you listen. I wish you luck and hope this becomes alot better then mcbans.
     
  13. Offline

    Sh8kezula

    Its not the system that is bad It is the users as you say. Our plugin will require preventative measure be taken before anyone is even able to issue a CommunityBan.

    We are requiring server owners it educate themselves on all grief prevention to avoid the need to even issue community bans in the first place.

    Not only will our ban plugin require the use of other major anit grief plugins to work, the plugin requires the upload of proof with Every Single CBan that is issued. 100% of the time.

    If a server doesn't not have the technical skill to run grief prevention (Logging plugin, Rollback, and permissions.) then that server will not be able to issue community bans. Simple as that. (They can still be protected by the Cban DataBase if requirements are not met.)

    Our goal is prevention first. Removal second. We want Community Bans to be issued for the most malisious of players only. We are not trying to Globaly ban players because Server admin has set a fist full of lighters in an open chest next to a wood house at spawn. Or remove a player.

    If you are a server owner and you don't want guests to your server burning down your homes. Turn off lighters for guests. Don't put free lighters all around hoping to ban arsonists quickly.. Just prevent the action.

    If a player has been banned from a server for breaking five blocks of glass, this is a server side ban only. Five blocks of broken glass is grief, we do under stand that. But its not enough to warrant removing a player from the community completely.

    Banning is not a game. And we will never treat it as such. We take Removing a Player from the MC community Very seriously.
     
  14. Offline

    conway220

    could this take info from mcbans? that way if a server is already mcbans you can keep everyone who is banned, banned
     
  15. Offline

    Sh8kezula

    We will not be transferring any other plugins Ban DataBase. Simply because we will not have the proof with the bans. This would go against CommunityBans code of ethics . If a ban exists in the Community ban database, there will always be proof attached 100% of the time. If there is no proof of grief... there is no Cban.

    You can still download your banned-players.txt from MCbans if you wish to continue using your current ban list.
     
  16. Offline

    Jonchun

    This seems like a great plugin to me. In fact, I think this plugin would work great WITH mcbans. mcbans should be set to a low minimum rep and community bans should be installed( there will be command conflicts so we need to fix that up) but once this is done, server admins will be protected against the most malicious users and warned about potentially malicious users. :)
     
  17. Offline

    dirkson

    Hi guys. Our server recently been burned quite badly by mcbans staff, and we'd very much like to see this module succeed. Do you have a method of accepting donations yet?
     
  18. Offline

    Sh8kezula

    We are setting that up now. Thank you for your support. I will contact you shortly when it is available.
     
  19. Offline

    conway220

    Well, MCbans doesn't realize sometimes logs get cleared when people say /yes after /lb rollback player (NAME) since 100D

    Or some people delete logs over a month old. My server we said /yes after rolling someone back, obviously based on the records and what they did on our server they were a griefer just I didn't know /yes deleted the logs. therefore we lost rep. Also if you get 0 rep in MCBans you're done mcbans wont protect you anymore. This will do both.



    Also at the makers I think this plugin will be awesome. def telling my server to change to it when it is out. just one thing what if the server bans someone for being rude. will it take the chat logs?
     
  20. Offline

    Sh8kezula

    We understand that not all server owners want 1 minute DataBase Query times when using a MySQL Logger. (Witch we require.)

    This is yet another reason Data gets uploaded the second a ban is issued.

    So after you ban the offending player you are free to remove the data from the database to shorten your query times.

    I only keep logs on my server for 30 days... And with a larger server my query times can get pretty large.. So it is very important to remove useless player logs from banned members that will never be coming back.
     
  21. Offline

    rakiru

    LogBlock has a nice feature that allows you to write log files of player changes. /lb writelogfile I think. I personally require my admins to take screenshots of the damage with the LogBlock data in chat. The MCBans team likes this very much as it is easy to read.

    And if you've got 0 rep, that means you've made at least 20 invalid bans. Such a system is useless if it allowed such a high amount of invalid bans in it.
     
  22. Offline

    Sh8kezula

    I will refer you to a previous post.

    Please keep this topic related to Community Bans...

    We have added a donation button to the top post. Thank you for your support.

    [​IMG][​IMG]

    EDIT by Moderator: merged posts, please use the edit button instead of double posting.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: May 18, 2016
  23. Offline

    Sh8kezula

    You can now view some of our progess. We have a web site set up.. Its only been up for a day or so..

    But as new things happen here at CommunityBans.. You will see most of it updated on the web site...

    We are located at www.CommunityBans.com Please com check us out.. Sign up for the forums and help get this ball rolling. With all your help we can put an end to fake fraudulent bans for good!
     
  24. Offline

    saul100

    You should make community ban so when they log on, server owners are warned in console or somethhing
     
  25. Offline

    Excel

    Sir, you are CharlieCraft, You worked for MCBans, You now don't. Now your making a rival plugin to MCBans, are you mad at them in some way? If not, maybe I would help. Also, would there be a rep system?

    Edit: Holy shit, after reading it whole, I really like this idea, off MCBans will go off my plugin list. I really like this idea and want to help it in any way possible.
     
  26. Offline

    Sh8kezula

    I never worked for MCbans.. I provided support for their product on their forums for 1 month.. that is all...

    I pointed out to them some of the flaws in their system, and some room for abuse by server owners. They claimed that thier system doesn't not allow for abuse, and said they will make no changes.

    So instead of I disaffiliated myself with them... I do not feel atm the it is even necessary to have a banning plugin if you know how to run a server properly.

    The only reason I started this project was to stop all the fraudulent community wide bans that other plugins are creating... Its a monster and it needs to be stopped, with a system that provides evidence for all of its ridiculous claims.

    Our goal is more to teach server owners how to prevent grief on their server, reducing the need to issue bans.
     
  27. Offline

    kuyan

    Maybe in order to fund CommunityBans, you could have a small, one-time fee. Google charges $5 to be able to publish apps/extensions to their Web Store. By imposing a small fee, CommunityBans abuse might go down (the server owners are paying for the product; therefore, they'll probably be less likely to abuse it) and the developers can be compensated, even if only a little bit.

    Then again, people should be able to keep griefers off their servers without paying.
     
  28. Offline

    Sh8kezula

    I dont think we will ever have a fee to just use the service. We will problably offer some kind of premium feature. But as to what that might be we are unsure..

    We are about to start testing our beta plugin, so expect to see some progress soon.
     
  29. Offline

    Sh8kezula

    Top Post updated 9/23/11
     
  30. Offline

    Sh8kezula

    We have decided to cancel this project.

    As we continue to develop this plugin we are starting to realize that it would be more beneficial to the community to actually teach Bukkit server owners how to prevent grief, rather than just offer them a solution that puts server administration in the hands of others.

    So if you are a person who is having issues with malicious players on your server, and need help preventing the grief they cause, please feel free to contact me here on the bukkit forums or on my own website as where I am ntall1.

    I will be, in the mean time, writing a tutorial for the bukkit community about server protection and what is needed to prevent grief.

    Lets put the power back in the hands of the server owners.. and not in the hands of strangers who choose to judge members of a community based on their personal sets of standards.

    Let me as you all one thing.
    Do you trust strangers over the internet to make decisions for you? For your server? For your community?

    If the answer to that is no.. Then why would you wish to have a 3rd party control who can or can not access your server.
     
    Supersam654 likes this.
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