Life In 19x19

hi all,

For the last 3 days I cant log on kgs. The message I get is :

Sorry, you cant log in because this account or internet address is temporarily blocked. The reason for blocking is "not welcome".

Its weird because i wasnt doing anything special, and have received no warning. Any idea what happenned?

I suggest writing to the moderators. In my experience, it’s possible to get banned from KGS for as little as telling a joke. (On the other hand, getting banned from KGS led me to discover Tygem. )

haha, now im on wbaduk

The strange thing is that i didnt wrote anything in any chat windows, i was just watching a game. How do you write to the moderators? Do u have their mail address?

It's possible that you are connecting to KGS from the same IP address of somebody who is not welcome. If you email to admin@gokgs.com explaining this, they will usually tell you which account was actually being blocked. Then if that isn't you...well...if the offending user is indeed on the same IP address, then you're still out of luck, but at least you might know why. "Not welcome" I would hope is a message used only for very serious repeat offenders who we have asked never to return to KGS. (E.g., the guy who would log on several times a day and do nothing but flood rooms with obscenities until he was thrown out, then when he got bored he would change IP address and do it again.)

Thank you both for your help

Just curious, is there no way to provide an exception to a single username in case of IP bans (I'm pretty computer illiterate, so forgive me if this is a stupid question)?

No, we don't have any system for exceptions to bans.

I thought admins were immune to the ban contagion.

Only superadmins are immune. There are two of us, and I'm not going to make people superadmins just because they are unlucky enough to share an IP address with somebody who has been banned.

In general I don't want to have exceptions because we can't always tell if the person is the same as troublemaker or not. If you could misbehave all you want with one account, get thrown out, then send us an email "Oh, damn, my account xxx seems to share an IP address with some jerk, could you give me an exception?", well then bans are even less useful than they are now. That leaves admins with the choice of being a jerk and not making an exception because they can't be sure, or else weakening bans. I didn't code up the exception, now admins hands are tied so they can only send commiserating emails, and I'm the only one who has to look like a didactic jerk.

i'm just going to ban myself to check

hmmm, now i remember being on a guest account named "banned" (dont ask me why, i dont know ^^) when it happenned... Strange coincidence...

I was banned once when I entered lines to clear some lines flooded by someone else.

Admin tend to have very short temper or very quick finger.

I wonder how hard it is to not get banned?

9+ years, never been denied access once. I'm staring to feel left out.

xed_over wrote:I wonder how hard it is to not get banned?

9+ years, never been denied access once. I'm staring to feel left out.

Me neither, but I rarely take part into chats at the national rooms. I have the feeling there are the most reasons to become banned...

Celebrir wrote:

xed_over wrote:I wonder how hard it is to not get banned?

9+ years, never been denied access once. I'm staring to feel left out.

Me neither, but I rarely take part into chats at the national rooms. I have the feeling there are the most reasons to become banned...

I would say most bans result from the EGR, some more from kibitz. Never seen bans in the national rooms I frequent. I guess a number of people banned on KGS happily play on WBaduk and Tygem only because they are not able to talk the same way over there and are forced by language differences to keep silent and focus on playing.