Banning people retroactively for scamming

[Rigamorty]

So as anyone who can read should know by now, scamming is finally against the rules. That's absolutely fantastic, I've always been one to argue that should be the case. But it's occurred to me that someone I know has gotten banned for scamming someone nearly a month before the rule existed. That doesn't seem right to me. 

 

In this post Kyu says they'll ban people who have done it in the past week, which still to me sounds ridiculous but I can see why they would want to otherwise there'd be a bunch of "but wahh i just got scammed why is this just now a rule?" but even so, at that point, it was not a rule. No one had agreed not to scam people at that point, and considering the staff had constantly refused to moderate trades and punish scamming, it had been made very clear that it was within the rules, and that you wouldn't get banned for it. 

 

It just doesn't seem reasonable to me to ban people for something that was made known that it was within the rules, because a rule got made a month after he did that thing that was at the time within the rules. 

 

Now before I get shit for sticking up for a scammer and what not, I realize he's a shithead and an idiot for doing it in the first place, and I don't approve personally of him doing it by any means, but I definitely also do not approve of him being permanently banned for something that he did that was totally within the rules at the time, and it was made very aware to everyone to be careful to not get scammed because of the fact that it was within the rule. 

 

Just for good measure if anyone is thinking "they wouldn't ban someone for something that happened a month ago, he's probably lying" here's a screenshot of rachel acknowledging that it happened nearly a month ago, and well over the week's "Grace period" in the case that should actually be a reasonable thing.

Spoiler

Now mind you, don't hit me with the "tell them to post in ban appeal, locking and trashing this now" because he's already got his ban appeal in and that's not what this is about. I want clarification, is that one week grace period thing a load of bullshit, and even so, why was that a thought in the first place? Why is it thought to be okay to ban people for something that wasn't against the rules at the time? Should we assume anyone with proof of an old scam should make a report and get that person banned for any scam between the time this game existed and now because a rule was finally made? Should scammers start giving away their stuff now before skeletons from the past come back to point fingers at them?

Edited July 22, 2017 by Rigamorty

[Rache]

The one week grace period was originally intended to only allow for cases which occurred in the past week, but it has been modified to where we will be looking at older cases if the player provided evidence of it occurring.

 

We do agree it was a mistake to retroactively permaban people during this grace period though, and will resolve this case shortly.

 

Thank you for your feedback.