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How do I avoid getting banned?

13 votes

Well, the whole thing was in the body of the question, but Pokemaster asked that I changed the question to
" How do I avoid getting banned ? " and just put that as an answer.
I guess it makes it look better, etc. But yeah.
( I posted the guide below in the answer box )

And a note to users: This is not a question I'm asking for you to answer, I made a guide on how NOT to be banned, and I'm guessing that what I'm doing now will make it more searchable etc.

asked Nov 27, 2011 by Josh
edited Nov 28, 2011 by Josh
I just fixed a little mistake in the Buddy voting thing. You said Pokemon can see it, instead of Pokemaster can see it. I also gave a tip for the chat.
this should go in useful questions
About dumb q's: Are you talking about my question on TM 81 X-Scissor? I certainly hope not, I wanted a specific answer.
Wasn't necesarily reffering to that, reffering to something that happened in the past.
Either way, stop bringing that up and getting super defensive etc.
Thanks J98. I like to keep things in the Q&A format, even if you answer your own question :) And others are free to answer as well...but I don't think anyone can add anything to your post.
Haha, I was going to say that but I thought I would sound like a bit of a hot head xD
But I'm in it to help the users. :]

1 Answer

13 votes

Hi, I'm J98, and this is my guide, on how to stay off of the ban list.

So yeah, once again, introduction, I'm J98.
I'm an Expert user, so I have a few more things I can do that other users, but for the most part I'm another user and pokemon fan like you guys, but I've been around the site for a while now, and I've seen people get banned, and I've even gotten very short time period bans myself, for little things ( Being rude in the chat mostly... xD )

Anyway, I'm here to show new users, and any users who aren't fully educated , on how to stay clean on the Pokemondb, and stay off of the ban list!!

So, lets get started, I'm going to break this down by sections of the DB.

Pokebase

Here we have the Pokebase! You can get into all kinds of trouble here, so lets see what to avoid.

Pointless Down-voting

This is something that can get out of hand quickly! Nobody takes being down-voted very well at all, but pointless downvotes, are just taken entirely bad!!
If you start down-voting things just for the heck of it, you're going to end up being banned.
From previous experience, your first offense will most likely be a warning, ( Depending on your track record ) but more than one will lead to a ban! and bans are bad!

Duplicate accounts

Yes, I know. You thought of the best solution. Nobody has ever thought to do this before!
You're so brilliant! You're so amazing! Think of all the points you'll get for this!
The duplicate account! Up-voting yourself! Ask questions and answer them!
Well guess what? Several other users have done this in the past, and almost gotten banned, due to a big " revelation " where all of the users who had cheated admitted what they'd done. While good users have came back from it, making a duplicate is not okay! This will lead you to being banned, although if you give a straight up confession, you'll just have the points gained removed ( If you've been doing this, you might wanna fess up soon.. )

Out of hand, buddy voting

This is not, " Hey, can you vote this up? " messages in the chat.
This is, " Hey, lets vote up everything each other has done! " in the chat.
This is going to obviously get you in some trouble, as Pokemaster can see! Who voted on what!
Which means if you happen to gain 2000 points, and so did your buddy, you just made a no-no.
While up-votes are accepted and good! Draw a line, and don't be a pest to those around you asking for multiple up-votes just to make yourself look good! It's basically a duplicate account, with a little more work.

Pointless flags

****Snickers**** psst! Hey! I'm gonna go flag random stuff! XD
Yeah, not funny. Flagging things automatically will lead Moderators and Pokemaster, to check if they're really breaking the rules or not. If you're flagging questions, that don't break the rules, you'll most likely, get banned!
Mods and Pokemaster don't need to go through the time to sort through flagged questions that don't break the rules! If it doesn't break the rules, don't flag it! Simple as that, don't get yourself banned over stupidity.

Poll-Questions

Oh here we go, Poll-Questions!
Listen, if you want to see " What's your favorite Pokemon? " the go to the chat ask people there.
Those type questions don't have a designated answer, blah blah blah. Don't do it, multiple counts can get you banned! And the whole point of this guide, is to avoid being banned.

Dumb-Questions

This won't get you banned ( Sadly -_-' ) but, this is a general " If you want other users to respect and/or like you " kind of thing. Asking several dumb questions, can easily get users to not like you. It would have to get insanely bad to be ban worthy, but really, why do it?

Chat

Being Rude to others

I know I'm guilty of this " Show me respect, and I might show you some " - My profile
There are always going to be arguments and drama in the chat. But we try to avoid that..
So, one of the simple rules, is Don't be rude!
Simple as that, don't be rude to others, don't get banned! :D
Pretty much all of the chat points, lead back to this.

Also a tip from SF: You have to be very careful how you word things on the chat because people cannot see you facial expression or body language. I have learned this the hard way and it has caused me a lot of trouble.

Posting in ALL CAPS

While making like ONE OR TWO WORDS in all caps on an occasion, is okay.
We don't promote ALL CAPS messages, it can also be considered spamming.
So yeah, repeated use of that, will get you banned, so don't do it.

Spamming

While Pokemaster has said in the past, " It's okay to spam if nobody else is in the chat "
That's pretty much the only time it's okay.
I've seen several spammers get banned before ( Mukuhawk239 for example ).
Nobody here respects that, it's not accomplishing anything, and it'll get you banned.
Don't do it.

Meta

Clogging up the Meta

The only real bad thing you can do here, is to clog up the Meta with pointless posts, or complaints, etc.
Nobody cares for a tattle tale, so don't try to report EVERYTHING you see.
You can keep notes on users, and if it gets super out of hand, come to a mod, then to Pokemaster.
Just don't clog up the Meta ( Example user: Mr. {Shadow} )

RMT

I'm just gonna quote what you have to do to not get banned in here.
Follow this rule right here.

" All team questions go on the Rate My Team sub-section here. You must follow some slightly stricter rules here, this is just to stop it getting overrun with pointless unanswerable questions. You must include:

All the Pokemon in the team (i.e. 6 for regular battles, 4 for double battles)
All 4 moves for each Pokemon
Abilities and Natures
EVs (effort values) - if you don't know about these then you must state the Pokemon's role in the team (attacker, defender, sweeper, wall etc). " - Rules

Follow that, and you won't be banned!

And last but not least, read the Rules! if you avoid doing all of the things listed, read the Rules well, and put these things into action! Then you should stay clean on the DB, and not get banned! :D


If any other Experts would like to edit this, please run it by me. And of course, Mods and Pokemaster can edit as they please :P Just a polite request for all fellow Experts.

answered Nov 28, 2011 by Josh
A great post, just review your comma use.   You're a little bit comma-happy and have a lot of unnecessary ones ;).  Example: "So, one of the simple rules, is Don't be rude!" (omit second comma). There really are quite a lot of these.  Plus you misquoted your own profile :P  Sorry, the grammar ninja in me made me mention this ;)
Aww, but I love commas! XD
I'm aware of my comma addiction, and, wow, did, I , really, misquote, that,?
:]
Yeah.  You put  " Show me respect, and I might show you some "  while on your profile it says "Learn to respect me, and maybe I'll decide to respect you." :P
Huh, I, could, have, sworn, I, had, that, wording ,at ,one, point,.
Oh, well, either, way, same, meaning, I, guess,.
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