Alright, a lot of you are complaining, so maybe I should explain the subtle hints in the last posts of the previous news posting, for those that did not understand.

The list of who was to be banned was made in 3 steps.
First, a list from the logs of everyone who has accessed a multiple account since january 1st was made by computer.
Second, Staff went over the list BY HAND, and looked at the logs from each group of accounts. When discrepancies were found, the accounts were put onto the ban list.
Third, Anyone who was on the legal multi list and only had discrepancies of the number of people at an IP block, and that the numbers and logs matched up, were excused.

NO ONE WAS BANNED just because they came up on the computer generated list. If you were banned, it was because your account displayed one of these discrepancies listed below. What this means is that in 90% of cases, you are guilty of breaking a rule. IF you're the 10% that was banned because someone else from another area was using your account, probably without your knowledge, we apologize but contact for appeal so we can be sure you change your password/email so it doesn't continue.


Now, to define what discrepancies there were:
You were banned if your account displayed ANY OF THESE. Most of these are situations where you NEED TO APPEAL so you can be informed of exactly what and measures can be taken to insure it doesn't happen again.
1. Account hopping - This is where one person logs on to one account, then logs off, quickly onto another account to do something the primary account couldn't, or to take items, then back onto their main account to pick up the items/animals/whatever.
2. Account Stealing - If Multiple IP Blocks in vastly different regions access the same account, it is banned so that the proper owner can appeal and be informed of the situation, as well as ensure that their email and password is changed.
3. Multiple Accounts - This is the act of one person using more then one account. Basically a more extreme version of account hopping, this is where someone uses a secondary account for a gm miner, fisher, or maybe just to steal everything they own, and they do so multiple times on a regular basis.
4. Account/People Mismatch - If we have 5 people we know are in an area, for example in italy, and we see 8 accounts comming from italy, then there is something wrong. Especially if staff cannot account for the other 3 people, then the accounts are banned till we can account for who is abusing those 3 extra accounts.

People were asked to register for the legal multi list, but that did not prevent them from getting their logs checked, nor did it keep them from being banned if a discrepancy was found. If you all want to keep complaining that staff are horrid and they banned people who are known to be different people, that's fine, but I will say this once more. Everyone who was banned had a problem with their logs. Please appeal to myself (Echo) to find out what that problem was, what fix it needs, if any. We tried contacting those who were in-game at the time of banning about their problems, and did so the day before, and the day before that. If we did not get to you, I apologize.

Now if you all want to keep complaining you're innocent or staff are horrid, we can start airing people's dirty laundry. 95% of the people complaining have serious marks on their logs, such as account hopping or looting. Again, Just send your appeal to myself (Echo) and let's get this sorted. For the few that are mostly innocent and just have marks because your account was "stolen", I.e. you gave out details to someone else, or you are using an account that previously belonged to another person without changing the email/password and they retrieved it, I apologize for the inconvenience but most of you have already been asked once or twice to change your account details.

The banning, which will be temporary (only a few days) for a lot of people, is mainly because most of these people have been told time and time again not to do the things that their logs show them doing. This is your only wakeup call. Staff have been nice, and have said nicely, don't do this. Don't do this, 1 hour jail. Don't do this, 1 day jail. Here's your wakeup call.