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It's been configured to show up about once a day for normal usage. If and when it happens it should be a one click effort, unless Google's Re-Captcha detect some potential problems. Might you be running any sort of VPN or proxy software?

Speaking strictly personally I've always been mostly against implementing a longer ban after a perma because it generally doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

We have a general policy of issuing a lot of warnings before a user is banned, and then you need to accumulate bans before the perma ban. In most cast a user will experience a 3-day ban, then a 14-day ban before the perma. If a user feels they don't understand the specific rule they violated enough after serving a two-week ban, why would a 6 month ban change anything?

Keep in mind that you're generally not banned for violating multiple clauses of the ToS, you receive bans when you keep violating the same clause you were previously warned about. E.g., if you get a warning for abuse, and then a warning for copyright infringement, you aren't going to get a ban for "ToS" violation.

So in order for someone to climb to a perma-ban on a non-serious offense, they have to have a pretty significant history of offenses for the same violation. How would a longer ban assist in stopping that?

I might be speaking a little more freely as this won't be my purview anymore on the 31st and who knows what will change, but dude, speaking as someone who has done this for a little over 12 years as a mod and admin, the number of times a heavy handed ban is issued is so very, very rare. The team is very well trained on leniency and giving everyone as much as a chance as possible. There have been a number of times both mods and admins have gotten on me for being too generous. There's a large contingent of people who aren't going to tell their friends, "I got banned, but it's because I was warned so many times before about not doing something and I didn't listen and didn't think they would do it." They're going to stretch the truth a bit because getting banned is an embarrassing thing. We would prefer not to issue out bans because it really is the worst thing to happen to a user.

On the topics of "jokes," what I think a lot of people miss is that some "jokes" are jokes that we really can't tolerate and we can't allow. That some "jokes" need to be taken seriously or are otherwise just not appropriate for the site. I can't speak to the specifics of the situation because I don't know those involved, but I've seen a lot of people who have "joked" about things and we, as a moderation team, have to look at it and go, "You can't joke about this stuff, it isn't allowed, and the joke is so bad that it's crossed a line that you just can't ignore it."

I'll admit that it's possible we can probably offer a more formal warning about jokes that cross the line before the ban, and maybe that's something that will change, but without context I can't speak as to whether or not a particular joke has crossed the line and can only speak from the many "jokes" I have seen in the past that people have gotten banned for.

But even if we did that it doesn't mean that everyone is going to get a pass. That's the thing, without context I can't tell you what "jokes" you're referencing?

Someone joking about being under 13? That is going to get you banned regardless of anything. It's COPPA, if you want that changed you're going to have to rally Congress.

Someone joking about sexually assaulting a minor? You're going to get banned and reported to the police.

Someone joking about murdering someone on the streets? You're likely going to get banned.

Someone joking about DDOS'ing someone else? Yeah, likely get banned.

Someone joking about having plans to shoot up a school or mall? Damn right you're gonna get banned and hopefully have a few cops knock on your door.

These are some examples of things that we can't go, "Oh yeah, you were joking, we can give you one more chance." We have to take them seriously in order to protect the community and the website.

I am not sure why you think a joke should get someone out of the consequences of breaking a rule.

For instance, people have long known Gaia does not allow users to joke about being under aged. We are required by law (as in some pretty massive fines per instance) if we knowingly allow an under aged user to stay on Gaia.

And yet, despite our saying it in ATS, multiple times in the past in various threads of users complaining about their bans, and a thread Things not to Joke about on Gaia specifically saying do not do this or we will be forced to ban you, people still think "Oh, it's just a joke! I should be able to say it despite the rules!"

We updated the chat servers some time back to prevent this. If it is still happening please report the user using the report system in the flash space.

We're working on getting rid of the 50x errors with a new server build. For the time being we shouldn't be seeing any more of those errors.

Forgot to add this to my to-do list last time, I'll add that to the list, will have it fixed this week or the next.

Are you not getting the prompt which tells you to check your email? Or are you not getting the email verification letter? Still hunting this issue down.

Hmm, let me check on that again. I must have messed up when I re-enabled the feature.

Hi there,

You do, you see it in every listed violation in the ToS. You broke the rules, then tried to evade punishment by using a different account thereby involving that account in the violation. It's the same as if you used that second account to do it essentially.

Hi there,

The short version is we look at a variety of factors in determining whether or not an account is a mule or not. Only once we have made that determination will we go ahead and ban, if warranted.

Unfortunately we can ONLY talk to the account owners about details due to privacy so your writing about your friend, while we may look into what you sent we would not reply with any info on the accounts you were writing to us about, sorry.

Hi there,

1) Moderators are accountable to me. Full stop. I have, and if needed in the future, will remove Moderators if necessary. Will I tell you about such an issue? No, just as I wouldn't discuss an issue with you or your account with the rest of ATS, due to privacy issues.

2) Making vague accusations saying "I don't need to go into specifics" is a specious argument. You are saying I don't need proof for me to be right. And, just because we ask for proof and then judge the proof provided as not holding up in your eyes doesn't make the decision we made any less valid. We do our best to be as fair and balanced as possible, but sometimes the decision will not go your way. By the same token I have reversed decisions made by Moderators when appropriate. Will I now tell you about those? Nope, just as any company wouldn't discuss such things in public.

3) I actually was providing information for not only you, but anyone who has an issue. You have already PM'd me with the issue you have but if you wanted a different place to discuss your topic I was providing it.

Hi there,

Have you reported this user and the accounts they make?