December 19, 2001 - Sirian

The IDL Rules have been updated. Familiarize yourself with the changes (indeed, all the rules, changed or not) at your earliest opportunity. The first section, defining the IDL organizational structure, has been modified to include express rules governing versions of the game, the controls, and any support software. This change is long overdue, but less than ideal. Frankly, we continued to hold out in hopes of better options, but it has become clear that we cannot wait any longer. So... the IDL now has specific rules to govern standardization of controls, patches, framerates, utilities. These rules are effective immediately. Check with each opponent to see if they are aware of the new rules, and find out if they comply with them before you play the match. The ladder relies on you, the player, to set a tone of honor and legitimacy for the IDL. We need your help to enforce these rules. - Sirian, IDL Staff

December 19, 2001 - Sirian

The player known as Skunk/Ahimsa is now BANNED from the IDL for CHEATING. The IDL Staff has had conclusive evidence on this player for some time, but has maintained surveillance of the player in secret while investigating a wide number of players who fell under our suspicions, in a sting operation with potential consequences (in the worst case) of the staff deciding to close the IDL permanently. Such closure was SERIOUSLY discussed, as the senior staff simply doesn't have the time or commitment to invest on a scale necessary to restore the ladder integrity to where we'd like to see it. Thankfully, we did not find any other cheaters, leading us to the conclusion that the problem appears to have been isolated to this player, while problems with other players centered around a matter of confusion regarding what is or is not acceptable in terms of patches, versions, controls, and utilities. When the application process was handed to the First Tier, it was with the express intent of establishing security against CHEATERS for the IDL players. We can no longer maintain security with a proliferation of players rolling in and out and in and out of the revolving door that was the LT Admissions process. While Skunk was the only cheater we found, we did find an alarming number of players with sloppy attitudes about the ladder, the game, and their obligations to the IDL inherent in their membership. In the wake of Realm being caught cheating, it appears that the handling of that matter has sent the wrong message to a number of players. We bent over backward to establish indisputable visual proofs of this cheater, rather than getting rid of him when we had convincing circumstantial proofs. Rather than seeing this as the IDL taking extreme care with its members, some players have seen it only as a sign of weakness, that the rules here don't really matter and nobody will do anything or even know about it if they are broken. WRONG. Cheaters are not only not welcome here, but completely irrelevant. Nothing they do, say, or leave behind, will be viewed as in any way meaningful or noteworthy. To cheat is to erase yourself from relevance, to become a nonperson. Don't do it, and don't tolerate anybody else doing it, either, as we are all diminished thereby. The list of violations performed by Skunk include (but are not necessarily limited to) use of shield and weapon hacks IN MATCHES, use of hacked graphics and sounds, conspiracy to proliferate hacks among other players, solicitation of falsification of match reports by other players (attempting to get them to cheat for him), and just generally being a real ass. I know you have left the ladder, cheater. You aren't welcome back: stay gone. Your known nicknames have been banned, and the First Tier will be on the look out for you. The IDL will probably not survive the next cheater, if there is another. I therefore urge all currently active members to set a positive tone, to step up and take some active role in maintaining the ladder. Following the rules benefits all, but that also includes zero tolerance for those who would abuse the system for selfish (and false) glories. There is no reason the IDL couldn't stay open indefinitely, unless some or all of the members create such a reason. So learn the new rules, conform to officially endorsed software, take an interest in what your opponent is up to, and if you discover any problems or want new options to be considered, go through the proper channels. - Sirian, IDL Staff

November 3, 2001 - Sirian

rott has been banned from the IDL. This action was requested by the First Tier, because it is impossible to initiate Regulate Page measures except against current or retired members of the IDL. rott was Kick-45'd in the past, and now he has quit and the First Tier has had enough of his behavior. By a unanimous ten to zero vote, with six nonvotes or abstentions, the First Tier decided to ban rott once and for all. Players voting FOR the ban on rott: Warlord, Merl, Nitrate, Jediluke, kurupt, Esp, Chipmunk, DESTROYER, ChaosWing, LordDeath. The ban was carried out administratively. - Sirian, Senior Administrator

November 1, 2001 - Sirian

The rules and the procedure governing admissions to the IDL has been temporarily changed to First Tier control. Applicants must now apply to a new mailing list, and the UT players will decide who gets in or not. Five Yes votes required, and no more than one Against or the application will be rejected. Those accepted will be notified by email (they must have a working email address, therefore) and will be issued a random password, which they should then change to one of their choice. FULL disclosure of prior nicknames used is now required by rule, and anyone not forthcoming with this information will be banned when caught. If you aren't willing to let us know you are and who you have been, go elsewhere to play. Changes may be made to this procedure in coming days/weeks. Once finalized, the rules will be altered and the FAQ updated to reflect the new policy. - Sirian, Senior Administrator

October 24th, 2000 - Karash

Just a heads up to non-UT out there about the regulate page. A new 24 hour rule has taken effect before ANY vote can pass on the regulate page. So this is why you are seeing votes carried on when typically that should be 'closed'. This is in an effort to get more participation from the UT members and make sure no vote goes un-counted. Also, please do not abuse the forum. We all understand its broken and basically on its last legs, but dont test our patience. I will remove the forum again if this becomes a trend of certain people until we can get an updated version. - Karash, Head Admin

October 16th, 2000 - Karash

As most of you have seen, I have banned Realm's profile from the IDL, and he is no longer welcome to play on the IDL anymore. Over the last few months there has been an ongoing investigation into reports that he was cheating in the game. That investigation gave us undisputible evidence showing that he was indeed cheating. Below is the email I had sent to realm explaining things and I think everyone should read it as well as it illustrates the situation. =========================== Realm, A few months ago I was contacted by 3 to 4 IDL players that suggested you might be cheating in the game. At first I blew it off as it is extremely hard to prove someone was cheating in the game. Usually you only see the dumbass's cheat with their quad megas or permanent invulnerability. If not for those, it can usually be attributed to lag or whatnot. Needless to say I was very skeptical. Your standing as a UT member also weighed in my mind. I just couldn't possibly think that a UT member would 'cheat'. The reports of weird things happening in your games continued however, from finding you facing a corner and not bobbing up and down (alt-tabing), to direct smart missile hits and no death. Being the administrator of the IDL I had certain responsibilities to act on these concerns. I instructed several members of the UT and a few others to record demos of their matches with you. My hope was we could see exactly why people were saying negative things and possibly explain it away. I put one of my staff members, LordDeath, in charge of the 'investigation' as you will. I have the utmost respect and trust in him, and have known him for quite some time. He also works at Outrage now, and could use any resources they might have there. I have 2 reports from him centered around 3 of the demos. I will provide the links to all evidence below. I also had someone outside the IDL Staff take a look at a demo and that was Vain. They both came to the same conclusion independently of each other. Vain knew nothing of LordDeath's reports...we just wanted to see if he would come to the same conclusion and he did. Please note there were more demos than these 3. However these illustrate the conclusion of the report. The conclusion being that you do in fact cheat in IDL matches. I have looked at the demos with the tools and have come to the same conclusion. I have shown these to Sirian to see what he thinks and he is of the same conclusion. I have shown these to Birdseye (yes he is a staff member) to see what he thinks and he is of the same conclusion. In short, anyone I show these demos to comes to the same conclusion. I am sure some will disagree just because they are your friends or whatever, but I was impartial throughout this investigation. However now I am not impartial. In fact I am pretty pissed off that you would do such a thing on the IDL. You even have a great website dedicated to news on the IDL, but I find out you are doing this kind of thing almost doesn't make sense. I would also like to add I am very disappointed as well in the outrageous abuse of the FPS bug that you use. Any excuse from not using D1x or framecapping your D2 is lame in my opinion. You should be ashamed on both cheating and FPS abusing. My initial reaction was to let the UT handle this. However, I have changed my mind about that after talking with some of my staff. If I left it up to the UT, you would have a chance to get out of things (however small that may be), and there would probably be a huge ruckus about it, as I do not know how you will react to this news. I will be honest in saying my trust in the UT has gone down over the last year, and so I am not leaving this up to them. I believe I have a solid case and overwhelming evidence to support an Admin Ban on your profile. In short, this is the worst thing to ever happen on the IDL in the many years it has been open. Nothing has come close to a UT caught cheating in matches. Therefore I am initiating a profile ban on the IDL and asking you to never return. The evidence can be found from the IDL site: Realm Prelim Report Realm Final Report Sound modifications for clang detection Demo 1 Demo 2 Demo 3 Please note you can also use DTX2 to replace sounds in D1 and D2. This is what we did initially but we have provided the soundfixes.zip as a shortcut so you do not have to do this. I have emailed this letter in advance of the stated actions to let you respond directly to me before I initiate the ban. All evidence will be available to all members of the IDL. I await your response in whatever form that may be. Karash Head Administrator, IDL =============== I have since gotten his response and going ahead with the Ban. I am sure there will be MANY people out there very critical of myself and the IDL for this action. However, I am confident that anyone viewing the demos will see the obvious cheating going on. If anyone would like to contact me about this situation please do so via email or catch me in IRC. - Karash, Head Admin