Ban
- This article is about bans that apply in-game. For information on bans that apply on this wiki, see RuneScape:User block policy.
A Ban may be given for repeated violation of the Rules of RuneScape. An account starts off with 0 out of 10 black marks, but this may increase if the player breaks the rules. The account is in the green zone if it has no black marks, though changes through yellow, orange and red as offences accumulate. The black marks and the zone can change suddenly if the player commits serious offences. Offenders may be banned or just muted, and either may be temporary (for example, for 24 hours) or permanent. Muted players cannot type freely in the chat interface (though they are able to use Quick Chat), but banned players are unable to log into the game at all. Players who are banned are also not allowed to vote in polls or go on the forums without first logging out.
Generally, players are permanently banned after 10 blackmarks. But if certain appeals are made, players may result in more. You will be on a last chance, in which case any more offences will get you permanently banned, unless another last chance appeal is made.
There was once an area called The Black Hole in the Dwarven Mine area of RuneScape Classic where banned players were sent for an indefinite amount of time. However, this was later removed. Players could exit The Black Hole by using a Disk of returning.
A division of Jagex known as Customer Support currently handles bans and blocks.
As of 11 May 2009, Jagex no longer hands out Black Marks, but instead archives the offence. They have also quashed some offences.
Game bans
Game bans restrict players from access to their accounts, usually for violating one of the Rules of Conduct. If the player appeals their ban, it may be accepted, either restoring the account completely or with a permanent mute.
Permanently banned or muted players may be offered a "last chance appeal". The Game Guide says: "If you are permanently banned or permanently muted and have appealed all open offences, you may be given the option to make one final appeal in order to regain your account. Please be aware that if your appeal is accepted or you or permanently muted and have no further chances to appeal your offences."
Forum bans
Bans from the RuneScape Forums are for essentially similar reasons to those in-game. However, they also include flaming and spamming; while spamming in-game is an offence, many players do not realise this and it often goes unreported.
If a player is muted or banned from the game, they are also automatically banned from the forums. If a player is muted or banned from the forums, they are not necessarily banned from the game.
Players can also be permanently banned from the forums; This can happen when you spam, troll, advertise websites, or break any other Jagex Rules in the Forums. Permanent forum bans may affect the in-game status of the account, so if you get permanently banned from the forums, you may also be permanently muted in-game, or any other punishment may be given to your in-game status
Banned account reinstatement
"If Jagex bans any account as a result of your breach of the Rules of RuneScape and you have exhausted the Offence Appeals Process, Jagex may, in its absolute discretion, give you an opportunity to make a fixed payment to reinstate the account.
Any membership credit that is associated with an account cannot be used to pay for such reinstatement. Please note that throughout the period during which the account was banned, any membership credit will continue to expire.
Jagex is not obliged to reinstate any accounts. You are not obliged to exercise the option to reinstate your account. If you are offered the opportunity, it is entirely up to you whether you make any such payment to reinstate an account." - Runescape Website - http://services.runescape.com/m=rswiki/en/Disabled_Accounts
Any gains or advantages that Jagex considers were made as a result of using macros shall be removed from your account. You accept that the account will be returned to you, adjusted by Jagex to take account of the cheating offence, and no discussion will be entered into regarding the status of a returned account.
If a player uses up all of their appeals, they still have another chance at regaining their account at the discretion of Jagex. If a player is lucky and is picked by Jagex to unban their account, Jagex will send a message to them explaining the Banned Account Reinstatement process. To retrieve the account, Jagex charges rule breakers a fee to be able to use their banned accounts again. It is not mandatory to comply with the fee, it is only an offer at a second chance.
Current membership payments will not count towards the Banned Account Reinstatement fee. If a player does choose to pay the fee to regain their account, anything that was affected by whatever rule was broken (i.e. if someone used a macro to get 10 fishing levels) will be removed from the account - a simple rollback.
Jagex is currently planning to review bans of accounts that have been cheating and considering a rollback on those accounts, giving the owners access to the accounts again.<ref>Mod Stevew. "Account Reinstatement (BAR)". 17 February 2011. Account Help Forums. *</ref>. This will not apply to every player who was banned, but only the ones selected by Jagex.
Mod Mosley
Jagex Mod
21-May-2011 08:49:06
"I believe we are nearing the final stages of preparation ready for us to begin reviewing. However please be aware that we may not even start the process for 6 months or more."
Quick Find Code on Runescape Forums: 250-251-339-62801462
Mod Keildest 06-Jul-2011 16:50:12
Hi,
They actually have started unbanning accounts posted on the (BAR) thread. However progress is done case by case, and the criteria used and process is completely up to our investigations team.
To quote the thread:
"Just to be 100% clear - this option is absolutely at our discretion - we do not wish to divulge our decision making process, and the decision to unban a previously banned account lies solely with us and is on a case-by-case basis."
They do not assure in any way that all accounts will be considered for reinstatement so we cannot offer you any assurance or estimated time for this process.
The only way is to keep checking your account now and then and hope for the best.
Also I do believe that we have not mentioned anywhere that a sticky would be made on the account help forum when they begin processing requests.
Hope this info helps!
Mod Keildest
Quick Find Code on RuneScape Forums: 250-251-467-62962171
Mod Stevew 20-Jul-2011 13:04:11
Hi there,
We have reviewed a number of accounts that we already had in mind as being suitable for BAR, and these people may also have posted on the BAR thread. That is why you may see people saying 'I posted on page so-and-so and I've been offered BAR' - these people would have been offered it anyway, not because they have posted on the thread.
However, we have now run some tests on the thread, for example to see how good the quality of posting is (so .. have people posted just the account name, or have they posted other text).
We've also removed all duplicate posts - so with those 2 tests complete we think that we could review about 30 - 40% of the posts on the thread.
Each account needs to be reviewed by a specialist member of staff, and to be very blunt, they simply have higher priorities right now. We are still considering reviewing the thread account names, but we think the majority of the community would rather the anti-cheating team spent their time dealing with current cheating before focusing their efforts on people who have already been caught cheating in the past.
I know a lot of people want to hear a BAR start date - but it just isn't possible to give one right now - sorry.
As soon as we have a confirmed start date, we'll update the main thread.
Cheers,
Steve
Quick Find Code on RuneScape Forums: 250-251-448-63011693
Mod Mat K"Vipers - Speaking of BAR, is that legitimate? "
Yes it is legitimate, the whole point of BAR is to allow the non-threatening (that’s threatening to Jagex and the Community) back into game for a price, this allows us to use the funds to find more cheats. Ideally, the BAR would fund all anti-cheating measures so that all the legitimate players’ money can go into creating game and content. To be honest though, we are not using BAR that much.
"Yet you have the audacity to say "Never be in any doubt that Jagex is against bots wholeheartedly"?!"
The BAR system is not used very much, we review every account that is added and it isn’t a priority at the moment. I also believe that accounts caught botting are not given another chance.
Please note that quotes added are for informational purposes only and are always subject to change (I.E Mod Keildest)
Account Help thread question: Xenothium X5[1]
Edit 09-Nov-2011 18:14:18 say something about BAR
- '((( Reply: Mod Stevew Jagex Mod 09-Nov-2011 18:24:28 Errrm OK -
"We haven't started reviewing any accounts posted on the BAR thread, to be honest it's a very low priority for us. If you have posted on the thread we suggest you check your messages every few months to see if the process has started, but in the meantime it's best to just focus on any other accounts you have and assume that any BAR account won't be unbanned, that way if we do start on the thread and unban you it will be a cool surprise".
Cheers,
SteveJavg
Instant permanent bans
- Some forms of bug abuse will cause a player to be permanently banned.
- Macroing can cause an instant permanent ban with no chance to appeal.
- Trading items for real world items can result in a permanent ban.
- Account hijacking may cause an instant permanent ban.
- Some forms of Website Advertising can result in a permanent ban as well.
- On some rare occasions, the parents of an underage player may request the developer to instantly ban the account. In these cases, legal involvement is usually required. A signed affidavit signed by the parents is required to disable the account, and therefore the account will not reopen automatically passed a year from the actions taken. In these cases, the only form of reopening the account in question is for the minor to prepare an affidavit cancelling the previous one (this action is only possible once the player has reached the age of 16), or for the parents to consent and sign the affidavit.