UTAN for Servers?

[Imaginos]

This thread is a repost from the damaged DB-Community forums.

Hi all, this came up in another thread and I thought it needed its own at this point. I was tabling the idea of using UTAN to provide ban information to all Deathball servers in an effort to prevent the success of clowns that are determined to take down servers or ruin games - like the recent attack on the 1234 server.

Here's some background: UTAN can be configured to share DB bans among all DB servers automagically.. I think it has been whitelisted recently too, so the standard server issue shouldn't be a worry.

http://utan.unrealadmin.org/whatisutan.php

I am suggesting using this, first, to set after-the-fact bans w/o having to manually edit the ut2004.ini, and then of course to allow the community to react faster to troublemakers. If there's other DB admins interested in this, please post here. I like the way it gives a ban message to the player that directs them to a site where they can appeal the ban. If you wish to join in and use this system, when signing up, declare your GISP as DB-Community and use the url for the website here. http://www.db-community.com Doing this will allow you to join the "group" and share Deathball-specific bans.

[Imaginos]

the one issue with utan is that it could be very easy for one jilted admin to blanket-ban a player. What's to stop a rogue admin making life hell for people he doesn't like?

All bans have the supporting info fields for review, along with the name of the admin who created it. If there's a questionable ban, any other admin can reject it. Additionally, if there's an admin whose judgement is deemed too questionable, they can be removed from the db-community GISP and therefore not be able to submit bans anymore. I should also point out that no admin can just join the DB-Community GISP. An existing GISP member must approve the new admin's request to join.

Well i'll be damned, democracy does work. Right, I take back my previous statement

[Imaginos]

The acronym stands for Unreal Trusted Admin Network, with trust as its root. With enough admin involvement, this will go a long way toward keeping jerks from ruining people's precious gaming time. Not to mention the clear neighborhood watch message it sends: "You aren't gonna mess with our community's servers and get away with it."

[Imaginos]

Bagged our first llama today. Clown by the name of Bouche was on a little earlier and owngoaled yet again right in front of me. He then disconnected thinking he got away with it. Not so. UTAN has a log of all that come and go on every server that is part of the DB-Community GISP (a group of centrally managed servers). He's magically banned on both BuD servers as well as the F0 pub. I've had complaints about him and I saw him owngoal and run twice now. I would hope Rush and AA join us in using this awesome system. It really slams the door on llamas and makes it easy as hell on the admins to do it on the spot or long after the violation. It's all web driven and works great. I love it.

BTW, the guy isn't without recourse. When he attempts to connect to a UTAN server which has him as banned status he gets a screen directing him to a forum where he can plead his case. He is given a ban# as well as the admin's name who banned him and the reason for the ban. I can't wait to hear yet another "my brother was using my computer" story..

[Imaginos]

Originally posted by ReLik

I can't wait to hear yet another "my brother was using my computer" story..

what if it's legit? (sorry just playing Devil's Advocate. I actually think UTAN is v good idea)

If you recall, this was the excuse offered by ROV|beist when his UT2003 GUID was logged on several servers aliasing primarily as Nutella and spoiling games with his owngoaling. He's often do it once, discon, recon under a new name, repeat.. I think his clan backed him on that excuse, but I don't know for sure. The problem was ongoing long enough that everyone was aware of it and I can't see how there was any way that the GUID owner wasn't aware that his machine was the guilty one. I left the ban in place on my server. It's all case by case though..

[Imaginos]

UTAN is one of the best ideas i heared of in the last time. I registered (ty paylay) and my server is using it now too. I would love to see all servers using it =)
ty imaginos for telling us about this

Only too happy to. It's a huge advantage if all the Deathball server admins are in on this together. Spoilers like Nutella, Bouche or Bullethead wouldn't have a chance.. Also, DB-Community GISP admins, please enable the tracking feature: (bAllowTracking=True)
This allows us to look up players by nick or server.

[Imaginos]

Looks like Bullethead's behavior was a bit in the unacceptable range on a few servers. Here's UTAN setting up the attention getter for him:


He'll get the bluescreen the next time he tries to get onto a UTAN DB-Community server that will send him to a forum to have things explained to him. Hopefully, Dev and Priior will have signed up for their own UTAN accounts by then.

[Imaginos]

Here's your current list of DB-Community UTAN admins.
Got trouble, report to any of the below.

UTAN DB-Community GISP

clan1234
Flauschi
hookworm
Imaginos
Kapi
PayLay
priior
DevNull
4ever
Orbital
Negative9

[BuLLetHEAD]

rar~

[Imaginos]

I didn't witness anything you did, but I'm a reasonable guy if you aren't being insulting. You're sure not disproving anything with this attitude.

Whatever justified your ban, this is your opportunity to paint a positive, cooperative picture of yourself to Dev and Priior. If you can't or won't do that, it's your call.
Either way, you see that breaking the rules doesn't sit well with admins. We all pay for our servers and provide them for the enjoyment of all. We don't have time to put up with any problems and we will act as necessary to protect our investments.
This should be clearly understood now.