Posts from Appeal - ColdRain - No. 4.17

User ColdRain has filed an appeal regarding the actions of moderator DirtyPlayer, which led to his ban. Below is the accusatory part; DirtyPlayer will now have a chance to speak: On December 31, 2013, I banned user ColdRain. This decision was made jointly with other moderators of the section. The reason stated on the forum was that he was a clone of user ariputra. So: 1. The appearance of ColdRain User ColdRain registered on the forum on February 20, 2013, and immediately wanted to play with someone. We always check new players by IP address for matches with anyone else because there are many clones on our site, especially in the online section. (In 2013 alone, I banned over 20 clones of various cheaters and maphackers.) Checking by IP showed no matches; it seems he's just a newbie from Stavropol. After playing a few games, he disappeared, and nobody even remembered him. 2. The disappearance of ariputra At the same time, ariputra participated in scandals in the "Tribune" thread, accusing Jews of ruining our lives. Concluding that HW had only Jews, he threatened to create clones and hack the site. His posts violated the forum rules, so I deleted them. Persuasion didn't work, and I had to temporarily ban the ariputra account. He immediately created a clone - ariputrainban http://forum.heroesworld.ru/member.php?u=34223

If you ban or delete this message again, then I will take active action. If we’re at war, let’s be at war. But please don't get offended later.
Unfortunately, no one is immune to DDoS attacks. Before banning me again, please consult with the creator of the forum – does he need this? Is he ready for daily DDoS attacks?
And note that I first warn and suggest living peacefully.

There is another perspective: deprive both you and all moderators and the creator of your rights on the site altogether. And users can continue playing as they did before.

Of course, moderators and coordinators still have some rights; these are the rights they risk losing.

After this, he disappears. On May 19, 2013, at 10:08 AM, his last visit to the forum was recorded.
http://i031.radikal.ru/1402/b8/8a26016b019d.jpg 3. The return. On the same day, May 19, 2013, at 12:10 PM, ColdRain appeared with a proposal to play. /topic/at/663540/
again, an IP address from Stavropol. After that, ariputra no longer appears on the forum, but only ColdRain does – although not for long. He appeared again in July and disappeared again. He returned permanently on September 1, 2013, and immediately joined a tournament. But now, the IP address is from Krasnoyarsk. At that time, nobody paid attention to this. At the end of October 2013, ColdRain caused a scandal in the "One Against All" - 2 tournament. Without proof, changing facts according to his own discretion, he accused his opponent of cheating, which is one of the most serious insults for a player. According to the rules of the AK (Anti-Cheat) department, in cases of accusations of unfair play, all discussions are held privately so that if there is a mistake, it will not damage the reputation of a player who has been falsely accused of cheating. The discussion turned into about 200 posts and quickly escalated into a scandal with insults and trolling. Even then, ColdRain had enough material for a ban. Perhaps it would have been better simply to assign violation points, and there would be no doubt about the legitimacy of the ban. However, the moderation team of Heroes III online tries not to assign points until the last moment; we try to resolve all issues and conflicts through negotiations. It was during the discussion about cheating that suspicions gradually arose that ColdRain was a clone of ariputra. In the virtual space of the internet, we cannot assert cloning with 100% certainty; no one stands behind the person in real life. We can only rely on analyzing IP addresses and linguistic analysis of texts (similar analysis is used in legal practice and is recognized as equivalent to fingerprint analysis). 4. Comparison of IP addresses. Ariputra used different providers with dynamic IP addresses. Most were addresses from Krasnoyarsk: 176.149.xx.yy 178.85.xx.yy 188.235.xx.yy 92.124.xx.yy 95.188.xx.yy There were also addresses from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, and other cities. Although he refused my suggestion to come to Novosibirsk for a Heroes tournament, stating that it was completely impossible to get away from Krasnoyarsk. ColdRain has been using an IP address from Krasnoyarsk since September 2013. 176.149.xx.yy 81.26.xx.yy Most likely, the same provider is being used, but with dynamic IP addresses, which does not guarantee a 100% match. I don't know how many providers there are in Krasnoyarsk, so I can't say anything except that both users use the same provider in one city. 5. Linguistic analysis of posts. If you read the posts of Ariputra (I advise against it because it may affect your mental state) and ColdRain, as examples:

/topic/at/634284/
/topic/at/651232/
/topic/at/651163/

/topic/at/711685/
/topic/at/711686/

you can find the following similarities: a) Both like to respond to their interlocutor with pictures. b) When quoting, they write the nickname in Russian in the quote tag. A more detailed study of the posts reveals other lexical, stylistic, orthographic, punctuation similarities, as well as similarities in character that are difficult to explain in a few words; for this, you need to study all the posts and topics. Conclusion. It is impossible to prove 100% that two users using different IP addresses are the same person. However, after studying these facts, there was a collegial decision to ban him. If the moderators believe that these facts are not enough for a ban, I am ready to lift the ban immediately.

Since the user who initiated the appeal has not appeared in the thread during the past two weeks, the appeal is closed, and the actions taken by **Dirty Player** against user **Cold Rain** remain in effect.