My other account, Official_GameTeam, was banned on the 16th of January for being a shared account. It's not, and never has been, a shared account, so I immediately appealed the ban.

It is now the 16th of May. It has been four months, and I have appealed the ban multiple times. Not only has the account not been unbanned, but I have not received a single response to any of my appeals. Have I been blacklisted from appealing the account or something? This is absolutely ridiculous. I've tried using the appeal form on the “you've been banned” page. I've tried emailing Scratch support directly. Nothing has worked. I'll get an automated response telling me my message has been received, and then it's radio silence. Every other time I've contacted Scratch for any other reason, I've received a response within one or two months.

So, I'll ask again: what on Earth do I have to do in order to contact an actual human being and appeal the ban?

Wait, and don't ban evade

RethinkingVoxels wrote:

Wait, and don't ban evade

I've already waited four months, which is longer than anybody should have to wait for them to remove a bogus ban. And this isn't ban evasion. This account was created before Official_GameTeam, and they're both registered with the same email address. If the Scratch team wanted to ban all of my accounts, they would have. They've only taken issue with one of them, because they wrongly think that it was being used as a shared account.

BlueCarpetGames wrote:

RethinkingVoxels wrote:

Wait, and don't ban evade

I've already waited four months, which is longer than anybody should have to wait for them to remove a bogus ban. And this isn't ban evasion. This account was created before Official_GameTeam, and they're both registered with the same email address. If the Scratch team wanted to ban all of my accounts, they would have. They've only taken issue with one of them, because they wrongly think that it was being used as a shared account.

removed

Second off, it takes time for the ST to get and respond to you. You might just have to wait. You can download the offline editor if you want to work.

RecessFailsOffical wrote:

BlueCarpetGames wrote:

RethinkingVoxels wrote:

Wait, and don't ban evade

I've already waited four months, which is longer than anybody should have to wait for them to remove a bogus ban. And this isn't ban evasion. This account was created before Official_GameTeam, and they're both registered with the same email address. If the Scratch team wanted to ban all of my accounts, they would have. They've only taken issue with one of them, because they wrongly think that it was being used as a shared account.

First off, don't ban evade.

Second off, it takes time for the ST to get and respond to you. You might just have to wait. You can download the offline editor if you want to work.

I've already explained why this isn't ban evasion.

And I don't think it's unreasonable to get peeved when I've been forced to wait a hundred and twenty stinkin' days because the Scratch team made an error. Especially when every other time I've contacted them, I've received a response in a far more timely manner.

BlueCarpetGames wrote:

So, I'll ask again: what on Earth do I have to do in order to contact an actual human being and appeal the ban?

Really the only way to contact a real person is either through the appeals@scratch.mit.edu email or Contact Us. If you haven't tried sending another response already, I don't really know what else could be done besides wating

play sound [bad to the bone riff.wav v]

You can ignore the users telling you not to ban evade. This is not a situation in which ban evasion applies.

The appeals form is the best way to send an appeal. It will usually take a long time, but 4 months seems particularly long. Have you checked the spam folder in your email?

Za-Chary wrote:

You can ignore the users telling you not to ban evade. This is not a situation in which ban evasion applies.

The appeals form is the best way to send an appeal. It will usually take a long time, but 4 months seems particularly long. Have you checked the spam folder in your email?

I check my emails, including my spam folder, daily. The only emails I've received from Scratch are the automated “we've received your message” emails.

BlueCarpetGames wrote:

I check my emails, including my spam folder, daily. The only emails I've received from Scratch are the automated “we've received your message” emails.

How many appeals did you attempt to send, and when was the last time you sent one? Generally the Scratch Team discourages sending multiple appeals because it makes things somewhat disorganized.

Za-Chary wrote:

BlueCarpetGames wrote:

I check my emails, including my spam folder, daily. The only emails I've received from Scratch are the automated “we've received your message” emails.

How many appeals did you attempt to send, and when was the last time you sent one? Generally the Scratch Team discourages sending multiple appeals because it makes things somewhat disorganized.

I sent one on the day that I was banned, one on the 25th of April, and one a few days ago. I've never been given an indication of how long I'll have to wait for a response, and after a while, I began to worry that my messages were falling through the cracks, or being deliberately ignored, or something. I'm completely in the dark here.

Za-Chary wrote:

You can ignore the users telling you not to ban evade. This is not a situation in which ban evasion applies.

Do you mind explain why? I honestly was going to say to stop ban evading, what makes this case an exception?

han614698 wrote:

Za-Chary wrote:

You can ignore the users telling you not to ban evade. This is not a situation in which ban evasion applies.

Do you mind explain why? I honestly was going to say to stop ban evading, what makes this case an exception?

Probably that the ban was false? or maybe that he has already waited a long time, but I doubt that is the reason?

plantskym2 wrote:

han614698 wrote:

Za-Chary wrote:

You can ignore the users telling you not to ban evade. This is not a situation in which ban evasion applies.

Do you mind explain why? I honestly was going to say to stop ban evading, what makes this case an exception?

Probably that the ban was false? or maybe that he has already waited a long time, but I doubt that is the reason?

Almost everyone believes their ban is false. That's not an exception to ban evasion.

han614698 wrote:

Za-Chary wrote:

You can ignore the users telling you not to ban evade. This is not a situation in which ban evasion applies.

Do you mind explain why? I honestly was going to say to stop ban evading, what makes this case an exception?

Probably for the reasons I already mentioned. To quote myself:

BlueCarpetGames wrote:

This isn't ban evasion. This account was created before Official_GameTeam, and they're both registered with the same email address. If the Scratch team wanted to ban all of my accounts, they would have. They've only taken issue with one of them, because they wrongly think that it was being used as a shared account.

BlueCarpetGames wrote:

han614698 wrote:

Za-Chary wrote:

You can ignore the users telling you not to ban evade. This is not a situation in which ban evasion applies.

Do you mind explain why? I honestly was going to say to stop ban evading, what makes this case an exception?

Probably for the reasons I already mentioned. To quote myself:

BlueCarpetGames wrote:

This isn't ban evasion. This account was created before Official_GameTeam, and they're both registered with the same email address. If the Scratch team wanted to ban all of my accounts, they would have. They've only taken issue with one of them, because they wrongly think that it was being used as a shared account.

But that's still not how bans work in Scratch. Ban evasion is on any account, regardless of if it was created before or after you were banned. That I know for a fact. The ST almost never bans all of someones accounts unless they have shown that they will ban evade on them. The last think about sharing is the only thing I think Za-Chary might be seeing, but I still feel like that isn't an exception since they currently think you broke a rule so they wouldn't want you on Scratch/

BlueCarpetGames wrote:

I sent one on the day that I was banned, one on the 25th of April, and one a few days ago. I've never been given an indication of how long I'll have to wait for a response, and after a while, I began to worry that my messages were falling through the cracks, or being deliberately ignored, or something. I'm completely in the dark here.

If by “the day you were banned” you mean “January 16th”… Hmm. That does seem like a long time. The only other thing I can think of is the possibility that you were disrespectful in your appeal. I'm not saying that you definitely were, but if you were, then that could delay the possibility of the Scratch Team responding. Otherwise, I don't handle appeals so I'm not sure.

han614698 wrote:

Za-Chary wrote:

You can ignore the users telling you not to ban evade. This is not a situation in which ban evasion applies.

Do you mind explain why? I honestly was going to say to stop ban evading, what makes this case an exception?

I can think of two situations in which ban evasion does not apply:

• Inappropriate username but otherwise the user is contributing positively to Scratch. (A ban instead of a username change will generally occur if the account was recently created. If memory serves correctly, the ban message in this case will explicitly say that the user can create a new account as long as their new username is appropriate.)
  
  
• Shared accounts, at least to my knowledge, although perhaps it depends on the moderator. (If a shared account is blocked, alternate accounts are not generally blocked along with it, presumably because the rule behind shared accounts is not well-known and/or it's not an offense that is destructive to the Scratch community.)
  

There may be more but I don't know them off the top of my head. It is definitely true that ban evasion applies for most bans. Moreover, it is usually true that people should not be telling others not to ban evade in the first place. (Just use the Report button and let a moderator decide whether the user really is ban evading.)

I understand your points but in my opinion if the user is not specifically told they can create another account it's the general expectation that they cannot use other accounts. I could be wrong.

I also partly disagree with other users telling people to stop ban evading.

Users come to this forum and say “What should I do to be unbanned?”, and we're telling them that they should stop ban evading if they'd like to be unbanned. I personally don't report forum posts of people that I suspect are ban evading (or even if they say they are). Usually they had no idea.

Za-Chary wrote:

BlueCarpetGames wrote:

I sent one on the day that I was banned, one on the 25th of April, and one a few days ago. I've never been given an indication of how long I'll have to wait for a response, and after a while, I began to worry that my messages were falling through the cracks, or being deliberately ignored, or something. I'm completely in the dark here.

If by “the day you were banned” you mean “January 16th”… Hmm. That does seem like a long time. The only other thing I can think of is the possibility that you were disrespectful in your appeal. I'm not saying that you definitely were, but if you were, then that could delay the possibility of the Scratch Team responding. Otherwise, I don't handle appeals so I'm not sure.

I may have used some strong language in my second appeal, as I've been quite fed up with this whole situation for some time, but it was a while ago so I can't say for certain. What I do know for certain is that my first appeal was very matter-of-fact and polite, since I expected that they would examine the facts and realise they made a mistake in a timely manner.

BlueCarpetGames wrote:

Za-Chary wrote:

BlueCarpetGames wrote:

I sent one on the day that I was banned, one on the 25th of April, and one a few days ago. I've never been given an indication of how long I'll have to wait for a response, and after a while, I began to worry that my messages were falling through the cracks, or being deliberately ignored, or something. I'm completely in the dark here.

If by “the day you were banned” you mean “January 16th”… Hmm. That does seem like a long time. The only other thing I can think of is the possibility that you were disrespectful in your appeal. I'm not saying that you definitely were, but if you were, then that could delay the possibility of the Scratch Team responding. Otherwise, I don't handle appeals so I'm not sure.

I may have used some strong language in my second appeal, as I've been quite fed up with this whole situation for some time, but it was a while ago so I can't say for certain. What I do know for certain is that my first appeal was very matter-of-fact and polite, since I expected that they would examine the facts and realise they made a mistake in a timely manner.

That's likely why they're not unbanning you. I would recommend that you don't use any other accounts, but it seems like you've been around supposedly ban evading for a while now so it's probably fine.

Za-Chary wrote:

You can ignore the users telling you not to ban evade. This is not a situation in which ban evasion applies.

The appeals form is the best way to send an appeal. It will usually take a long time, but 4 months seems particularly long. Have you checked the spam folder in your email?

I can confirm that a new account after a shared account (or not) was closed is not “ban evasion”. We are only looking to stop the shared use of the account - not prevent the person from using Scratch.

I also agree that 4 months is a long time. I don't think it's unreasonable to send in another polite appeal - with a mention of how long it has been. And, yes, check your spam folder. I hope it works out for you.