Well at least I got a proper response this time... I would have appreciated being treated like I was actually trying to help and not being a noob the first time around though...
Still, I guess in the end BYOND can't be everywhere and do everything at once, and despite how it may look I don't expect the staff to. I appreciate you taking the time to clarify things for me this time though; I feel a bit better about the situation and more importantly, heard. The worst thing for me is to see a community like BYOND that has huge potential and has already made a great start begin doing what appears to be exploiting its user base.
In this case, I took action in order to try and prevent that happening since I know a LOT of people depend on BYOND to provide them with a quality and enjoyable experience, and a lot of people either have no voice or are too afraid of backlash to make their comments heard.
If you ever find one of these people who are afraid to speak up, please let them know that BYOND never does anything against anyone unless it has strong, well-founded reason to do so. BYOND can choose what it wants to show on its website and can choose whether severe violators are denied access to the Hub, but otherwise BYOND is free and is more than happy to hear constructive criticism.
I knew there were things capable of doing what this program did around for a while, but I also figured it was against the BYOND TOS to use such for things such as key spoofing. Furthermore I was led to believe this program was pretty high-level stuff so of course I was concerned for the safety of BYOND keys, games and the community.
Well, yes and no. Yes, committing acts of intentional fraud and intentionally using Dream Seeker / Dream Daemon as a weapon against other users is against the accepted user policy, and usually warrants a BYOND ban. But no, it's not really anything new -- it's just another thing for people to be wary of.
(I don't say Terms of Service because only BYOND Members have Terms of Service -- the free use of Dream Seeker and other BYOND software has no specific terms of service other than the implicit right for Dantom to discontinue the service at any given time.)
Anyway, hopefully, incidents like the aforementioned don't become commonplace, and I hope BYOND continues to maintain a strict moral code. Fingers crossed!
Well, we have certain people within the community who think BYOND turns a completely blind eye to everyone, which just isn't true, but I think as a whole the BYOND staff have pretty much stopped trying to convince them otherwise. It's sort of a catch-22. ;-)
Still, I guess in the end BYOND can't be everywhere and do everything at once, and despite how it may look I don't expect the staff to. I appreciate you taking the time to clarify things for me this time though; I feel a bit better about the situation and more importantly, heard. The worst thing for me is to see a community like BYOND that has huge potential and has already made a great start begin doing what appears to be exploiting its user base.
In this case, I took action in order to try and prevent that happening since I know a LOT of people depend on BYOND to provide them with a quality and enjoyable experience, and a lot of people either have no voice or are too afraid of backlash to make their comments heard.
I knew there were things capable of doing what this program did around for a while, but I also figured it was against the BYOND TOS to use such for things such as key spoofing. Furthermore I was led to believe this program was pretty high-level stuff so of course I was concerned for the safety of BYOND keys, games and the community.
I apologise if I came across too strong, though I doubt I'll be doing any more of that kind of thing in the near future, since they seem to have a moderately large impact.
Anyway, hopefully, incidents like the aforementioned don't become commonplace, and I hope BYOND continues to maintain a strict moral code. Fingers crossed!