Huh. That's a rule against mutlis I take it? It's a bit silly.. Do you keep track locally, through cookies, or through IP addresses? Both are a very weak defense against cheaters, but can severely inconvenience legitimate users.

http://webdiplomacy.net/board.php?gameID=146553#gamePanel

@Sherincall,

You happen to have gotten it completely backwards - the existing countermeasures are brilliant for detecting cheaters and cause a minimum of disruption to legitimate players.

The staff here are kind of like the opposite of the American TSA.

@ Sherincall - surely the problem is that there's no easy way to verify, if two people are using the same computer, that there are actually two people - OR even if they are two individuals, that they aren't colluding to act as one, in a way that even two allies *not* sharing a computer would be able to do.

@Al&Jamie,

Well, it takes only minimal computer literacy to bypass those countermeasures, so they would only catch the dumbest cheaters. Granted, I don't have any stats, and it could be that 90% of them are dumb enough to fall for that.

And especially if the check is done through IP addresses, it can lead to many false positives. I use a VPN, if anyone else uses the same VPN provider, we might get the same IP. With a bit more tinkering, I could imitate another player's IP, and get them banned. Public wireless hotspots, etc..
I at least hope this isn't automatic, and doesn't effect private games. If all the players are okay with it, the mods probably shouldn't enforce it in that particular game. My first game here was with my roommates.

I think the best way to catch multis is to check for accounts that (almost) always play together, check press between them and see if one always lets the other win. I doubt anyone will keep multiple accounts active.. I'm guessing one will always win, while the other one loses.

@Sherincall

Thanks bro. Anything else you care to add to the FREE ONLINE OPEN-SOURCE WEB DIPLOMACY CHEATER'S GUIDE?

LOL

@sherincall,

Actually, I felt bad about making the last post. Here's a suggestion for you - why don't you volunteer here to help catch the cheaters? If it's something you care about, I'm certain the staff would welcome some additional assistance catching cheaters. As you've no doubt discerned, cheating is a nuisance here from time to time.

Someone joined the game in my place. I think its a good thing that the moderators do what they can to reduce cheating. We weren't trying to cheat, but I was ignorant of the site's rules. It was correct that I be removed from any active games until the investigation was complete, which it now is.
Also, the moderator was very pleasant and professional about the issue.

They usually are as long as the user has any sense of common decency himself.

@Al - Don't feel bad. It was a fair point, though one I disagree with. Obscurity as a security measure is only slightly better than no security.

I understand the devs are swamped though, and don't have the resources to do proper policing. So I will take your advice: when I get some free time (hopefully next week), I'll see about making a tool to look at accounts/games and flag potential cheaters.
Anyone know if the database structure is open source as well?

The cheaters all get caught eventually. The longer it takes, the longer said cheaters get to waste their life fake-playing a game and have the ban hit them harder in the face when it comes. It's lose-lose for them.

Guys, the mod tools are incredibly complex, you're not going to figure them out unless you're either jmo who knows everything about everything or you already know what they are. Plus, zultar would kick you in the nuts if you actually got it right, so stop trying. They work and they work well, just leave it at that.

As for mod volunteers, the only volunteers they took are PE and Damian and that was out of a rather large pool. Unless the admins specifically open it up again, I don't think there's any need to volunteer right now. Talk to jmo if you think you can help as a developer, or just head to the dev forums, which I haven't been on in ages so I don't know if they're really active there or not.

Having a handful of features is nice, but the key to catching cheaters is really experience. Not just moderating experience, but Diplomacy experience, which is really why we recruit moderators who have a proven track record of success on the site (myself excluded). A cheater could leave no electronic trace and slip past us undetected, but they still have have to actually pull it off in a game, which is impossible to do undetected. Cheaters always get caught, its only a matter of time.

@Sherincall, you raise some interesting points, and taking a step back I can see where some of your concern comes from.

I am perfectly aware that you've playing in a game with your roommates. I passed over it in some of my checks back in December before it finished. You'll also notice that you've never gotten an email from us about suspected cheating since there was quite clearly no harmful play occurring, and it was a private game. The tools available to us give us great flexibility in determining the truth in a players story when we do need to contact them for suspected cheating.

I personally am skilled with networking, and I don't agree that the common user would know how to IP spoof someone using a VPN. That on it's own wouldn't be terribly difficult, but getting their IP to spoof would take significantly more work and delve into legal grounds.

I have run over 1,700 cases during my time moderating here, and I have never in a single case, been unable to determine what was going on in a potential cheating case. The moderator tools, email communication with players under investigation, and my skill in the game make sorting out harmless mis-flags by the site from actual cheaters very easy.

While I cannot say with 100% certainty for obvious reasons, the average shelf life of a cheater on this site is under a month, typically much less.

And while mistakes on our part are rare, we have an appeal process where members can appeal a moderator decision if they feel the moderator came to an incorrect determination. These are reviewed by admins not involved in the first case, and give the member a fair review.

If you do end up working on a moderating tool please shoot us an email at [email protected] and we'd be happy to review it.

-WebDip Admin

I must say that is very comforting. I admit I never considered your tools to be nearly as sophisticated as that. I take back the concerns I originally raised. You have my thanks for your vigilance.

I may still try my hand at a tool that scans games and accounts, but I feel you've already covered that part. I'll definitely send it over when done.

And if you can uncover kestas' multis, we'll make you an honorary moderator.

I will watch the progress of my beloved France in the "1 Day Turns" game with great interest.