ASCII King

Gmail policy on USAK

USAK still allows players to use gmail accounts, with some warnings and conditions.

If you use an anonymous mail service like gmail, you are more likely to be thrown off the server for cheating. The reason for this is that a player on the judge who stands accused of cheating is judged guilty until proven innocent. There is no right to an attorney. The charges will not be explained. It is unlikely that the player will be informed of them. If it appears that a player is cheating, the judge keeper views the information available on the judge. If he can establish innocence then the player is allowed to continue to play on the judge. If innocence cannot be established then the player is banned. The more tracking information that the player supplies to the judge keeper, the more likely it is that he can be cleared if there is a false accusation.

Gmail and certain other email providers do not supply important information in the headers of their mail that could be used to identify the sender of a mail. Lacking this information, the judge keeper may not be able to make a determination of innocence. The guilty don't care, because their one line of defence is not to get caught. Once caught, they cannot be proven innocent by making more information available. It is inevitable that some innocent people may have their privilege to play suspended on the server when they have not broken any rules. It would be better if they had chosen a less anonymous email provider, but on asciiking.com judges they are being allowed that choice.

If you use a gmail account on USAK, even if it is not the email that you registered with the judge, you must use the DipPouch registration page to register for the judge. Gmail users may be asked to resign from forming or recently started games if it is possible that they are in the same geographical area as another player.

The privilege of using accounts from gmail or any other email provider may be suspended with little or no warning if it becomes too time consuming for the judge keeper to ensure the quality of the player base or he otherwise determines that the player communities on his servers are better served by blocking these addresses. The privilege is currently possible because the the USAK user community spends $250 per quarter for a dedicated server and the judgekeeper spends several hours a day checking new registrations and the existing registrations signing on to new games. Judgekeepers who work for a living and/or have a life outside of their immediate family do not have the same resources to spend on the hobby. This judgekeeper's current status of semi-retired homebody is subject to change pending the success of psychiatric treatment.