Server Administrator contact details

[Darkelarious]

Dear fellow administrators, gamers and other recreational visitors,

Since 333networks started showing server information live on the website, I have received various emails from players asking me to unban them from any random server. Often, people mistake 333networks to be the administrator of a server they got banned in or confuse us for admins they are trying to contact with any questions they might have. Now normally I would refer them to the website or email address in the Administrator and Contact fields of the UDP query/server info, but I noticed a trend where more and more admins neglect to fill in these contact details. So far, I always answered "read the contact info, not my problem", but after quite a few e-mail exchanges with less understanding people, referring to people who do not know the difference between 333networks as "information provider" and the server administrator as "server provider", I decided to ask here for myself as well.

This thread is a request to all administrators (and players who have contact with administrators) to please add contact information in the appropriate fields. This makes finding the admin of a server a lot easier and keeps my mailbox a bit less full. If you do not want to fill in your email address or any other personal/private contact information, you may always link to your thread/user profile/contact info on ut99.org or any other forum you're associated with [citation needed: "correct, right?"].

In particular, I receive a lot of emails about ===>GRAPPLE FACE ONLY <=== # http://www.httpzoom.com # (more server info) with questions about teleports, bot settings and unbanning/banning.
Does anyone know (in person or otherwise) how to contact the administrators of this server?

Please feel also free to ask/return contact information from other server administrators as well in this thread, so I (and others) can link to this thread for missing server admin information. In addition, please respect other's privacy, if you are uncertain whether you could post their admin information in this thread, contact them yourselves and check out with them which information can be posted!

[DLD-RABBIT]

Good advice my friend

[ShaiHulud]

I've tried - I emailed tech support once (someone called James) and received this reply:

We donated the server to a customer and they have referred some customers over who want similar services.
If you'd like to explain what information is required we can pass this on

But that was as far as it got. I tried to explain my reasons for getting in touch, but hit a blank wall after that. The server is a mess admin-wise, and one that abuses the fake-players mod terribly.

[Chamberly]

I really hate it when peoples leave out information like that. Esp those who are using the "fake player" mod and just hiding themselves from what they are doing is pretty shameful. Not that I get email about those though, but other peoples tell me about it and it just add more fire to consider finding a way to get a server banned from advertising or working functionally (reporting to server host to take it down, as an example) because of such abuse. But I never got that far, but just thankfully to tell them get the latest Xbrowser, and just blacklist said haunted server.

[JackGriffin]

Ahh, the beauty of offering a free service....you are still wrong.

Don't let them get you down. I'd create a simple form letter explaining things and forward that to them. If they reply then just block the email. As for the admin email, can't you set it to post something if there is no value for it? Something like "This server has no listen contact information" or somesuch.

[Darkelarious]

If they reply then just block the email.

I don't mind the occasional question and the people who have a genuine question. As said, not everybody understands the construction of indexing servers and administrating them -- 333networks pops up in google first if you search your average ut server name.

As for the admin email, can't you set it to post something if there is no value for it? Something like "This server has no listen contact information" or somesuch.

A few minutes ago I added this little fix, with a link to this thread so persistent people can read up. However, it does not solve the underlying problem. Perhaps we could start a little campaign for UT admins to update their admin info? Soon I will release a new version of the 333networks masterserver, perhaps I could create an option to provide server info without changing the actual server query.

[JackGriffin]

Nah, there's a certain contingent of admins who expressly don't provide contact info because of server mod load or they just don't want to listen to players. You'll never get that to stop, you'll just need to work around it.

[sektor2111]

In particular, I receive a lot of emails about ===>GRAPPLE FACE ONLY <=== # http://www.httpzoom.com # (more server info) with questions about teleports, bot settings and unbanning/banning.

Proving how much people are understanding how this game works (but the most of new comers were told that were playing UT from 1999, or even earlier, perhaps in 1988 on a Sinclair Spectrum).
The Level of this people is under duck's knee, for some of them all explanations might be useless as long as I could figure in a few forums a few "dudes" unable to locate their location on a map.

[Dr.Flay]

Perhaps this is where a thread like this and community-power can fill in the blanks.
This may be worth making into a sticky so people can find it easily and add details they find.

[JackGriffin]

Super bad idea, and potentially sets up Dark for legal trouble. Mirroring settings that exist on someone's private server is one thing but assigning private contact information then posting that is another.

I may not agree with your decision not to add your contact email, to use fake players, etc. but let's not forget these are private servers. The minute we stop respecting that and try to 'conform' people to what we think they should do, then it's time to stop being involved. You may judge me, I may judge you, that's fine. Forcing compliance though to a standard behavior is something obviously not done willy-nilly.

If Dark posts an email of someone savvy enough to be running a server they expressly don't want contact information posted about I can pretty much guarantee him downtime. I've been hit very hard before myself, sometimes lasting several days, and it's not fun. Don't piss off the wrong people.

[DLD-RABBIT]

If it is a public server those rules may not apply, but if it's a private server......Perhaps. Jack may be right on the legal issues

Don't piss off the wrong people.

That be no lie

[Darkelarious]

Super bad idea, and potentially sets up Dark for legal trouble. (...) Don't piss off the wrong people.

I do want to respect other people/admin's privacy, but I also do not tolerate not doing something because somebody threatens me. Legal trouble is a different discussion, by broadcasting your IP (public or private) you already publish your information and state that you want to be found (but that's a discussion for a different thread).

Perhaps this is where a thread like this and community-power can fill in the blanks.
This may be worth making into a sticky so people can find it easily and add details they find.

This is the original thought I had while writing this thread. I think it's worth sticky-ing anyway, so when people end up on this thread from 333networks, they are aware what the problems/issues are with contacting a server admin and why it is a good idea to fill in their information.

However, as pointed out by JackGriffin, some people do not want to be contacted. So be it, end of story. This thread exists to find the balance between them. You know how to contact one of these people -- we can drop this link into their mailbox, instead of their mail in this thread. I think that's a fair exchange, so an admin (or lack thereof) can point out they don't care/don't want to be contacted.