Banning the Sale of Minecraft Accounts

[Lotus]

Hey all,

Recently, MCM made a good step in the right direction by enforcing strict policies against resource leakers and those affiliated. However, in the eyes of many, it was a half-baked effort knowing that this site thrives on the Minecraft TOS violating sales of accounts (and the other range of TOS violating services this website facilitates). I wish to see the removal of accounts as a step towards making this marketplace a platform that actually cares about ethics.

Why would we want to ban the sale of accounts?

1. Legitimize the marketplace. The site hypocritically enforces Rule 5.4 by striking down those who violate product ownership rights heavily, yet turns a blind eye to the sale of Minecraft Accounts which violates Mojang’s TOS. Choose one or the other. Remove 5.4 and commit to being a black market, or equally enforce your own rules across all sections of the forum. Being inconsistent and half-assed only annoys the community even more.
   
   
2. Get rid of our most toxic and notorious members. The accounts market is saturated, comprising of crackers stealing accounts, returning ban evaders and is also the section holding the most linked scam reports often closing due to inconclusive evidence.
   
   
3. The site no longer needs to allocate resources to develop features and moderate the section. "Opportunity cost"
   
   
4. MC-Market will not die. By considering points 1 and 3, MCM can become an even better place for everyone and expand into even more markets. There are far more and far better opportunities out there.

Fun reads :

• https://www.mc-market.org/threads/81435/ (60% agreed)
• https://www.mc-market.org/threads/85005/ Announcement in the past for the removal of accounts.

The site doesn’t need to be plagued by accounts anymore. This site has a bigger future for itself by legitimizing itself into a community that leads others. Honestly, I shouldn't even need to be trying to convince everyone by explaining all the benefits of removing the section. This should not have been even allowed on this site in the first place.

 

[Justis]

Justis it seems that you and Lotus have both planned this thread together. The thread was posted at X:09 and you replied at X:10, so it looks like it was you who wanted this implemented more than Lotus considering you are the one replying to every point on this thread, even though you're not the OP.

Lotus, having been a previous staff member, knows my strong position on MC accounts, and messaged me prior to posting his suggestion, wanting my input. I provided it, and prepared a response.

MC-Market has a responsibility to lead by example, to its userbase.
By making accounts a portion of our otherwise respectable platform, we are introducing users to an illegal, immoral, and illegitimate market full of scammers and product loss.

If we ever want to expand, we need to show everyone that we are a respectable business that is consistent and serious about its dedication to protecting the rights of content owners.

 

[fruitymc]

This is the worst idea ever
Big time lurker here.. Didn't even have an account till now. The only reason I lurked here so much, was for accounts. (Too broke to buy )
If you remove it, you remove a big portion of traffic, and users that buy ranks (given these are required to even begin to sell accounts).

If Mojang were to crack down on forums lending to these sales I would understand. However this is not the case, nor do we harm any other party, they're not hacked accounts, we only trade one account for another so we can have a fancy name in a block game.

 

[dxn]

we are introducing users to an illegal, immoral, and illegitimate market full of scammers and product loss.

Users will only get scammed if they want to purchase an "illegal, immoral, and illegitimate" account. If there are users on here who are solely interested in other areas such as resources, they should have nothing to worry about.

If we ever want to expand, we need to show everyone that we are a respectable business that is consistent and serious about its dedication to protecting the rights of content owners.

What else is there to expand to? MC-Market already covers relatively everything there is to do with Minecraft (and even more). MC-Market would have very little chance / opportunity to expand and compete with other sites such as SpigotMC and Bukkit.

Also, protecting the rights of content owners has nothing to do with Minecraft accounts, and would not make a difference if the account section was removed.

 

[EpicFooF]

i'd like to point out :
the people voting agree are the noname morons that have no idea what they're doing when buying an OG and are the ones making the scam reports "wahh wahh this dude scammered me ((( "
the people DISAGREEING are all the people EXPERIENCED in the subject

WHY SHOULD SOMEONE UNEXPERIENCED IN SAID SECTION BE GIVEN THE IDEA TO REMOVE IT?

Because we want a properly working forums.
This section has only damaged the website in so many ways, from flooding the scam reports section, to dragging staff and administration's attention away from us.

Like literally, look at the private accounts section for a second. Half the section is banned for scamming/ban evading, and many of them reopen accounts and continue to scam. Removing this section is removing the same ban evading scammers, not "a huge portion of the community", You all over exaggarate.

I understand this might damage your income as a minecraft accounts seller, but please also understand that this suggestion (and hopefully a decision) is not to damage you purposely, it is to turn this market into a legal one. By allowing you to break a company's TOS, Mc Market is putting itself under a risk, and it also doesn't look good.

 

[Justis]

Lol why can't you admit you're wrong? you have no experience in the community at ALL and are just speaking out of your ass at this point

I have been a member since 2014, when this site was created by a small group of developers in a Skype group chat which I was a part of, wanting a better place to sell their plugins and plugin development services. I watched this site grow from nothing.
I have been a staff member for nearly four years, and administrator for nearly two.
For a period of time, I was the entire resource moderation team.
For a period of time, I was was the scam resolver team.
The reputation system’s current functionality as well as the dispute system was my design.
I wrote the majority of MC-Market’s documentation. The rules, the wikis, the warnings, the staff policies.

I have served and I have protected this community as though it were my own family, and my familiarity is equally comparable.

You want to sell Minecraft accounts here, I understand. However, with respect, your statement is incorrect.

As I would lead my younger brothers away from illegal and immoral practices, I will do the same for MC-Market. That’s the kind of administrator I believe that a community of impressionable teens and young adults deserves.

You're acting as there arent scammers and shitty resources on McMarket. Are u going to review EVERY ONE of them to check if their quality is enough to be able on the market?

We already do this.

 

[Ivain]

The main reason to ban MC account sales is because afaik it's either against EULA or technically allowed but heavily frowned upon by Mojang.
Since the same can be said about selling premade worldfiles, however, the argument isn't particularly strong.

EDIT: Also, whoever tried to diss Justis is an idiot. I've been part of this site for ages, and he's one of the few people from way back when I joined that is still here and still relevant. Not to mention that while I'm currently king shitposter, my involvement in the development of MCM has mostly that of an observer.
As he's stated himself, he's been a major part of a lot of the significant changes to happen to the site.

 

[Blood]

Remove OG sales so the OG community of this forum can flock to better forums that will better suit our needs.

 

[Justis]

The main reason to ban MC account sales is because afaik it's either against EULA or technically allowed but heavily frowned upon by Mojang.
Since the same can be said about selling premade worldfiles, however, the argument isn't particularly strong.

It’s explicitly disallowed by their EULA, and they have a history of locking accounts.
Content creators, however, they encourage, and make explicit allowances for, when it comes to selling.
If you have any questions about Mojang’s policies, I can answer them. I’m very familiar.

 

[Lotus]

Lol why can't you admit you're wrong? you have no experience in the community at ALL and are just speaking out of your ass at this point

Considering Justis has been part of the site since its birth and has most definitely influenced how the website has grown, I find it quite amusing for you to spout out he has no experience at all.

The point of this suggestion is to fix the double standards imposed by the site. It’s about ethics and learning to respect legitimacy. Facilitating the sale of accounts is violating the TOS of the very game you’re dependent on and that should be viewed as illegitimate behaviour.

People are saying “all the account sellers will move elsewhere”. That’s the point, we shouldn’t be known for that traffic. MC-Market should not be known as a shady ignorant marketplace filled with scammers (most ban evaders are from accounts), but instead be known for its legitimate services.

Other communities, like the Spigot one, view MCM in a childish manner. md5 (the owner of Spigot) himself expresses his discontent towards the practices of account selling and he is absolutely right in that regard.

Change will always have winners and losers. But in my eyes, this will lead to more winners for the future.

 

[Ivain]

It’s explicitly disallowed by their EULA, and they have a history of locking accounts.
Content creators, however, they encourage, and make explicit allowances for, when it comes to selling.
If you have any questions about Mojang’s policies, I can answer them. I’m very familiar.

I'll msg you. It's possible they amended their policy since the Mplace started, since I remember being told that direct sale of MC worldfiles is not allowed due to it essentially being MC code you're selling. Creation of custom maps is allowed because it's a service.
Anyway, not relevant to the thread beyond that.