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.

 

[Desert]

REDACTED

literally bro. if you sell art/make plugins/$3 resources this doesn't apply to you at all, you're better off not reacting at all then agreeing. you agreeing won't make people buy your shit, if they wanted to buy it they would.

 

[QuickNote]

"Lets take down what the site was made for and named after" :clown:

 

[air]

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.

ima be real chief, this isn’t a business. by definition, sure it is but this is a website and nothing more. take away what your customers want and there will be 0 growth, you are killing the site Lmfao have fun with this shitstorm

 

[NovaLegion]

This entire suggestion can be summed up with 'The facts are you're breaking Mojangs TOS/EULA'

Enough with the Moral crap, Just because something is illegal doesn't make it wrong, or just because something is legal doesn't make it right. This is all debatable.

I for one have an issue with EULA & TOS agreements in general, especially ones which include (This can be changed at anytime, which mojangs does btw, what kind of contract do you sign that's legally binding says shit like that?) Also, AFAIK Valve is being taken to court in france over the validity of these contracts in regards to steam accounts, so we'll watch and see how that goes.

We as a community should be discussing whether or not these should be valid and followed, and if we conclude that they're not, we should be going against Mojang directly.

In the mean time, those who go against the EULA/TOS should not complain about being punished, and should accept the consequences, because at the moment, we are breaking agreement.

 

[Lotus]

Stop treating this as a dam argument with opposing sides. This has turned into a community discussion around the best way FORWARD for MCM, not an argument in which we should stand here at an IMPASSE while you try and change the status quo based on your "good morals", obvious superior knowledge and reluctance to even acknowledge arguments against your "belief".

Stop thinking about yourself for once in your life. Why should the community and, honestly more importantly, MCM as a business suffer because poor justice isn't comfortable that we break a billion dollar company's TOS.

This is all with the interest in pushing MCM forward.

These recent account lock waves blatantly reveal just how fragile this entire section is. This suggestion was never about putting forward selfish morals, it's about solidifying the foundation for the future of MCM, because I don't see a long future for the site otherwise. Diversify and become a market that doesn't cause any reason for conflict with other firms.

If you've ever cared about business, it should be obvious that being dependant on a market that can be taken away very easily is a bad business decision. Microsoft is looking at crippling the accounts market, that's obvious from these locking waves and you can't win against them. Is it a smart decision to go against or work with a billion-dollar company? They own the game and they will make it difficult for you to engage in such activities.

There is no benefit in trying to fight an uphill battle, there will be many losses and it may simply be better for the site to properly conduct its activities in a proper fashion. Again, I reiterate, Microsoft holds the power here. If they figure out a way to completely block account sales, that will be the end for everyone, and maybe MCM may not be ready to appropriately respond.

MCM should instead invest its resources to improve everything else, over a dwindling accounts market. You bet your cards on the safest options which will help you in the long-term, not gamble them away on a market that can be completely crippled any day. It's not worth it for a business like this. The belief in accounts has always been thought in the short-term thinking process.

I'd always be hopeful with an opportunity for MCM to work with Microsoft than challenge them, any day.

 

[Blood]

This is all with the interest in pushing MCM forward.

These recent account lock waves blatantly reveal just how fragile this entire section is. This suggestion was never about putting forward selfish morals, it's about solidifying the foundation for the future of MCM, because I don't see a long future for the site otherwise. Diversify and become a market that doesn't cause any reason for conflict with other firms.

If you've ever cared about business, it should be obvious that being dependant on a market that can be taken away very easily is a bad business decision. Microsoft is looking at crippling the accounts market, that's obvious from these locking waves and you can't win against them. Is it a smart decision to go against or work with a billion-dollar company? They own the game and they will make it difficult for you to engage in such activities.

There is no benefit in trying to fight an uphill battle, there will be many losses and it may simply be better for the site to properly conduct its activities in a proper fashion. Again, I reiterate, Microsoft holds the power here. If they figure out a way to completely block account sales, that will be the end for everyone, and maybe MCM may not be ready to appropriately respond.

MCM should instead invest its resources to improve everything else, over a dwindling accounts market. You bet your cards on the safest options which will help you in the long-term, not gamble them away on a market that can be completely crippled any day. It's not worth it for a business like this. The belief in accounts has always been thought in the short-term thinking process.

I'd always be hopeful with an opportunity for MCM to work with Microsoft than challenge them, any day.

Why does the OG market need to be removed to focus on other markets? The site administration can shift its direction/focus but that doesn't change the fact that a good portion of the userbase are here for account sales. Why not just leave it alone?

 

[lammel]

This website is called MC-Market for a reason. And that reason isn't the crappy Minecraft ripoff wallpapers a few 'Digital Artists' sell.

 

[Blaze.]

This is all with the interest in pushing MCM forward.

These recent account lock waves blatantly reveal just how fragile this entire section is. This suggestion was never about putting forward selfish morals, it's about solidifying the foundation for the future of MCM, because I don't see a long future for the site otherwise. Diversify and become a market that doesn't cause any reason for conflict with other firms.

Well I mean if you get rid of the most definitively biggest portion of your site then your site won't have a future. Do you also realize if you were to follow through with other TOS's and EULAs then you'd have to get rid of like a majority of the site, as many others have said, right?

This is all with the interest in pushing MCM forward.
If you've ever cared about business, it should be obvious that being dependant on a market that can be taken away very easily is a bad business decision. Microsoft is looking at crippling the accounts market, that's obvious from these locking waves and you can't win against them. Is it a smart decision to go against or work with a billion-dollar company? They own the game and they will make it difficult for you to engage in such activities.

Why would a multi-billion-dollar company work with a website that, for multiple years, has gone against their TOS? Even if you change now, they still wouldn't want to work with this site in the slightest due to the immaturity of most of the site users and how this site literally breaks multiple Terms of Services of other Microsoft-owned sites. facepalm

This is all with the interest in pushing MCM forward.
There is no benefit in trying to fight an uphill battle, there will be many losses and it may simply be better for the site to properly conduct its activities in a proper fashion. Again, I reiterate, Microsoft holds the power here. If they figure out a way to completely block account sales, that will be the end for everyone, and maybe MCM may not be ready to appropriately respond.

MCM should instead invest its resources to improve everything else, over a dwindling accounts market. You bet your cards on the safest options which will help you in the long-term, not gamble them away on a market that can be completely crippled any day. It's not worth it for a business like this. The belief in accounts has always been thought in the short-term thinking process.

I'd always be hopeful with an opportunity for MCM to work with Microsoft than challenge them, any day.

Again, Microsoft wouldn't work with a website that has broken multiple of their sites and games' TOS and consists of even more TOS breaking sections, which if you removed, would definitively, without a doubt, kill MC-Market as a whole.

While yes, there is no benefit of an uphill battle, there's also no benefit in destroying a marketplace that has been worked on for multiple years. The safest option for MCM is to deny this suggestion. A large majority of this site's active users will leave for a competitor, and if you want to be consistent, you'll have to delete a lot of other sub-forums, which will kill the site like a lot of others have already said.

The account marketplace isn't dwindling. The easiest counter to make these lock-waves stop happening is to make the account section viewable for premium members only, let premium users delete threads after an account has been sold, (or make an automated thread deleter after a thread's been sold) making the association system not viewable to other viewers, (i.e let people have to have the account associated before they sell it like it is now, but only staff can see who has accounts associated, not other members) and then all people have to do is star the names of their accounts in titles and only give hints / only provide the name in PMs.

Again, bad idea overall and I just wanted to chip in with my 2 cents and my ideas.

 

[Terminated]

This is all with the interest in pushing MCM forward.

These recent account lock waves blatantly reveal just how fragile this entire section is. This suggestion was never about putting forward selfish morals, it's about solidifying the foundation for the future of MCM, because I don't see a long future for the site otherwise. Diversify and become a market that doesn't cause any reason for conflict with other firms.

If you've ever cared about business, it should be obvious that being dependant on a market that can be taken away very easily is a bad business decision. Microsoft is looking at crippling the accounts market, that's obvious from these locking waves and you can't win against them. Is it a smart decision to go against or work with a billion-dollar company? They own the game and they will make it difficult for you to engage in such activities.

There is no benefit in trying to fight an uphill battle, there will be many losses and it may simply be better for the site to properly conduct its activities in a proper fashion. Again, I reiterate, Microsoft holds the power here. If they figure out a way to completely block account sales, that will be the end for everyone, and maybe MCM may not be ready to appropriately respond.

MCM should instead invest its resources to improve everything else, over a dwindling accounts market. You bet your cards on the safest options which will help you in the long-term, not gamble them away on a market that can be completely crippled any day. It's not worth it for a business like this. The belief in accounts has always been thought in the short-term thinking process.

I'd always be hopeful with an opportunity for MCM to work with Microsoft than challenge them, any day.

Was going to reply but it seems to all be summed up above thanks to Blaze. and Blood ; Cheers

I will say that Lotus despite your nicely worded and thought out answer you just like other self righteous users didn't bother to read the many points by other users which have already refuted, disproved or expanded further upon your claims.

The one fighting an uphill battle is very much you at the current moment. Please respond with points which answer all of the problems with your suggestion, not just a selected few to make yourself seen to be engaging in the debate; when really, you aren't.

 

[Em]

Changed my vote.

 

[oRory]

Alright, what is the final say on this Mick

 

[Candid]

The ban happened lol hello from the future bruh wtf

 

[Candid]

The ban happened lol hello from the future bruh wtf

As to restricting to prem

 

[Krillin]

No one uses mcm to sell their minecraft accounts anymore so I don't see the issue with removing the section. I use to, but after the lock wave I just don't want to run the risk of getting my account locked.

 

[nfdegreu3i23r22r]

After reading through this I agree with the post Lotus thanks for making the suggestion.

 

[Anish]

Probably a good idea to ban the selling of MC accounts. But with it you're going to have to rebrand so that'll be fun.

 

[Avery]

As an old seller on here, it depends on how this is taken and handled. If MCM decides to make everything “good” in terms of EULA, TOS, etc. it would kill a large part of the community. If MCM takes good care in repairing that community it could work.

There’s no doubt these are fragile markets but that’s the risk vs. reward in this market. If you’re smart and can make good decisions in the practice you’ll make a lot of money quickly, but with greed and poor decisions you set yourself up for failure. It’s no doubt that a large portion of this site comes from these activities though, selling and buying of goods that aren’t allowed. If MCM decides to cut it off then that community will move elsewhere (no majority of these people are not scammers as I saw a few times here).

However, it depends on the vision and future of the site. For me, I joined, like many others to sell and buy Minecraft accounts. Removing of this puts MCM where? Why would people join here over Spigot or Bukkit or the countless other sites to sell goods? Account selling is the largest portion of this sites active user-base and pull for new members (similar to how alt sales are the other sites main pull). Sure, your community might stay purely for the shout-box banter and the friends here or maybe even the small income they make, but new members will slow down and you'll be cutting ties to the main community on this site.

Honestly, keep things as they are, improve the OG section, dedicate some mods there to help prevent scams if that’s a problem, take actions to prevent getting accounts here locked. If Microsoft decides to cripple the entire market then be prepared to make changes at that point if necessary, but the OG market will always survive and new accounts will always be available.