[Puppetmaster]

As we all know valve recently banned a few servers for using banned plugins. Some people have since claimed that their servers were not using any of the known banned plugins and as a server operator myself I would like to determine why this is the case in order to avoid it happening to others.

I am requesting that anyone who was banned and did not have illicit plugins please let me know below by providing me with a list of all of the plugins and the server tags used with their banned tokens.

[sneaK]

I was running Knife Swapper by Neuro Toxin and Custom Knife Models by Franc1sco/Mr. Derp. I'm assuming one (if not both) caused my blacklist. Other than this, I run Zephyrus's store (player models/colors/tracers/trails and thats it), and nothing else that could cause a ban.

[Nolongerinthegame]

Apart from the original knife mod (which players can select any valve knife) and that weapons skins mod, there is really no way to tell exactly what has caused the bans, because valve haven't said since yesterday. It is all speculation. Some people saying this mod caused bans, other servers run the mod but no ban.

So we just don't know.

[psychonic]

While tag checks were used in the original ban waves when IP addresses were blacklisted, I don't think that they've been used since.

Assuming that a majority of users are truthful, Valve was likely using an imperfect, behavior-based heuristic (which also happened to detect certain "allowed" plugins), and would logically be detected/reported from the client rather than the server (so that the check couldn't be cheated/blocked). It would likely have been reported via a GC message, probably not an obvious one.

(This is just an educated guess based on the details available)

[bakugo]

The recent ban wave doesn't check tags or anything, it checks for commands, such as !knife, !ws, etc.
I have a local srcds installation that I use to test plugins and skins, it had a custom (made by me, not public and adds no tags or cvars) skins plugin, today I tried starting it and bam, account banned until 2038 (seriously, 22 years? what the fuck?)

[sneaK]

Originally Posted by bakugo The recent ban wave doesn't check tags or anything, it checks for commands, such as !knife, !ws, etc.

I'll be damned if it checks for commands such as !knife or !ws. I have triggers setup for whenever someone types one of those that explains (prints to chat) that those plugins were removed in July due to request by Valve. I'd laugh so hard if thats what got my server banned. I honestly doubt it however, I'm going along with psychonic's analysis.

[bakugo]

Originally Posted by blackhawk74 I'll be damned if it checks for commands such as !knife or !ws. I have triggers setup for whenever someone types one of those that explains (prints to chat) that those plugins were removed in July due to request by Valve. I'd laugh so hard if thats what got my server banned. I honestly doubt it however, I'm going along with psychonic's analysis.

If that's true then they're giving out delayed bans because I started my server for the first time today after not touching it for almost a week and it was instantly banned (before I could even join).

[asdfxD]

using chat triggers with !ws or !knife does not ban your server wtf? i use the same, people say !knife or !ws it opens a motd window with an info text the plugins were removed and banned by valve.

bullshit why? you can join all community server and typ !ws, !knife and the server will be banned soon.

delay bans? no... the knife plugin has been removed on my servers after they put out the warning message and i replaced !ws and !knife with motd website.

[sneaK]

Originally Posted by asdfxD using chat triggers with !ws or !knife does not ban your server wtf? i use the same, people say !knife or !ws it opens a motd window with an info text the plugins were removed and banned by valve. bullshit why? you can join all community server and typ !ws, !knife and the server will be banned soon.

I think that was merely speculation by bakugo, if this is the way Valve is actually banning servers then that's a SERIOUS flaw in the way they're blacklisting.

[checkster]

Originally Posted by bakugo The recent ban wave doesn't check tags or anything, it checks for commands, such as !knife, !ws, etc. I have a local srcds installation that I use to test plugins and skins, it had a custom (made by me, not public and adds no tags or cvars) skins plugin, today I tried starting it and bam, account banned until 2038 (seriously, 22 years? what the fuck?)

Just no, it does not check for commands, cause I've had !knife as a command on my servers for ever.
Only difference is that on my server's it sends you to justin biebers fan site.
I cant say exactly how its done, but its not going into all servers and checking commands.
I'm actually looking into using the !knife plugin but only with the default knife, cause quite often when people spectate it removes the weapon view.
Not so sure if its smart though, maybe if a remake of the plugin was done, removing all extra knifes.