A verdict has been reached, and no IG enforcement actions were necessary. For anyone who desires to cite this case in the future, the final verdict is:
"In the case of a character banned for OOC reasons, we find the accused, Trond Tollefsen, guilty of violating the social contract. Banning a player as a vigilante extra-enforcement of previous Titan or Magistrate decisions is inappropriate. The decisions made by the Titans and Magistrates are final, and do not need extra punishment meted out by players."
"Furthermore, as a general principle, players should not be punished for previous offenses that have already been addressed. Numerous players of Battlemaster have, at some point in their past, abused game mechanics, violating the social contract, or even run multi accounts. They have been punished for those actions: ongoing social retribution and witch-hunts against stigmatized players are injurious to the Battlemaster community."
"However, while judge bans are IC, rulers also have the little-used ability to deploy OOC bans. In cases where players are harassing other players in a realm, openly violating the social contract, or engaged in abuses which are highly time-sensitive in nature, rulers can use OOC bans. In general, though, Magistrates cases are preferred as a tool for resolving such conflicts, and OOC bans are automatically referred to the Titans for review."
"As the accused player has already deleted his characters and Heorot has reversed the ban, no further enforcement seems necessary."
Magistrates voted 4-1 in favor of the guilty verdict.
This thread will remain open for questions for a brief period.
