I understand that some of you feel that any slip-up will get you banned.



Rest assured that THIS IS NOT THE CASE.

The staff here wants everyone to feel safe and secure. We want you to feel free to hand out and/or accept invites to high level trackers. If we were not so strict with our rules, do you think that so many FtN invites would have been distributed here over the past several months? Before May, not a single FtN invite had ever been given away here. Since that time, SEVEN invites have changed hands. ScT and SCC are easier to get than ever. When I first joined, TL was rare - now it's nearly impossible to giveaway because it's so common. This is a GREAT thing. T-I is positively thriving. And I like to think that this is because our members feel safe. And they feel safe because the staff works hard to keep out those who would hurt our community.

We want a strong community with good members. To that end we have strict rules and we enforce them. For minor problems, we will always warn you first, usually multiple times. No one is ever going to be banned for a single flame or off topic post. In fact, it takes three infractions to receive a ONE day ban. It's the major problems that result in an instant and permanent ban. Things like multiple accounts, trading, cheating, cheating the iGiver system, etc. Contrary to popular belief, we don't like to ban. Additionally, if you are put on the chopping block, you are given a chance to defend your actions. We will investigate any claim against you thoroughly before wielding the ban hammer.

If you see an older member banned, it's because he/she royally screwed up. For instance, we'd recently banned a member who had reached the rank of 99%. Why? Because he made a very sick post about one of our members. We won't tolerate that sort of behavior. Ever. T-I would not be the fun and strong community that it is if we allowed members to get away with this sort of thing, simply because they had seniority.

One thing to keep in mind is that not everyone on the ban list is permanently banned. A few are not. A short term ban teaches an important lesson: If you can't follow the rules then you can't play in our sandbox. It's effective and 9 out of 10 times the member does not repeat the screw up that led to the ban in the first place.

Like I said before - if you read the rules and follow them you won't ever have any problems. A good number of our members has never received so much as a no points warning. With the concept of our site, and a member base as large as ours, it's inevitable that scammers and cheaters are attracted to us - and they are the ones who fill the majority of that seemingly scary ban list.

I hope this calms everyone down. =)