Jamie Chamberlain banned from LOTW

Resolution #39

AJJE's Roles and Responsibilities declares club Administration Directors are "held accountable to the membership" and clause 5 of LOTW's GPs say "The Parliament Leader is responsible for enforcing the TOS guidelines."

The TOS (Terms of Service) are chiefly the rules governing member conduct towards the site and towards other members.

"Ajjegames.com may only be used for lawful purposes. Any use of these services which violates any local, state, federal, or international laws which may apply to Ajjegames.com, your local jurisdiction, or any jurisdiction that you or your site may be subject to is strictly prohibited." (TOS preamble)

Term 1A of the TOS states: "[you may not] Restrict or inhibit any other member from using and enjoying the Internet" and 1B states: "[you may not] Post or transmit any unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, offensive, indecent, pornographic, profane, or otherwise objectionable information of any kind, including without limitation any transmissions constituting or encouraging conduct that would constitute a criminal offense, give rise to civil liability, or otherwise violate any local, state, federal or international law."

It has been disclosed to me that multiple members of LOTW are considering taking legal advice regarding the abusive and offensive nature of Jamie Chamberlain's conduct (primarily transmitted via email) and the extent to which this violates any local, state, federal, or international laws which may apply to Ajjegames.com, Jamie's local jurisdiction, or any jurisdiction that he or the site may be subject to. The TOS clearly assumes members may take legal action where they feel it is necessary, but fortunately (and after having already attempted mediation, discrete restorative justice, and other approaches) several alternative options are available to us.

One is a Site Level Blacklisting of the offending member.

The AJJE General Policies pertaining to Site Level Blacklisting say this:

"An Administrative Director must make requests for site wide Black Listing to the VP of Anchor Clubs. Site wide shall be defined as the whole of AJJE Games, preventing a member from posting from all current and subsequent new clubs that may join AJJE. Black Listing shall be defined as the complete locking of a user account due to TOS violations. This action should be reserved for only the most serious of offenses such as hacking into the PARS system, actions that could result in legal difficulties for AJJE Games, and the extreme misuse of user email addresses."

However, it is still my hope that Jamie will learn from a more moderate punitive measure: a Club Level Ban. I further hope that the players seeking retribution against Jamie will be satisfied by such a resolution.

In the AJJE General Policies section on Club Level Bans we read, "In the event a Terms of Service (TOS) violation by club member is severe but isn't classified by an Administrative Director to be severe enough to warrant a Black Listing, the option of a Club Level Ban is available. Club member shall be defined as an AJJE Game user that has a rostered character in the club passing the ban. If a club has a clause in their Guiding Principles requiring AJJE level approval for Club Level Bans, AJJE Games hereby waives the right to approve and review."

LOTW's GPs reflect this, for instance clause 5, "If the Parliament Leader feels a TOS violation warrants removal from the site, Ajje Game approval must be obtained. All other methods of handling a TOS violation lay within the power of the Parliament Leader" and clause 6, "The Parliament Leader may pass Resolutions without a vote for the following issues: Take punitive action towards a player for TOS violation..."

The AJJE General Policies continue:

"The Administrative Director is required to enter a Club Level Ban into the record as a Resolution. This Resolution does not require a membership vote per the Guiding Principles and can be enacted/repealed at the current Administrative Director's discretion. A second approval is required by the Member Support Director prior to the posting of a Resolution by the Administrative Director. Once the Resolution for a Club Level ban is entered into the record, the Operations Director of the club is required to remove all characters and instances that the banned club member is involved in from that club alone within a reasonable amount of time. The Administrative Director is required to notify the club member via email of the ban and CC the VP of Anchor Clubs or the VP of Development (if it is a member of Ride the Edge) and the President. The VP will then instruct the Webmaster Director to lock the club member's account so that the user is unable to login to the club for which they are banned. Access to other clubs where the club member is not banned shall remain available."

Having obtained the approval of the Member Support Director and having liaised with the LOTW Administration elected heads, several senior site members, and my Deputy Parliament Leader, I am therefore posting a Resolution banning Jamie Chamberlain from this club. I have advised the Operations Director and asked him to remove all of Jamie's characters etc from the club.

The AJJE General Policies also state, "There is no AJJE level appeal process for Club Level Bans. The club member must file any disputes with the Administrative Director passing the ban, or with future Administrative Directors."

As such, Jamie Chamberlain is banned from LOTW for persistent impenitent breaches of the Terms of Use. He is welcome to appeal this decision through me directly. I will inform him of all this via email forthwith.

Ashley Leighton Plom
Parliament Leader
May 31st, 2010

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In response to this, President Giesbrecht posted the following:

AJJE Games General Policies States:

Note, AJJE Games reserves the right to investigate and determine the validity of any club level ban they feel is unwarranted. AJJE Games has 14 days to inform the Administrative Director of the banning club that AJJE Games intends to investigate the validity of a club level ban.

Please consider this notice that AJJE Games will be investigating and determining the validity of this ban. A copy of this notice will be e-mailed to the Administrative Director.

Jeannette Giesbrecht
President
AJJE Games