#soft ban

My blog was flagged by Tumblr's automated anti-spam system. For about a month I couldn't send replies to blogs except on desktop. My messages disappeared and it was impossible to find me via search. I only discovered this when I found it suspicious that I couldn't reply to any blog except on desktop.

After learning I was experiencing a shadow ban, I put in a support ticket with Tumblr. It took a little less than 24 hours, but they did restore my account.

I have been on website checkers and they say I haven’t been marked as explicit so I’m not sure how to fix it.

Know the process

While Niantic is banning cheaters from Pokemon GO, it is important to know the differences between the two types of bans, especially if you wan to appeal it.

Soft Ban

If you have issues with your GPS, Niantic will take this as suspicious activity and ban you from the game. Driving fast or using other GPS tracking tools fit in this category, so be careful with your GPS.  The soft ban will apparently be similar to a speed lock, which is seen other augmented reality games.

Soft bans will last up to twelve hours maximum. When the ban is lifted, do not try it again as the duration of the next one may be longer. Times may vary and it can even last up to a day for some, so be aware if you GPS spoof you may be out of commission the whole day.

Perma Ban

Being permanently banned from Pokemon GO is more of a legal matter than what the soft ban entails. Violating the terms of service will get you kicked off the game. Using emulators, modifying the software and faking your location are just a few of the things you have to do be banned completely from the game.

How to avoid

There are no reasons to cheat in Pokemon GO. The game is supposed to get you up and going to travel and catch Pokemon everywhere. Falsifying your location, tinkering with the software and violating the Niantic's rules are childish and ruin it for everyone. Play the by the rules and you will enjoy the game for years to come. If you do so happen to get kicked off, you can always create a new account and start over, but that just seems like more a hassle than its worth.

A soft ban on Pokemon Go is like: 1) you can’t activate/collect items from Pokestops. They will light up, but spinning them does nothing (even if the game has otherwise loaded everything correctly). 2) you can’t fight in gyms (you consistently get an ERROR message at the top of your screen that removes you from the arena a few seconds after you get in). 3) all Pokemon encounters where you throw a pokeball will result in the Pokemon escaping the ball/fleeing immediately after they break out, preventing you from capturing anything while the soft ban is in place. Even if you throw a perfect ball at the weakest CP Pokemon, it will shake twice, then break free no matter how hard you try. 

I was still able to hatch eggs the last time this happened to me, but blegh. 

From what I’ve heard, soft bans automatically activate if the game detects you moving around too quickly? For example, if you are gps spoofing your location (i.e. making your iphone/android think you are in a different place than you really are), then you are cheating and therefore get the soft ban. So lol if you spoof your location and teleport from Moscow Russia to New York City. Except in MY case, it’s soft banning me whenever I use my phone at home after I’ve driven out somewhere and left the app open. Like… I drove down to the post office/to Subway to get lunch earlier. My phone died while I had the app open, so I drove home to recharge it. When the app opened, it thought for a second that I was still at Subway, then “teleported” me back home when it realized I wasn’t actually there. 

Except EVERY TIME it does this, it think’s I’m purposely trying to trick the GPS, therefore locking me out of Go. And it is frustrating the absolute living FUCK out of me. 

It started happening to me after I updated, so… lol if this becomes the new Three Step Glitch, I might actually put this game down until another update. It’s stupid AS HELL. :C

EDIT: luckily, my soft bans have only been. What? 30 minutes to an hour? The first time it was about 2 hours, so maybe Niantic is aware of the issue and not saying anything? I haven’t heard of this happening to anyone else, so maybe it’s like. Only select people who happen to live in areas with shitty coverage/spotty gps reception or something. BLEGHHH. 

A streamer, and player, by the name of ‘Malcom Reynolds’ is using Cheat Engine/hacks to alter the game in his favour by soft banning innocent players.

Basically, what’s happening is if you get hit by him, you’ll get a bunch of souls added to your soul count. The system will detect that you’re cheating by getting souls in an unofficial manner, and soft ban you, meaning you cannot play online with that character anymore. This also means that if you want to keep playing online, you will NEED to delete that character, lest you won’t be playing online anymore. As far as I know, this softban is account wide, and any other character you make will not be able to play online. On top of getting soft banned, you will be hollowed, and in a lizard state (from the in game dragon Covenant), unable to change equipment, and stats are reset to 1.