It feels like there is a lot of good info (and also a lot of speculation) on bans and how they work, but it's really difficult to sift through all the comments to figure out what is legit and what is not. If someone is keeping up with the ban chatter, could a sticky note be created that summarizes the facts and dispels some of the myths out there?
I have been permanently banned on 3 accounts (at least permanent as far as I can tell, getting the "Failed to load game data" message or error on downloading inventory in Pokefarmer), but I have some other accounts that have not been banned so I'm trying to figure out what the difference is, or if Niantic simply hasn't gotten around to banning the other accounts yet. I feel like I've got more questions than answers, such as:
1) Has anyone ever got the hard ban ("failed to load game data" error) and then been able to login after a week, 2 weeks, or more? Do we know these accounts are permanently banned for sure?
2) My 3 banned accounts all used bots before the "unknown6" issue, but weren't banned until later. Are my bans the result of pre-unknown6 activity, or activity/behavior since then? I think the assumption is that a hard ban results immediately after suspicious activity, but it's possible that Niantic is banning accounts long after suspicious activity has occurred. That makes it hard to know what is triggering a ban, since you don't know if your activity from the last 24 hours was directly related to the ban.
3) All of my bans occurred around level 25. Does Niantic wait until an account has leveled up to around 25 before issuing a ban?
4) If I run Pokefarmer with different accounts and spread out the time each account is botting in a 24-hour period to 5-6 hours per day, will this prevent a ban? Pokefarmer stops running after a while and warns against continuing, but it seems to be based on total bot time, not the time spent on different accounts.
5) What are the biggest ban triggers? Jumping massive distances too quickly? Travelling to fast? Botting too many successive hours? Leveling too quickly (faster than a normal player could level)? All of these?
...
If anyone was willing to sift through all the bot chatter and put together a sticky post that is updated with current info based on the community, it would be extremely helpful!
Thanks!
I have been permanently banned on 3 accounts (at least permanent as far as I can tell, getting the "Failed to load game data" message or error on downloading inventory in Pokefarmer), but I have some other accounts that have not been banned so I'm trying to figure out what the difference is, or if Niantic simply hasn't gotten around to banning the other accounts yet. I feel like I've got more questions than answers, such as:
1) Has anyone ever got the hard ban ("failed to load game data" error) and then been able to login after a week, 2 weeks, or more? Do we know these accounts are permanently banned for sure?
2) My 3 banned accounts all used bots before the "unknown6" issue, but weren't banned until later. Are my bans the result of pre-unknown6 activity, or activity/behavior since then? I think the assumption is that a hard ban results immediately after suspicious activity, but it's possible that Niantic is banning accounts long after suspicious activity has occurred. That makes it hard to know what is triggering a ban, since you don't know if your activity from the last 24 hours was directly related to the ban.
3) All of my bans occurred around level 25. Does Niantic wait until an account has leveled up to around 25 before issuing a ban?
4) If I run Pokefarmer with different accounts and spread out the time each account is botting in a 24-hour period to 5-6 hours per day, will this prevent a ban? Pokefarmer stops running after a while and warns against continuing, but it seems to be based on total bot time, not the time spent on different accounts.
5) What are the biggest ban triggers? Jumping massive distances too quickly? Travelling to fast? Botting too many successive hours? Leveling too quickly (faster than a normal player could level)? All of these?
...
If anyone was willing to sift through all the bot chatter and put together a sticky post that is updated with current info based on the community, it would be extremely helpful!
Thanks!
