Just kidding!

BanLink was recently mentioned on the Linden blog. Unfortunately we were inaccurately listed as a reputation/rating system. BanLink is *not* a reputation/rating system. BanLink is a way for groups to share ban lists and manage their own individual lists independently. We give the power for each parcel to have complete control over who is banned from their land and who is not, while also providing them a means to trust other groups as to who should and should not be banned.

What are some of its features?

• Manage their own ban list, while accepting trusted bans from other groups
• Decide which other groups to trust
• If a person is banned from their land via a trust, they can be unbanned into their own land without affecting the originating or any other bans.
• If a person is banned from their land and they are the originator of the ban, then they anyone that trusts them will have that same individual banned from their land as well. However, if the originator unbans someone, the person will also be unbanned from all trusted land parcels unless explicitly banned from another parcel.
• BanLink is decentralized. Parcel owners have complete control over who is banned and who isn't, regardless of trusts.
• BanLink includes a dispute system which will allow individuals who have been banned to respond to the reason for the ban. The dispute is visible to not only the originating ban owner, but by anyone that trusts the originating group. This allows for trusted groups to make their own determinations as to whether they should allow the ban to exist on their own land.
• BanLink is a free system.

What does BanLink not do?

• We are not a rating system.
• We do not provide public information on individuals who have been banned. We believe in privacy and are not in the business of building a reputation.
• We are not a central government. All bans and unbans are managed wholly by the groups in the system. We do not intervene with any form of favoritism based on groups or individuals. If there is a dispute, it must be brought up with the groups and individuals who have initiated the actions. We are not a judge and jury in any matter.
• We are not a system to be used by hot-headed groups who will ban people out of a personal grudge. If a group has a tendency to do this, then chances are that the group will not be trusted by anyone else and therefore have no real impact to others using the system.
• We are not tied to Linden Lab, nor are we being taken over by Linden Lab, as has been rumored.

This is a project written by Travis Lambert and Mera Pixel (hey that's me!), to help alleviate potential griefing situations by quickly sharing ban information amongst groups of like-minded individuals. The system works pretty well and is being tweaked and improved on a near daily basis. We also include improvement ideas not only from our group subscribers but those that have been banned as well. If anyone has an idea, hopefully well thought-out, that you think would benefit the system, please bring it up to one of us. We're looking to make this useful and fair to everyone involved.