Flagging accounts with no explanation and failing to reply to an appeal in a timely manner

My son's account was recently flagged for breaching Terms of Service. He is a decent junior with a strong work ethic... puts a lot into his growth. When it happened, we were surprised at the way it all unfolded. No discussion, questions or inquiry. Just a red banner across the top of his account for all passersby to gawk at. Lichess's digital stocks and pillory I suppose.

Now for all of you that are going to pile on and insist that the system is infallible and there is no chance that he was not acting unsportsmanlike or " that's what they all say" type comments. Please don't bother. I know and he knows there was no wrongdoing. And in fact, the point of this is more to highlight the process which I think is just terrible.

I do not in any fashion approve of cheating. To act without integrity is to debase oneself. Please let that be crystal clear.

After this happened, we reached out to other players that we know. Some GM's, IM; s. Really strong educators and chess professionals. I was absolutely shocked when the common reply was to take it as a compliment. They had reported that they knew of dozens of students and collogues that were accused digitally, deleted and that was that. Apparently, " It happens all the time."

How can this be correct? Obviously, it cannot be the wild west out there. Ther needs to be structure and I think Lichess is sincere about creating a quality chess environment. But something is wrong. At least the process is wrong. You can't brand someone a cheater publicly, mark there account publicly, invite them to appeal but if they don't confess, they are banned. Finally, not a single word in response after more than 48hrs.

This has been our experience. Terrible does not describe your process adequately Lichess.

@I1976Freedom said in #1:

It happens often, that the someone gets banned on mistake, since it can sometimes just be a "weak" play playing an engine-like game and tht is obviously suspicious. And bout the appeal time, lichess gets hundreds of appeals a Day, and each time, the mod reviewing it, has to look at all the games, which were suspicious for cheating activity. So it takes quiete some time to get an answer on the appeal

@I1976Freedom said in #1:

My son's account was recently flagged for breaching Terms of Service. He is a decent junior with a strong work ethic... puts a lot into his growth. When it happened, we were surprised at the way it all unfolded. No discussion, questions or inquiry. Just a red banner across the top of his account for all passersby to gawk at. Lichess's digital stocks and pillory I suppose.

Now for all of you that are going to pile on and insist that the system is infallible and there is no chance that he was not acting unsportsmanlike or " that's what they all say" type comments. Please don't bother. I know and he knows there was no wrongdoing. And in fact, the point of this is more to highlight the process which I think is just terrible.

I do not in any fashion approve of cheating. To act without integrity is to debase oneself. Please let that be crystal clear.

After this happened, we reached out to other players that we know. Some GM's, IM; s. Really strong educators and chess professionals. I was absolutely shocked when the common reply was to take it as a compliment. They had reported that they knew of dozens of students and collogues that were accused digitally, deleted and that was that. Apparently, " It happens all the time."

How can this be correct? Obviously, it cannot be the wild west out there. Ther needs to be structure and I think Lichess is sincere about creating a quality chess environment. But something is wrong. At least the process is wrong. You can't brand someone a cheater publicly, mark there account publicly, invite them to appeal but if they don't confess, they are banned. Finally, not a single word in response after more than 48hrs.

This has been our experience. Terrible does not describe your process adequately Lichess.

My acc was banned as well for suppository cheating I cam get it back after 6 months

@Arkaswan_Saha said in #4:

My acc was banned as well for suppository cheating I cam get it back after 6 months
Uhhh...Ur not bannednor marked

@DERG_CHESS said in #5:

Uhhh...Ur not bannednor marked
It happened 3 years ago

"He is a decent junior with a strong work ethic... puts a lot into his growth."

Well, that's refreshing. I'll add it to the "best of cheater excuses", Vol. 1.

Read my blog. The guys you've been heading out to put up a lot of propagandist nonsense. I guess many students cheat because they're not satisfied enough. And if you didn't observe your son in all of his games, you don't know what he did. Besides the appeal can take up to 72 hours and if it's rude or pretentious, it will be ignored.

Even if your son was banned innocently it's not a moral crime by Lichess and there's no systemic illness. I've seen successful appeals in my time here.

Wait for lichess appeal.

@Cedur216 said in #8:

Read my blog. The guys you've been heading out to put up a lot of propagandist nonsense. I guess many students cheat because they're not satisfied enough. And if you didn't observe your son in all of his games, you don't know what he did. Besides the appeal can take up to 72 hours and if it's rude or pretentious, it will be ignored.

Even if your son was banned innocently it's not a moral crime by Lichess and there's no systemic illness. I've seen successful appeals in my time here.
account is closed