Dimitris

[Dimitris]

Steam Name: Dimitris

SteamID: STEAM_0:0:127839448

BanID: 83594

Ban Reason
Hacking

Staff Member: John Silver

Involved users
Myself

Why should you be unbanned?
I honestly don't have much to say, the evidence that was given to me to support the ban is just ridiculous and it proves absolutely nothing. I know this is more personal than anything else but that's for an other section of the courthouse.

I've shown the evidence to 2 ex super admins/devs and an ex dev too and they've all agreed that this is not enough to support anything as billy logs are not accurate when it comes to positioning.

An other question I'd like to ask is, was the /spectate command used on me and if yes was my POV not recorded, as far as I'm aware that's one of the best ways to catch a cheater. Also form what I was told by ex admins cases like that took days of spectating and gathering evidence so how comes john silver felt like evidence from a single day was enough to justify such ban. 

Last but not least John I'd love to think this is not personal but you just prove my point time after time. I would like to ask you if this is not personal then why once I was banned and I got you in a voice chat you told me that you're willing to go down as long as you are bringing me with you as I am "the cancer of FL" as you called me. Please don't try to lie your way out of this as a recording can and will be provided if you attempt to lie.

Conn Rylund and Pollux I'd appreciate if you could make a statement regarding this.

[Conn]

I’ve seen the bLogs evidence, and if that is the only evidence, I don’t believe (and I’m sure Pollux will back me up here) that it holds any weight.

bLogs isn’t meant to catch hackers, that is the role of anti-cheat. It isn’t precise, and I’ve seen similar cases to that of the evidence shown regarding angles.

The only good way to stop hackers is to use good anti-cheat or screen grabs, both of which don’t work (as of when I was SA, I don’t believe this has changed since), thus unless there is substantial non-bLogs evidence, I do believe you’re clutching at straws here.

[Rylund]

I've seen the evidence consisting of bLog screenshots, if this is the only evidence I would personally say the ban is lacking substantial evidence. I've been told that bLogs have been used to confirm other events happening over voice, even if this is true it would be expected to have actual proof of Dimitris using any form of third party software.

When handing out bans for serious offenses like hacking, it would be expected to gather substantial proof; a good example would be screenshots from the suspects' game showing any form of hacking client, wallhack, etc.
Could also be something like an anti-cheat that monitors a user while being on the server, these are specifically made for catching hackers, bLogs are not.

We used to gather evidence when banning hackers a couple of years ago, we usually screengrabbed people with a command developed by Temar; when using screengrab, you would get a screenshot from the client showing exactly what they see, making it quite easy to catch hackers in the act. (Example of tool working the same way, would recommend FL to get something like this: https://www.gmodstore.com/market/view/sn...uring-tool)


My reply is purely based on the screenshots from bLogs and being told that a conversation was happening over voice, if some information has been left out to skew the situation the ban may in fact be completely justified.

[Pollux]

I've seen the evidence and I did a bunch of anti-cheat related things before my resignation so I guess it makes sense if I also join in.

I doubt there's any other evidence as screengrab has been broken for ages, spectator is just straight up bad and the anti-cheat was removed a bit after I left due to a gmod update breaking it, I also assume that if there was more evidence it would've been posted here by now like the last cheating UBR. This means there's pretty much no reliable way to check if someone's cheating so I'm not too sure why anyone would be banned unless they sent a screenshot of them with ESP on or something stupid like the last one.

From what I can tell, the evidence gathered was Dimitris having headshots on something like 4 kills that day (which doesn't mean much as the CW weapons make it stupidly easy to do so by just not aiming at the ground) and one particular one which bLogs said he killed someone behind him while facing the other way. I can kinda see why that particular one would cause a bit of suspicion as it does look quite bad to someone who doesn't get how the bLogs combat logging works. bLogs sorta falls apart in massive combat situations, it's made to fight against one-on-one RDM and not to spectate a massive gunfights and definitely not to try and catch people cheating.

Here's the 'evidence' I'm referring to, I may as well share it as a lot of people have seen it anyway and it's not revealing anything that private.

Spoiler: bLogs 'fake angles'

Removed (Visible for staff)

Yeah I get it, it's showing he killed someone behind him while looking in front so Dimitris must be using some sort of fake angles aimbot right? Well not exactly, the server is showing the angle dimitris was looking at when the combat situation started and only when it started in this screenshot. This can differ from what Dimitris was looking at on his screen as it's what the server thinks he was looking at, not an accurate representation of what he actually was looking at. I also want to point out that the victim information is also bugged in this screenshot, it should usually show the name and profile picture of the person who died as seen in this screenshot below of another one of the 'evidence' things.

Spoiler: bLogs 'headshot'

Removed (Visible for staff)

It also is only meant to show the actions the victim and the attacker used in the log section, which it doesn't in the suspicious one used to ban Dimitris. I actually think the entry Dimitris was banned for (the first one showing supposed fake angles) was bugged as it looks like it didn't correctly get the player he killed at all, I'm not sure why because I've only seen screenshots but it can't be used as valid evidence at all let alone hacking evidence because there's a lot of doubt about it.

I've had a rant about this in the past and I'm going to repeat myself again, you really should only ban people if you have evidence in the form of screengrab, screenshots they've sent or automated anti-cheat detections. You shouldn't ban people based on feeling because it leads to situations like this. I'd recommend just buying a screengrab at this point, something like this (https://www.gmodstore.com/market/view/le...livestream) as it'll help solve issues like these. I think it's also clear there needs to be threads in the admin office just teaching people the basics of stuff like bLogs and little disclaimers like the positions may not be accurate, as I don't really blame Johnsilver or any other admin involved for this either. The fact that some admins have to ask ex-developers like myself or Arny about tools and commands because they haven't been told about them is almost frustrating to me. It's a tough position for the current admins when you know there's a ton of cheaters around and you don't have any working tools to actually try catch them, I really don't understand how there's still a lack of tools and threads explaining these things to the new admins joining the team and it's something that needs to be sorted ASAP to prevent this in the future.

EDIT: Images were removed by Hareek due to the adminhub logs being visible, which is why they're now censored. *shrug*
EDIT2: Got removed again, nevermind.

[JohnSilver]

From the beginning, Violet asked why you, Scott aka (frost) and eagle killed rocky, after talking in admin chat we went to blogs to check it out.

From the blogs we see that yours and Scott aka (frost) kills were headshots, after asking for Violet’s and Steven’s opinions on the matter we all agreed you were hacking which is why I banned you and Scott aka (frost).

Later on, I asked Edned for his opinion and he agreed that the screenshots did not look legit so your ban remained in place.

You called me in a group call where you tried to say you weren’t hacking and I didn’t believe you so hung up the call, then frost aka “Scott” called me and said that he was hacking but you weren’t and said he didn’t care about the ban.

I didn’t believe him in saying that you weren’t hacking so left the ban in place, I honestly thought you weren’t going to post a UBR/AA as keep calling me to snake in discord.

Got a question tho: Why did you shoot eagle in the screenshot?

[Conn]

From the beginning, Violet asked why you, Scott aka (frost) and eagle killed rocky, after talking in admin chat we went to blogs to check it out.

From the blogs we see that yours and Scott aka (frost) kills were headshots, after asking for Violet’s and Steven’s opinions on the matter we all agreed you were hacking which is why I banned you and Scott aka (frost).

Later on, I asked Edned for his opinion and he agreed that the screenshots did not look legit so your ban remained in place.

You called me in a group call where you tried to say you weren’t hacking and I didn’t believe you so hung up the call, then frost aka “Scott” called me and said that he was hacking but you weren’t and said he didn’t care about the ban.

I didn’t believe him in saying that you weren’t hacking so left the ban in place, I honestly thought you weren’t going to post a UBR/AA as keep calling me to snake in discord.

Got a question tho: Why did you shoot eagle in the screenshot?

You can’t rely on bLogs to show exactly where a person was shot, it simply shouldn’t be used as evidence for a hacking ban. Anything else you want to pin on him, sure, but the evidence is a farce

[Pollux]

From the beginning, Violet asked why you, Scott aka (frost) and eagle killed rocky, after talking in admin chat we went to blogs to check it out.

From the blogs we see that yours and Scott aka (frost) kills were headshots, after asking for Violet’s and Steven’s opinions on the matter we all agreed you were hacking which is why I banned you and Scott aka (frost).

Later on, I asked Edned for his opinion and he agreed that the screenshots did not look legit so your ban remained in place.

You called me in a group call where you tried to say you weren’t hacking and I didn’t believe you so hung up the call, then frost aka “Scott” called me and said that he was hacking but you weren’t and said he didn’t care about the ban.

I didn’t believe him in saying that you weren’t hacking so left the ban in place, I honestly thought you weren’t going to post a UBR/AA as keep calling me to snake in discord.

Got a question tho: Why did you shoot eagle in the screenshot?

You can’t rely on bLogs to show exactly where a person was shot, it simply shouldn’t be used as evidence for a hacking ban. Anything else you want to pin on him, sure, but the evidence is a farce

This isn't even mentioning the fact the log used to actually ban him (one where he isn't looking at the person he killed) is clearly bugged, it doesn't even say the person he killed or even the logs from it as something clearly broke. The rest are just showing normal shots.

[JohnSilver]

Is this Dimitris response or just yourselves?
cause like him to response himself as not involved on the day
but thank you for input so far
please reframe from post anymore thank you

[Conn]

Is this Dimitris response or just yourselves?

My response. I happened to set up bLogs hence I’m well aware of what it is, and what it isn’t.

[Pollux]

Is this Dimitris response or just yourselves?
cause like him to response himself as not involved on the day
but thank you for input so far
please reframe from post anymore thank you

I was responding for myself as I was doing a bunch of anti-cheat related things while developer, understand how cheats work and I have experience with bLogs too. I just wanted to make it super clear that the bLogs evidence is not valid at all due to the reasons I explained in my longer replies.