What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Kansas
I was the admin on a Minecraft server for a few months. It's probably important to note that this is a volunteer position, not paid. I assisted with keeping the rules of the server, training the other staff members, and tracking bugs that the users would report on the server's forums. During this time, I noted several distasteful occurrences and I was wondering if they were illegal in any way. The main catch here is that the server owner lives in Britain, but the server is hosted in the US. As an adult, I want to make sure the children that play on this server are not mistreated or taken advantage of. It's also important to understand there is this system they use in which a user can "donate" to the server, and receive a "digital perk" in exchange for this donation. These are the terms they use but isn't this still an exchange of goods? i.e. a purchase? I'm not exactly sure how this legally works and what they are legally bound to provide in exchange for this money. If someone could explain that, it would be very helpful.
Really there are two main issues I have. As I noted previously, I dealt with tracking the bugs on the server. A user would report it, I would verify it to make sure it was actually a bug and inform the manager about it. Some of these bugs were about abilities from the purchased perks not working. And they were not fixed in months. To my knowledge they still aren't fixed. Some of the things listed as a perk were never implemented, meaning that someone might purchase a perk that doesn't exist all under the guise of a donation. Furthermore, the store terms of use will not offer refunds for any reason, even at the negligence of the server, i.e. A user bought a perk that didn't work. If a user attempts to charge back in this case it would result in a banishment from the server without a refund of any of the other things they purchased, because it's a "donation". I'm just curious if this is even legal? It seems really sketchy to me. Most of the users of this server are 10-16 years old. With a few exceptions like myself. Any older person that plays I have come across has had the same questions as me.
Secondly, The forums contain a rules section that is incomplete. Meaning that there are things that users are banished from the server for that are not communicated. Do the owners of this server have a right to banish anyone for any reason and keep any of the funds they have "donated". I guess this relates back to this whole, is this system legal and allowed? If not why doesn't every business run this way? Then they would have no need for customer service or worry about their products working. I know what you are gonna say here "That's a horrible business model and eventually they will die out if they do that." Under normal circumstances, yes, but keep in mind the majority of users of this server are children. My main concern is that they are getting taken advantage of. At one point the owner informed me that they had monthly expenses in excess of $20,000. So we are not talking about a small amount of money here.
On a side note, The staff environment for the server was pretty terrible. There were cases of nepotism, times when the manager would joke about demoting a staff member causing them mental stress, and one time the manager told a staff member he would promote him if he sent him a picture of himself in real life. It's also important to note here that the manager and the owner of the server are both minors. 17 or less, and living in the UK not the US. Do the same rules for volunteers apply as actual workers for work environment types of things?
So what is your take on this? Is this just children having fun? Or is there something illegal going on here? It really doesn't sit well in my gut when I think about it. And I usually go with my gut.
Thanks for your time,
~Memu
I was the admin on a Minecraft server for a few months. It's probably important to note that this is a volunteer position, not paid. I assisted with keeping the rules of the server, training the other staff members, and tracking bugs that the users would report on the server's forums. During this time, I noted several distasteful occurrences and I was wondering if they were illegal in any way. The main catch here is that the server owner lives in Britain, but the server is hosted in the US. As an adult, I want to make sure the children that play on this server are not mistreated or taken advantage of. It's also important to understand there is this system they use in which a user can "donate" to the server, and receive a "digital perk" in exchange for this donation. These are the terms they use but isn't this still an exchange of goods? i.e. a purchase? I'm not exactly sure how this legally works and what they are legally bound to provide in exchange for this money. If someone could explain that, it would be very helpful.
Really there are two main issues I have. As I noted previously, I dealt with tracking the bugs on the server. A user would report it, I would verify it to make sure it was actually a bug and inform the manager about it. Some of these bugs were about abilities from the purchased perks not working. And they were not fixed in months. To my knowledge they still aren't fixed. Some of the things listed as a perk were never implemented, meaning that someone might purchase a perk that doesn't exist all under the guise of a donation. Furthermore, the store terms of use will not offer refunds for any reason, even at the negligence of the server, i.e. A user bought a perk that didn't work. If a user attempts to charge back in this case it would result in a banishment from the server without a refund of any of the other things they purchased, because it's a "donation". I'm just curious if this is even legal? It seems really sketchy to me. Most of the users of this server are 10-16 years old. With a few exceptions like myself. Any older person that plays I have come across has had the same questions as me.
Secondly, The forums contain a rules section that is incomplete. Meaning that there are things that users are banished from the server for that are not communicated. Do the owners of this server have a right to banish anyone for any reason and keep any of the funds they have "donated". I guess this relates back to this whole, is this system legal and allowed? If not why doesn't every business run this way? Then they would have no need for customer service or worry about their products working. I know what you are gonna say here "That's a horrible business model and eventually they will die out if they do that." Under normal circumstances, yes, but keep in mind the majority of users of this server are children. My main concern is that they are getting taken advantage of. At one point the owner informed me that they had monthly expenses in excess of $20,000. So we are not talking about a small amount of money here.
On a side note, The staff environment for the server was pretty terrible. There were cases of nepotism, times when the manager would joke about demoting a staff member causing them mental stress, and one time the manager told a staff member he would promote him if he sent him a picture of himself in real life. It's also important to note here that the manager and the owner of the server are both minors. 17 or less, and living in the UK not the US. Do the same rules for volunteers apply as actual workers for work environment types of things?
So what is your take on this? Is this just children having fun? Or is there something illegal going on here? It really doesn't sit well in my gut when I think about it. And I usually go with my gut.
Thanks for your time,
~Memu
