This is nothing new. The policies of the Nost staff have been inconsistent/unclear and alienated hardcore players while fondling casuals since day 1. And there has always been tons of grey area when it comes to what is considered an "exploit." I'm truly sorry to see 3 guys that I enjoy playing with perma banned, but I cannot say that I am surprised by these actions by the staff.
tbh every time I jump through the fence in WSG I worry I'm going to get banned for it, because that's how absurd staff here can be
>First there was the variety of inconsistent bans handed out during early server life, mostly related to leveling/experience "exploits" (with the term exploit being loosely defined, and inconsistent/confusing statements being made by GMs).
>Then came the first major GM fuck up, when Maitoz, Gilnash, and Monkeynews were banned on AV release day. The Blizzlike game API has the ability to queue a 40 man raid for Alterac Valley. This function is blocked on most Vanilla private servers, but could be used in retail. These players were banned for "use of illegal 3rd party programs" for using the group AV queue function (a simple in game script). The bans were for 1 week, and not surprisingly, GM's never admitted they did anything wrong.
>Then came the Silithus Miners.
>Then came terrible custom BG queue system + wintrading going ignored for months on end and giving countless exploiters high PvP ranks
>Then came the unlimited herb respawn bug which caused a massive wave of bans, some deserved and some not.
The Nost staff has really dug themselves a deep hole this time. As countless others have pointed out, following the logic of the bans on Slip, Moo, and Ranalape would suggest that anyone who has picked a Songflower buff with friends/guildies deserves a permanent ban. In this case you should ban me too.
TL;DR - Sad truth is that these bans are surprisingly terrible, but not terribly surprising.