Moontide wrote:Was the ToO jail different from just banning people? Like was there a special "jail" sub-forum for the inmates to talk to each other in?
I appreciate the clarification there.Brad wrote:bookworm would be able to tell you for sure. (not that he was ever in jail, but he is knowledgeable about such matters of ToO history)
This question was asked in the Town Council HQ forum, but I decided to answer it out here so that this information remains available after that forum is locked and hidden in case other people want it in the future.
There was not a jail subforum, but it was much more than just a typical ban. It was a very intricate system. Thus the reason it was called the Courthouse and not simply the Jailhouse. There was much more to it than just levying a punishment.
Members could be put in jail for anything, because it was a state of the account, not a ban in itself, the admin just marked that setting on a member's account and gave a reason. However it was generally used as a ban, so it would mostly be for offenses like spamming.
While in jail an image of bars would be shown over the member's avatar. The admin set the level of the punishment, from the options of Forbidden to post messages (but they could still browse the site), Forbidden to post and read messages (they could not see threads, but I believe could still access mail), or All actions forbidden (a site ban). These restrictions would have a prison sentence for the length of time they were to remain in effect.
What made the system really neat, and why it was a court and jail and not just a ban, was there was a great deal of interaction that it allowed in affecting the targeted members.
First there was a trial feature. Other members could vote on whether someone was innocent or guilty of the charge brought against them. A certain number of votes needed to validate the verdict was set and if the majority voted innocent the sentence was dropped, if the majority said guilty the sentence was upheld.
Once in jail it was possible for a member to get out of their punishment before their sentence had been fully served. Depending on the severity of their offense a bail amount was put on their imprisonment. If they paid the bail with ToO money the ban was lifted. The admin could set whether or not the bail could be paid by other members if the convicted did not have enough money to pay their own or if others wanted to help free them.
Both of these options could be disabled when passing sentence, so if the system were being used for an actual ban it would not be possible to be judged innocent or get out of it early by paying.
Once released from jail, either by serving their sentence or by making bail, the incident didn't just go away. Member accounts had a prison record section which listed how many times they had been imprisoned. The record could be cleared by paying a certain fee.
Because of the flexibility of use the jail system was not only used as a typical forum ban, it was a central feature in multiple Story Arcs. A prominent example is The Town of Bennett Arc, where Bennett Charles took over and imprisoned Shadowpaw with an impossibly high bail amount. Members had to solve clues to hack into a dummy account which had enough money to post bail, freeing Shadowpaw who then jailed Charles for a year. When he was finally released Charles vowed revenge, and soon after Margaret Faye was killed which kicked off the Regisville Arc. During that Arc the jail was heavily used as Dr. Blackgaard imprisoned people on a whim. Here is a screenshot of the current occupants when the Arc concluded.
As Historian, I actually give guided tours of the old Jailhouse on the ToO Archive so people can see it in person, pointing out a few specific prison records of note that are significant for one reason or another, such as Story Arc related jailings. PM me if you want to sign up for one!
(After the latest server upgrade this is sadly no longer possible to do as the archive site of the old forum is no longer functional. If it ever is able to be brought back online this opportunity to explore the remnants firsthand will resume.)
I have a few fond memories of story arc jail use, as do most of the members around at that time, I'm sure. 
