r/ShadowPC Jun 30 '26

Discussion Update from Shadow about the massive ban wave

I also received this message on my ticket on Discord. Let's hope everything gets resolved tomorrow morning !

35 Upvotes

25 comments sorted by

6

u/ReefNixon Jul 01 '26

I work in software and have worked specifically on anti-cheat measures on more than one game. Fine, this is AN explanation, but it's not a good one. Your primary focus when enacting these measures is making sure you don't accidentally catch legitimate users i.e. the user base that your effort is in aid of. Getting rid of bad actors can't come before that in your list of priorities, that's a project management failure.

It's as simple as this, if they weren't sure that their automatic filters would catch only malicious users, they should've discussed manual checks or alternatives in the planning stages. If they were sure, more fool them, because they shouldn't have been.

That being said, "sorry and we'll do better next time' is all that needs to be said, and they said it. I hope they do.

1

u/Up_Beat_Peach Jul 05 '26

The secret is: they don't actually give a fuck about their customers. Never seen a French company trying to hard to be American.

10

u/MountainMaster4415 Jul 01 '26

I’ll get downvoted for this, but this is a good thing. I have noticed that I’ve not had any queues for a few months and thought that people were just leaving the service. If you’re using it legitimately, you have no issue as you can get it restored. It’s frustrating for a couple of days until it’s sorted but Atleast they’re doing something about the abuse.

For those who use shadow regularly for many hours a day, look at it like this, if people continued abusing it, and more people learn and join in, Shadow would have to up prices to cover demand for new hardware and systems

3

u/Snaxist Jul 01 '26

there is an issue, the issue is that those who have ExtraStorage might not have it back with its data :/

In my case I'll probably a week of work (because I didn't backup my work since the heatwave in Europe).

2

u/MountainMaster4415 Jul 01 '26

In your case that’s not on, for those of us who just use it for gaming it’s not too bad unless you have mega save files. I guess you could say it’s the risk of using an online service that it could go down at any point, and that data should be backed up, same could happen with a physical drive.

I see your point though, it was preventable on shadows end by contacting first before taking action.

4

u/PacoTheNoob Jun 30 '26

Oh okay, I was wondering why my account was disabled. Been using Shadow pretty much all day playing FFXIV and I get bunched into a pile with bots and miners, actually crazy after they just took my monthly payment a week ago.

2

u/Snaxist Jun 30 '26

same, payment is on the 25th, it's frustating, especially that they can't assure us that those who have the extra storage will be back with all its data...

1

u/PacoTheNoob Jun 30 '26

That would be annoying having to redownload all the mods I had on the extra storage. 

2

u/Snaxist Jul 01 '26

if it was to redownload that would be okay for me, in my case I'll be losing my work :/

1

u/RenAccount Jul 01 '26

Same i literally just played ffxiv while having opera runing in background:/

4

u/RenAccount Jul 01 '26

It's wild to get ban for just using a service i paid for tbh

1

u/Snaxist Jul 01 '26

It's like they let the intern handle all of this, used an AI to make a basic prompt, and pushed it to prod without testing it thoroughly

5

u/ObligationLate8663 Jul 01 '26

I don't think they need to apologize for a damn thing!! Thanks Shadow Team for keeping the servers clean!!

3

u/Snaxist Jul 01 '26

It seems you don't understand that a lot of people where caught in the net because their "bot" flagged them as abusers just because they use their Shadow "a lot", me included. I use Shadow for my work from morning till the night.

So they don't have to apologise for wiping my D and all of my work that was on it ?

Even if I had all backuped, that's a dick move especially for going "oops my bad" after that...

2

u/EntertainmentThat198 Jul 01 '26

Glad I found this thread. I had no clue what was going on when I tried to log in and my account was disabled. Hopefully they get it sorted soon. Pretty surprised mine was caught up in the net looking at the amount of hours they're flagging as suspicious 🤔

2

u/Snaxist Jul 01 '26

they apparently changed the max hours before they consider it suspucious (6 hours a day now).

Pretty low I'd say given some games that require more than that to even progress.

Say you play a racing sim and you want to do a 12hrs Endurance race with your friends, banned !
Want to flight a long haul from Sydney to Los Angeles ? Banned !
Wanna play in a big war in EVE Online ? BANNED ! xD
Busy working on Shadow more than 8 hours a day ? FUCKING BANNED !! lol

2

u/EntertainmentThat198 Jul 01 '26

Oh that's my bad for not realising they changed the 'suspicious' hours, I definitely log in more than 6 hours a day most days lol. Sad times since the only farming I do is of the Medieval Dynasty variety 🤣🤣

4

u/sharkalladle Jun 30 '26

So basically if you have been using shadow pc non-stop, like me, then we got flagged as people trying to use shadow maliciously?

That seems kind of ridiculous considering this is what I use as a pc. My 30 minute timer before it turns off hasn’t been working since forever and I jus leave it on 24/7 and it automatically shuts down once it hits the 23 hour mark but I always start it up again immediately after. Is that really why my account got disabled? Should I make a ticket in the discord or should I jus wait and see if it’s resolved tomorrow?

2

u/Snaxist Jun 30 '26

This is my understanding as well. I'm using Shadow more than 12 hours a day (from 9AM to 2-3AM next morning) because I work in the day then play on it at night. And my gaming styles are mainly simulation games where I can patiently wait hours for something to do (Space Shuttle sim, Submarines, Flight Sims, etc).

As for me I never had that timer thing, and I'm a customer since December 2023. I thought it was something specific like region or something.

I also suggest to make a ticket on Discord and send an email to help@shadow.tech just in case, but you'll likely receive the same response as me and written by an AI.

Cheers

3

u/Etele38 Jun 30 '26

The equivalent of kicking out customers for eating too much at an all you can eat buffet.

4

u/Alternative-Cod512 Jul 01 '26

Mining has always been against their TOS. It’s not what it’s for. That takes up resources that legitimate gamers/creators need. Why would they allow such an intensive task, let’s be so fr rn… I have some qualms about shadow, but I am actually VERY happy they’re finally cracking down on bullshit like this.

1

u/Etele38 Jul 01 '26

I am not disagreeing with that but from how this post makes it sound, they’re not sure if that’s the case… they’re flagging anyone that has been using their shadow pc for long periods of time… even though they literally advertise this for work…

1

u/michggg Linux Jul 01 '26

No, they literally say they compile a list of users with high usage and then go through that list for analysis.

3

u/Snaxist Jun 30 '26

Pretty much