dotblu blog

How or when does a user get removed from dotblu?

Every once in a while, we have to remove a user from dotblu, either temporarily or permanently, for breaking the rules consistently on the site.  It's not something we like to do, and we try to avoid it any way we can, but sometimes it's very necessary.  Most situations when we remove a user are unique, and all are for a very good reason, however we can't ever disclose the details of why a particular user may be removed due to our privacy policies.

We understand that this can be frustrating for some who know the user that has been removed who are looking for an explanation.  Many times the reasons might not be obvious, or won't be visible on the site at all.  To those we can only say that we understand your frustration, and ask that you please understand that we do have a good reason for the removal, and that we did not make the decision to remove the user lightly.

There are a few things that will warrant immediate removal, of course, mainly posting pornography.  However, for most violations of terms of service we will issue several warnings before removing the user, and they know very well what the consequences will be if they continue to break the rules.

And if someone is violating the terms of service, please use the abuse report buttons at the top of every profile, or contact us at violations@dotblu.com.  We investigate every abuse report very carefully and take appropriate action, however we cannot disclose what that action may be due to privacy concerns. 

Above all, please do not report or discuss violations publicly and instead report the abuse so that our administrators can examine it and make a decision.  Often publicly discussing these issues can make things worse, not better.

For reference, here is a link to dotblu's terms of use. 

As always, if you have any questions, comments or suggestions, feel free to email us at feedback@dotblu.com or contact the House. Good luck!

Cheaters on dotblu?

Every once in a while, we get a complaint about cheaters on dotblu, who may or may not be gaining points or blubucks unfairly through a variety of means.  It has been known to happen from time to time, and while we're not going to go into detail about how that happens, when we do find cheating happening we take action to make sure that it doesn't happen again.

The best way to make sure that cheating isn't happening is to report actions by any suspected cheaters, either using the 'report' button on every profile, or by contacting us at violations@dotblu.com.  We look closely into every complaint we get, however due to our privacy policies we cannot release any details about what we find out.

We can tell pretty easily whether or not someone has been cheating, and sometimes it might appear that someone has been cheating when they're not.  For example, someone's Net Worth may drastically increase with little game participation, which understandably makes other players suspicious.  However, that could be due to receiving a rather large gift from a friend.

For that reason, we'd like to ask everyone to not publicly accuse anyone of cheating on dotblu, and instead just report them to us and let us look into it.  We examine every report fairly and try to figure out what's going on, and take appropriate action.  But public accusations can just create hostility on dotblu and make this site less fun for everyone.

As always, if you have any questions, comments or suggestions, feel free to email us at feedback@dotblu.com or contact the House. Good luck!

Problem with Pwned on Internet Explorer

We've received a few messages lately letting us know that when scrolling through pictures on Pwned using Internet Explorer, after 20 pictures the browser will hang and requires a refresh to keep playing.

We've looked into the problem and it will most likely be resolved by later today.  In the meantime, refreshing your browser should fix the issue, and if you have another web browser like Mozilla Firefox, Pwned is working properly for that.

UPDATE: We've fixed the problem with Pwned. If you are still having trouble, please contact us at support@dotblu.com.

As always, if you have any questions about Pwned! or anything else, feel free to email us at feedback@dotblu.com or contact the House. Good luck!

Add photos to your profile with blupix!

For a while now, many of you have been asking for a way to upload more than one photo to your dotblu profile.  We've heard your calls, but we wanted to make sure it was done right, and it's finally here!

blupix is a new feature to upload photo albums to your dotblu profile. Show your friends what you did for vacation, who you've been hanging out with, or just some funny pictures that you want share with the community.

So head on over to your profile and upload some pictures!  And if you don't have any pictures to upload right now, check out your friends' pictures.  Maybe they've even uploaded a picture of you in there.

As always, if you have any questions about blupix or anything else, feel free to email us at feedback@dotblu.com or contact the House. Good luck!

Introducing Pwned! A new photo-based game.

Check out photos of the hottest dotblu players and buy and sell them to earn blubucks! Pwned! Is a new game that lets you buy and sell other users and hold their photos on your profile page. As you pwn more photos, you'll earn more blubucks.

It's easy to play, you can scroll through photos of users and when you see one you want to pwn, click 'Pwn It!' Then you'll pwn that photo until another user buys it, and you'll make blubucks! You can upload up to eight photos of yourself to Pwned, so other users can buy and sell you, which will help you earn blubucks as well.

So check out Pwned! and start pwning your friends and earning blubucks!

As always, if you have any questions about Pwned! or anything else, feel free to email us at feedback@dotblu.com or contact the House. Good luck!

Happy New Year from dotblu!

All of us here at the dotblu staff would like to wish all of you on dotblu a happy and prosperous 2009. We've grown a lot over the last year, and we thank everyone that's used dotblu to make new friends, keep in touch with old ones, play games, and helped make this growing community great.

In the end, what makes this site great is you the users, and we've listened attentively to your feedback, criticisms and suggestions to try to make dotblu the best web site it can be. Thanks for all your contributions to helping dotblu grow and expand and become even better.

We've been hard at work on some great new features that we hope you're going to love, and will be rolling them out very soon. In fact, there's some big new features that we're going to start beta testing on tonight, so keep your eyes peeled! Only some users will be able to participate at first, but if it's you, you'll know who you are. And before too long everyone will be participating.

So thanks again, and happy 2009! As always, if you have any questions about the dotblu store or anything else, feel free to email us at feedback@dotblu.com or contact the House. Good luck!