When the encounter began all transports carrying DROPS were bountied for 15 million. The fact it was edited during the encounter obviously cant be the fault of the player after the bounty since he isn't the one editing it. Even then the bountied cargo didn't change, only the specifics of what was to be done about it. The title of the bounty doesn't matter either as most bounty boards don't really specify who they're bountying until they've been read.
So since we've ended up in a confusing situation like this with no rules broken and noone really to blame the best solution really does seem to be a change to the rules regarding blanket bounties or to at least regulate them. The best possible way I could see that working is if every blanket bounty started out as invisible until the admins approved it, then the original post is edited to belong to another person so that it cant be edited after posting. To change it again you would either resubmit a new post to replace the old one or put in a player request.
I stand by that it would have been much easier if I wasn't banned and was just allowed to post via the Core account like I had asked the admins a gazillion times, but oh well. Even when my HC wasn't around I asked the staff if they could edit the bounty for me but they said the only option was to just remove it.
In conclusion, it was a miscommunication error as my HC was unable to accurately specify what the bounty was supposed to be, and didn't make tweaks when needed, and was unable to make further tweaks as they were all asleep/away. Therefore I personally don't feel it would be fair for Core| or myself to take all the blame here - and at the least the person who edited the bounty is the guilty party - but I think a warning will suffice for them if anything.
Furthermore I'm curious as to how we define the player 'seeing' the bounty. Is this from an ooRP basis or inRP basis? In the case of the latter, isn't the general rule that players can't see a 'hostile' bounty? And yes, the title itself wasn't relevant to the bounty, much like most boards.
I disagree that bounties should go through a requests system however. The current system we have for requests is quite frankly awful, and after seeing the staff having to add unnecessary layers of bureaucracy to faction diplomacy, I'd personally hate to see that intrude upon the bounties system too. That's a discussion for a different thread however.
I did the legal part of the sanction and it was posted by the involved player because I already filed a sanction that day, Tunicle knows that.
A few remarks on these attempts to "explain" it.
> A BHG ID, hunting all kinds of transports for a Core bounty. How does BHG ID fit in there? BHG are e.g. by their ID friends of the IMG. IMG and BHG share a 90 % tech cell, in case you want to dispute this one. Being a "Whaler" does not mean you are not BHG ID and BHG ID rules do not count for you.
> Is your BHG IDed Whaler ship red to IMG? I seriously doubt that, given the overall hectic, uncoordinated and simply poor execution of this bounty in nearly all aspects. It would be a pain to rep a BHG ID to red with IMG on that short notice. IMG is +3 blocks neutral at restart. Zoners are 0 blocks neutral (because the BHG ID is not meant to hunt these reps - including Zoners, btw). You of course choose BHG ID/IFF to get 100 % energy core on the Orca, which is a cool ship to hunt down transports.
> BHG IDs is hunting "criminals and terrorists" (see ID). Zoners? IMG? Civilians of many lawful IDs doing relief shipments? Are these really the IDs you should be hunting? Look at the BHG ID description. Whalers should be using FL ID, but that would mean: 75 % gunboats, bad against transports.
> It's highly unprofessional of the responsible bounty board executive to edit a blanket bounty that was meant to cover 100 % of all participating trade ships while it was already being executed many times. It just yells "there is something fishy", and "they are covering up something". Seeing the version of the post change every time I opened the window prompted this report - as no one could even know what was going on.
> Bounty board rules state that "6. All blanket bounties must identify a target": your definition was not clear in the versions we submitted as screenshots. Headline "Zoners" contradicted the ever changing versions inside the post, and left room for interpretation and confusion (all transports? all Zoner transports? Meaning: not only Whales but also 3,6ker Zoners, all transports on all IDs?). You did not set a total amount to be paid out, or a set expiration date, but that's just a formal thing. Unclear target definition is the main issue.
=> to sum it up: If you want to play bad on a large scale (targetting 100 % of the participants) during an event, do so inside the rules, do it on the right ID, with a formally correct bounty and not hastily, unprofessionally while skirting the edges of the rules and for sure breaking some.
There are now two hidden admin posts above this, being scrutinised by the team as to the way forward. When we are collectively happy as a group they will be revealed.