In the past... the subject of cheating (of the hacker variety) has been brought up a few times on this board. You can look back at the archives and see for yourself what the PB response has been. I've been around for some of this discussion and looked back at the archives myself. All of a sudden they seem to be awfully worried about it, unlike in the past, when they have denied any knowledge that cheating is possible on a grand scale.

So... first off, this policy change is an "unoffical" admission that the people who were complaining about cheating in the past may have been right (but you don't see that in the policy change statement).

Secondly... on their claim that the cheating was only perpetrated by a few dishonest owners that ruinied things for everyone else. Who are the few and why havn't they been kicked off? The answer of course is that they don't know or don't have any proof who or how much cheating was actually going on. There are probably things that look highly suspect, but cannot be ruled out as mere chance. Take a look at the thread way below involving a perfect LL season. If they can't definatively say that a perfect LL season is cheating then how can they possibly discover a manager who maybe steals a game here and there during the season to improve his record or win a crucial playoff series?

Bottom line... if there is a known way to cheat the PB staff has to close the loophole FAST, in order to have any integrity. Unfortunately the PB staff's claim concerning the games stability is about as accurate as their previous claims about it's security. The game crashes often, even when I have practically nothing else running in my sys tray. What they have done is a quick fix, because they don't have the knowledge or resources to do it right. Sound familiar? Like it or not we are probably stuck with this solution for quite awhile. And, even though I occasionally loose a game because of a crash, I think this is the preferable to re-opening those holes. The cheating was most likely rampant (rather than limited) and the holes too big or too numerous to close at this time.

Cameron.