"Warning: Pokemon Go permanently locking players out for no reason"

#PokemonGO: So there appears to be a very huge vulnerability in Pokemon Go. Apparently you could be flagged for a name change for no reason whatsoever AND if you are, you will be permanently locked as a result of a bug the Pokemon Go team hasn't fixed since August. There are players who have been locked out of the game since August.So here's my story. Last Thursday evening i was playing Pokemon Go and I noticed that my name had changed from WMDraongslayer to a string of numbers. I was like that's odd. So I went to change my name and was able to and changed it to SnorlaxSlayerWM. Notice that while in-game, I had the normal typical route for picking nicknames. I was given the option to not pick one immediately or I could simply wait. I changed it like 30 minutes later after catching a few pokemon first. Since it wouldn't let me choose the old name, I had to give it some thought.Anyways, I went home, went to bed and the next day I notice an e-mail in my inbox from Niantic that says the following:"Trainer,We have reset your nickname because it has been identified as offensive to other players. The next time you login you will be asked to select a new nickname.-NianticOps"I thought nothing of the e-mail because I had already changed my name in game right? Wrong.I go to log in later in the day and I'm immediate met by the professor. He says, "Hi Trainer! What should I call you, again?"When you tap on the screen, it takes you to another screen that says, "Enter the nickname that other Trainers will use for you."Now no matter how uncommon of a name I pick, it could be a random string of numbers, letters and numbers or random letters, I get the same response. When I hit submit it immediately says "Server Error." When you click ok, it takes right back to the renaming screen. You get stuck in an infinite loop. You can't even log out or go to any other screen. In fact, you have to simply delete the game entirely and redownload it if you want to log in with another account. That's how broken this is.I've looked up this issue and have seen at least another 20ish people who have posted about it since September and none of them have been able to fix the problem. Some of those people had fairly innocuous names like mine.Yet, they're completely locked out of the game. One article I read says that this could be a soft or discrete ban. What strikes me as odd about that is that I've done nothing wrong at all. I'm a semi-casual player of the game. I don't have tracking maps, I don't know how to hack or bot or do any of that weird stuff. Like at all. My iPhone isn't jailbroken. I'm just not one of those people who even understand how to do these things and I'm not motivated enough to do so.In fact, I play this game mainly as a way to have fun with my young children who love to drive around and play the game. We live in a beach city so there are so many really good Pokemon in our area. Our immediate neighborhood is full of Snorlax's (at least one weekly) and full of Eevee's and Growliths (we each have like 500+ Eevee candy we were saving). What's unfortunate is that I had three 3,000CP dragonites and seven 2600+ Snorlax's and 10+ Lapras's (beach city). I'm pretty freaking pissed off about this because it took time to accumulate these guys. I spent a lot of time upgrading my Snorlaxes and wracking up tons of miles on Halloween to earn candy to do so.Now here's what's annoying about this. It appears that anyone can get any other player in the game essentially banned just by reporting their names as offensive. It could be something completely innocuous and yet it appears if a few people submit reports, you get flagged for a name-change. I think all of this is automated and the Pokemon Go team simply just hasn't gotten around to fixing this bug even though it appears as if it is part of the game since launch.This is unacceptable. I feel inclined to just make 20 accounts and go out there and report every player in my city. Maybe if i do that, the problem will become so rampant with so many people being effectively banned that maybe the team might get around to fixing the problemWhat kind of company doesn't have a customer support team. Like seriously what the heck is that? I totally feel ripped off here. And I've spent ~$600 in the game since it launched because I can afford it. But I also was not expecting my level 31 trainer to be banned for no reason whatsoever. That's total b.s. What's more, I feel let down because I've spent so much time on leveling my trainer and catching probably thousands upon thousands of Pokemon. If anyone has advice, I'm all ears. For others in this game, just know that you can lose your account for no reason at any moment. That's what this game seems to be about. I can't imagine what it would be like if they did this in WoW. via /r/TheSilphRoad http://ift.tt/2g7VaNy