Forums » Suggestions
Sometimes in game chat isn't clearly "trolling or toxic chat", but is clearly harassment that goes outside of game-related discussion.
Sometimes in game chat clearly and flagrantly violates other Rules of Conduct, but there are no categories that match them.
It would be great if there were new categories added so there is more clarity of what the /report system can and should be used for, such as:
Harassment
Other RoC Violations
Sometimes in game chat clearly and flagrantly violates other Rules of Conduct, but there are no categories that match them.
It would be great if there were new categories added so there is more clarity of what the /report system can and should be used for, such as:
Harassment
Other RoC Violations
Yeah like
/report good_times "Hey Inc, just wanted to say I'm having a really good time playing your game today. I've already killed lots of other players!"
/report good_times "Hey Inc, just wanted to say I'm having a really good time playing your game today. I've already killed lots of other players!"
I'm definitely interested in a more polite chat! Out of curiosity, what kind of messages would you like to reduce? This suggestion is unfortunately a little vague.
Yeah I've seen a lot of chat that I feel like I should report but can't fit into any of the three categories.
Without naming names (either the person saying it or their target), can you give examples?
Sure.
-If someone is saying that they know who you are and they are going to effect something upon you in RL. (not necessarily toxic chat because perhaps they are actually mad about a game interaction, which is normal, but took their response too far; not necessarily trolling because one can never be certain of another's intentions; not spam, not political speak, but definitely harassment)
-If someone is posing as an employee of Guild Software (not toxic necessarily, not necessarily trolling since it's not as though Incarnate publicly discloses who his employees are, nor does he give any special identifiable feature to them in chat)
-If someone is disclosing something to you that is clearly illegal and makes you very uncomfortable
-If someone who you knew was banned from the game made an account to bypass their ban using false information
etc etc
Basically, I've been instructed to use the /report system for things that are not clearly categorizable under the available options, rather than submitting a ticket through the website. Adding a couple more categories would make the system work better for players and administrators.
-If someone is saying that they know who you are and they are going to effect something upon you in RL. (not necessarily toxic chat because perhaps they are actually mad about a game interaction, which is normal, but took their response too far; not necessarily trolling because one can never be certain of another's intentions; not spam, not political speak, but definitely harassment)
-If someone is posing as an employee of Guild Software (not toxic necessarily, not necessarily trolling since it's not as though Incarnate publicly discloses who his employees are, nor does he give any special identifiable feature to them in chat)
-If someone is disclosing something to you that is clearly illegal and makes you very uncomfortable
-If someone who you knew was banned from the game made an account to bypass their ban using false information
etc etc
Basically, I've been instructed to use the /report system for things that are not clearly categorizable under the available options, rather than submitting a ticket through the website. Adding a couple more categories would make the system work better for players and administrators.
Most of those are things that should be reported via a support ticket, as most of those are roc violations.
+1
@WAF: he did specifically say he was instructed to use /report instead of making support tickets...
@Luxen
I doubt he was told to use /report for real life threats.
I doubt he was told to use /report for real life threats.
You doubt because it seems unlikely, and yet here we are in the unlikely event, hence my suggestion.
/report works well enough as is.
Don't see how categorizing the offence would make it any better.
Don't see how categorizing the offence would make it any better.
I think the OPs point is that if there is no /report category for a behavior, then it appears that /report might not be the appropriate avenue of reporting it.
I have observed behavior of an intensity that is not easily captured in one message, but as part of a string or larger pattern it could be seen as harassment. I'm not sure how we would report that with context.
I have observed behavior of an intensity that is not easily captured in one message, but as part of a string or larger pattern it could be seen as harassment. I'm not sure how we would report that with context.
Well, I would agree with you Whistler, but nevertheless this is what has been asked. So I think making a couple more categories would at least make it somewhat more clear that /report is the appropriate avenue.
First of all: All chat-based issues should use /report, not Tickets. Greenwall is correct. (Tickets reporting chat issues are much more time-consuming to verify and audit, on the order of 1000x more involved, which is why we built the "/report" system in the first place).
Secondly: We have managed to get-by with a very limited list of "categories" on the Ticket system, for a really long time. In fact, people mostly seem to ignore them ("abuse" tickets as "billing" and so on). It's never seemed to have limited the tickets we get. But, I recognize that the Report system might benefit from more categories, to enhance clarity for administrators as well. Like I won't understand that a non-toxic message is being actually "reported" as a ban-evasion, for instance.
The Report system is still in flux, so I'm certainly open to more category types. But, I don't really want to get hyper specialized, or have a ton of categories.
Keep in mind, the categories have to be fundamentally simple enough to be translated into 20 additional languages, and not be extremely lengthy in description (in, say, German). Easy to understand across cultural and linguistic boundaries.
I do want to make a note about "Harassment": The system is going to suggest that players use "/ignore" for PM-related harassment. We'll make exceptions for sexualized abuse or real-world threats, but generally, PMs are not something we're taking action against.
Anyway.. based on the content suggested so far, you're asking for categories like:
- "Ban or Mute Evasion"
- "Real-World Illegal Activity"
- "Threats of Real-World Harm"
- "Sexual Harassment"
Are there other specific suggestions?
Secondly: We have managed to get-by with a very limited list of "categories" on the Ticket system, for a really long time. In fact, people mostly seem to ignore them ("abuse" tickets as "billing" and so on). It's never seemed to have limited the tickets we get. But, I recognize that the Report system might benefit from more categories, to enhance clarity for administrators as well. Like I won't understand that a non-toxic message is being actually "reported" as a ban-evasion, for instance.
The Report system is still in flux, so I'm certainly open to more category types. But, I don't really want to get hyper specialized, or have a ton of categories.
Keep in mind, the categories have to be fundamentally simple enough to be translated into 20 additional languages, and not be extremely lengthy in description (in, say, German). Easy to understand across cultural and linguistic boundaries.
I do want to make a note about "Harassment": The system is going to suggest that players use "/ignore" for PM-related harassment. We'll make exceptions for sexualized abuse or real-world threats, but generally, PMs are not something we're taking action against.
Anyway.. based on the content suggested so far, you're asking for categories like:
- "Ban or Mute Evasion"
- "Real-World Illegal Activity"
- "Threats of Real-World Harm"
- "Sexual Harassment"
Are there other specific suggestions?
I apologize then. I had been under the impression that really nasty stuff should still be reported via the ticket system.
AKA this from the Abuse category on the ticket system:
Someone in the game has been verbally abusive or is otherwise harassing you in a way that is far beyond the realm of acceptability.
...
Following up abuse reports can be a time-consuming process for us, so please be specific and only report issues that are especially nasty (vicious and recurrent abuse, racism, etc). Generally, "/ignore" should be used for most cases of mild irritation or light trash-talking. Our responses to abuse reports will depend on the individual case. We generally do not inform the person reporting of any disciplinary actions taken as a result, as it tends to only exacerbate the situation and heighten the drama. Thus, our response may only be a terse thanks.
Since this is no longer the case, i'll inform my VO friends as well. Good day.
AKA this from the Abuse category on the ticket system:
Someone in the game has been verbally abusive or is otherwise harassing you in a way that is far beyond the realm of acceptability.
...
Following up abuse reports can be a time-consuming process for us, so please be specific and only report issues that are especially nasty (vicious and recurrent abuse, racism, etc). Generally, "/ignore" should be used for most cases of mild irritation or light trash-talking. Our responses to abuse reports will depend on the individual case. We generally do not inform the person reporting of any disciplinary actions taken as a result, as it tends to only exacerbate the situation and heighten the drama. Thus, our response may only be a terse thanks.
Since this is no longer the case, i'll inform my VO friends as well. Good day.
AKA this from the Abuse category on the ticket system:
Right. That's been what it has said for like 15 years. No, we have not yet had time to re-write the ticket system, but it is coming. A lot of things are changing.
I've been notifying people one-on-one via tickets to please just submit /reports. We only have a handful of people who tend to push their chat-based issues via ticket, and those people tend to do it a lot more than everyone else, so.. that's been a meaningful short-term approach.
I haven't made any really wideband public statements about not filing tickets (that I recall), just pushed people towards /report whenever possible.
Anyway.. let's get back to the topic and my question:
Are there other specific suggestions?
Right. That's been what it has said for like 15 years. No, we have not yet had time to re-write the ticket system, but it is coming. A lot of things are changing.
I've been notifying people one-on-one via tickets to please just submit /reports. We only have a handful of people who tend to push their chat-based issues via ticket, and those people tend to do it a lot more than everyone else, so.. that's been a meaningful short-term approach.
I haven't made any really wideband public statements about not filing tickets (that I recall), just pushed people towards /report whenever possible.
Anyway.. let's get back to the topic and my question:
Are there other specific suggestions?
Noted on the PMs.
I guess the only thing you didn't comment on is people posing as employees (or guides/admins for that matter). This is something that can be very exploitable and manipulative, particularly for newbs who have no context of the games history and don't know who the devs and guides are.
Is that something you want reported via ticket? Perhaps you can also make dev/guide communication stand out somehow from normal players so that it's more clear? (maybe that's another suggestion..)
I guess the only thing you didn't comment on is people posing as employees (or guides/admins for that matter). This is something that can be very exploitable and manipulative, particularly for newbs who have no context of the games history and don't know who the devs and guides are.
Is that something you want reported via ticket? Perhaps you can also make dev/guide communication stand out somehow from normal players so that it's more clear? (maybe that's another suggestion..)
Guide communication is already white text. Perhaps a simple 2 second guide on that before someone leaves the training sector.
That's not the case (at least, not exclusively). I see all guides and dev chatting normally in 100 and in private messages and appear as normal players.