Forums » Suggestions
Give guild leaders power to mute their members (even in numbered channels)
Give guild leaders power to mute their members (even in numbered channels)
Reasoning for this: In the ROC, this is stated:
"Guild Leaders and/or officers may be held accountable for any actions of their guild members, in addition to any other actions that may be taken. It is therefore the responsibility of the guild leadership to ensure that all guild members abide by these rules."
This being so, i propose that guild leaders be given powers to mute their members if said members are acting up in game chat.
Two powers:
1) Global Guild mute (enabled for 30 minute periods. Affects all guild members)
2) Single member mutes (60-1440 minute periods).
All mutes must have a reason applied to them.
Add an /appeal mute option if a member thinks the mute was unjust.
Mute should continue to exist even if said member resigns from the guild.
Positives: Since guild leadership is responsible, leadership will now have a tool to keep members in check. Without kicking a member. Kicking a member doesn't solve the problem, that action just makes the problem someone else's responsibility.
Negatives: Members may wonder why their non existent freedom of speech is being violated. (Freedom of speech does not apply to non-governmental entities)
This will be good for the game because it means that guild leadership will now need to own toxicity issues.
Reasoning for this: In the ROC, this is stated:
"Guild Leaders and/or officers may be held accountable for any actions of their guild members, in addition to any other actions that may be taken. It is therefore the responsibility of the guild leadership to ensure that all guild members abide by these rules."
This being so, i propose that guild leaders be given powers to mute their members if said members are acting up in game chat.
Two powers:
1) Global Guild mute (enabled for 30 minute periods. Affects all guild members)
2) Single member mutes (60-1440 minute periods).
All mutes must have a reason applied to them.
Add an /appeal mute option if a member thinks the mute was unjust.
Mute should continue to exist even if said member resigns from the guild.
Positives: Since guild leadership is responsible, leadership will now have a tool to keep members in check. Without kicking a member. Kicking a member doesn't solve the problem, that action just makes the problem someone else's responsibility.
Negatives: Members may wonder why their non existent freedom of speech is being violated. (Freedom of speech does not apply to non-governmental entities)
This will be good for the game because it means that guild leadership will now need to own toxicity issues.
Huh. That's an interesting thought. It would likely reduce overhead on us administratively (/report and guides), which would absolutely be welcome.
Based on the wording of the RoC, I imagine this would be available to Commanders, Lieutenants and Council?
We have different types of mutes, which function in game-time (must be logged-in for the mute to decrease) versus wallclock-time (absolute progress of time, regardless of whether a character is online). The latter is easier to evade by logging off, the former takes more effort to burn down. Which are you suggesting here? (1440 minutes of game time can be a lot, especially for Freemium users who cannot "idle" their characters as easily).
How does the "appeal" request work? Is that made to guild leadership, or to the game administrative staff?
There's also the issue that only a respective character is part of a guild. To make the mute impact an entire account might open up an avenue for alt-hunting and spy-hunting and such. Conversely, muting "only" a character would be pretty easily bypassed.. but that might not matter much. The point here is the "teachable moment", especially if it's brought about by your in-game peers. Some people will learn from that, some won't.
But, any reduction in the amount of BS we (the devs) have to manage is more time spent on developing the actual game.
Based on the wording of the RoC, I imagine this would be available to Commanders, Lieutenants and Council?
We have different types of mutes, which function in game-time (must be logged-in for the mute to decrease) versus wallclock-time (absolute progress of time, regardless of whether a character is online). The latter is easier to evade by logging off, the former takes more effort to burn down. Which are you suggesting here? (1440 minutes of game time can be a lot, especially for Freemium users who cannot "idle" their characters as easily).
How does the "appeal" request work? Is that made to guild leadership, or to the game administrative staff?
There's also the issue that only a respective character is part of a guild. To make the mute impact an entire account might open up an avenue for alt-hunting and spy-hunting and such. Conversely, muting "only" a character would be pretty easily bypassed.. but that might not matter much. The point here is the "teachable moment", especially if it's brought about by your in-game peers. Some people will learn from that, some won't.
But, any reduction in the amount of BS we (the devs) have to manage is more time spent on developing the actual game.
I would suspect such a mute would be only applied to the character that is currently in the guild. Moderating the rest of the user is a bit past the purview of the guild leadership, especially if a less scrupulous guild wanted to harm or out a suspected alt’s main character. Maybe the fact that a specific alt got guild muted could be visible in the context of other reports, allowing for administration to see that a guild muted one of their characters. That way, if it seemed frivolous (or simply not for RoC violations), you could see it at a glance and take that into consideration when viewing a report. Conversely, if the guild mutes actually hit on something rulebreaking, you could see that too and step up moderation.
I disagree with the mute applying past the user leaving the guild, at least without a reduction. Maybe a small reverse grace period could apply, keeping the user muted for a few minutes to break the continuity of a hostile set of messages, while not giving the guild the power to essentially grief a user that joins for a long period of time even after they’ve left. E.g. “Because you had a guild-imposed mute at the time you left the guild, you will remain muted for the next five minutes. After this, your former guild will have no power over you.”
Other than that, I think this is a good suggestion.
I disagree with the mute applying past the user leaving the guild, at least without a reduction. Maybe a small reverse grace period could apply, keeping the user muted for a few minutes to break the continuity of a hostile set of messages, while not giving the guild the power to essentially grief a user that joins for a long period of time even after they’ve left. E.g. “Because you had a guild-imposed mute at the time you left the guild, you will remain muted for the next five minutes. After this, your former guild will have no power over you.”
Other than that, I think this is a good suggestion.
Based on the wording of the RoC, I imagine this would be available to Commanders, Lieutenants and Council?
Correct
We have different types of mutes, which function in game-time (must be logged-in for the mute to decrease) versus wallclock-time
Was thinking game time. Though after a few days to think about it, some sort of yellow, orange, red card system might come in to play. Where being allowed to impose a full 1440 minute mute could only be after other cards had been shown.
How does the "appeal" request work? Is that made to guild leadership, or to the game administrative staff?
Two stage. First goes out to guild leadership (probably with an email similar to guild vote notifications). Which can be overturned by anyone else (with a check box reasoning thing).
And a second stage appeal would go out to game admin staff.
There's also the issue that only a respective character is part of a guild. To make the mute impact an entire account might open up an avenue for alt-hunting and spy-hunting and such. Conversely, muting "only" a character would be pretty easily bypassed
Per char is better for this. No reason a player imposed mute should affect a full account.
I disagree with the mute applying past the user leaving the guild, at least without a reduction.
It is more to make it so someone can't just "hahaha i quit, now your dumb mute has no affect on me." I will say this: muting someone and kicking them should disable the mute immediately so there no game mechanic abuse issues.
Correct
We have different types of mutes, which function in game-time (must be logged-in for the mute to decrease) versus wallclock-time
Was thinking game time. Though after a few days to think about it, some sort of yellow, orange, red card system might come in to play. Where being allowed to impose a full 1440 minute mute could only be after other cards had been shown.
How does the "appeal" request work? Is that made to guild leadership, or to the game administrative staff?
Two stage. First goes out to guild leadership (probably with an email similar to guild vote notifications). Which can be overturned by anyone else (with a check box reasoning thing).
And a second stage appeal would go out to game admin staff.
There's also the issue that only a respective character is part of a guild. To make the mute impact an entire account might open up an avenue for alt-hunting and spy-hunting and such. Conversely, muting "only" a character would be pretty easily bypassed
Per char is better for this. No reason a player imposed mute should affect a full account.
I disagree with the mute applying past the user leaving the guild, at least without a reduction.
It is more to make it so someone can't just "hahaha i quit, now your dumb mute has no affect on me." I will say this: muting someone and kicking them should disable the mute immediately so there no game mechanic abuse issues.