Guild Wars 2

It doesn’t matter at this point it really doesn’t… It’s over… The guy up there summed it up pretty well… I wanted to talk about how we could make the community better… Or help to make it better… and you guys said it was good. It should have stopped there.

Ally.4382:

I wanted to talk about support, it turned into a mob solely focussed on trolling the bajeezus out of me, and grew only worse from there.
This guy came along, and spoke the truth, I’m sorry but I consider him my white knight at this point. Even if it’s only because he is the only one to share my view.

He spoke the truth huh? We, all of us here who tried to talk to you are children, immature, self destructive and insensitive.

I rest my case.

Ally.4382:

I wanted to talk about support, it turned into a mob solely focussed on trolling the bajeezus out of me, and grew only worse from there.
This guy came along, and spoke the truth, I’m sorry but I consider him my white knight at this point. Even if it’s only because he is the only one to share my view.

There was 1 “troll”, the guy telling you to stop posting. 1 person. Everyone else was asking questions or giving them opinion.

1 troll isn’t a mob focused on trolling you. And the only person who didn’t troll you is the person who shared your opinion.

People who disagree with you aren’t trolling you. You just didn’t like what they have to say. There is a difference. And I’m all for agreeing that the 1 troll is the punk who has said you shouldn’t post and kept coming back. He’s a child and you can ignore him. But most others were pretty respectful.

Respectful is telling me your side, and saying that you think support is good, support is fine, that it doesn’t need to change.

I counted a lot more than one person, giving me their opinion on the matter (great), and then tacking on some kind of insult or bait for me.

All opinions were welcome from the start aslong as they were civil, I’ve been on defense this entire time. Which is why I want this over with.

You think supports great, and that’s cool.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Ally.4382:

I wanted to talk about support, it turned into a mob solely focussed on trolling the bajeezus out of me, and grew only worse from there.
This guy came along, and spoke the truth, I’m sorry but I consider him my white knight at this point. Even if it’s only because he is the only one to share my view.

He spoke the truth huh? We, all of us here who tried to talk to you are children, immature, self destructive and insensitive.

I rest my case.

If you acted immature, and insensitive, sure, he’s telling the truth.
If you didn’t then it doesn’t apply to you.
I rest MY case. I came to talk about creating a better environment.

Ally.4382:

Respectful is telling me your side, and saying that you think support is good, support is fine, that it doesn’t need to change.

I counted a lot more than one person, giving me their opinion on the matter (great), and then tacking on some kind of insult or bait for me.

All opinions were welcome from the start aslong as they were civil, I’ve been on defense this entire time. Which is why I want this over with.

You think supports great, and that’s cool.

You do keep saying that, and yet you keep coming back here. I’m really starting to wonder if this is what starts the in game spiral. Someone whispers you, or says something in map chat, and you have to get the last word in, and it spirals on and on. You know you don’t have to come back to your post to read what is written. You don’t have to comment that you are being attacked (when you aren’t, your ideas are, but not in the manner you are positive is happening). You don’t have to say you want this post done. You can leave. You are choosing not to.

So I’ll say it again: If you don’t feel the action taken on another account was good enough, send in a ticket to Anet and talk to them. They don’t even need you to take screenshots of the issue (usually they don’t accept them as they can be photoshopped) BUT they do ask for the player’s name involved and a rough time that it happened, and even which chat channel. They also expect you to block said person as well. You can click support at the top of any page on these forums, then on the right is the Submit a request.

I actually frequent the Support Issues forum a lot (so much drama there from ‘unjustly’ banned accounts) that I can say people do in fact get banned for many many things. Michael and Gaile have also many times called someone out for the chat behaviour when the person claims “they were a saint, or it was just 1 swear word”.

Wow this is a real case of the Safe Space MUH feeelz crap. Look Ally no one is threatening, no one will show up at your house. No one cares or knows your name. You aren’t an A-list celebrity or wealthy rich persona to be targeted. This is a game, this is not real. Any threats made you in this platform hold no water. You can be the better person and stop taking everything personal. I’ve been called a troll, a pedo, a creep, a loner, a weeabo, a ton of things. I’ve been told to kms, listen I’ve been gaming for 14+ years, I’ve done a crap ton of cringy stuff on the Internet and in the end it’s just the internet. All we are telling you is to not take anything personal, everyone in here deals with these issues and half the time it’s trolls and idiots who have nothing better to do. You want us to kick people out and ban them from a game just because you found something offensive, just report them and move on.

I come back because it’s my thread, and solely to defend myself. I have every right to come back and let people know that I don’t need the last word. Like I said, if you want the last word, take it, say what you like, put a smiley, tell a joke, change the subject entirely to tonight’s TV if you like just don’t direct it at me with some kind of bait to which you know is reactable which you know you’re doing to me right now.

The rest of the the topic is done with. I think we were done with the whole send a ticket to support back on page 2 or 3 I forget.

I posted several legitimate criticisms AS WELL as flagrantly trolling this malformation of a thread, I’ll have you know

It’s just that I’d rather be forced to be the judge of two professional homeless men engaging in competitive vomiting in person at 3am behind a dumpster in the bad part of town than to not see this glorious cascade of wreckage through to its inevitable end

Narsil.6579:

Wow this is a real case of the Safe Space MUH feeelz crap. Look Ally no one is threatening, no one will show up at your house. No one cares or knows your name. You aren’t an A-list celebrity or wealthy rich persona to be targeted. This is a game, this is not real. Any threats made you in this platform hold no water. You can be the better person and stop taking everything personal. I’ve been called a troll, a pedo, a creep, a loner, a weeabo, a ton of things. I’ve been told to kms, listen I’ve been gaming for 14+ years, I’ve done a crap ton of cringy stuff on the Internet and in the end it’s just the internet. All we are telling you is to not take anything personal, everyone in here deals with these issues and half the time it’s trolls and idiots who have nothing better to do. You want us to kick people out and ban them from a game just because you found something offensive, just report them and move on.

The topic was finished with a long time ago.

At the risk of playing the straight man…

The OP wants to discuss ways to make support better. OK. So, how could one do that?

1. Add more agents (the staff who handle the complaints): this would either add to budget or take existing staff from other work. Also, there’s no data to suggest that reports being ignored due to overwork is an issue. Possible bad downside, questionable upside. Let Anet decide whether they have enough staff.
2. Revise ANet’s rules regarding the penalties for behavior contrary to the ToS. Make the consequences for violation mores severe. Being too harsh with paying customers is risky. Also, there are always two sides to a story. ANet has set up the existing rules, has more data about behavior and thus is better situated to decide whether the consequences are enough to discourage such behavior. It’s not in our purview anyhow, and I’m sure that any individual accused of misbehavior wants ANet to be fair about the enforcement action they take. This is especially important if some players are inclined to fake reports or are confused about what is actionable.
3. Volunteer support: If the community is every bit as bad as the OP believes, why on earth would anyone want to empower an anonymous individual from that community to pass judgment on a fellow player? Also, review of their actions would take staff time that might be better spent reviewing actual reports. Further, if they actually had any punitive power, then Anet would be in the very uncomfortable position of what action to take to rectify matters in the event the non-staff support person pulled the trigger without fully understanding the situation. If all this unpaid support is is a super-reporter, that would refer back to #1. Flagging a report for special attention is only valuable if reports are slipping through the cracks due to under-staffing. Community-oriented policing works in the real world because: community members are serving as the eyes and ears of the police. There is no need for that in game because all the data is available as long as the initial ticket points to the correct time logs. I would presume that just using the report function would automatically generate that info.
4. Then there’s community organizing. ANet apparently thinks it’s a good idea for an offended player to speak to the offender’s guild leader. This can get messy, though. As an officer in a WoW guild, I was involved in several complaint resolutions. None of them were cut and dried (remember, always at least two sides to a story). None of them were free of rancor or drama. The only recourse a guild leader has is to speak to the offender. S/he does not have access to chat logs. What are the odds that the offender paints him/herself as innocent and the reporter as the offender? Other than that, ANet does not want players to involve themselves in such issues. Taking sides is likely to escalate the situation.

That’s what I’ve got. If the OP thinks that more can be done that is not one of the above, I’d be happy to evaluate it. I don’t think 3 or 4 are better than what we have now. 1 and 2 are outside of our power anyway. If there’s a good solution, I can’t see it.

What he was trying to say, I believe, is that I tried to bring up a topic I’m passionate about, one where I only want to see the game get better. The community get better. And it was very quickly shutdown with insults and trolling and fighting. The discussion died before it even got it’s footing to the exact thing I was coming on to talk about. And essentially that I was silly to think I could come on the forums to talk about it.

IndigoSundown.5419:

At the risk of playing the straight man…

The OP wants to discuss ways to make support better. OK. So, how could one do that?

1. Add more agents (the staff who handle the complaints): this would either add to budget or take existing staff from other work. Also, there’s no data to suggest that reports being ignored due to overwork is an issue. Possible bad downside, questionable upside. Let Anet decide whether they have enough staff.
2. Revise ANet’s rules regarding the penalties for behavior contrary to the ToS. Make the consequences for violation mores severe. Being too harsh with paying customers is risky. Also, there are always two sides to a story. ANet has set up the existing rules, has more data about behavior and thus is better situated to decide whether the consequences are enough to discourage such behavior. It’s not in our purview anyhow, and I’m sure that any individual accused of misbehavior wants ANet to be fair about the enforcement action they take. This is especially important if some players are inclined to fake reports or are confused about what is actionable.
3. Volunteer support: If the community is every bit as bad as the OP believes, why on earth would anyone want to empower an anonymous individual from that community to pass judgment on a fellow player? Also, review of their actions would take staff time that might be better spent reviewing actual reports. Further, if they actually had any punitive power, then Anet would be in the very uncomfortable position of what action to take to rectify matters in the event the non-staff support person pulled the trigger without fully understanding the situation. If all this unpaid support is is a super-reporter, that would refer back to #1. Flagging a report for special attention is only valuable if reports are slipping through the cracks due to under-staffing. Community-oriented policing works in the real world because: community members are serving as the eyes and ears of the police. There is no need for that in game because all the data is available as long as the initial ticket points to the correct time logs. I would presume that just using the report function would automatically generate that info.
4. Then there’s community organizing. ANet apparently thinks it’s a good idea for an offended player to speak to the offender’s guild leader. This can get messy, though. As an officer in a WoW guild, I was involved in several complaint resolutions. None of them were cut and dried (remember, always at least two sides to a story). None of them were free of rancor or drama. The only recourse a guild leader has is to speak to the offender. S/he does not have access to chat logs. What are the odds that the offender paints him/herself as innocent and the reporter as the offender? Other than that, ANet does not want players to involve themselves in such issues. Taking sides is likely to escalate the situation.

That’s what I’ve got. If the OP thinks that more can be done that is not one of the above, I’d be happy to evaluate it. I don’t think 3 or 4 are better than what we have now. 1 and 2 are outside of our power anyway. If there’s a good solution, I can’t see it.

That’s exactly what I wanted thankyou, just discussion. I don’t have any real ideas, not one foolproof one anyway. I started the post to gather ideas from others. Mine was a starting point to jump from so to speak. Number 2 brings up a point I tried to mention. Are we just scared because we need the money so badly from these people? That the fact they’re paying customers mean they can break as many rules as they like or be as horrible as they like? I would hope not. But then again I said I accept the fact they are a business at the end of the day so I get that aspect of it. That’s why I wanted ideas, as I can’t figure a way around it or a compromise without directly affecting their income or their game.
Your number 3 is a pretty good reason for why the player moderator idea is bad. But it’s all I had off the top of my head as a starting point.

I’ve been asleep and in that time another 2 pages have appeared in which people who were being reasonable have been denounced as trolls. OP claims they want to be left alone but is still responding and ignoring advice on how to deal with trolls (personally I find OrbitalButt mildy amusing but OP doesn’t).

Kitty wants to help…

re: proposed option “in game moderators” – While this would be a good option in certain extreme situations, I think that this approach is problematic for a couple of reasons. I think that a 3rd party may not always be the best judge of whether one player is offending another. Just from typed chat, it might be hard for a 3rd party to tell what’s really going on. The moderators would have to be up on regional etiquette, and I think that’s not feasible in a game that serves so many regions. Also, there are examples of in game moderators shamelessly abusing their power in other games. This has been brought up in previous threads similar to this one.

Let me tell you what I think is a good option, but first let me tell you why. Imagine someone is being a jerk in map chat, and everyone blocks them without responding. Or, they’re being a jerk in local or whisper, and everyone that can see their chat blocks them without responding. Instantly, that jerk is rendered powerless. They can’t get a rise out of anyone, because no one will respond, or even sees their chat any more. Can you imagine how punishing that would be to that type of person? Now you add a second option, report. So if everyone would report people whose behavior they judged to be worth reporting, can you imagine how effective that would be? A strong consensus would result in certain and strong punishment. A weak consensus would result in lesser punishment or perhaps none if there is little consensus. This would also be especially effective for [monetary solicitors] – if everyone blocked them (never mind even reporting them) then they would be ineffective, and [monetary solicitor] spam would stop.(let that sink in)
So my solution is for more people( ideally everyone) to block and report, without responding. Power remains in player control, we decide who and what gets blocked and reported. I think this would be more effective than a 3rd party moderator. The problem is, we need a strong majority of people to participate.

So I don’t know that there’s a good, real world solution available. Hopefully someone has a better idea.

re: The block list is only so long… – I have not yet found this to be true.(And I block a lot of people. Even for having vulgar or offensive names.) Did you know that you can manually type an account name into the block list? I do that with account names for players that seem like real jerks on the forums. That’s how hard core I am about blocking, and I still haven’t reached the limit of the block list. If you’ve really reached the limit of the block list, please let me know, as I will have to engage in some block list management at some point.(probably soon)

Only because people like you keep coming on every once in a while to tell me how they’re not trolls how they’re trying to help yet a simple read through of the thread proves otherwise. Points can be made, and opinions can be held without needing to put other people down. It’s not hard.

Elden Arnaas.4870:

re: proposed option “in game moderators” – While this would be a good option in certain extreme situations, I think that this approach is problematic for a couple of reasons. I think that a 3rd party may not always be the best judge of whether one player is offending another. Just from typed chat, it might be hard for a 3rd party to tell what’s really going on. The moderators would have to be up on regional etiquette, and I think that’s not feasible in a game that serves so many regions. Also, there are examples of in game moderators shamelessly abusing their power in other games. This has been brought up in previous threads similar to this one.

Let me tell you what I think is a good option, but first let me tell you why. Imagine someone is being a jerk in map chat, and everyone blocks them without responding. Or, they’re being a jerk in local or whisper, and everyone that can see their chat blocks them without responding. Instantly, that jerk is rendered powerless. They can’t get a rise out of anyone, because no one will respond, or even sees their chat any more. Can you imagine how punishing that would be to that type of person? Now you add a second option, report. So if everyone would report people whose behavior they judged to be worth reporting, can you imagine how effective that would be? A strong consensus would result in certain and strong punishment. A weak consensus would result in lesser punishment or perhaps none if there is little consensus. This would also be especially effective for [monetary solicitors] – if everyone blocked them (never mind even reporting them) then they would be ineffective, and [monetary solicitor] spam would stop.(let that sink in)
So my solution is for more people( ideally everyone) to block and report, without responding. Power remains in player control, we decide who and what gets blocked and reported. I think this would be more effective than a 3rd party moderator. The problem is, we need a strong majority of people to participate.

So I don’t know that there’s a good, real world solution available. Hopefully someone has a better idea.

re: The block list is only so long… – I have not yet found this to be true.(And I block a lot of people. Even for having vulgar or offensive names.) Did you know that you can manually type an account name into the block list? I do that with account names for players that seem like real jerks on the forums. That’s how hard core I am about blocking, and I still haven’t reached the limit of the block list. If you’ve really reached the limit of the block list, please let me know, as I will have to engage in some block list management at some point.(probably soon)

Yeah I think that would be a great step forward, and I don’t know how many people have to report a person in a single instance for it to be deemed worthy of looking into more serious action. I don’t know of anybody while playing that managed to get a decent majority to report them, only a few who maybe spoke up in map chat to mention they had done it. No more than 3 probably. But I agree. Awareness and participation is everything. But I guess it comes back to people not being allowed to report unless it directly affects them, or not being allowed to ask others to report. Like you could be in a party, and somebody could be being very offensive, and you could report them if it’s directed at you, but I don’t think your friends/others can because it doesn’t concern them and could be considered false reporting. At least I think that’s maybe how Anet look at it.

Ally.4382:

Only because people like you keep coming on every once in a while to tell me how they’re not trolls how they’re trying to help yet a simple read through of the thread proves otherwise. Points can be made, and opinions can be held without needing to put other people down. It’s not hard.

And a couple of hours ago you claimed you were tired and in need of sleep, but here you are still posting. I gave you my opinion in a non-insulting manner, you went on to call everyone who had responded in this thread a troll while I was gone. I don’t think you know what that word actually means. People have been reasonable with you and one guy decides to ride you a bit to see what gets a rise, yet you bring hyperbole into the situation. Repeatedly if we’re going on the death threat/murder comparisons. You might have found my last response to be ‘mean’ but it was a lighthearted attempt to say that you probably need a break from this thread as your responses are becoming less coherent over time and doing more harm to your credibility than good. It’s not putting someone down when their behaviour is evident in their own words and actions. It’s being factual. Maybe people wouldn’t be as antagonistic if you treated them with some respect instead of gross generalisations which are downright insulting. And no, it’s not a case of you shouldn’t be offended unless it applies to you – to be falsely accused of something is offensive. You may not think so but most people do. You said ‘people like me’ when my first post in this thread was respectful and polite, but in your world that’s apparently trolling. Do you not see how this is a problem and how this could most likely be why you get the amount of grief in game that you claim you do (still waiting on examples along with the others who’ve called for them)?

Do yourself a favour and get the sleep you claimed you needed earlier. I think you’ll feel a bit embarrassed about this thread when you wake up.

Ally.4382:

Only because people like you keep coming on every once in a while to tell me how they’re not trolls how they’re trying to help yet a simple read through of the thread proves otherwise. Points can be made, and opinions can be held without needing to put other people down. It’s not hard.

And that the point I was making about Taltevus.3289. The guy who came on the thread and called people unbalanced, masochistic or sadistic, immature, self destructive and insensitive, and you promptly thanked him for posting and called him rational and civil. You don’t seem to see the irony in that.

Don’t forget inhuman misery-wanter Flesh Wound-senpai

Ally.4382:

Number 2 brings up a point I tried to mention. Are we just scared because we need the money so badly from these people? That the fact they’re paying customers mean they can break as many rules as they like or be as horrible as they like? I would hope not.

I don’t believe the existing constraints in the report system (whatever they are) are about enabling rudeness. Based on ANet posts (there was one quoted earlier in the thread) I believe they’re about fairness. I’d rather an offender sometimes get off lightly than that players sometimes get banned for something innocuous. See, while I believe that the community has many reasonable human beings in it, I recognize that any semi-random group this large is going to have abusers in it. One of the things such people can and will do is take advantage of flaws in a consequence system to grief people who get on their bad side — which doesn’t take much with some people. That’s why I’m always happier with a system where the powers-that-be establish standards designed around fairness.

I have nothing to be embarrassed about in the morning. I have done nothing in this entire thread but defend myself against the people NOT being respectful towards ME.
Trolls were here. If you weren’t trolling forget about it, it wasn’t aimed at you.
If you are, then obviously, it applies to you.
I see the irony but only slightly, he essentially came on to tell me I’m wasting my time. Which is evident, but I appreciate somebody sticking up for me. shrugs :/
Just stop with the random old retorts from god knows where. The thread almost keeps making progress and you gotta do this again.

IndigoSundown.5419:

I don’t believe the existing constraints in the report system (whatever they are) are about enabling rudeness. Based on ANet posts (there was one quoted earlier in the thread) I believe they’re about fairness. I’d rather an offender sometimes get off lightly than that players sometimes get banned for something innocuous. See, while I believe that the community has many reasonable human beings in it, I recognize that any semi-random group this large is going to have abusers in it. One of the things such people can and will do is take advantage of flaws in a consequence system to grief people who get on their bad side — which doesn’t take much with some people. That’s why I’m always happier with a system where the powers-that-be establish standards designed around fairness.

Ah each to their own, I think it would be easier if people were held accountable for what they do or say ingame, and if there were Clearer rules, be them whatever Anet decides. It allows you to know what you can and can’t do. Like in the beginning with names, you pretty much knew you were guaranteed a ban if it broke a rule or 2. Now it’s more relaxed as everybody knows and it’s kind of hazy what is allowed and what isn’t now imo.

Heya, OP! I’m what most would call "overly sensitive" (as if that’s a bad thing); I also have depression amidst a small collective of other annoying problems, and have also left the game for a few months, coming back only two days ago for a fresh start.

That out of the way, I’ll concur that still some of the stuff people witter out in game is devoid of humanity, common decency and has all the intellect of a sub-par dung beetle. I have an exceptionally low tolerance for bobbins, and block people left, right and centre for the most minor cases of vitriol-based verbal diarrhoea. Only yesterday, I blocked a good 10 people or so within a few hours. Some probably didn’t even deserve it, but I don’t really care. As a result, my life is a much happier, more pleasant one, and I advocate blocking people who bug you as the best way to deal with your average hapless, or hopeless, troll baby.

Blocking really works. Not only do you not have to hear that person again, if you’re lucky, lots of others will have just automatically blocked the annoyance out. Long story short, one day, that person may find no one actually responds to anything they say. Job, therefore, is done.

I’ve seen people on my block list still playing, but to be fair, I block for minor offences and the person blocked may not require any form of suspension or ban for what they’ve said. But the majority of them (gold spammers notwithstanding) appear greyed out. I have to think, somewhere, something works against the ones I did report. Reporting is only for the most severe cases, of course - racist, sexist, picking on one person (as opposed to blaming everyone in their section of wherever in a group event, which is just worthy of a block). Even if some of posters in your thread say they haven’t seen such behaviour, I know I have, and that’s when you block, report and move on. This is the extent of what you can do in the event of horrible behaviour - although earlier in the thread someone did say you can offer encouragement in chat, and support your fellow players. You have to show the behaviour you want to foster in others - lead by example.

If you have someone being more persistent than average, the advice offered by Gaile Gray and quoted in this thread stands. If you have someone harassing you, stalking you, and/or issuing death threats, that’s genuinely serious business. The gaming community as it stands can’t really help you solve that one (real life social climate has to shift first); look to friends and family to support you.

I don’t know if this helps the discussion you were asking for, but I hope it helps a smidge.

I appreciate your time and effort you put into your comment and yes a few people have quoted Gaile tonight and the information was taken aboard. While we haven’t exactly come up with any new ideas tonight. At least I know where Anet stands on this type of stuff a little better. Maybe it’s the different countries or something, maybe I’m not tuned in enough but I thought everybody was supposed to be taking certain things a bit more serious nowadays with regards to online harassment. Maybe it’s because “Online” is not a physical place and can’t be held against any one country’s laws etc BUT I always think more can be done to cut out the middleman (police or whomever they be) by preventing it occuring ingame first. And as such was looking for other ideas outside of our current block/report system.

Ally.4382:

I appreciate your time and effort you put into your comment and yes a few people have quoted Gaile tonight and the information was taken aboard. While we haven’t exactly come up with any new ideas tonight. At least I know where Anet stands on this type of stuff a little better. Maybe it’s the different countries or something, maybe I’m not tuned in _enough_ but I thought everybody was supposed to be taking certain things a bit more serious nowadays with regards to online harassment. Maybe it’s because "Online" is not a physical place and can’t be held against any one country’s laws etc BUT I always think more can be done to cut out the middleman (_police or whomever they be_) by preventing it occuring ingame first. And as such was looking for other ideas outside of our current block/report system.

I appreciate that. I think, however, you’re really looking for a larger shift to the positive in behaviour patterns in society as a whole. Behaviour in-game is a result of complex conditions outside of the game, so the best thing you can do is take responsibility for yourself and conduct yourself in the manner you would like to see from others. I think your heart is totally in the right place, but go easy and take small steps. It’s not something you can change overnight, and you’ll likely end up with more headaches if you try to take it all on at once.

As I said, I advocate the block and report system. For our in-game purposes, for the average ordinary troll, it does work. For the stalker types, you need to contact the police. A few people telling such a person that their behaviour isn’t cool probably won’t work. Having a rule in place saying they mustn’t harass people actually won’t make a jot of difference. For death threats - not the asinine wishes of plagues on people’s houses, which although horrid, are not actual death threats - for when you truly believe your life, or the life of someone else to be in danger, that’s a straight-up police matter. Again, no gaming rules will make a difference here. I wouldn’t look upon the police as the middlemen, either. In this sense, that would be ArenaNet.

EDIT: although if you were receiving death threats in GW2, I’m sure ArenaNet would like to hear about it in an email, wherein you’d say X has occurred, and you’re taking it to the police. Given that the police would likely need to speak to ANet about it.

How the heck is this troll thread still open?

@mods, please delete or close this thread. Here is no discussion at all, only one person throwing insults against support, anet and everyone else.

Ally.4382:

I appreciate your time and effort you put into your comment and yes a few people have quoted Gaile tonight and the information was taken aboard. While we haven’t exactly come up with any new ideas tonight. At least I know where Anet stands on this type of stuff a little better. Maybe it’s the different countries or something, maybe I’m not tuned in enough but I thought everybody was supposed to be taking certain things a bit more serious nowadays with regards to online harassment. Maybe it’s because “Online” is not a physical place and can’t be held against any one country’s laws etc BUT I always think more can be done to cut out the middleman (police or whomever they be) by preventing it occuring ingame first. And as such was looking for other ideas outside of our current block/report system.

Seriously this is scary lol. That’s it I have taken great offense to this thread. I came in here looking for level headed discussions and logical sound arguments as to what constitutes online harassment. I feel desecrated. This thread made me feel uncomfortable. I couldn’t go one minute without feeling abused.

I’m going to report this thread and send an email to the mods that we need more moderation on these forums. We need to stop people from saying mean things and ignoring my feelings. We need more rules such as: , No use of strong words or language. Only talk in a positive and passive non aggressive tone. No words such as no, or insults or even disagreement.

We need more moderation and bans to stop people from spreading their toxic views on others. I want to create a safe space for all gamers from all countries. I want Anet to staff moderators and auto moderators at all times and watch everyone and to have keywords that can immediately remove any toxic user on this site. This is 2016 people we need progress. “We need some muscle over here!”
I also want Teamspeak to have auto moderator programs to stop harassment of individuals on teamspeak, I want twitch to ban all toxic user from spamming those hateful memes. I also want every player in GW2 to have their account linked via Gmail and verified fb through verification so that if those users are not following guidelines properly we can report them to the right authorities. I also want
The time for change is now, first proposition is for Anet to make the game 18+ only, we need to show the community that only mature aged players can engage in this new and fair enviroment. Players under 18 should have a guardian consent and be chaperoned by their respective guardian or care taker. We need to remove useless rules such as moderation* and trial* which only prolong the inevitable ban hammer, instead we should have a system that any user reported for harrasment, yes no more block, we should have categories or degrees of the crime committed, from spam to threatening, any user reported should be banned for 24 hrs and then subsequently banned for 2 days and so forth. If the same user frequents the game, his IP should be blocked.
Come on guys we need to stop this in just unfair oppressive atmosphere in the community, together we can do this!

If you hurry over to the Account sub-forum (before the thread is deleted, as it breaks forum rules), you will see an account that has been actioned, likely for this very issue.

Thus, reporting does garner consequences.

Too late, gone already.

Ally.4382:

The block list is only so long… We’re talking about hundreds, thousands of these horrible horrible people. But essentially you’re saying, let them get away with it still?

Excuse my examples, but:
If I were to say, murder your family. Would you accept “ignoring” me as a good form of justice for my crimes?

I understand people still do not want to take cyber bullying (for lack of a better phrase) seriously. But it IS real.

So, I just had to read someone comparing murder to cyber bullying or just general upleasantness on the internet. That is next step from considering kitten worse than murder, I take it?

Online communities are well known for the anonymity. This anonymity leads to outrageous behavior sometimes.
But don’t forget that all of us have a different definition on unpleasantness or the actual point where bullying starts.
You really have to be careful when you want limit freedom of speech as well as implement censorship completely based on your personal, biased and subjective view. Those views might not be shared by everyone.
Your personal safe space can be hurting others in their freedom almost as much as their supposed unpleasantness effects you.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

If you hurry over to the Account sub-forum (before the thread is deleted, as it breaks forum rules), you will see an account that has been actioned, likely for this very issue.

Thus, reporting does garner consequences.

Too late, gone already.

Yeah. I immediately went and read it. There were a large number of kittens in the thread, however he was completely innocent of insulting others (he said).

Cyber-bullying indeed any kind of bullying is a serious issue and needs to be treated with respect. However, there’s a big wide range of anti-social behavoir that isnt’ cyber bullying. I get ganged up on quite frequently but only very rarely has someone tried to actually bully me.

One guy followed me to reddit and posts personal, attacks, including profanity which is usually deleted by moderators pretty fast. This type of bullying doesn’t bother me though. I feel sympathy for anyone who feels the need to stalk someone else and come to personally insult them. It’s their problem not mine.

However there’s also sensitivity to the point where things are referred to as cyber bullying that really aren’t, at least in my opinion.

That’s why I wanted to open a conversation about the threshold that someone would be expected not to cross. The OP has consisted refused to engage in this conversation.

imo this thread seems interesting and at the same time, I don’t get it at all. Maybe it is the lack of specifics. Unkind words are said on the internet all the time and unless it spills over to your real life friends or personal life, I really don’t get what the big deal is about. The moment a post goes towards being overly aggressive or trolly or just out to give me his best shot, it goes into the part of my brain that doesn’t process anything at all. Are you saying you went to team speak and people were outright nasty, or people didn’t include you in raids, or people making sexual jokes in map chat and you being a girl and all. Hell I’m a girl and I say lots of very inappropriate stuff sometimes. bite me

The essence of the thread was:

‘I think the current block/report system is inefficient. If you think the same, share ideas on how to improve it.’

It was just an unfortunate phrasing that led this in a wrong direction. But what i can see is that the majority seems to go fine with the current system.

TheMSR.7120:

The essence of the thread was:

‘I think the current block/report system is inefficient. If you think the same, share ideas on how to improve it.’

It was just an unfortunate phrasing that led this in a wrong direction. But what i can see is that the majority seems to go fine with the current system.

omg, thanks very much for the light. Yep don’t see what’s wrong with the current blocking system either. Nothing much someone can do once he is blocked. People are mostly too busy playing the game in-game anyway.

I was close to ignoring this and moving on, but I have one question from Page one that is really bugging me.

Ally – in all your examples you have given, it’s a case of “What you you do if this person said to you …. I’m going to murder your family….” or whatever it is.

I’ve been online in various capacities since the 80’s. I’ve played a number of games in those years. Not once has a random stranger come up to me in game and insulted me in any form.

Now, I HAVE been insulted many times, from conversations that I’ve been having with people that have gone “south”. Fair enough, it happens. Personally, to old and life’s to short to spend any time worrying about it….but then, that’s just my outlook on life.

I guess what I am asking is this. The comments you have received – have they come randomly, from someone whispering you, making this statement with ZERO initial engagement from you….orrrr….has it come from you engaging in general conversations in Zone chat or from a conversation that you initiated?

@Mosferre why do you wanna keep this destructive conversation up?! … she wants people who are unhappy with the current system to share ideas… what you do is to fuel this aimless conversation about ONE player percive the situation different than others… can be please stuck to the topic?

Ally.4382:

If I were to say, murder your family. Would you accept “ignoring” me as a good form of justice for my crimes?

I understand people still do not want to take cyber bullying (for lack of a better phrase) seriously. But it IS real.

Sorry, what crime? I think those things mostly come down to people lacking thick skin these days. Cyberbullying can’t be a thing if you can simply block the person and they know literally nothing about you personally in the first place. It’s you submitting yourself to their ramblings without blocking them and then continuing to dwell on it when a healthy reaction would be ‘I dont’ care, I don’t even know this person’.

So a more strict policy to accomodate for modern hugboxes isn’t the way to go I say.

That being said, actions should be taken when people are repeatedly doing nothing but riling up the map chat. But condemning every personal attack as a ‘crime’ and demanding punishment for it is seriously out of proportion.

@TheMSR – It’s nothing to do with destructive forces or commentary. As I said, I’ve read through the thread and was going to pass it up.

However, it bothered me that the OP was getting this kind of response, so wanted to know at what point in the conversation it happened.

More inquisitive than anything else shrugs