New Silence Penalty Coming to World of Warcraft

[Zephirdd]

Also, I feel like I should ask, what exactly is the definition of abusive chat? No Support Article even mentions the word in that instance and the specific blog post about it today doesn't either.

What is abusive chat?

Is it me calling someone a racist name?
Is it me telling someone they are playing there class wrong?
Is it me making a joke in LFG?
It it me making a joke in Trade?
Is it all of the above?

What is Abusive Chat?

1. yes
2. depends on the tone you are using with the person
3/4. Depends on the nature of the joke.

it all comes down to "just don't be an ass". Saying "you all fucking suck" is bad. "kill yourself faggot" is bad. "wow learn to play u shitty hunter" is bad. "Look into some guides, you're playing bad" is fine. Racist jokes might be debatable and a grey area, but you can simply not do that. "Anal [Shadow Infusion]" is IMO fine, but might be debatable; it would probably be fine. Unlike "Why don't you [Feign Death] but do it for real" which would be bad(inciting suicide). "Buy character boost for 100USD" would be really bad too.

There's very very little grey area for "abuse". Don't be an ass and you'll be fine, really.

[Eleccybubb]

Will the debuff applied to these players be called Tyrande's Silence?

HA!

/10 char

[xskarma]

Are you high? I just did. A troll can have a group mass report something they cannot appeal due to the rising ticket timers.

You could reasonably think that a person who's silenced will not make any further reports come in and that with the scum being filtered out that the number of reports will slowly go DOWN not up.

It will take a few days/weeks of more dilligence to stay on top of the reports, but eventually as you filter out the people that were causing most of the reports you should be able to spend the same amount of time or less and get through the reports that are made.

[Deleted]

Got a response from a GM on what abusive is:

Things that break our code of conduct and are reported.

Like cursing.
Spamming.
Harassment.

This isn't just an automated system, our Game Masters will review under the same rules they always have.

So basically anything that was reportable/suspendable before is now Silenceable.

Cursing... Isn't that what the mature language filter is for? Very vague reason. I assume it means slurs and insults.

[jibberbox85]

Also something to keep in mind. What would stop a guild leader from going to his/her guild, and asking his guild to report some X guild member who he/she doesn't like (Vendetta). (Also, keep in mind that this guild leader is very popular in his/her guild and loved by his/her guild mates)

Now, this is just an example, and not saying this would always happen, but it's still a legit concern when considering this method.

[Reapocalypse]

Also, I feel like I should ask, what exactly is the definition of abusive chat? No Support Article even mentions the word in that instance and the specific blog post about it today doesn't either.

What is abusive chat?

Is it me calling someone a racist name?
Is it me telling someone they are playing there class wrong?
Is it me making a joke in LFG?
It it me making a joke in Trade?
Is it all of the above?

What is Abusive Chat?

Thats another major problem with it, if it would say "spam" and "insults" then it would be much clearer, but "abusive"? Hurting someones feelings? Its just such a broad wording that any GM could do what they want to do and justify it with these rules, someone said he does not like this Specc? Well, i love it and him saying this hurts my feelings, for this he should be punished.

[Queen of Hamsters]

Will the debuff applied to these players be called Tyrande's Silence?

...if not, it damned well SHOULD be! XD

[Drungan]

First off .. i like this a lot ...... but there need some kind of *ruleset* esp. for trade what is spam ? someone trying to sell x items every 2 mins ? .. every 5 or 10 ?

[schwarzkopf]

So basically anything that was reportable/suspendable before is now Silenceable.

As long as they take into account regional differences for 'cursing' ... then there shouldn't be a problem.

[Zephirdd]

dont trade chat have an innate anti-spam already for that?

[TheDeeGee]

As long as this can't be abused i'm happy with this feature.

[Soulwind]

Also something to keep in mind. What would stop a guild leader from going to his guild, and asking his guild to report some X guild member who he/she doesn't like (Vendetta). (Also, keep in mind that this guild leader is very popular in his/her guild and loved by his/her guild mates)

Now, this is just an example, and not saying this would always happen, but it's still a legit concern when considering this method.

What stops them from doing that now?

If most players don't have a problem with the current report tool, they won't have a problem when the few false reports that do get through end up in a 24h silence instead of a 72h ban.

[smokii]

this is actually pretty damn awesome.

unfortunately, a bit late for me, as i've not played in a year. but yay for community control over douchebags

[Deleted]

Also something to keep in mind. What would stop a guild leader from going to his guild, and asking his guild to report some X guild member who he/she doesn't like (Vendetta). (Also, keep in mind that this guild leader is very popular in his/her guild and loved by his/her guild mates)

Now, this is just an example, and not saying this would always happen, but it's still a legit concern when considering this method.

It is intended to be reviewed by a human before being passed. Whether the method you described would work will depend on if the ban is instant upon receiving X number of reports, or if the reports simply bump it to the top of the human reviewer's priority list.

If there is no automated ban in place at all then this method would be entirely ineffectual.

[Deleted]

Psychological studies show that a potentially lengthy penalty is more effective than a ban.

Banning them from the game is more effective for the community.

[ravenmoon]

Silence !!!

They didn't need a whole caffufle, my priest could have done that.

Sounds like a punishment from mum.

[Sforza]

A larger and account-wide ignore list would have done the trick. This is the equivalent to wow safe spaces and will get people silenced over anything out of other people's whims.
Good thing is it will come around and bite blizzard's ass in terms of subscription drop.

[DeltrusDisc]

Will the debuff applied to these players be called Tyrande's Silence?

hahahaha that's sad but clever. XD

Also, Blizzard is SOPAing all over us! BUT MUH FREEDUMBS OF SPEECHES

[Queen of Hamsters]

1. yes
2. depends on the tone you are using with the person
3/4. Depends on the nature of the joke.

it all comes down to "just don't be an ass". Saying "you all fucking suck" is bad. "kill yourself faggot" is bad. "wow learn to play u shitty hunter" is bad. "Look into some guides, you're playing bad" is fine. Racist jokes might be debatable and a grey area, but you can simply not do that. "Anal [Shadow Infusion]" is IMO fine, but might be debatable; it would probably be fine. Unlike "Why don't you [Feign Death] but do it for real" which would be bad(inciting suicide). "Buy character boost for 100USD" would be really bad too.

There's very very little grey area for "abuse". Don't be an ass and you'll be fine, really.

Exactly. It's pretty clear from all the concerns in this thread, that a lot of people don't quite understand what's acceptable or not... Telling a stranger in a group that he's "Shit and a moron!!!" because he's really playing badly, does not equal constructive criticism and feedback. Telling a stranger "What you are doing isn't optimal/correct, if you do it this way you'll get better results!" however, is. And if the stranger gets salty and reports you over that, you won't be in danger.

[Tonkaden]

Cursing... Isn't that what the mature language filter is for? Very vague reason. I assume it means slurs and insults.

Just because there is a language filter doesn't mean you can toss out any and every 4 letter word in chat. Damn, hell, ass are normally acceptable. Anything other than that and you are crossing the line. Thats been the way in most games.