GMs need to start moderating the Novice Network

[MilitaryVet123]

Square Enix needs to hire more GMs to moderate Novice Network chat. They don't have to be in the chat 24/7, but they need to be able to ban bad mentors quickly before they get out of control. I suggest a three-part approach:

• Give sprouts the ability to specifically report bad mentors
  
• Remove the ability for mentors to kick mentors
  
• Bad mentors get removed from Novice Network for a day, then permanently on the second infringement.

The Novice Network on my server is full of negativity. Sometimes it even descends into full-on transphobia, homophobia, and bigotry but there is nothing the good mentors can do because kicking bad mentors will start a kick war. Just yesterday I saw a mentor trolling in the Novice Network by calling a sprout an "attack helicopter" when the sprout introduced themselves and said they were non-binary. Then the trolling mentor got kicked but his friend kicked the mentor who kicked the trolling mentor and a kick war started. I didn't think we would still have homophobia and transphobia in 2020 but here we are. Hopefully, by removing the ability to kick mentors from mentors and having GMs moderate the chat, NN will become a welcoming space for sprouts of all backgrounds.

[Alestorm]

a 2 strike system is a bit too excessive. I would say you lose mentor status for a week at number 2 and at 3 it's a 6 month ban from NN.

But any form of report system will get abused. What's to stop a bad mentor from making an alt and getting into NN and reporting in retaliation?

[MilitaryVet123]

a 2 strike system is a bit too excessive. I would say you lose mentor status for a week at number 2 and at 3 it's a 6 month ban from NN.

But any form of report system will get abused. What's to stop a bad mentor from making an alt and getting into NN and reporting in retaliation?

That's why we need GMs to moderate the Novice Network. They get to decide which reports to take seriously and which to ignore.

[Taybat]

fully agreed

[MPK]

Why do we even have that crap!?

[MilitaryVet123]

Why do we even have that crap!?

The idea of a Novice Network is pretty nice. It helps players become better and serves as a hub to welcome new players and make them feel at home. However, sexism, racism (both real life and in-game, especially against Hrothgars), and homophobia have become rampant in certain communities.

[Jin-]

That's why we need GMs to moderate the Novice Network. They get to decide which reports to take seriously and which to ignore.

Well I don't know. They can be a little trigger happy in order to protect the person doing the report. We do have a rules made out for snowflakes which means people would report someone just for having a different opinion .
I would agree with the person who you were quoting

[LaughingBanana]

This is why when I see people with crowns in my party I immediately thought, "Shit."

It's unfair generalizations I know, but honestly speaking I think around 80-90% mentors I met always act like an arse, including to sprout players.

[Jojoya]

Square Enix needs to hire more GMs to moderate Novice Network chat. They don't have to be in the chat 24/7, but they need to be able to ban bad mentors quickly before they get out of control. I suggest a three-part approach:

• Give sprouts the ability to specifically report bad mentors
  
• Remove the ability for mentors to kick mentors
  
• Bad mentors get removed from Novice Network for a day, then permanently on the second infringement.

Sprouts have the ability to report bad mentors. System menu - Support Desk - Contact Us - Report Harassment.

Yes, SE will do things. When I first started playing, I had recurring issues with a specific mentor. I finally got fed up and reported it since they wouldn't leave me alone as I asked. The harassment stopped.

Mentors who abuse the power to kick other mentors can likewise be reported for harassment.

Mentors with a history of repeated bad behavior don't just get removed from the NN. They have their mentor status removed and are unable to get it back.

But if players don't report the problems, the GMs have no way of knowing action needs to be taken. SE isn't going to hire people to do nothing but monitor chats 24 hours a day just in case they might catch someone saying something they shouldn't. The community does have some responsibility for self-policing.

a 2 strike system is a bit too excessive. I would say you lose mentor status for a week at number 2 and at 3 it's a 6 month ban from NN.

But any form of report system will get abused. What's to stop a bad mentor from making an alt and getting into NN and reporting in retaliation?

It's not the report that gets someone in trouble. It's the GMs agreeing that the person reported did something wrong.

Any false reporting, especially if done as retaliation, is going to get the player who made the report into trouble and not the player who they were trying to report.

Ever report a RMT spam bot? Notice that warning that gets displayed? That warning applies to any type of reporting, not just RMT. It's only displayed for the RMT because the RMT reporting is very simple compared to reporting through the Support Desk where more detail is required.

This is why when I see people with crowns in my party I immediately thought, "Shit."

It's unfair generalizations I know, but honestly speaking I think around 80-90% mentors I met always act like an arse, including to sprout players.

90% of the mentors I meet never say a thing at all. They just quietly do what's needed. I would say that about half the ones who like to talk a lot turn out to be jerks.

That's just as true of Novice Network as randomly meeting mentors elsewhere. If you ever look at the online list for NN, there are far more mentors hanging out there than are actively talking. Most of them are decent players who have probably mentally tuned out NN chat and aren't paying attention to what's going on there.

When I was part of NN on an alt in a different data center, I was always sad to see sprouts being the ones to help sprouts while the mentors who were talking were mostly ignoring the requests for help and information. Most of the time it was basic game play info that any veteran player should have been able to answer.

[Penthea]

Square Enix needs to hire more GMs to moderate Novice Network chat. They don't have to be in the chat 24/7, but they need to be able to ban bad mentors quickly before they get out of control. I suggest a three-part approach:

• Give sprouts the ability to specifically report bad mentors
  
• Remove the ability for mentors to kick mentors
  
• Bad mentors get removed from Novice Network for a day, then permanently on the second infringement.

I agree with all of this except for the ban. I think a perma ban on a second infringement is excessive. I think a system more like this would work better:

First offence - banned from novice network for two days
Second offence - banned from novice network for a week
Third offence - banned from novice network for two weeks
Fourth offence - banned from novice network for a month
Fifth offence - permanent ban from novice network

And to add to the above the ban should be account wide so that the offender cannot make an alt or use a second mentor character to continue their poor behaviour to get around the ban.

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I don't think we'll see GMs moderate the chat channel actively, but providing players with an easy way to report players (similar to how we can quickly report players for RMT directly from the chatbox) would be very helpful. And this would be beneficial for any kind of abuse, not just novice network issues.

The Novice Network on my server is full of negativity. Sometimes it even descends into full-on transphobia, homophobia, and bigotry but there is nothing the good mentors can do because kicking bad mentors will start a kick war. Just yesterday I saw a mentor trolling in the Novice Network by calling a sprout an "attack helicopter" when the sprout introduced themselves and said they were non-binary. Then the trolling mentor got kicked but his friend kicked the mentor who kicked the trolling mentor and a kick war started. I didn't think we would still have homophobia and transphobia in 2020 but here we are. Hopefully, by removing the ability to kick mentors from mentors and having GMs moderate the chat, NN will become a welcoming space for sprouts of all backgrounds.

I am so sad to read this. Many novice network channels I have seen have been quite bad but nothing on this scale. This is truly awful. What I mostly have seen is mentors using the chat as a platform to have idle chatter about whatever and often ignore the sprouts who are seeking help. However I have seen some things being said that are downright abusive.