[Suggestion] A Resolution to Kick Wars and Misuse of Power in Novice Network

[Chiyo_]

Hey everyone.

This will have to be a multi-parter due to thread limits, so bare with me.

I spend a lot of time in the Novice Network, despite its negative connotations given by the community. Some of the mentors have been incredibly helpful in my journey as a humble sprout, and I think it's a great resource for those who are just getting into the game when they need some extra assistance. Even when assistance is not needed, most of the players there are incredibly friendly and have made for some great company in the more mundane and monotonous parts of my gameplay experience.

However, unfortunately not everything is as great as it was at first. I'm from Jenova on the Aether data centre, and there's been some recurring issues the last few days involving mentors mis-using their power to kick players (including other mentors) out of personal bias, abusing their ability to travel between worlds to avoid punishment for their own behaviours. The "kick wars", as NN has taken to calling them, have been a main source of disruption over the last week, with over a dozen players being kicked for falsified reasons with very vague wording such as "creating discord" and "personal harassment" with little to no evidence of the reasoning for kicking.

This sort of behaviour has become enough of a problem that the active members of the novice network have taken to creating linkshells for discussions rather than using the network itself, as it seems every time someone wants to try and talk about something, they're immediately kicked from the network by the same group of people that has been policing the chat. Some further discussion has been happening between some of the people who have been targets of these mass-kicks, and I believe we have come to a reasonable set of suggested changes for the betterment of the Novice Network as a whole.

Suggestion 1 - Manual Opt-In for Mentors

While this is mostly to provide a better supporting base for the second suggestion, I believe the option to opt-in to the network for mentors rather than being forced into the network would help to reduce clutter and deflate artificial values. Very few mentors within the logged in mentor list, at least within Jenova, are actually active within the network contributing to the conversations or helping other players. I've also seen comments from other mentors saying that they would rather stay out of the network and focus on their own things, and while that does directly contradict the purpose and goals of a mentor, this change would help remove the unnecessary amount of mentors who simply see the status as a badge of popularity or a method of boasting rather than actually using the status to help others.

[Chiyo_]

Suggestion 2 - A Vote-Based Kick System

A large portion of the kick wars that occur on Jenova stem from the fact that you only require a single person to remove someone else from the network, whether it be 3 hours for a mentor or only 30 minutes for a sprout. Having a vote-based kicking system would mean that mentors who have been active in the chat would be able to all contribute to a collective vote on whether or not the player in question should be temporarily removed from the network, reducing the potential for false-kicks and abuse of power as votes can be declined if they are illegitimately done.

As implemented by Suggestion 1, a reduced number of mentors in the Novice Network would filter out everyone who does not intend to use their mentor status correctly, preventing them from interfering with the voting process. Alternatively, the number of votes required could be determined by the number of active mentors in the chat therefore only allowing those who are contributing to vote on the kick itself, or it could be limited to a small amount such as 3 or 5 votes to establish a strike-like system.

Another major part of this is that it holds all people who voted yes or no within the kick accountable for their actions rather than allowing a single individual to have control over the situation. The group of kick-bots within Jenova contains about 3 or 4 members, so if all were to vote simultaneously somehow, each person involved in the vote would be held accountable if reported to a GM via the in-game help desk in the instance it was a misuse of power or an unfair kick. If it was the opposite, on the other hand, and a group of players were actively protecting a player who was being disruptive or causing complications within the network, those mentors protecting the player that was violating rules could also be penalised for contributing to the disruption.

Suggestion 3 - Removal of Cross-World Kicks

A primary method the kick-bots have been using to avoid punishment is by using the ability to visit other worlds to issue kicks, then instantly travelling to another world to avoid being kicked themselves. This has been the main continuing force behind the mass-kicks as mentors abusing their kick privileges have been able to world-hop instantly after issuing a kick to avoid the punishment entirely, with there only been one instance where someone who was maliciously kicking others from the Novice Network was able to be kicked because they were caught in a queue to transfer back to their own homeworld. Removal of the ability to perform moderation actions on a world other than your own would contribute greatly to the reduction in malicious activity due to the fact it would prevent people from collaborating to orchestrate mass-kicks in the same fashion as the ones that have been happening on Jenova, wherein they were entirely comprised of mentors from other homeworlds (namely Cactuar and Siren).

[Chiyo_]

Suggestion 4 - False Punishment Recovery System

One of the suggestions made by one of the mentors affected by these mass-kicks suggested that there should be some form of vote-based system that allows a user to return to the network earlier than normal if their kick was done falsely or as an abusive act of power. This could be implemented in a similar way or as an alternative to Suggestion 2, allowing for active mentors to collectively vote on re-inviting somebody to the network after they were inappropriately removed. As is with the second suggestion, this system would also come with a greater degree of accountability when GMs handle reports of these instances, as all mentors involved with re-inviting the user would be held responsible for the invitation and thus can be punished accordingly if the re-invitation was done out of malice, or the opposite where the person/group who issued the initial kick would be punished if the re-invitation was proven to be legitimate.

While these sorts of ideas are rather simple in its premise, I think they could help a lot for the stability and peace of the Novice Network by preventing bad actors from single-handedly causing chaos and removing people en masse, allowing both mentors and sprouts to have a safer and more enjoyable experience where everyone can talk and help each other improve at the game.

[PrincePopoto]

It's surprising to me that SQEX hasn't implemented any kind of system that prevents this kind of abuse in the Network, despite how long it's been since its inception.

Here's hoping that Endwalker comes with some changes to the Novice Network and mentorship, both systems could use reworks.

[DrWho2010]

the only real solution is to not use it. you can find pretty much all the info you need by googling it anyways.

[uwuGaliosuwu]

the only real solution is to not use it. you can find pretty much all the info you need by googling it anyways.

while this is a simple, obvious solution: just avoid the framework of the issue in total it's kind of annoying to transfer back to homeworld as a mentor, help someone and mention how five people just got kicked only to get kicked myself by some dude who just world hopped his alt and say i harassed him. i quite enjoy the social aspect and helping sprouts when i can but i wasn't even there for five minutes. wild.

[SturmChurro]

The best suggestion is removing the mentor system altogether, but I appreciate any attempts to salvage it. I just don't think there is any way to actually salvage it without a large amount of oversight by SE (including NN). At the very least, the rewards associated with mentorship should be removed from it specifically, and an alternative means of attaining them made, along with the removal or change of the mentor crown - as that can be seen as a reward or status symbol as well.

[Kes13a]

a resolution would be to remove mount awards etc from it altogether.

if you want to help someone, then you would and be doing it because you want to, not because you want the reward at the end.

problem...solved.

[SturmChurro]

a resolution would be to remove mount awards etc from it altogether.

if you want to help someone, then you would and be doing it because you want to, not because you want the reward at the end.

problem...solved.

Agreed. For example, I have been told that Asmongold apparently wants to become a mentor specifically for the mount reward. I'm sure if this is true, this will encourage even more players to follow suit. It's unfortunate, that the removal of mentor specific rewards may be one of the few ways to cut down on this sort of behavior: players joining for the rewards specifically and not necessarily to help players. I doubt this would fully solve this specific problem though, as many players would still likely abuse their kick powers in the NN, and use it as a personal chat channel.

[Kes13a]

Agreed. For example, I have been told that Asmongold apparently wants to become a mentor specifically for the mount reward. I'm sure, if this is true, this will encourage even more players to follow suit. It's unfortunate, that the removal of mentor specific rewards may be one of the few ways to cut down on this sort of behavior: players joining for the rewards specifically and not necessarily to help players. I doubt this would fully solve this specific problem though, as many players would still likely abuse their kick powers in the NN, and use it as a personal chat channel.

judging by the way some mentors act, its obvious their intention of joining certainly wasnt out of a feeling of being helpful.

I mean I understand that SE would want to reward helpful people... but what has happened is obviously not their originally desired end result, and the main reason I can think of are the faster queue times and the mount . remove at least the mount, and I am positive you would start seeing a lot less interest from people obviously not suited to be a mentor at all.

what killed the whole mentor thing for me was seeing a known bot crafter with a mentor tag. after that, I realized how empty the whole process was. so now, I just helps if someone has a question, or seems to be struggling in a dungeon run. I dont need a special tag to do that. as for the mount... well, I have a ton I dont use now lol