We should really update the reporting system

[NekoMataMata]

Reporting right now is just a bit of a lengthy hassle. People have to really act out for most people to bother with it, although obviously you have people that will report for every little thing or people that witch hunt with it.

This is an issue though. SE doesn't like to tell you to provide evidence when people get warnings or banned, and for good reason. People would probably use said evidence to turn around and harass those that they think got them banned. They might not even do it in-game, they might take it out of the game that way SE can't do anything further to them for their misbehavior.

This can leave some people confused though. There's a lot of different things you can report people for that don't require them to talk or even interact with others. You could be breaking the rules for months, or even years, but until someone decides to report whatever it is, nothing is done. This can lead to people being confused about their warnings/bans, but also this can lead to people feeling like the GMs pick and choose when to act.

tldr; I don't think people realize the amount of public rule breaking that goes on that no one bothers to report most of the time because of how bothersome reporting is right now. It'd be better if we made it easier to report, that way people would report those things on sight, instead of it being held over peoples heads later on.

[Kes13a]

thats by design.

if they made it easier to report things, the 1 or two person team they have for english reports would be overwhelmed. would likely completely gut the other languages team with the added stress

no, I do not really know how many people they have for dealing with reports, but since their "legendary" STF team is 4 people who I imagine are more a tea club than a team that deal with botting and RMT reports, I rather suspect that SE hires too few to deal with actual reports in the "other" categories.

when it comes to reporting, I have never played any other game which is as user unfriendly as the one in 14. its so bad that it is almost impossible to imagine that people would "report every little thing" or "witch hunt" with it. (dont worry, I said ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE to believe, I know there are sad people out there that probably have reporting down to a science to do that)

reporting is broken, which is a two edged sword. yes, its cumbersome so people wont use it for minor things (aside from those sad people), because there are few reports, SE can say that "there is little to report" and carry on sitting in the moral highchairs. because of that... I dont know if they would change it

[NekoMataMata]

thats by design.

if they made it easier to report things, the 1 or two person team they have for english reports would be overwhelmed. would likely completely gut the other languages team with the added stress

no, I do not really know how many people they have for dealing with reports, but since their "legendary" STF team is 4 people who I imagine are more a tea club than a team that deal with botting and RMT reports, I rather suspect that SE hires too few to deal with actual reports in the "other" categories.

when it comes to reporting, I have never played any other game which is as user unfriendly as the one in 14. its so bad that it is almost impossible to imagine that people would "report every little thing" or "witch hunt" with it. (dont worry, I said ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE to believe, I know there are sad people out there that probably have reporting down to a science to do that)

reporting is broken, which is a two edged sword. yes, its cumbersome so people wont use it for minor things (aside from those sad people), because there are few reports, SE can say that "there is little to report" and carry on sitting in the moral highchairs. because of that... I dont know if they would change it

I didn't actually think about that.

I was just mostly thinking about the recent thread. So many people put things in their search info or their adventure plates that they're not supposed to, and other people see that and think it's okay. No one bothers to report it until someone gets upset for literally any other reason with that person, and suddenly those people are wondering what happened.

[Amarande]

I didn't actually think about that.

I was just mostly thinking about the recent thread. So many people put things in their search info or their adventure plates that they're not supposed to, and other people see that and think it's okay. No one bothers to report it until someone gets upset for literally any other reason with that person, and suddenly those people are wondering what happened.

This is probably just something that happens a lot in general with rules, especially rules governing large communities where most people are fairly apathetic about each other (same goes for cities in the real world, for instance).

And yeah, I've myself suggested that part of the reason the reporting system is the way it is, is precisely so that you have to decide you really want to report someone and have a certain amount of time in which to think about it (if nothing else, the time it takes to actually sit and write out a report).

Otherwise, it's likely way too many things would be reported out of pique, which would start to drown out the serious reports, and then SE will likely come under fire for letting something major like grooming or financial scamming slip by in the shuffle. Unfortunately, the most likely upshot of that would be Yoshi being pressured into adopting one of the two "normal" reporting methods companies use nowadays:

a) an all-seeing AI that automatically notes when certain infractions occur and actions them without intervention (you see this on mainstream social media, and it has entirely too many false positives, especially for a system like FFXIV's that has an escalating penalty system where previous marks effectively never go away. AI is just not really good enough yet to handle this on its own).

b) a system that primarily works based on numbers of reports, assuming that anyone who's been reported by several others is more likely than not actually guilty of what they're accused of and actions them by default. This often atrophies human GM input down to the point that incidents that are not reported by enough actual people are basically dismissed altogether. The result is that you wind up with a mess where gameplay scuffles involving several people result in actual bans (see how badly the Ahn'Qiraj event went in the WoW Classic rerelease, for instance, and I can already imagine how much of a headache Hunts would become here) while actual serious incidents (like grooming or stalking) get ignored because often the victim is the only person to put in a report so the system deprioritizes it as a "one off."

As with many things here, the status quo seems like it may, in fact, be the least evil under the circumstances.

[RobynDaBank]

I've seen b) implemented in some games, like New World and WoW - it gets abused to the moon and back once people discover that it exists. As for a), yeah it definitely gives false positives, those teaching you about such software never bring that up either. Not to mention I'd feel really weird knowing that an AI is looking at literally anything I say in chats in real time, not just things that get reported.

[VelKallor]

And yeah, I've myself suggested that part of the reason the reporting system is the way it is, is precisely so that you have to decide you really want to report someone and have a certain amount of time in which to think about it (if nothing else, the time it takes to actually sit and write out a report).

Along with a warning that a false or malicious report will land YOU in deep trouble.

As it should be.

[Absimiliard]

What we really need is a less ridiculous TOS. The kinds of things we can be (successfully) reported for are certainly way off base from the sensibilities of the common person.

[Jojoya]

I didn't actually think about that.

I was just mostly thinking about the recent thread. So many people put things in their search info or their adventure plates that they're not supposed to, and other people see that and think it's okay. No one bothers to report it until someone gets upset for literally any other reason with that person, and suddenly those people are wondering what happened.

If something is truly offensive and worth reporting, it's worth going to that tiny bit of extra effort to do it.

If that extra effort is too much bother, then it's not something that was all that offensive in the first place.

What we really need is a less ridiculous TOS. The kinds of things we can be (successfully) reported for are certainly way off base from the sensibilities of the common person.

What is sensible can vary by culture and community. What is acceptable in the Deep South likely would not be acceptable on the West Coast.

The ToS for this game is no more ridiculous than it is for other MMOs out there. They're all fairly open ended because it would be an excessively long document to go into detail about every possible violation.

Most players aren't bothered by the ToS because they use common sense in how they interact with others. Keep it polite, keep it simple, don't swear, don't use obscenities, stop a moment to collect yourself when you're angry about something before responding.

If you are bothered by the ToS, ask yourself why. What do you habitually do that you're afraid might get you in trouble? Is there a good reason for you to be doing that something or is it a case of "because I want to and I should be able to do what I want"? Any mature adult knows that we don't get to just do what we want, that there are still standards of interaction society expects us to follow.
And we also know that we need to accept the consequences for when we don't follow those standards, whether intentional or accidental.

Also, just because something gets reported doesn't mean the GMs will see it as a situation that needs action. I've been told by other players on a few occasions that they were going to report me for some presumed infraction and yet I've never had contact with a GM except in response to tickets I've opened myself.

[LianaThorne]

I've seen b) implemented in some games, like New World and WoW - it gets abused to the moon and back once people discover that it exists. As for a), yeah it definitely gives false positives, those teaching you about such software never bring that up either. Not to mention I'd feel really weird knowing that an AI is looking at literally anything I say in chats in real time, not just things that get reported.

Please god no automatic AI nonsense. I've gotten falsely temp-banned in a couple games for saying words like "training" "pancakes" and "cigarettes". Just. No. No.

[IckeDerTyp]

Live and let live~

In a perfect world we wouldn't even need a report system at all!