Self-moderating in-game chat - IDEAS FOR RYZOM

#1 Added by Breony(arispotle) 1 decade ago [en]

So, we had a troll today on Arispotle. Actually, he sounded more like undead rogue, but let's say it was a troll. This guy came into /universe and started spewing rude words for nearly a hour, until he finally got bored. Naturally, it happened in between of CSR shifts. It was not entirely pleasant experience.

As Ryzom gets more popular among "MMO-freerider" community, such incidents will happen more often. And I realize Ryzom can't afford to get enough CSRs to police the community 24 hours a day. Thus, I propose a self-moderating chat. It would work like this:

1) The names in the chat window would be shift+right-clickable. By shift+right-clicking the name, you would tag that person's message as "objectionable."
2) After receiving several such tags from several players (say, 10 lvl50+) over a short period of time (say, 10 minutes), the person would be flagged as "troublemaker" for a hour or two.
3) Any messages from "troublemakers" would be filtered out by default, unless you explicitly allow them in your chat window configuration. The "troublemaker's" name would be grayed out to signify he was already reported.
4) Everything would be logged for CSRs.

#2 Added by Kalean 1 decade ago [en]

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Why don't you put that guy on your ignore list?

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Kaléan McFerty
Pirate of the Lakes

#3 Added by Jayce 1 decade ago [en]

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Thing is, it's easy enough for these idiots to just make another toon, or even create another account without much trouble. I would go further with account suspensions, IP blocking, etc.

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Noble Jayce
Reaper Leader

#4 Added by Suboxide 1 decade ago [en]

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never understood these ppl either i've played this game for a long time with an empty ignore list but recently it's been growing jjust because of trolls in uni spewing stupid stuff then they just leave after and hour or two (so they find the time to download a 6gig game reg an account and finding out there is an uni chat to just say stupid things on)

but the self regulating uni chat isn't that bad an idea but i can remeber countless times where ppl would have misused it and flagged real players with just other ideas and that would be bad also, then again do new ppl that just joined the game be subjected to this kind of chat since they don't know how the game community is maybe they will think we are all trolls.

maybe something like 10 guild leaders have to devote somebody just an idea so that whole guilds can't downvote another guild or person (why i choose guild leaders is because they have already shown some dedication for the game (most of them)), i can easy make 10 alts and lvl them to lvl 50 to vote

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#5 Added by Jayce 1 decade ago [en]

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Yeah, it'd take some fine tuning to prevent abuse. The OP's suggestion of higher levels is a good start, again there could be additional checks on those reporting... No duplicate IP's... maybe players with a poor history could be prevented from reporting... a block on muting Nobles. That kind of thing. :p

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Noble Jayce
Reaper Leader

#6 Added by Iala(arispotle) 1 decade ago [en]

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"obscenity filters" and their ilk never work. They're either overly strict or not strict enough, and whatever they are people find ways around them rapidly.

Case in point: I moderate a photography website with an active section on nature photography. Site owners decided to install an obscenity filter using a standard word list (dictionary system).
Suddenly conversations about certain animals became extremely amusing as the name of the species could no longer be used because it has in other context a sexual or offensive meaning.

In the end the filter was removed and moderators given more powers to quickly deal with offenders.

#7 Added by Marelli(arispotle) 1 decade ago [en]

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A self-policing system sounds like the perfect solution when you've 10 sensible mature Ryzom players in uni chat, suffering from 1 troll.

It's suddenly not so perfect anymore when some other player disagrees with something you say, and calls in 10 of his buddies to all flag you as a troll.

Last edited by Marelli(arispotle) (1 decade ago)

#8 Added by Breony(arispotle) 1 decade ago [en]

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Marelli

It's suddenly not so perfect anymore when some other player disagrees with something you say, and calls in 10 of his buddies to all flag you as a troll.

I sure understand this concern; there is a risk of wrongful flagging. However, everything would be logged for CSRs to review, and any wrongful flagging would be punishable. Everyone would think twice before misusing such feature for their personal feuds. Who would risk, say, a day of ban, just to make someone silent for a hour?

The moderation mechanic itself is up to discussion - but there surely is a room for some kind of moderation, whether semi-manual as I suggested, or completely automatic (filter-based). We wouldn't want new players being greeted by the avalanche of "f*cks" and "b*tches" all over the /universe chat, would we? It doesn't make a good first impression.

#9 Added by Iala(arispotle) 1 decade ago [en]

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Breony

Marelli
It's suddenly not so perfect anymore when some other player disagrees with something you say, and calls in 10 of his buddies to all flag you as a troll.

I sure understand this concern; there is a risk of wrongful flagging. However, everything would be logged for CSRs to review, and any wrongful flagging would be punishable. Everyone would think twice before misusing such feature for their personal feuds. Who would risk, say, a day of ban, just to make someone silent for a hour?

Effectively that's already possible. File a ticket with the chat content and a CSR will look into it. Go into CeB and quite often there's one around who can act very quickly (and such tickets filed are usually handled quickly too).
I'd not want a system where a troll or other troublemaker can get decent people locked out from chatrooms (or thrown from the server even, some games have that...). And with multiple accounts a single person could well do that in an environment like you propose.
Accounts are now cheap (heck, the price of Ryzom is so low even for paid accounts many of us have several accounts, some people as many as 10), so creating enough to reach the "ban treshold" is easy.
If there's a risk of the person initiating the action being punished, just initiate it from a throwaway toon or account so your main faces no risk at all.

#10 Added by Sherkalyn 1 decade ago [en]

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Let's use the Ignore function to trigger a CSR alarm with a chat log once someone gets ignored by 5-10 different people (different IPs, not just different accounts) within a delay of, let's say, 10 minutes.

We all agree a troll without a public just gets bored and leaves. So if someone manages to annoy people enough to get ignored more than 5 times within 10 minutes by different players, it triggers the "Troll alert" for the CSRs who will then judge by the logs if something needs to be done. With the IPs, the CSRs should have no trouble determining if the troll is a general annoyance or the target of a Guild vendetta.

First ignore opens a chatlog file with the name of the ignored player as a title, fifth ignore triggers an alarm, if 10 people ignore the guy before a CSR reacts, he gets muted from Uni for an hour, or until the CSR investigates his case and decides to unmute or use the ban staff.

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Crazy Marshmallow Lady
Former Guild Leader of Exodus Syndicate
Member of Phaedra's Tears
Girl Playing Roles

#11 Added by Bitttymacod 1 decade ago [en]

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I was online for two recent troll events. In the first one, Uni reacted for a while, attempting to treat him gently as a misguided homin, then everyone tuned out. The troll left, eventually. It was very unpleasant for that hour (since the troll was using sexually explicit and violent imagery and words). The next day there was another one. Silence ruled supreme (though I know a report was filed). The troll left in under 20 minutes.

The lesson is, as we all know: "Don't feed the trolls."

That doesn't make the situation any more pleasant, but it does work in the long run.

I do give a "thumbs up" to Sherkalyn's idea of the cumulative "Ignore" flag. Combined with the logs, it should be relatively difficult to exploit for the purposes of harassment.

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Remembering Tyneetryk
Phaedreas Tears - 15 years old and first(*) of true neutral guilds in Atys.
(*) This statement is contested, but we are certainly the longest lasting.
<clowns | me & you | jokers>

#12 Added by Iala(arispotle) 1 decade ago [en]

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Best way to report this kind of behaviour (if no CSR is online in the chat system, download CeB for that, see website for details), is to take a screenshot and send that with a description of the problem to support-ee@ryzom.com (be sure to include time of the incident).

#13 Added by Suboxide 1 decade ago [en]

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you can also reach CeB with ingame chat system just type:
"/supportChat" (capital C is required i think)

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#14 Added by Iala(arispotle) 1 decade ago [en]

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you can, yes. But afaik you can't see there if there's a csr in the room, which is why I went for the external client.

#15 Added by Sherkalyn 1 decade ago [en]

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I think if you just type .who or something like that in support chat, it shows a list of who is there and when they were last active... but I haven't tested that recently.

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Crazy Marshmallow Lady
Former Guild Leader of Exodus Syndicate
Member of Phaedra's Tears
Girl Playing Roles