Dealing with harassment and misbehavior

[bscotchAdam]

We strongly believe that online gaming communities can and should be safe spaces for everyone, and we're trying to have ours start that way from day one. BscotchID has many goals, but it is foremost a community platform. This means that you all should have a say in how the community is managed.

As the community grows it will get more and more difficult for us to be the ARBITERS OF JUSTICE and so we'll have to eventually turn control over to the community itself. To do that, we'll need automated tools that making reporting and dealing with misbehavior easy and transparent.

We of course have a bunch of ideas, but we'd like to hear your thoughts. What approaches and tools would you like to see to help you make BscotchID feel like a loving and safe place? Be as specific or general as you want!

[MAP5597]

I think the often-used report and block system would work well; or at least, it would give you guys a good place to start when you're figuring this stuff out. Reporting should have an optional comment field in case it's not a chat-based thing ("trolls, bullies, bigots, cheaters, thieves, and the like" from DBaJ). If there were a report button on individual messages, it would be relatively simple to filter out words that you guys consider jerk-y.

Hopefully you guys wouldn't have to wade through thousands of reports...

Maybe if enough people report the same person, they're auto-banned? Perhaps temporarily, pending review?

[Ulnarevern]

I've got two ideas in mind:
- "Karma" system in which you gain karma for good actions (gifting to others, getting a nice PM upvoted, maybe getting upvotes on the forum if you consider putting that in the new forums...) and loose karma for bad actions (post/message (through the BScotchID system) downvoted/reported as an example)

- FML-ish global moderation in which people can participate freely. The idea would be that reports could be seen and people click on "Yes, this is jerky", "Meh...", "No, this is not jerky". Good moderation gets points, points can get people on the Good-Guy/Girl moderation board, maybe with some gifts for the best moderators.

If I have more, I'll let you know.

[Etrusan]

[Ulnarevern]

Just another idea: maybe using the friend/foe system from the forum (and use it in BScotchID too?).
Too many foes (or a really bad ratio) could lead to an automatic warning and maybe a ban?

[Etrusan]

That's a bad idea, someone could just add you as a foe or give you bad karma or something and you'd just got a ban for nothing? No, I don't think that's the right way.

[Ulnarevern]

That wouldn't be determined by one person. I mean, if you have like 1 friend and 25 foes, that may be a sign, no?

And that may just serve as a mark: if you've 53 friends, 2 foes and a random person reports you, that report may be subject to caution.

[Etrusan]

Well, usually I don't make friends on forums, I just add foes for some reason (like they're spamming or something, but it's a long term process for me to decide that). So no, that's not the right way, just because he has a lot of foes. No, Admins should decide if that person deserves a BAN or not. Not some automated robot, just because of some *variables*.

[Ulnarevern]

The ideas of karma and friend/foe would require some actual moderator/admin behind. I saw it more as an indicator to help the process of banning (or not) rather than a direct process that would automatically ban people.

[Etrusan]

I don't know man, it seems too difficult to me to set up all this. Isn't easier just watch the suspect and when his/her behaviour is out of normal just BAN that person?