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What Constitutes Abuse of the /report Feature?
The_Grump
Member Posts: 331
The /report feature is an excellent tool to do our part to help make the community better, however there is a rather ambiguous disclaimer attached to it: to paraphrase, 'abuse of this feature will result in the banning of one's account.' From what I recall reading on the official AION and Aionsource.com forums several months ago, it seems to be the case that you can be banned from legitimately using the /report feature on a regular basis. The example in AION was to report botting activity, whearas in GW we may want to use it for leeching or getting verbally abusive (not simply smack talking) in AB. This can, and has, given some people good reason to not bother reporting things because of the severe potential punishment and no realistic guidelines as to what will trigger it. So, does anyone have any idea what constitutes abuse of the feature? Not an idea of what might constitute abuse but what does constitute abuse, whether first-hand or second-hand knowledge.
I've put in a ticket about this but, seeing as how I am still waiting on a response for a ticket I put in on 09 June at 2:35am, I'm not expecting anything like a timely reply.
(1)TL:DR must be your way of saying that thinking hurts. Then again, this may explain why it looks like you responded to the post without using your brain.
(2) It's not about community, is it? You just have nothing better to do.
Comments
Okay, I'll start by saying I don't know all the limits of the /report feature. However, I can safely say how the leech option works. I could not find anything about the other options though. If you are only wanting to know what is fact, then just read the next paragraph, if you want an educated guess then carry on reading.
If you use the /report feature in pvp against leechers then this is what happens. If someone /reports a leecher, the leecher gets 2 dishonor points, however, if players report a person without atleast 1/3 of the party also reporting them, gets 2 dishonour points. This is so that if for example, someone gets falsely reported then it will also punish the accuser for 'abusing' the /report feature. This is a fact. (Source: http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Dishonorable_Combatant_System)
Here is where all my full knowledge ends and I begin guessing.
Now I think that a similar thing happens in other instances. So if the person is gold selling and you /report them, they will get points against them. If they accumilate enough then they get banned, however, if not enough people report them in one instance, then those that have reported get a certain number of points. If they accumilate enough points then they get banned.
However, Gaile Gray said, "All reports through that system (referring to the /report feature) are reviewed and the appropriate action is taken." Thus, A-net will look through the logs to see why you reported so many people before swinging the banhammer. Yet, if you do do it falsly you will be punished.
So to conclude, abuse of the feature is just using it loads. I haven't been able to find any information about how many times you have to /report to be banned though. Also you can only /report 50 times a day.
Check out http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Report for more info about the /report feature, also check the talk page. Some questions may be answered.
Does the fact that there is so little information about a policy that directly effects players' ability to improve and help regulate their own 'community' concern you? After taking a look at the last link you posted I was incredibly dismayed to find the term 'may' as the operative word in the statement "GMs may conduct a careful review[...]" and this really explains why I still have a ticket out from 09 June 2010 that has yet to be answered. Honestly, if ArenaNet wasn't so damned good as a developer I really would not be waiting for Guild Wars 2. Hopefully there aren't any problems because it seems abundantly clear NCSoft isn't interested in providing support.
Well, as it stands Dev_Nights, you've been far more helpful than NCSoft ever could and I apprecaite that. Ultimately, the answer is the same thing as the Underpants Gnomes 'Phase 2': *shrug*.
(1)TL:DR must be your way of saying that thinking hurts. Then again, this may explain why it looks like you responded to the post without using your brain.
(2) It's not about community, is it? You just have nothing better to do.
Here is the response I received from NCSoft support after asking the question on the 23rd of June. While somewhat helpful, the overall impression that I receive from this is that I shouldn't worry about reporting violations and that NCSoft is not going to explain to players policies that effect players.
Response (GM Xxxx)
06/28/2010 03:52 PM
Hello,
Please be assured that abuse of the reporting system is rare and only occurs as a result of malicious intent. We investigate the game logs of all players involved and make a determination based on the evidence from the logs. We don't block players who report a lot. We block players who maliciously report a lot for no reason other than they simply don't like the player they're reporting. So long as you are reporting a legitimate violation, you should have nothing to worry about. Please let us know if you have additional questions.
Regards,
GM Xxxx
The Guild Wars Support Team
(Note: GM name was removed.)
(1)TL:DR must be your way of saying that thinking hurts. Then again, this may explain why it looks like you responded to the post without using your brain.
(2) It's not about community, is it? You just have nothing better to do.
Well, I am not too surprised that they gave you a vague answer. The reason is, that to be banned on those grounds are pretty impressive. They have to accept a certain number of false reports before prosecuting and how many false reports do you think is too many?
You have to think of a time frame aswell. Is 5 false reports on one person during one day a banable reason? Or is 40 spread out over a week on different people a punishable reason?
Then there is what consitutes a false report. Is reporting someone over being called a 'retard' a false report? Some people will take it badly because they are mentally challenged, however some people will shrug it off like the next insult. You have to remember insults appear differently to different people.
If you could come up with a definite answer of what constitutes a false report and after how many should a player be banned, then I would like to hear.