More people need to start reporting the people who are causing trouble. Ignoring them or muting them may seem like a good way to get rid of them, but you should also report them if they are causing trouble with people. The Transformice moderators cannot help with a situation unless the people involved are reported. I know you guys are thinking 'well if I report them then they go away' but in reality its like covering up a flesh eating disease with a shirt and pretending it doesn't exist. Although you can't see it, it's still there happening no matter how much you refuse to believe it. I'm not saying ignoring someone is a bad idea, I'm just saying if you are going to ignore them, you should also report them because most of the time they are causing trouble for more people than just you. Just like when kids are bullied in the real world they keep quiet about it and the bully keeps bullying them until they've gone too far. You guys need to speak up and report them to the moderators for the things they do. Don't let them go too far.

If you report someone who is saying things you personally dislike ignoring them is always a good option. However if you believe that what they're saying is breaking the rules or very offensive to many more than just you and maybe a few others then reporting would be reasonable. Moderators can mute a person at most in such a case.

I agree that people do not report enough for larger problems however most people don't report because they know they can leave the room and they know that the person causing havoc will eventually go away. Reporting is a good idea in that scenario, but people wont report. It's the way the game is. I assume you're mainly thinking of offensive language and speech as the "trouble" you mention though. The moderators focus on the problems with most reports and based on the problem, it is true, however the moderators have priority in hacking and others first. Ignoring a person is almost just as effective as reporting someone for offensive language because either way it ends with that person's words gone from the chat.

I can't agree more with you that reporting needs to be done more frequently, but in a case of language, ignoring is always a good idea.

I'm talking more about the people who are like "you are so pathetic you should kill yourself nobody wants you to live"
This kind of stuff NEEDS to be reported not just ignored. It is NOT okay to say things like that to ANYONE.

I'd agree that reporting along with ignoring would be a good idea.
I get that ignoring allows you to not see what the person is saying, but what's the point? Everyone always feels the need to respond to the person and fighting usually breaks out soon after. So sure, you don't want to see the people arguing, but what good does it do? You either end up ignoring one person and then watch as people bicker out of context, or you ignore everyone bickering and have a silent chat. Of course leaving the room works as well, but the problem still stands: There are people saying offensive things, and not everyone will leave, and ignoring doesn't always do the job. Regardless of people's reasons to stay, whether it's their regular room or all of their friends are there, it's not fair that people are allowed to say things like "end yourself" without any consequences. If all of the people who ignored the person reported them as well, the problem may be able to be solved. I personally believe that reports for offensive language like this should be taken just as seriously as everything else.

Reporting the person sure helps the cause of discouraging this type of language, but you can't do too much to stop it. I personally do not see too many moderators online at once in the EN server and seeing the numbers of them online I assume that they're already busy from the moment they log on to the moment they log off and to add to their work is just sad when ignoring does tend to do the job most of the time. Also most people who use such language are usually not very serious about it, it's a way to blow off steam and channel their anger out. And I agree that it's not the best way to do so, but it's just the way people are. As much as you wish for the TFM world to be nice and clean it just wont happen and chances are the way it is now it can only get slightly better or just go downhill. A larger player base creates a larger bad community base, but also a larger good community base. Hell, it can't be fixed, but it can be delayed if that's what you're aiming for. To put a good effort into solving the problem of offensive language you'd need to modify the staff and the players too. Just a lot of work, just saying ignoring does the trick, if it doesn't then you already knew it might not, by playing the game you know that this is the almighty internet; great world, but pretty much hell too.

Perhaps hiring more moderators could do the trick, I believe we're in the process of hiring more right now. I understand their workload is huge already, and they probably are really busy the moment they log on, but that's what they signed up for. I have sympathy for them, I get working to make Transformice better is probably really difficult, but that is their job. Of course they're still people and they'll need to take a break, but hiring more moderators could lighten the load a bit. But if their job is to take care of the offenses listed on the report menu and more, why not take all of them equally as seriously? I've had numerous experiences where people will be telling others to kill themselves, and when I report to a mod, they simply tell me to ignore the person. Ignoring it doesn't make it go away, it just makes it seem that way. Clearly all of the bad people who play the game will never fully go away, but saying there is only room for slight improvement is a little negative. If moderators struck down harder on people who used offensive language, perhaps people would be discouraged from using it and as a result the community would be a lot better.
Basically to sum it up - Offensive language should not be tolerated, and if we need more moderators in order to take reports related to offensive language more seriously, then so be it. Ignoring can be a useful tool, but pretending the problem doesn't exist is not fixing it.

^ I agree completely Ruby

Lol.. mods don't care about people using gay slurs all the time yet you think they care about someone saying "u suck go die"?

That's what we're saying - mods do need to care. Whether it's racial/homophobic slurs or telling someone to kill themselves, the whole point of what we've been saying is to get the point across, which is, again - mods should care, and them caring is a crucial part of improving the community overall.

rubyisboss a dit :

That's what we're saying - mods do need to care. Whether it's racial/homophobic slurs or telling someone to kill themselves, the whole point of what we've been saying is to get the point across, which is, again - mods should care, and them caring is a crucial part of improving the community overall.

I am sure they care.
But what are you gonna do about it?
So much people right this second are breaking that rule but it cannot really be enforced compared to hacking.
And honestly, ignoring is the best thing to do because you cannot ignore a hacker yeah?

People don't say you should die for no reason. If they do, they're doing it for attention, in which case the ignore function will starve them of the attention they seek.

Politely tell them to stop, and ignore. The report feature should only be used for extremely harmful language. Don't waste the moderators' time just because you're losing an argument.

I do believe telling someone to die is extremely harmful. And what I'm saying is, it isn't usually me that people are insulting, and that is why ignoring them does nothing. They're not seeking my attention, they're seeking the attention of whoever they're speaking to. I agree that the ignore function could work in situations like that, but some people are relentless. I've seen plenty of cases where people will tell others to end themselves, and if the person ignores them, they tell their friends to deliver their messages and get it through to the person in any way they can. That is harassment, and that should be taken care of. What I'm saying is, the harassment and bullying is harmful, and I don't think muting or even banning a person who deserves it is a waste of time.

And to Inthebin, yes, plenty of people are breaking the rules right now, and those rules are difficult to enforce, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try. Yes, ignoring can be a good thing, but taking what I said above - sometimes, people find their ways around the ignore system. A lot of times, people are really just looking to hurt the other person, and those cases definitely should be taken care of. Obviously you can't ignore a hacker, and they shouldn't be ignored. The two should both be taken equally as seriously, although it's much easier to ban a hacker than it is to determine the difference between trolling and harassment.

I agree wholeheartedly with so many things said in this thread. Yes, we need more mods. They're enormously overworked and there are so often none online anyway. Yes, it is highly important that certain offenses be taken more seriously (threats or jokes of sexual assault, homophobic slurs, racial slurs, etc.) Yes, ignoring often does the trick.

HOWEVER, ignoring is hardly helpful. What we have is young kids running amok saying the most horrific things that, in a real-life setting, would never be remotely acceptable. As everyone knows, words do have a huge impact and often last far longer than physical injury, particularly among the highly impressionable youth who play this game. To say that people need to see consequences for their words just as much as they do for hacking is hardly an overreaction. If we ignore them, they don't learn a lesson. They will continue harassing others. They will torment and intentionally offend people because there will always be an audience and no one is stopping them. If not in this room, then the next. If not this person, then the next.

Story time: I had a friend on tfm who was deeply, clinically depressed. One day a pal of hers, whom she had known for several months, decided for whatever reason that she was going to become the worst person imaginable, and she turned on my friend. They argued, and it culminated in the girl telling my friend over whisper, "I hope you cut your wrists deep enough to die," followed by a stream of profanities. This is not okay. In no context is this okay. My friend had already believed for a long time that her life was worth nothing and suddenly this girl she had trusted was affirming it on a mouse game. If you're already teetering on a ledge and someone pushes you over that ledge, what do you do? Do you ignore? Or do you report? She ignored the user but the comments caused her extreme distress and harm for many days, to an extent that I was terrified for her safety. I, on the other hand, reported. I wanted this girl to face consequences for what she had said to my friend. And naturally nothing happened.

It is the internet? Yeah. Does that make it okay to say such things in a community that, unlike many websites, actually has moderators? No, of course not. My point is that moderators do need to care about these things. In order for them to be able to give any attention to these sorts of issues, we need more mods. And in order for the whole system to be effective, we need people to report inexcusable behavior. Not just ignore it. Report it. If someone calls you a doodoohead, you can deal with that. But for the things that no website should support, certainly not a website for kids and teens, it needs to be reported and taken care of.

tl;dr

mactaggert a dit :

Lol.. mods don't care about people using gay slurs all the time yet you think they care about someone saying "u suck go die"?

Tell that to mods who let people off for saying a really bad curse word and then giving 2 hour mute to someone who says a simple bad word.

And was a mod in the room when that "really bad curse word" was said?

Yes, there should be more reports. You should also ignore, but there's a common catchphrase on lots of games and chats, "report&ignore", which means do both. Ignoring someone won't help the situation at all, it will only benefit yourself, not anyone else, not even the offender. And ignoring should definitely not be logged (for mods to see).

I also agree that this game does need more moderators. Transformice is a very big game, and it's clear that it wants to get bigger - and it should! However, moderation is a very key part to having a successful game, or else you'll have lots of people running around being hella rude and hacking. It's not super fair to say that the current mods "suck", sure some of them could do better, but think about it: there's only like, what 10? In a community with thousands? They are overworked; if this game keeps getting bigger, more moderators will be very necessary.

I'm really glad this thread came back because the longer I play this game, the more upset I become by the lack of reporting and subsequent lack of action taken to remove and discourage the types of behavior mentioned in the thread. And I've been saying this sort of thing repeatedly for months, so I'm sure the mods who frequent the forums are tired of me voicing my opinion on it. (Sorry, mods, but not that sorry.)

Please, please can we get more mods. Preferably ones who deal with hacking and non-hacking equally. Maybe even a new group of mods meant specifically to deal with unacceptable behavior in the chat. I truthfully do not mean to be disrespectful but as has been noted, they volunteered to do a job. So many of us would like that job to be done, and the hackers aren't the only important issue in this game.

Reports for insults Imho are kinda pointless, because mods have to see if the insults are real or not, If someone is insulting heavily, the best thing should be contacting immediatly a moderator (the best thing is to copy/paste the same message to all of them until you fiind someone that isn't using /silence) and add a screen of the game, the whole page not only a part of the chat.

Ifrancesco a dit :

Reports for insults Imho are kinda pointless, because mods have to see if the insults are real or not, If someone is insulting heavily, the best thing should be contacting immediatly a moderator (the best thing is to copy/paste the same message to all of them until you fiind someone that isn't using /silence) and add a screen of the game, the whole page not only a part of the chat.

Just for reference, screenshots cannot be used as evidence when reporting a player because they can easily be altered.