Dealing with troublemakers

Discussion in 'Community Discussion' started by AusQB, May 25, 2012.

  1. Too often I've had to sit and watch the herds of players who, despite their intention of being respectable members, sink to the lowest level by taunting and arguing with those who wish to break the rules and disrupt the peace. In doing so, their efforts are succeeding and the so-called "respectable members" are made to look the fool.

    So in the event that someone decides to become spontaneously rude or purposely disturbing, just act normal. The second you engage them, either by telling them to stop or informing them that what they're doing is wrong, you've entered their trap and anything you do is subsequently contributing to their efforts.

    There is only one sensible thing to do, if of course a staff member is not online; simply report them (/report <name> <reason>), ignore them (using either /ignore <name> or your willpower) and go about your business.

    Report, ignore, enjoy.
  2. TBH, it kind of annoys me when people tell me to /ignore. I would do it if the situation requires it, but other than that, once you do it you miss out on a LOT of what's going on.

    EDIT: Speaking for those that do prefer to try and stop it, 75% of the time it works, 20% of the time they are punished by moderators and 5% of the time it continues.

    ANOTHER EDIT: Yeah yeah, aother supporter complaining about the /report? Well not really, but it takes FOREVER for the report to be recognised (this makes it to deal with CONTROL+V and auto-type-bots) - this is probably the point at which I /ignore. And when the player is banned, it's often after I have gone off to another server to notify a staff member.
    Call_Me_DeJaja and PThagaard like this.
  3. So instead we let them continue their rants? I tend to follow the instructions given above when a general attack is applied to me, but what if someone is just blatantly abusing chat? Sure, I report them, but should I ignore them, making them think that no one is there to stop their inconsiderate transgressions of the rules?
    On another note, what if someone is personally attacking me? I mean, I once attempted to ignore said person, and an even larger group of people ended up believing that I was a griefer and a cyberbully (which I am not). Should I be defending myself, or taking the 'high road' and ignoring them, potentially (and wrongly) damaging my reputation in the future?
    AlexChance likes this.
  4. I think he is trying to say that in your sig it says mod spawner.
    Joshposh70 likes this.
  5. When they start verbally abusing me THEN I start laughing at them. I don't stand for that crap.
  6. Derp, *facedesk,* There goes two hours of failed photo-editing.
    autumnrain26 likes this.
  7. Hit it on the head :p
  8. Exactly. Many a player will occasionally say something like "OMG!" or 'WHOA" in caps (which is alright in my mind, as it's neither excessive nor inappropriate), but then one person will say "caps" at least 10 times. When asked why, they say "well, he broke a rule!"
    I think that the community can be the most important part of upholding the rules, but some can often get carried away.
  9. Im in love with that statement...
    AlexChance and Kells18 like this.
  10. I think "/ch tell"ing somebody once pointing out in a friendly way that there's a rule broken seems to be ok..

    If they decide to not take note of your warning and carry on, then that is what I think is the "/report" time. Most of the rule-breakers just need a polite reminder, so there's no need to report them and for a first offence, all a moderator will do is warn the player anyway, so there's no need for a mod to be involved in that kind of situation?

    If everybody followed that rule, then the number of reports would be much lower, and therefore the /reports that are actually needed would be dealt with faster.

    Also, I think that it's important to use "/ch tell", not just type it into town chat, as then you aren't spamming the chat yourself, and if the rule breaker doesn't listen to you, then you haven't committed yourself to having an argument with them.

    That's what I do anyway :)
    Squizzel_Boy likes this.
  11. OP, if thats the way you do things, then keep doing it that way. Personally, I am not the type of person to stand idle while someone blatantly breaks the rules or is rude. I respect and value EMC and all the staff has done to make it what it is, and I will stand up and do my part to help keep trouble makers from ruining it for the rest of us. I dont know how many threads or comments that MODs have posted on this subject that you've read, but there are a LOT of reports that the staff have to sift through and weed out the legit reports. By at least giving someone fair warning or a reminder that "hey, you're breaking the rules and we have taken notice, please stop" you can usually eliminate the need for a report and thus lower the ammount of reports the MODs have to weed through. Of course the unfortunate side effect of giving fair warning is that sometimes the individual will lash out at you. The ignore function, in my opinion, is more usefull for people that arent neccesarily breaking rules but are being a bother to you personally, and less usefull in cases where a report is warranted. Since I take it upon myself to help gather as much info on someone who the MODs may consider banning I rarely ignore random people.

    Also I dont know if you are aware of this, but MODs do not need to be connected to the server to kick/ban reported players, they have the ability to respond to reports remotely and kick/ban as needed. Reporting when a mod isnt on of the servers doesnt automatically mean no one is paying attention or reading the reports.

    Report and ignore is not the only "sensible" way to deal with trouble makers just because thats how you deal with them, others like myself take a more proactive approach to keeping out trouble makers. With that being said, I still agree with you to a certain extent, continuing a lengthy debate over something that truly should be dealt with by a MOD is pointless, and if you find yourself in a never ending argument, its best to just walk away and let the mods do there job.
  12. Trust me, I know the protocols for any given scenario, but I created this thread to address a specific set of circumstances.

    For example, if someone types in all caps, be it by accident or not, I will not do as I suggested above. The obvious course of action is to politely advise the person of their actions.

    However, there are situations in which people are blatantly trying to disturb others. If this is the case, the initial courtesies can be disregarded and the appropriate measures taken.

    Without direct authority, you can't banish someone simply by yelling at them en masse. That causes more commotion than whatever they were doing to provoke it.

    The bottom line is to just be mature, exercise self-discipline and make sensible judgements.
  13. Not sure if you were aware of this, but AusQB was a senior mod for the longest time, up until February, I think.
    Just pointing that out, because I know a lot of people don't know.
    R0bbieJo likes this.
  14. Call, if you do it that way and can remain sensible, that's perfectly okay. The community as stated is our first line of defense when it comes to rule breakers. I believe Aus was referring to those that can't handle themselves in those situations. We've had normally respectful members in the past get temp banned for being disrespectful themselves to a rule breaker. These are the people that should really use /ignore the most.

    When it gets to the point where you are not having fun anymore and feel the need to rant or go on a forum and rant about how "insert anything here" could be "done better", it's best to use /ignore instead and go about your fun. :)
  15. Mod spawner, does that like spawn a tertiary Mod entity when no staff members can be found online to deal with troublesome players whom have been reported?
    AlexChance likes this.
  16. Exactly. I once said Who sells cobblestone? and then a player (Tust me, he wasnt new I did the /p thing and it said like 100 days, maybe more) says to me caps in full caps ( If I didnt make any sense there, sorry) then repeats it over and over again. This community is amazing. But there are flaws. Like spammers. This can be solved but not completely.
  17. Quite a few players create an account and don't come on for weeks.
    matthew12hydro likes this.
  18. *facepalm*