If somebody upsets you, is harassing you or goes against our site policies, please report the incident to Admin
We are going to be improving the report a player feature so that you're able to flag it as either irritating/annoying, offensive/abusive or harassment or "Other".
What happens when a player or incident is reported?
- Create a case: a member of the admin team will create a case and take it on as their responsibility to resolve
- Investigate: the incident will be fully investigated by an administrator to be sure of exactly what happened and who did what. If our investigation does not match the original complaint then we will discuss this with you, explain why and ask you if there is further information that we need to look at before proceeding.
- Check previous cases: look back at all previous relevant cases for the players concerned
- Resolve the case: dependent on case type...
- irritating/annoying behaviour: where a player has done something that annoys you but is not necessarily spiteful or unkind and where it is more likely to be a personal dislike
- If it is a personal issue, i.e. a player is saying something about you that you don't like, but that is not offensive, we will resolve it by chatting with the player concerned, if they continue then this may be changed to a case of harassment at a later date
- It is more likely that irritating behaviour is really a personal taste issue, in which case we will most likely advise you that you may add them to your foes (block) list or learn to tolerate it
- If it becomes a regular problem among other players too, then we may discuss this with the other player, to let them know that they are viewed as being irritating or annoying, and then leave it with them to either continue or not - essentially is their decision
- offensive: where a player has written something that goes against the site policies but is not necessarily directed towards anybody in particular, i.e. use of bad language in general chit-chat
- If considered to be a minor issue, we will write to the player and explain to them what they did wrong and advise them not to do it again
- If it is considered to be a major issue, or if the player has already been warned but have ignored the warning then the player will be suspended from chat
- abusive: where a player has gone against the site policies that is directed towards somebody or a group of people in particular
- If considered to be a minor issue, we will write to the player and explain to them what they did wrong and advise them not to do it again
- If it is considered to be a major issue, or if the player has already been warned but have ignored the warning then the player will be suspended from chat
- harassment: where a player continuously contacts you but you want them to not communicate with you
- Harassment is very serious and to report a player for harassment means that you must 100% want to put a wall between the two of you - no more communication must be possible between the two of you at all.
- We will either ask the player to stop contacting you on your behalf or allow you to do so if you prefer
- We will then add the player to your foes (block) list which means that neither of you will be able to contact the other unless both of you ask for admin to remove this block at a future date
- irritating/annoying behaviour: where a player has done something that annoys you but is not necessarily spiteful or unkind and where it is more likely to be a personal dislike
- Report back to you: we will let you know what the outcome of your report was so that you know what has been done, and what will happen in future if the player ignores any communication from us
- Close: update and close the case, to be kept on file.
- Monitor and follow-up reports: if a player was warned in any way and they continue to go against our site policies then they will enter the chat suspension loop.
How long is a chat suspension?
Chat suspensions will vary depending on circumstances that we prefer not to reveal (because we don't want mischievous people to make careful plans before being mischievous).
However, we will reveal that chat suspensions will relate to the player experience and the incident itself - the shortest chat suspensions will be for new players who are new to the site and may not have understood what is expected where it is a minor incident, whereas a player who obviously knows very well what they are doing or has purposefully intended to offend others, will receive a much longer chat suspension.
Most importantly, chat suspensions will grow in length for people who continue to go against site policies and repeat the problem.... for example, if a player has been briefly suspended from chat for being abusive and is then abusive afterwards, subsequent chat suspensions will multiply and could very quickly become permanent in extreme cases.
We all want to have fun and to joke around, tease each other and enjoy ourselves but we also want to stamp out abusive behaviour and sniping etc.
It is key that players support the admin team by letting us know when others are being abusive so that we can make sure the site is fun and enjoyable for everybody, whilst also exercising a degree of tolerance when things don't quite go our way.
Thanks!