Ban users who get too many ignores

[Futureburger]

Hi devs!

I love TOS, but obviously trolling is an issue in the game, even for ranked. I've encountered lots of abusive toxic behaviour as well as racism, homophobia etc. It ruins the game and has made me think about quitting on several occasions.

I report and ignore toxic players whenever I encounter them. However, it must be the said that most players don't seem as keen on reporting trolling as they are gamethrowing. My perception is that trolls get away with more than throwers do, although I could be wrong about that. I certainly see repeat offenders of trolling more than I see repeat throwers.

Ignoring is a much better system because it just shuts the player up instantly, but it's a shame that these toxic players are allowed to be there at all. That's when it occurred to me what a great idea it would be if players were automatically banned if they get too many ignores.

I think total number and frequency of ignores could be much more reliable metrics to show how toxic a player is. I've seen anecdotally that players are far more willing to ignore trolls than report them. It seems logical that players who consistently go into games looking to troll will naturally accrue a high number of ignores over time.

If there could be some kind of filter enabled (I have no idea if that's even possible), it would probably be a much more effective (not to mention less labour-intensive) method for weeding out trolls. It would allow for the occasional fight - e.g. if a player makes a bad mistake, gets flamed in deadchat and starts ignoring people, that would not trigger the filter assuming they're generally well-behaved - but weed out players who bring down the experience for everyone.

I believe this is how email marketing works - if you use a service like MailChimp for instance. If you're sending people marketing emails, and too many of your emails are sent to spam, MailChimp automatically blocks you and you have to prove that you should be unblocked. I think that's how it works? So with this ignore filter, if you get banned, you can appeal. At that point a manual review happens and mods can determine whether your excessive amount of ignores was warranted. If so maybe players can be warned or perma-banned. I'm a bit clueless about how it works!

What do you think? Let's start weeding out the trolls because they're ruining the game.

[Jerme]

This would be similar to the votekick-functionality in lobbies: A nice thought that seems handy at the first glance, but be eventually quite abuseable, which requires at the end more work than it could save, especially when there are people, who rarely use that functionality.
A properly working filtering system requires quite some time, work and testing, as well. Currently the time and ressources are spent on other priorities.

[Villagerlover]

There's already a paywall, so reports are actually meaningful and will be dealt with accordingly.

Also, imagine instances where parties decide to abuse the ignore system by going into a game, and mass ignoring everyone. Many users will immediately be banned for an exploit.
It's ludicrous.

Just continue reporting them like you say you do. Unfortunately, some trolls/gamethrowers don't mind spending money on a game constantly to ruin it, but at least it comes with a cost (their wallets).

[Futureburger]

This would be similar to the votekick-functionality in lobbies: A nice thought that seems handy at the first glance, but be eventually quite abuseable, which requires at the end more work than it could save, especially when there are people, who rarely use that functionality.
A properly working filtering system requires quite some time, work and testing, as well. Currently the time and ressources are spent on other priorities.

Thanks for the response!

[Futureburger]

There's already a paywall, so reports are actually meaningful and will be dealt with accordingly.

I would dispute that reporting is meaningful.

I still see players who I know for a fact have been reported multiple times for various things. One especially problematic example is a guy who opens every game with Islamophobic messages. I've reported him three times now I think. I'm not entirely sure how reliable the reporting system is, but happy to be shown that I'm wrong.

Also, imagine instances where parties decide to abuse the ignore system by going into a game, and mass ignoring everyone. Many users will immediately be banned for an exploit.
It's ludicrous.

Just continue reporting them like you say you do. Unfortunately, some trolls/gamethrowers don't mind spending money on a game constantly to ruin it, but at least it comes with a cost (their wallets).

You've misunderstood me - I'm not suggesting an immediate ban for a single ignore. I'm suggesting that a threshold be set via a filtering system, if a user exceeds that threshold, THEN they get banned. It couldn't be abused in the way you've described unless the player goes into a whole bunch of games and is lucky enough to get the same players every time, but how likely is that?

I think your second point about cost works both ways. They are getting punished through their wallet for wasting their time. In doing so, they are punishing me through my wallet for subjecting me to trolling, racism, toxicity, etc.

If you can say these players are being punished because they spent money on the game, then non-toxic players should be better protected too.

[Flavorable]

Keep in mind that reports take a while to get handled, since every single one that's made needs to be looked over. Also, as a sidenote, there always need to be 2 people who report the same person in a game, otherwise the report won't get created.

[Watt20I5]

This could easily get abused.
/nosupport

[Flavorable]

You've misunderstood me - I'm not suggesting an immediate ban for a single ignore. I'm suggesting that a threshold be set via a filtering system, if a user exceeds that threshold, THEN they get banned. It couldn't be abused in the way you've described unless the player goes into a whole bunch of games and is lucky enough to get the same players every time, but how likely is that?

More likely than you think, especially in Ranked.

Also in Coven.

[Futureburger]

Also, as a sidenote, there always need to be 2 people who report the same person in a game, otherwise the report won't get created.

I didn't know this - that's good to know, thanks!

[Futureburger]

You've misunderstood me - I'm not suggesting an immediate ban for a single ignore. I'm suggesting that a threshold be set via a filtering system, if a user exceeds that threshold, THEN they get banned. It couldn't be abused in the way you've described unless the player goes into a whole bunch of games and is lucky enough to get the same players every time, but how likely is that?

More likely than you think, especially in Ranked.

Also in Coven.

Fair enough then.

[flairric66]

This does not work because everyone has a different idea of what they consider to be "toxic" behavior, and we cannot give everyone what they want. Add in the P2P system, and it seems unlikely that there are very many people who join games "looking to troll". I actually think banning too many players over petty things is hurting the game, and it is probably contributing to the mounting difficult of populating custom lobbies.

[Metalknightmon]

someone forges another words and people ignore him while reporting.
you just banned someone for sufferring a forging with your system

Said the example said the argument no support

[GrumpyGoomba]

This could easily lead to a mob mentality where people ignore others to get them banned based on behavior that they deem to be 'wrong', and their judgement isn't always correct. Also the forging problem that metal mentioned.