To the BGA Tichu Moderators

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astropurpurea
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Joined: 04 April 2019, 16:03

To the BGA Tichu Moderators

Post by astropurpurea »

To the moderators on BGA,

We as a group write to collectively express our outrage at the unfair and unfounded decision to reset Cobra_ss’ account from its earned rating back down to 100 elo. We the undersigned have all played many games with Cobra_ss over the years, and we know that she simply does not cheat. We are aware that Cobra_ss has been recently the victim of many accusations regarding so-called “kingmaking” via quitting a game, and even more recently she has been harassed by players creating ghost accounts mocking her (see * for just one example). Cobra has been an upstanding and kind member of the tichu community for many years. We ask the moderators to actually examine replays of her games to seek any evidence of cheating rather than solely relying on complaints from disgruntled opponents or jealous competitors. We are certain that no evidence will be found in these replays.

Thank you for taking the time to read this letter, and we sincerely hope this unfair action can be reversed.

Astropurpurea
Amstelinchen/Sobriety_
Zeezee88/Caprizee
Grreasphos
–NATI–
Otiluke711
Lenko
C_yyds

*moderator edit: please do not use the forums to call out players
Last edited by astropurpurea on 10 June 2023, 15:27, edited 1 time in total.
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astropurpurea
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Joined: 04 April 2019, 16:03

Re: To the BGA Tichu Moderators

Post by astropurpurea »

Unfortunately, the "Contest a moderation" button on the BGA site appears not to be working. Any advice as to where I can send this letter to contest Cobra_ss' moderation?
--NATI--
Posts: 2
Joined: 04 July 2022, 17:54

Re: To the BGA Tichu Moderators

Post by --NATI-- »

And same thing goes for Qualitaetsgarant.
Quite surely there would be no any evidence found of cheating upon an actual check of his games. Yet apparently bad word of mouth is enough around here. Disappointing for this site.
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Caprizee
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Joined: 10 February 2023, 19:03

Re: To the BGA Tichu Moderators

Post by Caprizee »

I can vouch for Cobra_ss that she is no cheater, having partnered her numerous times. Please do not penalise her unfairly solely based on some unverified and baseless accusations from some very bitter and jealous individuals. I beseech BGA to restore her ELO points immediately!
--Q--
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Joined: 09 September 2021, 13:15

Re: To the BGA Tichu Moderators

Post by --Q-- »

I can share the report information given to me:

https://boardgamearena.com/report?id=11 ... r=84821901

I guess cobra_ss got the same.

There is no table nr or chat evidence given, just the information that creating multiple accounts to play against each other to boost the ELO is forbidden. I have no idea how people could suspect that cobra and me are the same account. There is written that we are not allowed to share information about the game state that should be private. I have no idea how people could suspect that cobra and me chat in private about our hands. I would gladly see an example for this because i am absolutely sure that no example exists.

I am guilty for helping cobra win games I guess, because we played on the same team. Lol.

I can't access any BGA-related sites on my main account until I checkmark the window "I am guilty and I accept my punishment" which I will never do because I can say with clear conscience that I have not cheated at Tichu in the past 20 years. Therefore I won't confess to an allegation without proof that I did not commit.

I challenged the moderation with very little faith in this page. The way decisions are made at Tichu und BGA are pretty random and include resetting the top players on the ELO board from time to time without evidence. They probably think that you can't reach 500 ELO without cheating so better put them down.

It was fun playing with you folks but it is time to move on.
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ufm
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Re: To the BGA Tichu Moderators

Post by ufm »

First of all, 'Tichu moderators' do not exist, as BGA moderators make decisions over all BGA games, I mean >600 games.
So, they may not be used to one of the core concepts of fixed partnership games. Which is, the fixed partners (facepalm).

Then, look at this game statistics: https://boardgamearena.com/gamestats?pl ... ateStats=1
What I suspect is, after receiving a potentially misleading report (likely from another Tichu player), the moderator might have glanced over this record and judged based on 'played 140 games together' and high winrate only, not checking the games themselves.
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Julius Grace
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Re: To the BGA Tichu Moderators

Post by Julius Grace »

Everything here should be treated as constructive criticism.

I don’t think it’s a report made by someone else.

I think it’s just a moderator or several making decisions to reset ELO after you decide to partner with only one person/account and do really well.

This has been the pattern: Reset the ELO of 2 accounts which partner with each other and only each other for an extended period of time and do really well.

I have tried to file a report against a player who I know is cheating. Here are the options when you click Report This Player on a player’s account page. (You can try doing this with an account which you know has cheated in the past).

Name of account you are reporting insulted someone

Name of account you are reporting quit a game in progress

Name of account you are reporting behaved inappropriately in the chat

Name of account you are reporting helps another to win the game by playing as a team

Name of account you are reporting is using multiple accounts to boost ELO

Name of account you are reporting gives red thumbs for no reason

Name of account you are reporting exploited a known bug

Name of account you are reporting has corrupted some translations

Name of account you are reporting ruined a game by playing randomly, playing very slowly, or by giving information in the chat box

Name of account you are reporting has an inappropriate avatar or username (pornography, politics, advertisement)

Name of account you are reporting wrote an inappropriate table description

Name of account you are reporting didn’t do anything that you can see above

I have tried choosing options 4, 5, and 12. These choices do not let me write a personalized report in my own words. They mostly suggest I give a red thumb to the player and avoid playing with them.

So basically someone is stuck between a rock and a hard place.

The moderators don’t want you to report someone on the forums. At the same time, when you try to follow their suggestion to write a personalized moderation report against a player who is cheating, you still can’t do it.

The moderators do not tell you in absolutely clear detail how to create a moderation report against a person with significant evidence. At the same time, they expect you to do just that.

List of moderators: https://boardgamearena.com/team

Keep in mind that no one in the moderation team has played more than 5 games of Tichu. Yet, they are making decisions as to who is cheating and who is not in this game.

(People should take screenshots of important threads/posts in case a moderator decides to step in and erase it).
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cigma
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Re: To the BGA Tichu Moderators

Post by cigma »

Julius Grace wrote: 11 June 2023, 20:43 I have tried choosing options 4, 5, and 12. These choices do not let me write a personalized report in my own words. They mostly suggest I give a red thumb to the player and avoid playing with them.

So basically someone is stuck between a rock and a hard place.

The moderators don’t want you to report someone on the forums. At the same time, when you try to follow their suggestion to write a personalized moderation report against a player who is cheating, you still can’t do it.
You can report multiple accounts which manipulate the ranking! But you have to go further after "Name of account you are reporting is using multiple accounts to boost ELO". You get another multiple choice for refinement. One of them says "They are manipulating the ranking" (or something similar). If you click on this, you are asked for those multiple accounts and later for anything else you want to say.

But be aware that moderators are usually not experts in the game in question, so you should give at best other evidence than the gameplay itself.
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Julius Grace
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Re: To the BGA Tichu Moderators

Post by Julius Grace »

If you are a moderator reading this, everything said here should be treated as constructive criticism. Attention and care has been taken to maintain as respectful a tone as possible, while mentioning objective facts.
You can report multiple accounts which manipulate the ranking! But you have to go further after "Name of account you are reporting is using multiple accounts to boost ELO". You get another multiple choice for refinement. One of them says "They are manipulating the ranking" (or something similar). If you click on this, you are asked for those multiple accounts and later for anything else you want to say.

But be aware that moderators are usually not experts in the game in question, so you should give at best other evidence than the gameplay itself.
That option is not available when I go through the actual process of reporting someone who cheats by making bombs with their partner.

Lets say I click the option using multiple accounts to boost ELO.

Here are the specific choices given:

The accounts play against each other to cheat the ranking system

The accounts are playing as a team to help each other

The accounts are used to register several times in the same tournament

Many accounts are created to replace the ones closed by moderators

The accounts are used to play from the same Internet address

Something else

——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

If I click “The accounts are playing as a team to help each other”, I get this message with no chance to write a personalized report: “The best way to combat Kingmaking is to give the Kingmaker player a red thumb (public red thumbs). There is no use filling in a report here: please give a red thumb to the one who made the kingmaking moves.”

If I click “something else”, I get this message with no chance to write a personalized report: “It is acceptable to own several accounts on BGA, as long as it is reasonable and does not violate another rule of the website.“

The other options given are not relevant and don’t apply to my case.

I actually took the time to go through relevant options for this moderation report system. When I dig down into the details, I find it is actually very difficult or impossible to write a detailed, full evidence report showing a team is privately communicating to cheat.

People don’t have to just believe what I am saying. I invite them to actually go and use the moderation report system on someone you know has definitely cheated. See and understand fully how it works.

(People should take screenshots of important threads/posts in case a moderator decides to step in and erase it).
Last edited by Julius Grace on 12 June 2023, 06:12, edited 2 times in total.
--Q--
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Joined: 09 September 2021, 13:15

Re: To the BGA Tichu Moderators

Post by --Q-- »

Julius Grace wrote: 11 June 2023, 20:43 Keep in mind that no one in the moderation team has played more than 5 games of Tichu. Yet, they are making decisions as to who is cheating and who is not in this game.
This is amazing. :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:
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