Overpowered beginner players

[jacksonmead]

*Moderator edit: please do not specifically name other gaming platforms

I thought it was said that just naming other platforms was perfectly allowed, and that it's only advertising other platforms that's prohibited. I don't think that saying "I've played this game on that platform before" is advertising anything.

Here's the relevant bit from the FAQ. "And finally, do not use Board Game Arena communication resources to advertise other gaming websites. If you want to talk about your experience elsewhere, please just say something like 'on another gaming website'."

The first sentence does just say "advertise", but then the example in the second sentence implies that they don't even want the names of other sites mentioned. Perhaps that part of the FAQ could be made a bit clearer, like maybe something like "...to advertise other gaming websites, including mentioning them by name."

[Hervor]

By naming another website you are making users aware of the existence of a specific site. Which is basically what advertising is, making consumers aware, that the brand exists.
Because of this it is not really surprising to me, that mentioning a different site is enough to get moderated.

[Trimpster]

*moderated.

[Jellby]

Here's the relevant bit from the FAQ. "And finally, do not use Board Game Arena communication resources to advertise other gaming websites. If you want to talk about your experience elsewhere, please just say something like 'on another gaming website'."

What I was alluding to was, I believe, an "official" (i.e., pink-colored) moderator notice in some thread, where they said something like "it's of course OK to mention other sites". I may be misremembering, or the policy might have changed since.

[jacksonmead]

Here's the relevant bit from the FAQ. "And finally, do not use Board Game Arena communication resources to advertise other gaming websites. If you want to talk about your experience elsewhere, please just say something like 'on another gaming website'."

What I was alluding to was, I believe, an "official" (i.e., pink-colored) moderator notice in some thread, where they said something like "it's of course OK to mention other sites". I may be misremembering, or the policy might have changed since.

I found this: https://boardgamearena.com/forum/viewto ... 42#p168242

It looks like the issue there was that you could mention other sites in private chat but not in public.

[Jellby]

Yes, I think that was it, and that my brain selectively forgot the "in private chat" part

[Earthboundia]

Has anyone encountered apprentice or beginner players that absolutely dominate games where they are doubling scores of definately not beginner players? Feels like expert players making multiple accounts just to crush new people and ego boost.

Or is this only my experience?

It's possible there might be players doing this, especially those who only play a handful of games and who might be exploiting the system of very high ELO in the initial games if they win. However, if this is the case then the admins would have likely intervened by now. It's also possible that you might have run into a player who has played loads in-person but only just discovered BGA, in which case you got the short straw. Also, there are players out there who "somehow" manage to win the first game of everything they play, I've met a couple of players like that in my lifetime and they are absolutely infuriating to play with.

[JoysJoy]

Has anyone encountered apprentice or beginner players that absolutely dominate games where they are doubling scores of definately not beginner players? Feels like expert players making multiple accounts just to crush new people and ego boost.

Or is this only my experience?

People take these numbers too seriously! A higher number does not make you a better player. And there is no litmus test for 'beginner'. That word just means that account has not yet played on BGA, not that you inherintly know more/ are better than another player.

It would not due anyone any good to try to take down others by playing as a beginner. The ELO is 'weighted'' so when each beginner plays more games, their wins are worth less. The point of getting more ELO at first is so those are not 'beginners' to the game itself can quickly join the ranks of those with equal skills.

All you have to do is not play beginners to stop needing to complain.

Considering that you, yourself, have only been on BGA less than a month, you yourself have taken huge advantage of the 'beginner' title to get the ELO you are trying to protect. You will soon notice a huge lowering of you ELO power. Actually, maybe that is the real trouble here. Now you have played a few weeks, your own wins are worth less than other people's wins, to get you into the real category of your skill set.

[Cile]

By naming another website you are making users aware of the existence of a specific site. Which is basically what advertising is, making consumers aware, that the brand exists.
Because of this it is not really surprising to me, that mentioning a different site is enough to get moderated.

I didn't name a website, and it's not a board game service. Everyone on PC already knows [boiled water] exists, and I wouldn't exactly call it a competitor with BGA. It would make more sense to moderate naming my Friendly Local Game Store whose primary business is selling board games, and I think we would agree that would be ridiculous. Also, "I used to play this somewhere else and prefer to play it on BGA" is hardly an endorsement of the other service.

There's not a lot of options available for online boardgames and I do find this policy unnecessarily stifling of discussion.

[Hervor]

By naming another website you are making users aware of the existence of a specific site. Which is basically what advertising is, making consumers aware, that the brand exists.
Because of this it is not really surprising to me, that mentioning a different site is enough to get moderated.

I didn't name a website, and it's not a board game service. Everyone on PC already knows [boiled water] exists, and I wouldn't exactly call it a competitor with BGA. It would make more sense to moderate naming my Friendly Local Game Store whose primary business is selling board games, and I think we would agree that would be ridiculous. Also, "I used to play this somewhere else and prefer to play it on BGA" is hardly an endorsement of the other service.

There's not a lot of options available for online boardgames and I do find this policy unnecessarily stifling of discussion.

I couldn't see what service you mentioned, since it was already moderated. And I agree that the degree to which mentioning other services is forbidden is redicculus. I was just trying to explain BGAs logic for enforcing the rules.