Blatant cheating

[Theana]

There are only a few ways someone can maintain a Premium subscription for several years, and in your case you are clearly contributing through translations.

Clearly? Have you checked my profile?

Tutorials written: Dark Agent, Hack Trick, Solo Whist, Coins, GORami
BGA translation: 230 validated translations

That's not a lot, besides...

Each translated string is rewarded with 5 points

No, each string is worth 1 point, see https://boardgamearena.com/contribute:

For each validated translation: +1

So, 230 translations equals 230 points, which gives two months. That's clearly not what kept my premium for years. Even if it was 5 points, that'd be 11 months.

There's the tutorials, 5 of them, each a maximum of 600 points (100 points per month it stays official). That's 2.5 years altogether. But tutorials are indeed some extra work, and require someone to approve it. Moreover, as with translations, it's a "competitive" task, only one person will get an approved translation, and only one person will get an approved tutorial.

No, the bulk of my points comes from trying new games:

Each time you win at a new game: +5

With 1000+ games available, there are 5000+ points (5+ years) of free premiumship waiting to be claimed by every single user.

Good point, I assumed that it was more likely to translate that have the time to learn and win so much to maintain consistent premium sub.

[BalGAmor]

I’d like to address the comments about our reporting system and moderation process.

First, there are a lot of you and not so many of us here at BGA. There are a lot of reports every day, and the team is doing an excellent job at tanking the sheer mass of reports they receive. Their priority is to ensure each case is handled with the attention it deserves.

But it takes time to go through them, the team manually checks all the reports and decides on the appropriate response.

And speaking of sanctions, we do not communicate the specific outcome or sanction of a report to the person who submitted it. This is a standard procedure to protect the privacy of all users. It certainly doesn’t mean that we are not looking into them: every valid report is being actioned.

[aloof-rabbit]

I’d like to address the comments about our reporting system and moderation process.

First, there are a lot of you and not so many of us here at BGA. There are a lot of reports every day, and the team is doing an excellent job at tanking the sheer mass of reports they receive. Their priority is to ensure each case is handled with the attention it deserves.

But it takes time to go through them, the team manually checks all the reports and decides on the appropriate response.

And speaking of sanctions, we do not communicate the specific outcome or sanction of a report to the person who submitted it. This is a standard procedure to protect the privacy of all users. It certainly doesn’t mean that we are not looking into them: every valid report is being actioned.

Why would not communicating the outcome to the person who submitted a report protects anyone's privacy? if I submit a report I already know which player i've reported. and no one is suggesting that mods divulge the identity of the reporter to the person it's about.

If anything, by not communicating the specific outcome it just adds to the frustration that players who play by the rules have.
Communicating the why it wasn't accepted (if that's the case) would also help people understand where the line is. It's clearly not where I thought it is since I have reported 2 players who are clearly the same person OR are constantly kingmaking. One of the profiles plays every single game with the same other profile. not most games. every game. they never steal from each other, they do trades that clearly favour one player. and when neither of them are likely to win the game, the other one often just times out on purpose. you can also see a lot of other players commenting the exact same thing in the comment section of their games. in fact I had someone join as a spectator for the first time I was playing against them to warn me what had just happened to them. I mean how much more evidence do you need?

As to the two players in the example that started this post (which is different from the above one)....there were multiple outrageous trades within the one game. The only possible explanations are:
1) They are the same player doing trades to favour one profile and boost ELO; or
2) they are not the same player but one player is exactly doing what your code of conduct describes as kingmaking. It is also likely considered "defeatism" since the player offering the outrageous trades was well behind in points. the code of conduct said that and "anything which is not fair play" should not be done.

Yet BGA does not seem to offer any recourse against this behaviour.
And please don't tell me to just red thumb them. I'm not convinced that has any effect.

[St Louis Cardinals]

This is the exact reason that I will never buy a subscription here. I will play here but they will do nothing about cheating. I just had a game where the player just gave every card he had to the other for one card multiple times and only used the knight on me the whole game. Team play. No way to report or ban, just a red thumb.

[euklid314]

This is the exact reason that I will never buy a subscription here. I will play here but they will do nothing about cheating. I just had a game where the player just gave every card he had to the other for one card multiple times and only used the knight on me the whole game. Team play. No way to report or ban, just a red thumb.

In your case it was no team play. The destructive player already has a moderation penalty till 14. Aug 2298, which is quite long. I am not sure if this penalty is only a chat penalty or if it restricts his ability to play games.

But he did not play in a team with the 2nd player. In several of his recent games he ended with 2 VP and performed the same actions as in your game, i.e., he gifted all his ressources to one player.
These players that profited were different players and it seems that they were as unsuspecting as you - they just ended on the lucky side of this destructive person who gains his joy from destroying other players' gaming fun.