Do player reports for verbal abuse actually get reviewed? How do consequences work?

[stoic-hummingbird330]

Hello everyone,

I would like to ask how the player reporting system actually works on BGA, specifically regarding insults in chat.
I have encountered several toxic players who used slurs in chat or threats (sometimes even trying to bypass chat filters by splitting words or using other languages). I always submit reports with explanations, but when I check these players' profiles later, their karma is still at 100%, and they are online, playing games as if nothing happened.

Do moderators actually review these reports? If a player is found guilty of abuse, what are the actual consequences? Is there any visible impact on their karma/account, or does BGA only take action after a high number of cumulative reports?

It is quite frustrating to write reports and see zero visible results while toxic behavior seems to go unpunished.

[Corwin007]

I totally understand your frustration. I didn't run into verbal abuse problems, but I reported for kingmaking (people talking openly in chat as if they were a team in a free for all game), and never got any feedback about that. I would be curious too if maybe there is a critical mass of reports after which a player is investigated, or at least better communication if the report was investigated, no matter the outcome.

[Respublik]

As long as you report it, the moderators review it and give out the appropriate penalties. -50 karma + some chat restrictions seems appropriate for what you're describing, @stoic-hummingbird330.

Fixing this bug: https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=161895 or implementing this one: https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=130079 would actually be helpful to more easily see what decisions were applied for these players, but in general you should still be able to see the process and applied verdicts by following status updates in the moderation reports that you have sent.

[Pablo Escobear]

They deduct karma. It takes a couple of weeks though

[Silene]

Step 1: Report the player
Step 2: When done, go again to their profile and click report the player. It will say you have already reported them. Click "continue" You will now see the report you just made. --> Copy the url and paste it in a notebook / bookmark / wherever is convenient for you. If you don't see the url on your device, you can instead right-click / long-press the continue-button and copy from there.
Step 3: You can later (for a while but not forever) check out this report you made and see if it is still open or closed and if closed how it was decided and what was done about it.

The time it takes for the report to get closed: I've seen it take weeks. I've seen it take less than a day.

Sometimes players get a big karma-hit but play so many games that they are already back to 100 karma when you check out their profile.

If you take too long with step 2 and the report is already closed when you try to do this, I think you can't get there anymore - so you need to save the bookmark yourself if you wanna check it out later.

[Corwin007]

Thanks, that's helpful!

[Archisian]

You know, this entire issue would be easily solved if BGA just allowed a player to disable the chat. Chess.com learned this a long time ago. Why can't BGA do it here?

One argument I heard is that, apparently, "necessary information" needs to be communicated in the chat box, thus requiring it to always be enabled. "Necessary Information"? Like what? A player needs to go AFK? I don't see that to be so necessary as to always require the chat box to be enabled. In turn-based games, it really doesn't matter all that much because the timeframe for doing terms is, usually, so long that there's no reason to have to say anything. Go AFK and come back. In real-time games, it's more understandable, but people just kick you anyway if you spend too long AFK. How long, of course, is determined by the player who is waiting. It could be 5 minutes over time or 30 seconds. You have to really hope that the other player is gracious enough to let you do what you need to do AFK. Most of the time from my experience though, they just kick you after the 30 seconds over time mark. There was even a time when I myself told my opponent I had to go AFK, they said okay and still kicked me anyway after the 30 seconds over time mark. Seems to me that saying you need to go AFK doesn't matter to most people, thus making this not meet the bar of "necessary information". So, what is so necessary that the chat box NEEDS to be open all the time?

If BGA allowed players to disable it, it would solve a lot of problems dealing with people who don't want unsolicited messages, dealing with verbal abuse, etc. Trust me, go on Chess.com with chat enabled. It's a miserable hellscape. You'd see the benefits of allowing players to disable it. Some might say what about games with more than 2 players? I don't think it should matter. Whoever hosts the game gets to decide if the chat box is enabled or not. Or they can make it to where if one player doesn't enable chat for themselves in a 3 player game, the message just fails to send to them. I know there is some extension on Chrome that hides the chat box to some degree. I've tried it and it's rather buggy and doesn't work all the time. I still see the message pop up and it disappears. Soon, every time I finished a game where some sent a message in the chat box, my the entire bottom of my screen flashes black and red. It's pretty annoying. But sometimes the message stills shows. It's not reliable.

[cigma]

I would like to ask how the player reporting system actually works on BGA, specifically regarding insults in chat.
I have encountered several toxic players who used slurs in chat or threats (sometimes even trying to bypass chat filters by splitting words or using other languages). I always submit reports with explanations, but when I check these players' profiles later, their karma is still at 100%, and they are online, playing games as if nothing happened.

Here is the Moderationpolicy: https://en.doc.boardgamearena.com/Moderationpolicy

[stoic-hummingbird330]

Step 1: Report the player
Step 2: When done, go again to their profile and click report the player. It will say you have already reported them. Click "continue" You will now see the report you just made. --> Copy the url and paste it in a notebook / bookmark / wherever is convenient for you. If you don't see the url on your device, you can instead right-click / long-press the continue-button and copy from there.
Step 3: You can later (for a while but not forever) check out this report you made and see if it is still open or closed and if closed how it was decided and what was done about it.

The time it takes for the report to get closed: I've seen it take weeks. I've seen it take less than a day.

Sometimes players get a big karma-hit but play so many games that they are already back to 100 karma when you check out their profile.

If you take too long with step 2 and the report is already closed when you try to do this, I think you can't get there anymore - so you need to save the bookmark yourself if you wanna check it out later.

Thank you! This was very helpful. I will try it next time.

[tbhp]

You know, this entire issue would be easily solved if BGA just allowed a player to disable the chat.

Wait what? How is that a solution? It's as if you told someone "You don't want to be mugged? You can just stay at home. Problem solved".

It's not up to the people who want to chat to stop chatting just because some abusive people exist. It's up to the abusive people to change their behavior.