On unjustified "slow play" complaints

[Ofou]

Hello, from a disappointed member.

My reputation has been decreased to 60%. This happened suddenly, all at once, from nearly 100%, because my opponents gave me "thumbs down", due to supposed "slow play".

However, I am almost certain that I have NEVER exceeded the time limit given to me, I am almost certain that I have NEVER played on "negative" time.

Why those negative complaints then, you ask? Well, it is actually my opponents that would actually like to play FAST games, but are forced to join NORMAL (or even SLOW) games, when they don't want to wait for too long in the automated matchmaking queue... So, guys like them, would naturally become disgruntled when I use up my NORMAL time limit even if I am supposed to do that...

BGA actually suggested to me to use a SLOW time profile. But what would stop those guys from joining my games, being disgruntled by my "slow play" for ever, and giving me red thumbs AGAIN?

So my questions are:

- Shouldn't BGA verify all the false, unjustified claims? It should be trivial to check whether someone uses up more time than they should.

- Should the mechanism allow members to accuse each-other blindly?

- Shouldn't BGA protect the members (not to say the Premium ones) from this kind of behavior?

Just my two-cents on the matter.
Thanks.

[N_Faker]

Public Red thumbs are meant to be used for 'community moderation', it is entirely at the discretion of the user to apply it as they wish.

[Ofou]

That wasn't 'community moderation' , that was the BGA platform restricting my reputation to 60% (max) from nearly 100%. And all that based on a few people's subjective claims that I play slower than they would like (but still inside the time limit)...

[Jest Phulin]

The red/green thumb mechanism is to allow moderation without requiring BGA interaction. And yes, this does mean that a group of people could target an individual and destroy their ratio by sending "unjust" red thumbs.
However, they do not have an unlimited number of red thumbs to send out. I don't remember what the actual ratio is, but I think it is something like you can only send out 1 red thumb for every 10 green thumbs you have already sent. (Note: this applies to public red thumbs only -- private red thumbs I believe are unlimited.) This means that your behavior has been compared to 10 other people's behavior.

Yes, slow play is subjective. Yes, every player has the right to take as much time as their clock shows for every move. What I would suggest to help avoid more people doing this in the future is to post something in the table's chat after everyone has joined, but before everyone has agreed to play, that explicitly states that you use your thinking time. It won't prevent all red thumbs from people thinking you should play a fast game when the timer is set to slow, but it should help.

[Ofou]

Thanks for the answer, Jest.

If that's the case, and there is a limit to the "red thumbs" one can send out, then it kind of makes sense. In terms of restricting members that would otherwise abuse the mechanism, that is.

Your recommendation is also reasonable, except that there is no such "before everyone agreed to play" screen, when joining the solo matchmaking queue. I can only ask for their mercy through the in-game chat, and cross my fingers... Meanwhile, I guess I should enjoy my time as a player with "not good" reputation...