Board Game Arena

Sourisdudesert:
Because of a serie of bad behavior in global chat, we are restricting this chat to Premium members only for as for as long as necessary (may be forever). Thanks for your understanding.

I am premium.

I would prefer a less restrictive measure. Not sure of the solution though?

I am fine with the restrictions. I am also fine with getting rid of global chat entirely.

On the evening of April 16th, dozen of players spoke on global chat with very crude words and insults.

It was the third time in 2 weeks that such things happens.

To limit this phenomenon, we took several measures in the past:
_ allow only experienced players to use the global chat
_ allow only players with a good reputation (karma level)
_ set a long period of time between 2 messages
_ instantly ban from BGA players who are misusing the global chat

Obviously, this was not enough. Thus, as an emergency measure, we decide during the night to restrict the global chat to Premium members. We are 100% sure that Premium members are not going to misuse the global chat because ... they don't want to lose their BGA account. In the contrary, a lot of non-Premium players don't care about being ban.

In the following days, we will evaluate what we should do about the global chat. One solution may be to remove it completely.

Thanks for your understanding.

I thinl it's great. It's only not nice for the nonpremium people who do be normal. I'm also not premium. I still think it's good though becasue people write bad language and stuff a lot. Thanks BGA!

Sourisdudesert
this chat was already restricted to high reputation + no new players. It was not enough

This seems strange. I would suspect that someone else might have gotten access to those accounts. Maybe they were not properly logged out on a public computer.. Voiding the session and forcing a relogin could be a way. Or maybe lock the accounts and force a reactication via email link?

In the following days, we will evaluate what we should do about the global chat. One solution may be to remove it completely.

I'm premium.

I definitely want global chat as it helps find players for groups such as talkative and friendly which are otherwise hard to find.

I hope the community can find a better solution to help the admin not decide on removing it completely.

Having some sort of shoutbox/global chat is probably good to have in regards to the site. Though I personally don't care if it is removed.

Natural way would be to allow users that have an older account to participate>

Solves problem for now, and probably for the future as well, because older users tend to be more respectful of community

This is just my opinion but, accounts that behave in offensive ways should be given proggressively longer suspensions and eventual bans.
1. Persistent offensive behavior should be suspended.1st offensive 7days
2nd offense 14 days
3rd offense 21 days
4th offense BAN FOREVER

2. There are no acceptable excuses. Someone accessing your account is still YOUR responsibility. Nobody cares if it was your little brother or friend from school.

3. Punishing all free account holders is not helpful. or Fair. Hold the offenders responsible for their account.

Agreed that harsher consequences that rise sharply is probably best, as Bella says, however I think it makes sense to make it start lower and reach the end faster — I'd like the response to the first offense encourage fixing behavior. So more like:

Violation #

1. 24 hour probation: Can't join any new games, but can finish existing games. Global chat disabled for user for 24 hours.
2. 3 day probation: Can't join any new games, but can finish existing games. Global chat disabled for 30 days.
3. 7 day suspension: Removed from all games. Global chat permanently disabled for user.

I like this because it decouples chat privileges from using the site to still play games. Also it doesn't punish anyone in the middle of a game with the offender by disrupting the game. The violator is given a chance to cool-down (temporary loss of chat privileges) but still feels connected to the true value of the site (playing games). They're also given a warning of the next level consequence.

Whatever system is used, be mindful that violators (especially new accounts, and especially younger users) know they can just create a new account and come right back and start abusing global chat again. Thus, any measure viewed as overly punitive, or as easily sidesteppable, will actually encourage more bad behavior.

My suggestion? As soon as any violation occurs (at least by a new account, and maybe any account), immediately put a site-wide moratorium on global chat for all new accounts for 10 minutes. Pick a cool-down period.... Doesn't matter exactly how long but it should be at least 5 minutes, and could be up to an hour. And let the offender know a moratorium has been triggered — that a new account won't get to chat. Don't even let retaliation look like a possibility. Cut 'em off at the knees!