Board Game Arena

My 1500th game on this wonderful site ended in a sour note with my opponent abusing me with some of the foulest words in the English language. Maybe I have been fortunate to get to game 1500 before experience such verbal abuse, or maybe it is very infrequent.

I was very, very surprised at how lenient my opponents penalty was when I reported him. He was only give a 10 karma point penalty, and as a connect four player he will make back that karma in 10 minutes. I run a board games club, and if a player behaved in this way they would get a lifetime ban. I am surprised this website does not have a similar policy and astonished that the penalty handed out is so lenient that it hardly seems worth the effort of reporting it.

The toxicity of this site is largely focused within party games like Hanabi, Saboteur and Werewolves.
Most users will probably not encounter much in the way of toxic behavior.

No comment on the moderation penalty, but BGA does have a policy in place. Moderationpolicy.

According to the FAQ, "it is absolutely forbidden to insult other players in any manner", and doing so "can lead to a ban". If the abuse was as bad as you say, I think it's pretty clear they should be banned.

Thanks for pointing me in the direction of the moderation policy. Very interesting. I think that the penalties described in it are very lenient indeed. It would appear that the maximum karma penalty for "aggressive attitude" has been applied in this case.

It seems clear that they should also have been a 30 day ban on chat for "real insults". But perhaps this has been applied behind the scenes and also "the player should be warn that this is the last warning before ban" in accordance with the policy. It does not mention either of these in the closure of the report I made though, which would have been more reassuring.