WARNING: challenging a moderation in Forum = 10 days ban

[TheRenegadeGamer]

######### user moderated and banned ########

[Col Rosenberg]

This website is run like it is an authoritarian regime.

Even so, we're still allowed to have fun, Aren't we?

[Gulchen]

Considering what happened to a certain Renegade and that user's post,
I'm feeling more like ​ that post's former contents ​ are accurate.

(It could be that the post had something bad in it, but the
preserved part is all I remember from it, and as far as I'm aware,
this website no longer lets us see if that post had anything else.)

[Col Rosenberg]

This website is run like it is an authoritarian regime.

I'm feeling more like ​ that post's former contents ​ are accurate.

There is enough fun for all, is there not? Let them have their fun. It's a tough Job.

[hertelwulf]

This is all very understandable since there are probaly so many players who want to challenge their moderation. The question is why are there so many moderations. I have stopped counting how often I have been moderated (maybe 6 times - I really dunno). And honestly, this comment on the forum doesnt help at all. I am moderated, I am given the lines that "insulted" other players or were "aggressive" and honestly I got no diea where you draw a line here. There was exacty one time (ok, maybe one and a half) where I kind of see why I was moderated, but the other times... no clue.

The last time was because I said to another player that he should "get a life". Why did I say that? Because 5 minutes into the game some friends came around to my flat and I asked the other players to abort or to switch to turn-based because I dont wanna lose karma points. I would have resigned, but I cant in games with more than 2 players. Players didnt respond, refused both my offers and finally someone answered to my question why they dont accept abort or switch to turn-based. The answer was: "because I want to see you lose points". Wow. Well, I would report that player., but lets be honest here - nothing would have happened. He didnt insult anyone. He was just being a real ... (not allowed to say that, even if I am trying to be polite).

I really really really dont see the line here. I have tried to contact admins so many times... nothing (ok there is a lot of stuff to do). And so I am playing and paying here for I dont know how many years now, some players just have no respect for the game, have no sense of fair play at all, but that doesnt matter, because it doesnt violate anything here. I cannot report them (well, I can, but nobody cares) but if I say something, I am moderated, lose karma points and cant play arene-games. It doesnt matter if I try to be relatively polite (I mean they are behaving like ... - its just not possible to be 100% polite).

I really got no idea how to behave anymore. Just take everything and accept all the bad behaviour? Help me here admins, what am I supposed to do? Help is much appreciated. It would be a good start if I was allowed to just resign a game when players behave like that. I mean, its not a perfect solution, but it would be a start - better than trying my best not to lose karma points and at the end... lose them anyway. Honestly I am really ... (also not allowed to say that I suppose).

[hertelwulf]

And yes, the website is still a lot of fun and there is a lot of time involved, so I see why its difficult to always make good decisions. I just wish there was more focus on doing something against bad sportsmanship rather than moderating players because they say something against this. Maybe you can give examples of what is still allowed to say if somebody really shows no sportsmanship.
I mean, can I say "what is wrong with you?"
Can I say "what the hell is wrong with you"? Is hell an offensive word?
Can I say "maybe you should attend a course about fair play"? Is that offensive because I suggest that the other player has bad manners?
Can I say "Are you really so desperate for points that you have to do that"? Is desperate offensive?

Maybe there should be a neutral committee who decides if something is offensive? ANd if more than 5 out of 10 vote yes, it is offensive? I dunno, also doesnt sound like it would work, but as fun as the website is - the moderation because of other players' bad sportsmanship is really a huge problem for me.

[lucy williams]

The last time was because I said to another player that he should "get a life". Why did I say that? Because 5 minutes into the game some friends came around to my flat and I asked the other players to abort or to switch to turn-based because I dont wanna lose karma points. I would have resigned, but I cant in games with more than 2 players. Players didnt respond, refused both my offers and finally someone answered to my question why they dont accept abort or switch to turn-based. The answer was: "because I want to see you lose points". Wow. Well, I would report that player., but lets be honest here - nothing would have happened. He didnt insult anyone. He was just being a real ... (not allowed to say that, even if I am trying to be polite).

The options to switch to "turn-based" or "abort game" are there to offer flexibility IF ALL parties agree to it, not to "create an expectation" that these should happen at the demand of one player because some friends came around...most of the time if moves have already been made in the game, people won't agree to those options in a multiplayer game.

Seeing as you asked for advice...the correct thing to do in this situation was to let your player time out, and apologise briefly but nicely to everyone else for having wasted 5 minutes of their time......even if you thought that the other player was a jerk. Losing some karma points is not a big deal and can be quickly regained - and I think it was also arguably a fair penalty for what had happened, so no real reason to abort game to avoid it.

Telling someone to get a life (or indeed any of your other suggested comments) seems a bit out of line when you had already wasted their time.

[voriki]

I am have returned after my 10 day ban, and I want to open a dialogue... again... concerning moderation in general.

The reason for this moderation was explained

You mean my first moderation? No, it was not. That is a non-truth at the time of your writing.
I have now (finally) gotten feedback from your colleague 'Emma' concerning the reason of my first moderation.
You were the FIRST person who ever responded to me, trying to send me a message, but the wrong one.

is fully compliant with our moderation policy.

It is not. The first rule of your moderation policy is called 'beyond reasonable doubt'. I was moderated for a message that said that the USA has also had a history of invading countries, and for this I was called racist/xenophobic/discriminatory.
This is still something I believe that you cannot place a guilty verdict beyond reasonable doubt, thus not compliant with the moderatoration policy.

The new account has also been banned for violating our Terms of Service. You are not allowed to create a new account to avoid the penalties of a moderation.

I did not create it to avoid penalties as it already existed prior, at least we are able to agree that it was not for cheating purposes. It was only used to voice myself as I was ignored in all other ways, and all that I needed... all that I wanted, was someone to respons.
Xate, you were the first one to respond, but you also immediately dropped the banhammer on me. Why not open a dialogue. Can users not get answers to the questions they have? Legitimate questions.


Concerning appealing, In my ban it was stated that I had not followed the appeal procedure. But I did. I did. So that was another non-truth in my ban.
I e-mailed contact+appeal@boardgamearena.com(people who read this do not e-mail here anymore!), time and time again. At the moment of my guilty verdict this is what the support page told me to do. Now your colleague 'Emma' told me that mailadress is no longer is use. But I never got an autoresponse, a rejection, so I was never informed that the appeal procedure that for past moderation in question had changed. I am now waiting for her response on which date this was changed in the support pages.

She told me that those messages(of which I had provided proof) never reached BGA, an appeal procedure was never started for me, thus this would be another breach of your moderation policy, as users should get a chance to appeal, especially sonce the first rule Beyond Reasonable Doubt had not been followed.


So once more, I want to open a dialogue. I was moderated the first time, and I still believe it was judged wrongly, and I have the right to an appeal.
Too many non-truths have been told, and it's important that we are able to set the record straight.
Thank you.

[sourisdudesert]

You mean my first moderation? No, it was not. That is a non-truth at the time of your writing.
I have now (finally) gotten feedback from your colleague 'Emma' concerning the reason of my first moderation.

We never said that we would give you more details about your moderation. All what you need to know is in the initial report. We have been kind enough to explain it more for you, which we rarely do because it starts a non-ending discussion, and your answer are a perfect discussion of this.

It is not. The first rule of your moderation policy is called 'beyond reasonable doubt'. I was moderated for a message that said that the USA has also had a history of invading countries, and for this I was called racist/xenophobic/discriminatory.

You have a long history of moderation on this website, with 6 guilty moderations including 2 for insulting players using ridiculous names, 2 for threatening other players in these forums, 1 where you got a small warning (= no consequence of you profile whatsoever) to remind you that saying USA is behaving like Russia in 2022 is not the smartest move you can make on a gaming website. And obviously the final ban where you deliberately provoked BGA admins by protesting about your moderation in a forum thread that explain that this is no the place to do it.

I still believe it was judged wrongly, and I have the right to an appeal.

I am sorry to agree to disagree with you, and since you seem not to respect how this website is working, we invite you to play elsewhere.

Concerning appealing, In my ban it was stated that I had not followed the appeal procedure. But I did. I did. So that was another non-truth in my ban.
I e-mailed contact+appeal@boardgamearena.com(people who read this do not e-mail here anymore!), time and time again.

I take advantage of this answer to repeat, once again, that this is no more the right way to contest an appeal. I re-post again what was displayed on first post:

How to appeal a moderation

If your moderation does not match the BGA moderation policy:

• Note the URL of the moderation report
• Contact us though BGA Support page, choosing "Contest a moderation" category
• We have a public Moderation Policy, so you must explain why the moderators did not respect the moderation policy. Example: for my fault, I should have received penalty X instead of penalty Y.

The original intention of this post was to advertise about a new policy to appeal moderation. The way BGA is handling moderation appeal has been completely rewritten to make it sure it is clear to understand, to make sure your appeal goes to a different moderator than the original one, and to make sure the Forums are a space where we can discuss about the service and not a place where players are insulting other players, moderators and BGA admins.

Because it was concerning all players, we let the comments open on this post, but sadly comments on this post are not really helpful and has become the new place to insult moderators. This is the reason comments will now be closed.