I completely disagree with the decision of the moderators. It is because we (mostly the efforts of a strong Tichu player) accurately calling players out by name publicly on the forums that they stopped cheating. Other players were able to avoid playing with them also by giving them red thumbs.Please do not use the Forums to call players out by name, this is what the Moderation Reports are for. The Forums should remain a general discussion. If you continue to misuse the Forums in this manner, we will begin applying stronger moderation penalties. If you have enough evidence that players are cheating, the proper way to address this is to create a Moderation Report against them with significant evidence. (a single table or questionable move is not enough)
By making this decision, the moderators, just opened the door to MORE cheating in Tichu (and possibly other games) by removing one deterrent to unfair play:
The Bright Light of Public Scrutiny
Public posts come under the scrutiny of strong players who collectively have 10,000+ games under their belt. If there’s an error, they will point it out.
The same cannot be said for private moderation reports.
Players will find it harder to avoid the real cheaters in this game because they are not being called out in a public forum by a strong Tichu player.
Cheaters can more easily stay hidden or avoid detection because they are not being called out and because they can make multiple accounts to be sneaky and exploit the cards in their favor.
If the players who were called out by name were actually innocent and did not cheat, they actually have a chance to defend themselves in a public forum.
When everything is kept secret and innocent players are privately reported to the moderators, these people don’t even get a chance to defend themselves.
Moreover, there have been cases where people who didn’t actually cheat and then were penalized/punished. The moderators are not absolutely perfect and they do make mistakes.
How unfortunate….and what a mistake this is.