Make all games with bad players invisible

[Ceaseless]

So you want to block users from the site? Clearly bga don't feel the same or they would just ban players instead of giving them karma penalties.

Think for a moment. If this option were available it would quickly become the default and anyone who gets a few missed arena starts (and that happens to the best of people occasionally) then suddenly can't get into games.

Yeah it sounds like a nice idea at first, and I would probably use it too in certain games, but I think the wider consequences might mean it leaves people unable to get games and drives then from the site altogether. Not everyone who gets a bad karma is a bad person. Sometimes life happens and bga just isn't a priority when someone's relative dies or their kid gets hospitalised etc.

It's not that hard to click "decline". Nor to host your own tables with your preferred karma setting. It's probably the better thing to leave it how it is and maybe just add a way to stop <50% karma players filling the last seat instead rather than an outright block altogether.

Also you do realise that some of those folks with low karma have done nothing more heinous than asking for a review of their moderation because it wasn't correct? I gather the moderators can take this kind of suggestion in a dim light: That their perfunctory mishandling might be, on reflection, as well implemented as a Truss-Kwarteng fiscal policy, is met with karma resets to 0 and temporary bans to the appellant. I've spent a while playing low karma folk in a few games on here where getting a table going is becoming increasingly difficult. They have all been fine bar two clowns who I was delighted to red thumb. I do not think your suggestion would have improved my experience, rather I would have missed out on several fun games.

This feature does not block users from the site. If this feature were so good that every single player were to use it then I agree with the previous reply to this that it should definitely be a feature. That said, I find it unlikely that this would reach 100% usage, there are going to be plenty of users not aware of this or not really too worried about it yet. There will still be players to play and get that karma back up.

[KenFin1]

But if only a small number of users use the feature how do you justify the dev time required? They can't justify implementing a dark mode despite it being one of the most requested features every year for the last 4 years, and by your comment your suggestion would get less uptake than that...

[Ceaseless]

But if only a small number of users use the feature how do you justify the dev time required? They can't justify implementing a dark mode despite it being one of the most requested features every year for the last 4 years, and by your comment your suggestion would get less uptake than that...

"Not every person on the site will use it" =/= "a small number of people will use it so why bother?" BGA doesn't seem to be doing their updates by popularity in any case, from the looks of things they've even gone and done wildly unpopular updates. But regardless, "this more popular action hasn't been done yet, so considering this other idea is a waste of time even if it would be helpful" isn't much of an argument. The suggestions tab isn't competing for their suggestion to be the top of the list thing BGA must do before anything else.

[KenFin1]

Oh I agree the decision making at BGA leaves me baffled. I just know that in my job things get prioritized on return value and using that metric here it wouldn't get progressed until a lot of other things got dealt with, particularly when it's not stopping you doing anything, it's just a convenience thing. But this is BGA who sink oodles of resource reinventing the site to make perfectly functional things worse and pushing out updates that people don't want like or appreciate so heck. You're right. Who knows what might come of this.

[ChiefPointThief]

Unfortunately bad experience with very low karma players greatly outnumber the good ones. It's gotten so bad that I will Decline any game with those players, no matter how long I've been waiting to get a game started. Glad to hear you've had some good experiences.

Good suggestion! I understand what Ken means about some people possibly having low karma for reasons I would still play with them like challenging a mod. But I’m with qed13 on this. I’d rather not take the risk and avoid playing with people with low karma.

[Thwonky]

A more elegant solution might be what some multiplayer video games implement for those who cheat or grief, after you hit a certain threshold of penalties of Karma reductions you only get matched with others in that same boat...call it the "Naughty Table". As for people with no Karma in a game I do think there should be a more default ELO match search setting to keep them from getting placed with highly experienced players which in turn is equally off putting when you're still learning a game.

[KenFin1]

A more elegant solution might be what some multiplayer video games implement for those who cheat or grief, after you hit a certain threshold of penalties of Karma reductions you only get matched with others in that same boat...call it the "Naughty Table". As for people with no Karma in a game I do think there should be a more default ELO match search setting to keep them from getting placed with highly experienced players which in turn is equally off putting when you're still learning a game.

but then how does someone ever escape it? Appeal a mod and get placed in the naughty table forevermore? Hardly fair is it. This is the problem, there isn't enough differentiation between the bad apples we all want to avoid and the unfortunate recipients of "moderate" penalties

[Thwonky]

If you finish games in the "naughty table" for a set number of games without penalty you regain some karma and get put back into normal rotation.

It isn't a foolproof method by any means and just a rough spitball.