Trolls

[doubledukes74]

Has anyone else noticed a huge uptick in trolls on the site? I've been the subject of unsolicited hate comments from the last two people I played against. It started with denying an undo, and then just devolved into unprofessional trash talk. I think this undermines the spirit of the game.

How does one report these users? And is there a list of them somewhere on this forum so I can preventively blacklist folks? I am just on this site to have fun, not be subject to juvenile vitriol and hatred.

[Ingix]

The idea is to blacklist those players after the game (use the lightning bolt symbol in the end-of-game screen), so that you won't be paired against them in the future.

[DominionTroll]

I am very very disappointed.

I am a troll indeed, and that has a valid point: if you troll your opponent they will lose their temper and play differently, and this usually lead to a loss. I am not a good player, though I made it easily even with people with 54 of rating, without any problem, just stating random sentences like "5/2 start? Wow you're gonna win" or "what a lucky pick!" or stuff like that.

I strongly believe that if you don't like me you can resign and blacklist, but TROLLING IS A STRATEGY as valid as any else.

In poker, trolling their opponents is called bluff and that's pretty EVERYTHING. Poker is a game based on luck, cards and skill. Dominion is a game based on luck, cards and skill.

I have been a nice player for years, and had a lot of pepole insulting and cussing, and I lost temper and lost games, and in this forum they only said "blacklist and move on".

Yet, I found me banned by the site today, while people should have simply blackisted me and move on.

This is a double standard, plain and simple fact.
I will make another account and start over.

Thank you moderators, you have done your job. Just once, but you did.

[AdamH]

Wait I thought people were only getting banned for slowplaying. Is it true that people are getting banned as well for what they say in the chat?

If that's true, that's not acceptable. There's nothing in the terms of service about the chat, is there?

The option to squelch opponents in the chat has been requested here and is a standard feature in any online game. Banning people instead of implementing that feature seems really not cool to me.

[DominionTroll]

Slowplaying is a puny strategy in my opinion.
I just say some sh*t in chat.
And yes, I have been banned.

[Stef]

Off course people can get banned for what they say in chat. You have to be pretty foul because I tolerate a lot, but yes there are limits.

We are not talking about people who are expressing an opinion I don't agree with here, but people who are 100% clearly out to insult their opponents. I don't want them here, in the game, or anywhere else in my life.

"insulting your opponent" is not part of any valid strategy on this site. I don't care if you think there are other games where it is valid, here it is not.

[AdamH]

I re-read the terms of service and of course there is language in there to say that Shuffleit can ban anyone for anything without notice. Of course that's going to be in any terms of service ever.

"insulting your opponent" is not part of any valid strategy on this site. I don't care if you think there are other games where it is valid, here it is not.

Was this user warned about language before their account was banned? If not, I'd say that's a pretty severe oversight.

...Look, it's your software and you can do what you want with it. It just seems really lazy to me to not implement a feature people have asked for, but instead to just ban people for saying things in chat. Sure you don't want it to get too bad and I don't know what this person is saying, but it just looks really sketchy to me when someone is banned for what they said in chat when there's no way to squelch them, especially if that person wasn't warned.

So hopefully that isn't the case.

My personal opinion is that of course there are things that can be said in chat that are bad enough to deserve a ban, but none of the things this person used as examples are remotely close to that. So I would like to think that I shouldn't be watching what I say to such a level where I can't say that stuff, or else I will be banned without warning. That's the cause of my concern here.

[DominionTroll]

I have been banned without any warning.

I can understand that saying stuff "You will lose" "You are merely lucky" or something like that isn't a strategy for you and site is yours, so one does conform to YOUR laws, of course, but still you are limiting the free expression and one valid strategy only because you cannot understand it.

That's ok.

Of course it would be easy to mute the chat, but ok, that is your site, these are your rules, and even if this is nothing democratic, that's it.

At least we know.

[Stef]

... So I would like to think that I shouldn't be watching what I say to such a level where I can't say that stuff, or else I will be banned without warning. That's the cause of my concern here.

You need not be concerned.

The texts that got this person banned involved a lot of swearing, nothing along the lines of the chat on this forum.

[DominionTroll]

That wasn't a lot. I called a guy a fuck'n mor'n two times. Period.
Let's say the things as they are.
It would be quite more honourful.

[DominionTroll]

Plus, I have been insulted the very same way, and I met that player again.

This is called double standard.

But that's ok. Not sweat off of my back.

[AdamH]

All righty then. I personally would have warned this person before banning them if all they said was the F-word, but it's not up to me.

In any case, it would be really nice to be able to squelch people in chat. It would make situations like this a lot easier for everyone involved, especially the people who it seems you're trying to help by having a seemingly-tougher-than-industry-standard ban policy.

[DominionTroll]

To complete it: I didn't insult him point blank.

I was trolling him, and he was backtrolling me, because he didn't end the game when he could, just wanted to humiliate me. I can cope with that, I started the troll battle. But, if you are backtrolling, you accept insults. You don't run to the moderators like a crybaby. You are an adult, accepted to troll me and be trolled, and it ends like that.

Of course I have been banned and that player hasn't.

No problem, ranking counts 0 to me, I'll start over with a new account.

[LastFootnote]

All righty then. I personally would have warned this person before banning them if all they said was the F-word, but it's not up to me.

In any case, it would be really nice to be able to squelch people in chat. It would make situations like this a lot easier for everyone involved, especially the people who it seems you're trying to help by having a seemingly-tougher-than-industry-standard ban policy.

If somebody's being toxic, I'd rather they be banned and not spread their toxicity around. Being able to mute them is not sufficient. I strongly support a "tougher-than-industry-standard ban policy". From what I can gather, the industry standard is to let toxic behavior run rampant.

I'm starting to wonder if part of the solution needs to be charging for access to the base game. There needs to be some way to keep banned players from simply opening another account.

[DominionTroll]

If I do pay you can't kick me out.
Luckily enough I never paid and I am already rocking on my new account which is perfectly identical to the previous.