Offensive Language in Chat

[glups]

Hoping a moderator can reach out to me via PM because of an interaction I had during chat in a game today. I've been playing online for many years, and have encountered many people that whined, called me stupid or other curse words, or slow-played when they were losing or got bad draws. However, today was the first time I felt somebody really crossed the line by using derogatory terms that are offensively used towards the LGBTQ community because they were unhappy about how the game went. I really hope the player gets banned as it was definitely shocking and unsettling for me, but I can imagine if the player said this to somebody from the LGBTQ community playing on the site it could be a much more painful experience.

An excerpt below that I censored, although there were multiple uses of the said offensive term in the chat:

"now do the world a favor and go die like the wothless pathetic little f****t you are"

[blamelewis]

I'd like to second this and add a call for a zero-tolerance of such offensive and derogatory language - when coupled with a death threat I'd argue this is grounds for immediate banning. The fewer places online that will allow such abuse the better.

Tim

[jsh]

For what it's worth, I have already banned this user several times. He keeps coming back, and until the client has a better way to deal with him, not much can be done.

[blamelewis]

Thanks jsh - good to know.

Stef - does banning work only on username? Can it be amended to be done by email/IP - or something more robust?

Thanks
Tim

[JW]

Please add an option to mute chat, that would help with situations such as this one.

[Ranna156]

there really is a problem with abusive players on this site. Banning seems to not work very well with the mods of this site since banning can be for various reasons. I personally have been told i am high on the ban lists but it is because i don't allow undo's...not for using offensive, derogatory, or abusive language. but whatevs. This place needs a lot of work imo when it comes to user friendliness.

[The Hound]

Hi, I want to report user Melkor, he said he hoped my kids die of Aids just starting the game and then slowplayed for 45 minutes to finally quit. That behaviour is unacceptable and deserves punishment. Thanks.

[jsh]

Hi, I want to report user Melkor, he said he hoped my kids die of Aids just starting the game and then slowplayed for 45 minutes to finally quit. That behaviour is unacceptable and deserves punishment. Thanks.

Please resign and use the blacklist feature instead of playing out these kinds of games. Thanks.

[The Hound]

Hi, I want to report user Melkor, he said he hoped my kids die of Aids just starting the game and then slowplayed for 45 minutes to finally quit. That behaviour is unacceptable and deserves punishment. Thanks.

Please resign and use the blacklist feature instead of playing out these kinds of games. Thanks.

Resigning is what he wanted, I can't give him or nobody that satisfaction.

[Ingix]

You cannot beat those trolls by cooperating (trying to get a win when they slow-play). When you do that, you are giving them the satisfaction that they beat you. They may not have beaten you in the 'who got the recorded win in the database' battle, but they have beaten you in the 'who got to enjoy the game time better' battle. The latter is what they want, not the former.

In addition, once they are identified, their (free) accounts are banned and their rated games invalidated. So if you resign and blacklist them, you will haven beaten them in both battles. The latter (time enjoyment) immediatly, and the former (database win) later. The bad experience will be short and have no rating consequences.

[DanielVanciae]

I suspect that this user is at it again.  I had a game earlier where my opponent said the same thing in very nearly the same words.  Unlike the previous mentions, he didn't say anything for most of the game and used chat only for this parting shot before resigning, but it was nonetheless extremely rude.  I have blacklisted him.

Thanks to the mods for the maintaining the game and for dealing promptly with this sort of nonsense.

Daniel

[cardsarefun]

I NEED TO BE BANNED FROM THIS DOMINION GAMEPLAY

I AM ADDICTED AND CANNOT CONTROL IT.

Please close the accounts cardsarefun and wedellwtf

thank you!

[Krispy]

+1 for mute chat - that would be a very good feature to add.

[Krispy]

Also giving players a limited number of reports to use each week, so that they could report on the following.
- report player for offensive language
- report player for slow play

If offending players accumulate a certain number of reports over a period of time, then perhaps they can have their chat privileges revoked for a period of time, or perhaps not be allowed to play for a short while.

[La-Ya]

That sounds like a good idea. While I understand that some people are okay with using swear words casually, I think that everyone should have to treat others with decency.

Also, please ban this guy(ScottEJr207): https://imgur.com/g8PRk4a

[sudhish86]

You cannot beat those trolls by cooperating (trying to get a win when they slow-play). When you do that, you are giving them the satisfaction that they beat you. They may not have beaten you in the 'who got the recorded win in the database' battle, but they have beaten you in the 'who got to enjoy the game time better' battle. The latter is what they want, not the former.

In addition, once they are identified, their (free) accounts are banned and their rated games invalidated. So if you resign and blacklist them, you will haven beaten them in both battles. The latter (time enjoyment) immediatly, and the former (database win) later. The bad experience will be short and have no rating consequences.

1.Can you explain how this is so? I didn't connect the dots. How do you not lose points by resigning? I also have had people slowplay me and I usually stick it out if I don't have anything else going on.

2.Also, these players are not trying to enjoy their time, like most people. These players strictly want to see their rating be higher. I have played these kinds of people in other games. They don't enjoy their time. They have an inward insecurity that they shallowly cope with by looking at their rating. The last time I got slowplayed, the guy told me to go die after I stuck it out for 20 minutes. They definitely hate it when you stick it out.

3.Lastly, what happens when someone gets blacklisted? Simply can't get matched up with them in the matchmaking? A guy said he was going to blacklist me after I denied him some undos....

[jsh]

Please blacklist these users instead of worrying about the why. It isn't worth the stress.

[JW]

In addition, once they are identified, their (free) accounts are banned and their rated games invalidated. So if you resign and blacklist them, you will haven beaten them in both battles. The latter (time enjoyment) immediately, and the former (database win) later. The bad experience will be short and have no rating consequences.

1.Can you explain how this is so? I didn't connect the dots. How do you not lose points by resigning? I also have had people slowplay me and I usually stick it out if I don't have anything else going on.

2.Also, these players are not trying to enjoy their time, like most people. These players strictly want to see their rating be higher. I have played these kinds of people in other games. They don't enjoy their time. They have an inward insecurity that they shallowly cope with by looking at their rating. The last time I got slowplayed, the guy told me to go die after I stuck it out for 20 minutes. They definitely hate it when you stick it out.

People who do stuff like this will get banned pretty quickly. When someone is banned, all of the rated games that they have played are also invalidated. So your rating will end up the same regardless of the outcome of your game against these trolls.

[sudhish86]

Ok. gotcha. thanks.

How do these people get banned? I mean, how does a moderator know when and who to ban? I got blacklisted supposedly three days ago for not granting undos. Am I in trouble because I'm ons someone's list? That seems abusable.

Are we allowed to post cheater-threads?

[jsh]

Ok. gotcha. thanks.

How do these people get banned? I mean, how does a moderator know when and who to ban? I got blacklisted supposedly three days ago for not granting undos. Am I in trouble because I'm ons someone's list? That seems abusable.

Are we allowed to post cheater-threads?

Bans happen based on compounding evidence or me/Stef just happening to know someone is a bad user. You aren't going to get banned from one person blacklisting you. Do not post threads publicly naming anybody. Just use the blacklist feature if you encounter someone you do not want to play with (for any reason) and move on. It isn't your job to ensure anyone meets justice.

[dextrapunch]

Ok, that's not his job. But that would be mods' one.
Either mods declare that insulting is allowed, or mods ban all people that do not abide strictly to the rules.
The two cannot exist simultaneously.

[jsh]

Ok, that's not his job. But that would be mods' one.
Either mods declare that insulting is allowed, or mods ban all people that do not abide strictly to the rules.
The two cannot exist simultaneously.

I don't have a system or the time to know about every single instance of this. I'm a volunteer. Right now, users can simply blacklist people they don't want to play with. It isn't a perfect system but the system does work. My advice is not to worry about awful people being awful to others when you can put them in your personal blacklist and never see them again.

[dextrapunch]

Ok, that's not his job. But that would be mods' one.
Either mods declare that insulting is allowed, or mods ban all people that do not abide strictly to the rules.
The two cannot exist simultaneously.

I don't have a system or the time to know about every single instance of this. I'm a volunteer. Right now, users can simply blacklist people they don't want to play with. It isn't a perfect system but the system does work. My advice is not to worry about awful people being awful to others when you can put them in your personal blacklist and never see them again.

Well, this actually means you wash your hands of it.
Being paid or not is not a good reason to refuse to bear a responsability.

Or, easier, you are communicating that, yes, users are able to cuss or use bad words, or insult, and they will stay on unbanned, the worst case scenario is they lose the chance to face again that one player.
But if I was to insult someone, not playing against him anymore would be the lesser of my problems. Probably I would blacklist myself that user first, because if I am lead to insult someone, surely I won't like playing again with him.

That said, the villain wins in this scenario. Which I don't like much. Moreover considering people is PAYING ACTUAL MONEY to play this game. And when one pays, one demands.

[Stef]

Ok, that's not his job. But that would be mods' one.
Either mods declare that insulting is allowed, or mods ban all people that do not abide strictly to the rules.
The two cannot exist simultaneously.

I don't have a system or the time to know about every single instance of this. I'm a volunteer. Right now, users can simply blacklist people they don't want to play with. It isn't a perfect system but the system does work. My advice is not to worry about awful people being awful to others when you can put them in your personal blacklist and never see them again.

Well, this actually means you wash your hands of it.
Being paid or not is not a good reason to refuse to bear a responsability.

Or, easier, you are communicating that, yes, users are able to cuss or use bad words, or insult, and they will stay on unbanned, the worst case scenario is they lose the chance to face again that one player.
But if I was to insult someone, not playing against him anymore would be the lesser of my problems. Probably I would blacklist myself that user first, because if I am lead to insult someone, surely I won't like playing again with him.

That said, the villain wins in this scenario. Which I don't like much. Moreover considering people is PAYING ACTUAL MONEY to play this game. And when one pays, one demands.

Please leave jsh alone. He is doing a great job, I'm grateful for whatever he does. He is dealing with plenty of shit already as a mod.

The fact that not everyone violating a rule gets immediately banned or punished in some way does not imply the rules doesn't exist, nor does that make the system invalid. In fact, that is what makes the system work as a whole. There are plenty of examples of countries that tried to enforce every rule on all its citizens. I wouldn't want to live in one.

There is no villain 'winning' in this scenario. People yelling in chat are generally speaking very frustrated individuals with more problems IRL then you are willing to imagine. I don't envy them. Yes there is a line they can cross and then they get banned.

My advice to you, assuming you're one of the nice people that sometimes encounter a frustrated individual, is to try to spend as little time with them as possible. Blacklist & move on works very well for that. Any time you spend on this forum or anywhere else typing up some report is only adding to your own frustration. If they really cross a line you can report and who knows maybe they get banned. But another persons pain or punishment will never make you truly happy. And maybe before you speak about bearing responsibility and people paying actual money you should reevaluate your own situation.

In the end this is the internet and you'll sometimes encounter someone you'd rather not. Speaking from my personal experience, the dominion community is doing way better then the average community out there. Yesterday I played ~30 games against ~20 different opponents without a single incident.

[dextrapunch]

Ok, that's not his job. But that would be mods' one.
Either mods declare that insulting is allowed, or mods ban all people that do not abide strictly to the rules.
The two cannot exist simultaneously.

I don't have a system or the time to know about every single instance of this. I'm a volunteer. Right now, users can simply blacklist people they don't want to play with. It isn't a perfect system but the system does work. My advice is not to worry about awful people being awful to others when you can put them in your personal blacklist and never see them again.

Well, this actually means you wash your hands of it.
Being paid or not is not a good reason to refuse to bear a responsability.

Or, easier, you are communicating that, yes, users are able to cuss or use bad words, or insult, and they will stay on unbanned, the worst case scenario is they lose the chance to face again that one player.
But if I was to insult someone, not playing against him anymore would be the lesser of my problems. Probably I would blacklist myself that user first, because if I am lead to insult someone, surely I won't like playing again with him.

That said, the villain wins in this scenario. Which I don't like much. Moreover considering people is PAYING ACTUAL MONEY to play this game. And when one pays, one demands.

Please leave jsh alone. He is doing a great job, I'm grateful for whatever he does. He is dealing with plenty of shit already as a mod.

The fact that not everyone violating a rule gets immediately banned or punished in some way does not imply the rules doesn't exist, nor does that make the system invalid. In fact, that is what makes the system work as a whole. There are plenty of examples of countries that tried to enforce every rule on all its citizens. I wouldn't want to live in one.

There is no villain 'winning' in this scenario. People yelling in chat are generally speaking very frustrated individuals with more problems IRL then you are willing to imagine. I don't envy them. Yes there is a line they can cross and then they get banned.

My advice to you, assuming you're one of the nice people that sometimes encounter a frustrated individual, is to try to spend as little time with them as possible. Blacklist & move on works very well for that. Any time you spend on this forum or anywhere else typing up some report is only adding to your own frustration. If they really cross a line you can report and who knows maybe they get banned. But another persons pain or punishment will never make you truly happy. And maybe before you speak about bearing responsibility and people paying actual money you should reevaluate your own situation.

In the end this is the internet and you'll sometimes encounter someone you'd rather not. Speaking from my personal experience, the dominion community is doing way better then the average community out there. Yesterday I played ~30 games against ~20 different opponents without a single incident.

Well I could NOT disagree more.
Your politics is: if someone behaves in a bad way, just let him/her be.
This way that person will always behave in a bad way.
You make examples with countries.
In every country:
- if there is a law and you break it, you are punished
- if you have a bad behaviour, you are reported, and nobody does anything, that means there is NO law preventing you from

Which is exactly my point.
EITHER people is allowed to insult
OR mods should do something.

People unallowed to insult but mods doing nothing, these two events cannot live simultaneously.

People PAY for this game, should be treated fairly.

[Rabid]

dextrapunch I find your forum post to be insulting.
Should you be punished?

[dextrapunch]

dextrapunch I find your forum post to be insulting.
Should you be punished?

If I effectively insulted someone or used bad words, yes.
But since this is just a pointless provocation, and I am just stating facts, not.

In my country, also, if you go to the police or somewhere to denounce something, and that something is CLEARLY nothing, you get a fine.
Which could apply in your case.

[AdamH]

Having a rule that isn't well-defined is, in practice, the same as not having a rule at all. It seems difficult to define what "good behavior" in the chat would be, but I suppose you could do it. Either way, it's not defined right now. You probably need a dirty word list.

Having a rule that isn't enforced is also pretty much the same as not having the rule at all. It's probably tough to enforce this rule without having the client do it for you (censoring the chat when a dirty word is detected, then sending a report after a certain threshold to the moderators, for example) but it certainly isn't being enforced now.

...and having rules that aren't well-defined and aren't enforced is going to lead to unhappy people and unhelpful discussions about it. I would recommend either defining and enforcing the rule or not having it at all.

Realistically, I think the option to choose is the option of not having the rule because that's much easier and this is the internet, but that's just my opinion.

[dextrapunch]

Having a rule that isn't well-defined is, in practice, the same as not having a rule at all. It seems difficult to define what "good behavior" in the chat would be, but I suppose you could do it. Either way, it's not defined right now. You probably need a dirty word list.

Having a rule that isn't enforced is also pretty much the same as not having the rule at all. It's probably tough to enforce this rule without having the client do it for you (censoring the chat when a dirty word is detected, then sending a report after a certain threshold to the moderators, for example) but it certainly isn't being enforced now.

...and having rules that aren't well-defined and aren't enforced is going to lead to unhappy people and unhelpful discussions about it. I would recommend either defining and enforcing the rule or not having it at all.

Realistically, I think the option to choose is the option of not having the rule because that's much easier and this is the internet, but that's just my opinion.

This is far more reasonable to me than the previous messages.
Still "this is the internet" isn't to me a valid argument, because until "this is the internet" is an argument for behaving unfairly, rudely, or the like, people who enjoy this kind of behaviours will indulge in them.

[dextrapunch]

I am however having the vague and unpleasant feeling that cussing, using bad words or insulting is a somewhat trying to be "safeguarded" here, or I fail to understand why people would allow it and oppose having severe measures against who does this.

[AdamH]

Well that's fair. "This is the internet" is more of an excuse than a real reason for anything.

I guess I'd rather have other features that the client still needs than the comfort of knowing I won't be sworn at in chat, but I pretty much only play against my friends (largely due to some missing features, ironically) so my perspective isn't exactly unbiased.

[dextrapunch]

I stongly believe that a "report" button that does nothing more than wrapping the chat log and sending it to a moderator, which reads and bans whoever insults or use bad words, would solve everything.

In terms of computing, that doesn't require much coding, and it would do the job perfectly.

I think that the very existence of that button, visible and crystal clear, would discourage a lot of people.

[dextrapunch]

Another reason why I believe that the blacklist isn't the solution, is that it's abused.

If I start counting the number of times an user said me "Welcome to my blacklist" because, after a very nice and fair game, the user uses an action that draws cards, then asks undo, then I deny because he would have an advantage over me, I will keep counting forever.

[twasa]

dextrapunch, your argument almost boils down to: https://xkcd.com/386/.

It looks like AdamH also assumes english is the only language of games like Dominion. No. It has been translated in other languages online and irl. If there were to be a list of bad words, would that include German, French, Norwegian, Dutch etc, and the 13 official languages in my country? I've been insulted in languages other than English, only realising I've been insulted by using google translate.

However imperfect the reporting mechanism is, it is probably the best one can do against the Martin Gee type of trolls. They are determined to ruin your day and delight at escaping any attempt to prevent them.

Blacklist and move on.

[dextrapunch]

dextrapunch, your argument almost boils down to: https://xkcd.com/386/.

It looks like AdamH also assumes english is the only language of games like Dominion. No. It has been translated in other languages online and irl. If there were to be a list of bad words, would that include German, French, Norwegian, Dutch etc, and the 13 official languages in my country? I've been insulted in languages other than English, only realising I've been insulted by using google translate.

However imperfect the reporting mechanism is, it is probably the best one can do against the Martin Gee type of trolls. They are determined to ruin your day and delight at escaping any attempt to prevent them.

Blacklist and move on.

Flawed. Report button, easy, unarguable.
I keep on having this strange feeling that there are people who are quite tolerant toward trolls.
I hope to be wrong.

[AdamH]

It looks like AdamH also assumes english is the only language of games like Dominion.

I never said anything like this.

[twasa]

I don't want to belabor this. Trolls who trash talk and slow roll, are not playing Dominion, their game is something else, Dominion is just their platform. They would create a new account and get black listed by a few players within their first few games, a clear indication that the account should be investigated by a moderator and possibly banned.

I agree with AdamH that I would rather see development effort spent elsewhere than a report button.

Sorry AdamH, I wasn't trying to put words into your mouth. I was trying to say that a "dirty word list" is not practical, given that players can use any language. I was probably doing so in a too roundabout way.

[sudhish86]

Honestly, I would be concerned if there were more than just a blacklist, since that could be abused very easily. I have been banned or kicked in other games simply because I happened to be doing well in one single round. If they had checked any other data about me (win/loss% kill/death ratio, etc), it would have been very obvious I was not cheating. But, someone reported me and I either loss stats of a legitimate game, or I had to jump through hoops to have my account reinstated.

I am fine with the blacklist. I don't want an abused system.

[Madadri]

I came here to report someone. I already blacklisted them, but  feel more is needed. Where do I report?

[dextrapunch]

I came here to report someone. I already blacklisted them, but  feel more is needed. Where do I report?

Alas the trend is that bullies are free to behave the way they want.

[Stef]

Alas the trend is that bullies are free to behave the way they want.

no that's not true.

You are though.

[blamelewis]

Hi Madadri,

I believe the way blocking works is that once a player is blocked the moderators are automatically made aware - and if blocked by several people the moderators take note and look at banning them - so the reporting is automatic in that sense.

Sorry you had a bad experience but hopefully you'll find other people more civil!

Dextrapunch - it occurs to me you're arguing as if "no report" = "no consequences" which isn't true at all! The mods look into blocked players and take appropriate action, which I think's a decent compromise.

I'm sympathetic with the bad feeling caused when resigning a game if someone's being abusive - I feel it myself - it does feel like giving them what they want, but I trust that the mods do notice such things and take action. Maybe the problem is that we the user don't see any of the process after we block someone, so it does feel like that goes nowhere... but I think's Stef's right that we just need to let it go after blocking... We know that we won't personally be bothered again, and if the user makes a habit of being nasty they'll be banned in due course.

Best wishes
Tim

[SkyHard]

What I do not understand, why is there a link between blocking someone and the reporting? There are zillions of reasons to block someone, but most of them are not good reasons to report that person. And it does not seem obvious as many ask about it.

[jeebus]

I just blocked a highly rated player (I guess I can't say who) for just resigning me because I took too long to think about my turn at the end of the game. It was the kind of game where we draw our decks and the piles are running out. This is the first time I ever took that long (except maybe in a tournament once), and I didn't even realize that I had used my time. He didn't say a word, just resigned me and immediately left. I was actually just about to play and I think I would have won if I bought the right cards. Maybe he had realized it too and was behaving like a coward.

So anyway, yeah, there's many reasons to block somebody.

[santamonica811]

Jeebus,
I might cut the other guy some slack.  While I--of course--have no idea what actually happened in your game, isn't it possible that this was the 3rd game today where that guy had been (from his perspective) slow-played by other players?  And he could have said something in chat, but instead kept quiet (some would say: polite) and waited for the full time-period and only then did DQ you.  That seems pretty possible to me.  In other words, I would not impute bad motives to someone I do not know, unless some other factor(s) suggests this.

I'll point out that 4-5 minutes is an INCREDIBLY long time to think about a single move.  I could possibly see taking that long if you are playing a game with several cards that are new to you...but then we'd be taking a long time in the very beginning of the game (and presumably we would have sent a text like "Sorry--there are new cards for me.  I'll need a few minutes to read their text" to let the other person know why there's such a long delay.).

I know that just because I can't think of a kingdom where I would take more than a minute or two to make a move at the end of the game, that does not mean that no such kingdom exists.  But we can use your experience as a teachable moment...if we find ourselves taking more than a minute or two; we really should take 15 seconds out of our turn to send off a quick chat message: "Sorry about the delay, making a hard decision; will be just another minute."

Just a suggestion.  :-)

[blamelewis]

I'd further add that there's no way to know the difference between someone who is taking a long time to think and someone who has left their computer or otherwise abandoned the game - unless that person messages to say they are still thinking (In which case I'd always be fine with the delay) - so resigning someone after the time limit feels totally reasonable without any other communication.

Best wishes
Tim

[Fastman]

Hello everybody.

I have never posted here but today I was really surprised.
In game #14773810 an user, I'd tell you the name but the post would be edited, was offensive in a way I could never imagine.

His name referes to a character in a famous fiction that is able to see the future. I won and I just say "I bet you never see this coming" but it was a simple pun on its name, it wasn't mockery or the like.

Then the player replied "I AM SORRY FOR YOUR ASPERGER" and rage quitted.

Now, I worked with people who have the asperger disease. It's a serious thing. You can't joke on this. Really. You can call someone names and I managed to understand that you won't get banned or the like. I can see that.

But really, please, do not allow players to make fun out of people with serious problems.
Please don't.
Not caring about this leads to an ominous drift.

I don't want the player to get banned, because he would make another account and live on.
I would like if possible that the player gets a severe warning or something that helps him to understand that there are things you can joke on, and things you'd better not touch.

Thanks.

[gitsticker8]

I'm sorry, but it sounds like most of you need to toughen up a bit.  What trolls need is not a ban or a warning or anything of the sort. They need a better upbringing, better development of their character and core beliefs, better self-awareness and meaning in their lives.  If you're up to the task to provide these things to them, then be my guest.  In my opinion however, your time is much better spent focusing on yourself and the things you have control over, such as how much or little you let yourself become a victim of the trolling. 

This is why the most effective methods for dealing with trolls is granting everyone the power to ignore them effectively.  For example, muting chat.  By ignoring the troll, you beat the troll.  By being happy, you beat the troll.  By not caring if you beat the troll or not, you by definition beat the troll. 

If it helps, put a sticky note on the lower right corner of the screen to cover chat until /mutechat is implemented. 

[arflutter]

Jeebus,
I might cut the other guy some slack.

To be fair, I think that was kind of Jeebus's point. He doesn't think his opponent did anything objectively bad or that he should be banned, but he would prefer not to play against that opponent again. He can choose to blacklist the opponent, but is perhaps worried that this is tantamount to reporting him for abusive behaviour and asking that he be banned.

I often have the same dilemma. I personally like to think about my turns more than a lot of other people, and I have no problem with other people thinking as long as they like about theirs. If someone times out and I'm offered the chance to resign them, I always ask in the chat whether they're still there and give them another couple of minutes before I resign them even if their situation in the game is hopeless. I like to chat with my opponent about the game and learn something to help me play better even if I lose. But I get the fact that not everyone enjoys the same kind of game and that my slow play annoys some people to the extent that they would rather not play against me again. That doesn't mean I think they're bad people or deserve to be banned from playing, but naturally I would prefer to play against other people who enjoy the game the way I do. I feel that the best solution would be to be able to distinguish between saying "this is a perfectly decent human being but I don't want to be matched with them again" and saying "this person acted abusively and should be banned from the game".

Personally I don't think that the option to mute the chat achieves anything useful. In my experience the trolls usually wait until the end of the game and then just post a single abusive comment. I'm not going to mute chat in every game just on the off chance that my opponent might by the kind of person to post an abusive comment when they lose.

And finally I don't think looking for specific swear words serves any useful purpose at all. Perhaps there are people who would be terribly offended if their opponent typed "Bad luck! You had some really shitty draws that game" but wouldn't care if their opponent wrote "I hope you die, you stupid moron", but I'd venture that they're few and far between. And even they could be better dealt with by having the option to express a preference not to be matched with this person again without having to "blacklist" them.

[arflutter]

...and by the way (as if my previous post wasn't long and boring enough), I certainly don't think that paying a few bucks a month to play the game means I have a God-given right to be protected from people who might behave abusively. There's only so much the mods can do to stop banned users simply creating new accounts, and I'm grateful for their efforts, especially if they're unpaid volunteers. I'm just trying to make suggestions to make the system even better.

[jsh]

You are not getting someone banned for blacklisting them. The # of blacklists is only a data point. Please don't let this be a moral quandary for you. Blacklist whoever you don't want to play with and leave it at that.

[jeebus]

There was no way my opponent thought I was slowplaying them. It was clear that it was a complicated turn at the end of the game, and that I was thinking about how to play it. Slowplaying looks completely differently. Slowplaying is making each click super slow. I was never doing that.

It actually happened to me again right now. The player asked something (in Japanese), I said that I was sorry but the turn was very complicated, then he resigned me. The horrible thing is that the interface gives you no warning. At least tell me when I only have some seconds left!

And to answer josh bornstein about what kind of kingdom can make this happen. This one involved Crown, King's Court, Fairgrounds, Pilgrimage and Stonemason. On my last turn I had to figure out what to KC and Crown, what Crowns to save for the buy phase, whether to trash something with Stonemason, whether to buy Stonemasons, what to use my Pilgrimage for (token was facedown), what my Fairgrounds were worth if I trashed, kept or gained certain cards - and all of this because I might have the opportunity to end the game before my opponent's next big turn. I was one VP down at this point. Reloading the game, I see that I actually could have won by Stonemasoning a Gold into a Duchy and a Crown, Pligrimaging a Crown and a Haunted Woods, Crowning a Silver, and buying two Stonemasons to empty the Crowns and Haunted Woods for a three-pile. This is like a puzzle that can't always be solved in 4-5 minutes.

[Fastman]

Hello,

I did as I was told to. When the player started to slowplay on purpose and insult me in chat, I noticed the game number "#17477767", resigned and blacklist the opponent.

I therefore ask the match not be counted in ranked matches.

THanks.