Stronger Anti-Harassment System

[Obscure_Trash]

Oh, that statement was not so much in regards to mod abuse, but instead users utilizing the flag system maliciously. The possibility of such on the mod's part was in the back of my mind, but I didn't really address it in that post because I didn't see it as being a likely issue either way. Mods are a much smaller group than users and thus harder to generalize, and to feel comfortable making any argument based on their behavior, I'd have to be able to call up specific examples in my mind.  There weren't any modern examples I could think of, so there's no reason for me as an individual to expect it or base an objection on it.

If users were abusing the flag system, mods will talk to them. The flag system wouldn't do anything but notify mods that there's an issue to look at, AFAIK. =3

 

~

 

Double posting is fine as long as it is not abused. =3 (Quotes for example are really hard to do in bulk on mobile, so that's a fine reason to double post. Having issues editing is also understandable.)

Edited January 14, 2015 by SockPuppet Strangler

[Ribombee]

I'm rather concerned by the idea that it is assumed (by some) that everyone does not want to be sent random PMs. In all honesty, if I had a prize dragon, I would be happy to accept initial PMs to see who offered me the best offer for my waiting list. If I felt especially nice on a day and got a lovely PM that, perhaps, brightened my day, I might even put them on my waiting list for a free egg.

 

I would be really upset if someone reported or flagged me simply for sending them a PM I did not know they did not want. I am not a mind-reader, and frankly, I see nothing with a polite PM. If the person does not reply or says 'no', then I can be on my way. I could see it being an issue if I continually PMed the person after that, of course, but that is what the block feature is for.

 

Even reporting someone for PMing you when your signature or status says "no PMs" seems a bit harsh to me. I never have done so (to my knowledge), but I could see it being very easy to miss were I tired, reading from my phone (which I often do), etc. Then, by simply missing a little tiny blurb of text, I would be sent to a moderator or flagged as harassing someone. It is easy enough to make a mistake about standard site rules. I've accidentally copy-pasted the wrong trade offer (i.e. lined into CB thread) into a thread and didn't notice. I'm sure I've done plenty of other silly things, as well. That is not to say that I do not try to avoid those mistakes, but they are mistakes, not dire misdeeds done with malice.

 

As a moderator on another pet SIM, I can attest to the fact that mods do get a lot of really petty PMs and notifications as it is. All we can do is take a deep breath and deal with it when we are in a calm state of mind. Were I flooded with constant flag notification because people did not like the simple act of receiving a PM, I would be inclined to tear my hair out.

Edited January 15, 2015 by harlequinraven

[olympe]

Is it really necessary? For most people, probably not.

 

Let's take fuzzbucket's case as an example. It's quite easily handled with blocking and that's that. (I'd still have told that person that I'm not taking orders, even though I do take requests for breedings.)

 

However, if you're a new prize owner and have not one, but 20 to 50 people contacting you in such a fashion... I can see where this would be very annoying and turn into harassment.

 

Anyway, I had one experience (in five years of being here) with someone insulting me via PM. This person is still on my ban list. Had I known it was possible to report this kind of stuff, I might just have done that. (Still another problem with reporting PMs - there's no anonymity because only one person gets to read a PM that isn't the author.)

 

I also encountered one situation where I wanted to gift a rare egg with a two-way teleport (so I knew where the egg would go and so I could send it to someone who didn't have scores of that breed yet) and had two people become rather pushy about it. So I sent the egg to the third person contacting me in a non-pushy way.