As @Komrade suggests, these events are few and far between, meaning they're dealt on an individual basis with respect given to specific circumstances. lt's just uncommon.
[QUOTE=1] [QUOTE=Merl_] most people aren't toxic, and if someone is toxic on the site they just get banned that's it [/QUOTE] I'm not sure if this is true or not, but if it is that is in my opinion really stupid. This is a leaderboard site, and leaderboards don't care about how nice or bad of a person who are. If someone is being overly toxic just either ignore them or have them muted from the forums. [/QUOTE]
Someone I know has been banned for being #toxic on discord (from what I've been told)
My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined
ignore them You do not understand what "toxic" means. Toxic isn't just another word for "bad". Toxic users can not be ignored because they can completely destroy a community.
I am a manager in a gaming site and I have experience with these toxic users which are in every gaming community. They are usually lonely unemployed males with various mental disorders, they are drowning in real life and trying to drag everyone with them. They are few but they have an impact regardless due to their extreme dedication and the time they can put into it. They actively try to spread their negativity to others by any mean. They can also gather in groups online and act in an organized and sustained way to harass individuals or groups. I have heard them say things like "if everyone is toxic, then no one is toxic" so they can act with a real agenda.
A perfect example would be the comments left in the first videos of the "Skyrim grandma". Things like "something tells me she won't see the end of this run" or "why don't you knit in your rocking chair". Not only shows their complete lack of morals but the toxic comments were clearly aimed at getting her disgusted and quit youtube.
So no, toxic users can not just be ignored by community managers. They are a threat that must be taken seriously.
@vabific It generally hurts more if you take whatever they're saying seriously, when they say 'just ignore them' they mean to not take everything they say as 100% serious. Most of what people that are toxic say they really don't mean, they just pretend to in order to get a reaction out of someone. Not taking what they say as 100% serious is generally one of the best ways to handle stuff like that, and I think that's what people were suggesting.
@vabific so why not just mute them? Stop them from having a voice but let them submit.
Leaderboards do not and should not care about your feelings.
Banning users for toxicity (in this case, toxicity from multiple years ago) not only silences them, but it also forces them to find alternative methods to submitting runs. While some mods will be fine with just accepting submissions in their discord DM, not all runners will think of that. Muting is a much better solution.
And yes, ignoring is a great solution. You’ll find that you live so much happier when you realize that behind the screen almost everyone is an edgy 12 year old and none of what anyone says matters.
Vab, you are taking this WAY more seriously than you need to. Toxicity is way less prevalent in these communities than you think it is. This isn't Overwatch or Fortnite where the community is edgy 12 year olds with no maturity that think being flaming assholes is funny. This is a group of people (largely in their 20's & 30's from what I've seen) who are mature and enjoy dedicating time to being really good at retro games. And it's way easier to handle them than you're making it out to be. Delete comments, delete discord posts, talk to them. If they can't change, boot 'em. It's that simple. And check with your community to make sure everyone's doing ok.
@Lieutenant_Boo I'm personally not a fan of censorship, as that almost always ends up being abused in one way or another. Age really isn't that important when it comes to maturity (in fact, some of the oldest people are the most immature I've ever seen), but what you said still applies. Most people on here are pretty mature. I still am not a fan of removing forum posts or discord posts (no matter how dumb) unless they have some nasty stuff like gore or NSFW, which obviously shouldn't really be anywhere, but I guess that's more of a personal opinion. Generally if you try to silence someone
- They lose interest
- They make an alternate account and are even MORE toxic with each ban you give them With this day and age in the internet, that's not worth it, but also censorship as a whole sets a bad precedent where someone can basically just remove anything they disagree w/ or any valid criticisms under the same umbrella. Temporarily banned someone for bad posts or whatever can be a decent idea, as that gets the point across that something isn't ok, especially if it's against the rules, but I feel like a perma should only come for serious offenses or repeat offenses.
I'm massively generalizing, and censorship obviously isn't the only option. I'm not saying to just silence people, which is why the "talk to them" part was there. But I don't think people should have to read "You fucking suck, kys" whenever they scroll through the comments on one of my WRs. My general point stands. Vab is way overreacting to toxicity and communities are by and large able to handle it.
100% agree with you, just was saying a perma for a first offense is a bit harsh and maybe a cooldown or timeout for the first one or two offenses would be more reasonable that a perma (especially when ban reasons aren't given yet).
Permabans, in all but the most extreme examples, are crazy stupid in my opinion. Theres plenty of stupid kids who could get edgy and float close to the line one too many times in their teens or even an established player who could have one incredibly bad day where everything goes against them so they make an off-hand remark without thinking; but we're supposed to believe these people aren't capable of maturing into their 20s or understanding the error in their ways at any point in their future existence?
That's insanity, and not how a vast majority of human beings work.
