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Harassment in Private Messages
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Sleuth Admin
Sleuth Admin
Tale Spinner

May-17-2004 13:55

Up until recently, we had not had much trouble with people using private messages to harass other players. It appears that the honeymoon is over. I’ve received several complaints about various detectives sending unwanted private messages. The accounts seem to have been set up expressly for that purpose, so deactivating them would do no good. This leaves me with a few options.

I’m going to add an Ignore User function. This might happen as soon as tonight. This should help quite a bit. Of course, if the person sending the messages can just keep creating new accounts, but that takes a little time.

Do you all think that is sufficient? There are some other steps I can take.

1) I can not allow detectives with under a certain amount of experience to send private messages. This would make it much easier to enforce the no-harassment policy. It would, however, make it harder for newbies to ask other players for help.
2) Something I have been thinking about doing for awhile, for a number of reasons, is moving away from the popup windows for private messages altogether. I could make a location called the post-office, accessible from the toolbar. You would have to go there to read your messages, and you could manage your ignore list there, etc. This would make unwanted messages less annoying, because you would see a list of messages, instead of having them pop up, one at a time. I could also expand the maximum size of messages, because they wouldn’t have to fit into a popup window. Additionally, users who have their popup blockers on could receive messages. I kind of like the popups though.

What do you all think?


Replies

Sleuth Admin
Sleuth Admin
Tale Spinner

May-17-2004 14:43

There are issues with blocking based on IP address. Some ISPs (AOL for instance), use proxies where it appears that lots of different users come from the same IP address. So, we could run the risk of blocking a whole bunch of people from playing, just because one person was misbehaving. I could just block people from those IPs from sending messages...


kouraditsa
kouraditsa

May-17-2004 14:45

I don't believe that PM's should be only for subscribers. It will have the same effect as requiring some amount of experience to send messages. I believe that most people don't immediately subscribe in their first contact with the game, so again newbies won't be able to use this function.

Sleuth Admin
Sleuth Admin
Tale Spinner

May-17-2004 14:54

OK, here's what I'm going to do:

1) I'll add the Ignore User function, hopefully tonight.

2) I'll start tracking users' IP addresses.

3) If enough people start ignoring users from a certain IP address, I'll take a closer look at the types of messages they are sending. If I think it's necessary, I'll add their IP address to a no-message list. Users from those IP addresses won't be able to send private messages to anybody but me.

Anyway, I'm very sorry for everyone who's had to put up with any harassment or abuse. Unfortunately, it's something that happens in any social forum where people feel anonymous. I hope it doesn't ruin anybody's enjoyment of the game.

Canucklehead
Canucklehead

May-17-2004 16:39

How about a hybrid of the pop-up messages? I agree without the pop-ups you can't have much of a conversation. You could add the PM box accesible from the toolbar. But when you get a message the pop-up would tell you who sent you a message and would provide a link to go directly to it.

I don't think we want a restriction of the use of private messaging or anything that would frutrate new players.

Wayne Williams Jr.
Wayne Williams Jr.
Well-Connected

May-17-2004 23:30

I hope the prankster will stop this of his/her own accord. That is the best way.

Of course having some technical system to stop such things is fine, but people should not do this in the first place.

Negasong
Negasong

May-18-2004 02:25

I have received a couple of harassing IM's myself, and I have to say, I like the post office idea, because there are times when I get a pop up from someone in my own agency while I'm in the middle of a case, and I'd rather be able to check it out on my own time.

Negasong
Negasong

May-18-2004 02:33

Oh and also, I have received harrassing Im's from MikeBitch, Piggypudding, and Booblover for whatever that's worth.

kouraditsa
kouraditsa

May-18-2004 03:34

I haven't received any such messages.
*feels being left out* (hehe :P)

reda
reda
Well-Connected

May-18-2004 04:06

i like holden fast's idee. pm's in the agency is really handy when in need of help or money. (u cant put any text when sending money to an agency member).

if other players want help they could use the post office or the messege board. i'm sure some1 will help pretty fast.

ignore butten is also a pretty good option. preventing a whole group of players to pm cause they have the same adress is pretty cruel , i think.

letting only payed players pm is a bit unfair to those without credit card/ us dollars checks or just poor ppl like me ;)

it is annoying to get this messeges but we just need to learn to ignore it and live with it. its a part of every net community.

Sleuth Admin
Sleuth Admin
Tale Spinner

May-18-2004 09:14

The ignore option is in there. I just realised that I didn't include a way to remove people from your ignore list. guess I should add that.

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