It happened again. Trying to sell and buy some things in trade chat, an old "friend" whispers me condescendingly, doesn't like the way I talk back, vaguely threatens me by reminding me that they've done it before, I ignore them, all is well, yes? A few minutes later, after nothing more than a few WTB/WTS lines from me in the trade channel, suddenly I can't use the chat because I'm squelched (banned from using chat for 24 hours, for those uninitiated). They even gloated about it...and as I said, it's not the first time it happens. I reported it, but I have a feeling nothing will happen, otherwise incidents such as these wouldn't exist.
How does this happen? Squelching is this automatic system put in place to silence credit selling bots and toxic offenders, without needing to go through Customer Support (as they would surely be overwhelmed if every little report had its own ticket). The way it works is that if enough spam reports get made on a certain player in a given time, that player is automatically silenced for 24 hours, with no way to reverse this (as far as I know).
What's the problem with it? The problem, as I and other players can attest, is how easily this system can and absolutely IS gamed to grief people you merely don't like for any reason whatsoever. Just coordinate with a few friends to collectively report someone's postings in chat, and within a few minutes, they'll be silenced for a whopping 24 hours with no recourse. Wonderful, isn't it?
Who's doing this? For the most part, even the most toxic people I've met haven't steeped so low as to do this, but when you have toxic people with enough toxic friends, that's when they can make the magic happen on you. No reason is needed, I know people who have gotten squelched simply for undercutting "too much" on the trade channel, upsetting some whales perhaps, they do this, they get away with it, which only emboldens them to keep doing it.
So now, I wait. Meanwhile, I'm asking the community to chime in on this. Have you been on the receiving end of a malicious coordinated squelch? Are reports on such incidents even taken into consideration? Are there maybe any plans to address this issue?
It happened again. Trying to sell and buy some things in trade chat, an old "friend" whispers me condescendingly, doesn't like the way I talk back, vaguely threatens me by reminding me that they've done it before, I ignore them, all is well, yes? A few minutes later, after nothing more than a few WTB/WTS lines from me in the trade channel, suddenly I can't use the chat because I'm squelched (banned from using chat for 24 hours, for those uninitiated). They even gloated about it...and as I said, it's not the first time it happens. I reported it, but I have a feeling nothing will happen, otherwise incidents such as these wouldn't exist. How does this happen? Squelching is this automatic system put in place to silence credit selling bots and toxic offenders, without needing to go through Customer Support (as they would surely be overwhelmed if every little report had its own ticket). The way it works is that if enough spam reports get made on a certain player in a given time, that player is automatically silenced for 24 hours, with no way to reverse this (as far as I know). What's the problem with it? The problem, as I and other players can attest, is how easily this system can and absolutely IS gamed to grief people you merely don't like for any reason whatsoever. Just coordinate with a few friends to collectively report someone's postings in chat, and within a few minutes, they'll be silenced for a whopping 24 hours with no recourse. Wonderful, isn't it? Who's doing this? For the most part, even the most toxic people I've met haven't steeped so low as to do this, but when you have toxic people with enough toxic friends, that's when they can make the magic happen on you. No reason is needed, I know people who have gotten squelched simply for undercutting "too much" on the trade channel, upsetting some whales perhaps, they do this, they get away with it, which only emboldens them to keep doing it. So now, I wait. Meanwhile, I'm asking the community to chime in on this. Have you been on the receiving end of a malicious coordinated squelch? Are reports on such incidents even taken into consideration? Are there maybe any plans to address this issue?