So my account was suspended before it was silenced. 3 days before WoTLK releases.
When I appealed the silence the report showed that the words I used were
REMOVED A trade chat spam that I know has been used for ages. I never realized it was a punishable offense.
Some of the other communication offenses included
“In N Out is Better than Whatatrashburger” - General Trade Chat (I was chiming in on the conversation)
“In my city we have Robertos” - Trade Chat
“Five guys is staffed by 16 year olds, only difference from McDonalds is the ingredients”
“Why did you run past him DOOFUS?!” -WSG BG Chat
I’ve played this game since 2004 and I have never been suspended. I was global muted twice, many, many years ago. I know of players who have had 7 day suspensions for buying gold, stealing from gdkp’s. How does my behavior warrant the same punishment?
Battlenet/Blizzard,
You have provided a tool for players to abuse which results in the abuse of your players. If this matter is not resolved, I vow to delete my battle.net account.
You should spend more time educating your players rather than punishing them.
Do you understand that your video game can be frustrating? Have you never been frustrated?
Imagine losing all your BIS Agility gear to a Paladin who thinks Agility is their best stat.
Imagine losing every battle ground because players don’t do the objectives and rather zug zug the BG. Your game causes frustration the same way it provides entertainment.
Please hire more staff,
Do you not hear the cries of all your 18 year long subscribers ready to delete their accounts?
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Depending on the actualy content, of which you may have quoted a few select lines presented to you, but may not be the full extent of the reports received, dictate what penalty you would have received. Silences do not appear to have had the effect that the developers were hoping for, hopefully the suspension will sink in to the concious when considering how to communicate with your fellow players in the future.
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That’s probably what got you. Yeah that is 100% actionable.
I remember people getting actioned for that ages ago.
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Just because you’ve played the game for 18 years doesn’t mean the rules don’t apply to you. You clearly broke the rules,
this here, you were being rude to another player.
This isn’t allowed anymore.
And besides Blizzard doesn’t have time to educate players, you have the TOS right in front of you, when you first join the game and when you first made a Battle.net account.
OP, you might want to censor that A word you have in there. Otherwise, you might get silence on here.
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Really? I thought this was a new thing, I was never punished for saying **** maybe I was and they didn’t tell me but wow.
Yet, the first example alone is reason enough for you to have been silenced or even suspended really for inappropriate language and spam.
So not really abuse when you admit to the transgression.
Your posting character’s name could also use a flag for a rename. I’d recommend putting in a ticket here so that you can self report the name instead of getting a further account action.
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You have these ready to go in a copy and paste document? You use the same statements in many posts regarding this issue.
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Listen, I’m just helping you out here lol. What am I copying and pasting exactly? It’s not my fault you got silenced, so don’t take your anger out on me. Do you not realize that being rude to another player is punishable? You can say “DOOFUS” but you cannot say it toward another player lol,
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So if you are in a WSG and your teammates run past the enemy flag carrier who is alone, exiting your tunnel. What do you recommend someone does?
Thank them for avoiding the objective and throwing the game? Oh let me guess “Report them” lol 
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No? Just tell them, “hey you ran past the enemy flag why didn’t you grab it?” It’s not hard being nice to people, I understand you’re frustrated about your silence I get it, I’ve been silenced before too, but if you can’t follow the rules and be polite to people then you should expect this result. Now, I don’t understand why you got silenced for the other 5+ things you mentioned, but the other two I understand. It doesn’t matter the context as to why you said it, I don’t care if you said it to someone in WGS, if it isn’t appropriate to say in general chat or any other chat, then why is it appropriate to say it there?
Has been against the rules since day one and we were asked to report it as spam. Also against the rules on the forums.
It never was. They just did not have the in-game tools to easily report it.
Then you had penalties since the reset in 2016. Those stay on your account and stack. Future punishments are longer as a result.
Because Silencing did not have the intended impact to correct behavior. They are back to using the older punishment of Suspensions for more than first offenses.
Original User Manual from 2004 https://bnetcmsus-a.akamaihd.net/cms/template_resource/LO0VQ46XB1281555957773363.pdf - which has the EULA at the end. It points to the requirements for accepting Terms of Use with the website for it. I selected the first archived Wayback Machine TOU for WoW from 2004. I have copied out the relevant sections for you. Yes, it included hateful names and speech.
https://web.archive.org/web/20041217101250/http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/legal/termsofuse.shtml
- World of Warcraft Rules of Conduct.
As with all things, World of Warcraft is governed by certain rules of conduct that must be adhered to by all users of World of Warcraft. It is your responsibility to know, understand and abide by these rules of conduct. The following rules are not meant to be “exhaustive,” and Blizzard Entertainment reserves the right to determine what conduct it considers to be outside the spirit of the game and to take such disciplinary measures as it sees fit. Blizzard Entertainment reserves the right to add to or amend this list of rules at any time, and you are responsible for checking these Terms of Use for any newly amended or posted rules each time that you log on.
B. Rules Related to “Chat” and Interaction With Other Users.
Communicating with other Users and Blizzard Entertainment representatives is an integral part of World of Warcraft and is referred to in this document as “Chat.” Your Chats may be subject to review, modification, and deletion without notice by Blizzard Entertainment. Additionally, you hereby acknowledge that Blizzard Entertainment is under no obligation to monitor Chat and you engage in Chat at your own risk. When engaging in Chat in World of Warcraft, or otherwise utilizing World of Warcraft, you may not:
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(i) Transmit or post sexually explicit images or other content or language which in the sole discretion of Blizzard Entertainment is deemed to be offensive; nor shall you transmit any unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable content or language, nor may you use a misspelling or an alternative spelling to circumvent the content and language restrictions listed above;
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(ii) Carry out any action with a disruptive effect, such as cause the Chat screen to “scroll” faster than other users are able to type to it, including setting up macros with large amounts of text that, when used, can have a disruptive effect on the normal flow of Chat;
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(iii) Disrupt the normal flow of dialogue in Chat or otherwise act in a manner that negatively affects other users, individuals or entities, including, but not limited to, posting “Spam” messages on World of Warcraft (“Spam” messages as used in this document include, but are not limited to, any effort to use a computer or other electronic device to post an unauthorized and/or unsolicited advertisement to World of Warcraft);
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(iv) “Spam” by posting or sending more than one unsolicited message or piece of mail to a single address or in a chat area;
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(v) Communicate or post any user’s personal information in or on the World of Warcraft, or websites or forums related to World of Warcraft;
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(vi) Use bots or other automated techniques to collect information or communicate or post any user’s personal information in or on World of Warcraft, or websites or forums related to World of Warcraft or Blizzard Entertainment
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(vii) Harass, threaten, stalk, embarrass or cause distress, unwanted attention or discomfort to another user of World of Warcraft or other person or entity; or
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(viii) Cheat during game play, including but not limited to modification of the game program files.
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(ix) Participate in any action that, in the opinion of Blizzard Entertainment results in an authorized user of World of Warcraft being "scammed " or ‘defrauded’ out of gold, weapons, armor, or any other items that he/she has earned through authorized game play in World of Warcraft.
Now can we please agree that these rules have always been in place for WoW and that updates may refine phrasing, but not core content? If anything the rules are more lax now than that were then.
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That is certainly unfortunately, but it is important to understand that our policies apply at all times, even before big events.
Keep in mind that we are doing what we can to deal with not just profanity, but the overall toxicity that has been growing in online games. The sampling you may see when appealing is a small portion, some of which does include inappropriate language but much of which is simply considered toxic.
As for the length of time. The penalty you may receive for violating our policies is based on the severity of that violation as well as the history on the account. From what I can see, there have been several silenced since July of last year. Each growing in duration. This one has graduated to a suspension.
Absolutely. My fingers do not work of their own volition though, so I can control what I type… continually, over days.
Those long time subscriptions should very much be aware that we have always had policies against bad behavior. It would be disappointing if they were to leave simply because they’ve been asked to abide by them, but maybe those who are still around will value the more positive gaming environment that they spend their time in.
Your appeal will be reviewed as soon as possible.
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