Such a lovely crew indeed a quick resolution would be wonderful
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Please, to everyone from this community posting, there is no need. It’s between the account holder in question and Blizzard. It is only going to cause confusion and derailment.
Please wait for Orlyia to answer, and for the account holder’s appeal to be worked by a GM. (Orlyia is not a GM and this forum is not a way to appeal.)
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Might want to self-report that toon name.
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You’re welcome to join us again, anytime!
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If you’d like to pass along that the ticket has been worked.
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Orlyia
Thank you for your kind action in this regard and engaging with my community members while I was busy at the office. Am sure your timely intervention led to my silencing being overturned as quickly as it was.
The response I just received from Blizzard was light on details or assistance, to put it mildly: stating only that is was a “false positive” and being “terribly sorry for the inconvenience.”
As I am sure you can imagine, the night was spent researching all of the official documentation on this topic and, when alerted to the forums (which I rarely remember exist), reading them for official statements: I am, yet, left bemused as to the official protocols.
Might you be willing to answer some questions here? When and if time and inclination allow, of course.
It might not just help me, but others facing similar situations, if the forum posts are any indication. If not, please accept my thanks for your intervention, already.
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It is unclear how or why my LFG post was problematic. Why was it flagged/reported? How can we avoid this in the future?
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How many reports are required to elicit a silence action against an account?
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How can we protect ourselves against similar occurrences/disgruntled players weaponising the reporting system — beyond removing ourselves entirely from public spaces in WOW?
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Is this action on my account now removed, or is there evidence of it, still? (Official documents indicate these are cumulative when considering future reports/trangressions.)
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What action is being taken against the false reporter(s)? (The initial emails indicate there were multiple reports.)
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Is it possible to have the false reporter(s) permanently ignored/blocked from my account?
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The supposed “squelch” and silence happened simultaneously: an email indicating my LFG post was being altered and one saying my account had been silenced were sent at precisely the same time — mere moments after I created the LFG post in question. Is this common? What is the protocol? Is “squelching” still an option? Are “warnings” still an option? Is silence for a week the first action?
And finally:
- should we report each person who sends us vile, abusive, violating-the-TOS comments to our LFG posts/others? Is there value in this, to customer service?
[Edit: apologies for the deletes. Took me a moment to get the reply function working properly. I would prefer to have this exchange in a private space, but there might be some benefit to having answers to these questions available to others.]
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Your appeal was simply processed, Gryji - glad to hear we could be of assistance.
As to the rest, I can make an educated guess on why this may have been reported, but it’s only that - a guess.
The common denominator I’ve seen on these this week is language. There is no indication these were malicious reports. Password, discord and tips seem to be triggering players to report - likely thinking they are reporting malicious ads. We WANT folks to report the runs that are being sold for cash. THOSE ads often mention those things as they’ll take their nefarious dealings off realm into a 3rd party site.
Tailoring your ads to avoid those things if possible (although they aren’t a problem for US) may help decrease the chance of being reported.
Absolutely report anyone that is breaking our code of conduct in messaging. Just right-click report.
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I can answer a few of these I think. The Blues have posted about, and discussed, these topics quite a lot.
- I can’t answer why your LFG post was an issue because only Blizz can see anything account side. However, Orlia did say this
- Blizzard will not tell you any information about how many reports are needed for anything. People will game and abuse that sadly.
- Once you find out what may have caused your listing to be reported, avoid doing it. Chances are something in the listing is similar enough to the bad guys that people thought it was from illicit RMT folks. Maybe consider a different way to identify folks you want to run with than password.
- When it is overturned the action is removed from the account. It will not count against you in the future if you have a new penalty. This is why it is so important to appeal so those black marks get removed.
- No action is being taken against people for reporting what they legit thought was an RMT situation as Orlyia said. They do penalize people when they engage in intentional mass reporting of something such as a streamer telling their followers to report an innocent line of chat to abuse the reporting system.
- Your silence likely is what resulted in the LFG post modified notice. Squelches are an automated temp measure before a GM deals with it. Warnings are also automated notifications that you are being reported, not a substitute for a penalty. If it gets to the GM stage, a week Silence is the first penalty now. There is nothing less.
- Yes you should report people who send you vile abuse! Of course.
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Thanks for the reply.
To clarify, we never, ever, ever ask for tips.
We were surprised to find others were using these TW runs to solicit gold when people offered such (which we turned down).
The word password was only used in that post due to some confusion by returning pugs: a password is given in discord for those who want to bring alts to the next run, to ensure they get a spot alongside our community members before we open remaining spots to other pugs.
A few had been confused when the previous post had only mentioned a “cute note”, unsure if the post was the relevant one.
I shall avoid that word in the future, however.
The protocols with reference to reporting still remain opaque. Are you able to provide some insight along the questions above?
Is it possible to put a note on my account indicating we are a substantial in–game community and would not engage in something duplicitous?
For I am rather adverse to posting in LFG again, without more clarification on the reporting protocols.
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We aren’t going to share internal information, Greyji.
I wouldn’t be overly concerned. As you can see, appeals do work.
I didn’t see anything off with your listings either - but apparently someone did, cause they got reported. I was simply trying to give you ways that may help avoid this in the future.
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Just to add in, this is not something that is done.
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Hm. So this may be something with which we may be dealing, any time we post in LFG: someone may be disgruntled, report us for something (still have no reply as to what was the perceived infraction; “password” still remains conjecture) and we will be removed from the game.
It is enough to make one stop engaging in the game’s public spaces.
I shall wait for a reply from the Blizzard GMs.
As aside: are you able to explain why my community member Arlaeya’s comment here, to which you replied and led to this happy conclusion, was flagged as “inflammatory” and removed?
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It just wasn’t necessary, Greyji. Players often think if they send in testimonials that somehow makes a difference, it doesn’t.
As to your current open ticket, it looks identical to your post here. Not only would a GM not be able to answer those questions, all the ones that can be answered - I already have.
This was cleared as a false positive, actions were removed and the silence lifted.
There isn’t anything else a GM can do for this.
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“Not necessary” does not equal “inflammatory” nor trolling.
It was necessary and kind as it was coherent, public support in an officially-recognised, undeserved situation from a friend, AND to which you replied; That post led to you asking for and obtaining from that friend the ticket number of my appeal as my silencing precluded writing in these forums.
That someone flagged the post is unsurprising: that staff at Blizzard chose to remove it — and not the myriad other actually “unnecessary” posts — is noteworthy.
I am now going to leave this forum conversation since this is deteriorating and hope that someone official will provide details — beyond conjecture — as to why staff chose to silence my account (in error) so we can avoid such situations in the future.
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Take any notices you may get on a deleted post with a grain of salt, that comes from the category it’s reported under.
Now, if a post is removed and there is an account action, yes - that’s determined by us.
Ummm, I AM someone official, Greyji - and able to discuss things in a lot more detail than a GM would be able. As I said, the ones that could be answered, I already have. You can close that ticket.
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You may wish to refrain from using words such as ‘false positive’. It suggests an automated system that no one has direct control of, which is contrary to what others have said above(Oddly enough you have avoided any mention of it which further clouds things). Perhaps clearer language from all aspects of the support system would assist in helping people understand what is going on and why. None of this is helping with the misinformation which seems to be in play. If anything it strengthens it, creating a larger divide between players and officials.
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False positives are generally just a statistical term. Pregnancy and covid tests spring to mind as having such language used in discussions.
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Yes, because those are considered tools as opposed to a person who perhaps made a mistake.
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We use that whenever an action is made in error, Anies.
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Do you have specific phrasing in mind? What do you mean by “clearer language”?
The phrasing is correct. Statistically if “X” things show on a test result then it shows as a positive. If you have “X” things show but actually don’t have what you are being tested for, it is a false positive. So in the case of the group-finder report “X” things showed and it was marked “positive”. On review it was determined to not be “positive” - or a “false positive”.
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