To be fair, that’s still a form of a penalty. People can’t talk, so they’re penalized.
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Disruptive Spamming is. if you are posting your sale and the only thing is stopping you is the chat timeout, you are spamming
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It is certainly a restriction. I guess I reserve the word “penalty” for things applied by someone in authority. Referee, judge, moderator, etc. As in a penalty is a consequences for specific actions that violate rules. Those penalties stick to the account as marks against it.
The restrictions are temporary and are removed when reviewed - either dropped or moved to the actual penalty phase.
I suppose it can get into a semantic argument depending on how others view it.
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The chat timeout is the limit imposed by blizzard, so I don’t know whats reportable here
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The silence also restricts you from entering group finder so it is a gameplay restriction
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It’s basically just semantics.
It’s still a restriction that inconveniences players falsely reported.
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Which is very, very common. Look no further than this very forum for evidence of reporting abuse in this community.
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How can you continually regurgitate nonsense in the face of this egregious abuse of the report system?
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Nothing Mirasol said was nonsense. They’re just giving facts. Relax.
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I do agree it is a restriction. My disagreement is with the word penalty.
Again though, this tends to cross into semantics and opinions.
Managing to get Squelched takes a lot of unique people reporting you to happen. Most of the time it is used correctly and benefits the player base. Gold spammers, etc etc. It has been around more than 10 years and rarely ever caused issues. Not saying it can’t be abused. It can. But that can be punished. Telling a group to mass report someone as a coordinated attack (when they did nothing wrong) can get a person an actual suspension.
Most of this will go back to normal once people get a grasp on the new rules and boosters adjust their advertising - or quit.
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No such thing.
Before, I get screamed at about the existence of the auto-Squelch (which is its proper name), I’m aware of its existence. I’m just distinguishing the difference between Squelch and Silence.
The players have the power to Squelch. Only Blizz has the power to Silence. What’s the difference?
The Squelch duration is always the same. If Blizz agrees, it’ll remain or even increase the duration with a Silence. If they don’t, they just don’t apply a Silence.
All and all, it appears the people have spoken and have dub boost ads as spam. Respect them and don’t do boost ads 
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I think part of this problem is that some people seem to think that the game should be a form of a business. If you’ve taken the time to progress in the game to the point where you’re that good why not just help others who want to progress. The minute you start thinking of this like a side hustle it stops being a game and it’s annoying for people that do see it as a game.
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She disagrees that being silenced is a penalty.
Also, I’m pretty relaxed.
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I’m sorry this is happening to you and so many, many others. While there are those who find glee in making life hard for others, bullying, I think there’s a large misunderstanding when it comes to what Blizzard did yesterday even though they did explain it.
Some people will read into what others say regardless of how direct and clear it is, then they spread that.
It’s very annoying and happens with everything.
So now, Blizzard has a huge amount of reports to look through so it’ll be a bit til they get to everyone.
I’m wondering if it would have just been better to give all the boosters their own chat channel. Maybe that could still be done and that would cut down on the mass reports?
Anyway, you’re certainly not the only ones being reported for no legit reason.
Hang in there. It’ll get worked out and this will be something most will laugh at down the road.
Easy to say now, I know.
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I mean… I personally don’t like the automated penalties, but also your guild mates could just wait for a few days until all the excitement has cooled down. It’s a bit daring, spamming ads in Trade Channel, during an explosive situation where a lot of misinformation is still around and people are just crazy about the changes. Also a lot of people are just happy that the excessive spam is over and then just continuing posting ads for boosts directly after those announcements is totally within the rules - but also they’re pooring oil into the fire. Especially if it’s several players posting for one guild.
Your guild won’t go bankrupt if you just take an advertisement break for a few days until the hype is over.
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For some, the side hustle is the game. Just like the players that play only the AH, collect pets, etc…
You may have skipped some of what I said. I think.
- Squelch is a restriction applied automatically after enough unique reports.
- Silence is a penalty applied by a GM after reviewing the reports. It is a black mark against the account and doubles in duration each time it is applied.
They are not the same thing at all. As I explained, to me penalties are applied by someone in authority - a referee, judge, moderator, etc. They are done deliberately after reviewing the case.
So yes, I agree Silence is a penalty. I said that Squelch is a restriction vs penalty. You may feel that is semantics, but that is my view on it.
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You shouldn’t have to take time away from the part of the game you love - just because mass reporters keep reporting you. Furthermore, getting auto silenced because of those false reports is a disgrace. It’s literally disgusting that it’s happening, and it’s disgusting that people are defending it.
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The “silence” feature should’ve never been added to the game in the first place, and should’ve been removed years ago. It’s been casually abused from the start by groups of guildies, large premade groups (especially), and even just trade chat casuals… as we are seeing now 
If they insist on keeping the feature in after all these years, the least they could do is make it not automated. The victims of false/bogus reports shouldn’t have any action taken against their account at all until an actual human being has looked at it and found some sort of actual violation.
And of course, the people making such false reports should be banned, period. It’s unclear what (if anything) happens to false reporters/liars, but there really needs to be consequences for them since they are maliciously/deliberately trying to ruin another player’s enjoyment of the game.
So far I haven’t seen any evidence that false reporters/liars suffer any consequences for their malicious acts… the only thing I have heard is the occasional success story of a victim getting an overturn after “finally” reaching/getting thru to an actual human being via the ticket system
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It’s not feelings and not up to one’s view. It’s literally a penalty being auto applied (by definition) falsely.
Argue and regurgitate as much as you desire. It’s wrong what people are doing. And TOS-abiding people being auto silenced is disgusting.
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