Account Penalties for Abusing the "Flag" functionality in Forums

Over the past few months, I’ve noticed whenever certain topics come up (specifically addressing concerns with multi-boxing) they are repeatedly reported by forum users. This requires a forum admin to review the material, and then to either punish the player who made the original post or remove the flag. In my experience, I’ve seen my posts against multi-boxing regularly player-reported and approved, the same thread repeatedly. In one case, 3 posts generated so many complaints by the multi-boxer community that my account was silenced for 3 days. This was for discussing a topic that was offensive (banning certain programmatic multi-boxing done with the use of 3rd party software) to multi-boxers.

While we don’t want to penalize people who have real issues with forum posts (specifically for LGBTQ+ and other types of harassment), the repeated use of user-reported flags to squelch debate on important issues has been abusive and a form of harassment by themselves.

I propose that Blizzard create a system to punish account holders who regularly flag posts that would normally be compliant with forum policies. I further propose this be done retroactively to the past 3 months as the current forum culture is for specific players to punish other players for compliant posts which are contrary to their opinions. This behavior detracts from an open and honest dialogue about improvements to a game many of us have dedicated over a decade to improving.

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They should have just left the down vote button in. At least no one got suspended when that was used.

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Blizzard claims to action people that falsely report other people, but I don’t believe them. It’s also possible to have your posts removed even if they don’t violate the forum code of conduct simply because they make snowflakes upset.

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They definitely don’t bro.

this bc them put alot of same thred , of 1 good , only ned 1 three

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If multi boxers are flagging you then you’re doing something right.

Wear those flags like a badge of honor

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It appears this post has been flagged by a user as “spam”, a clear example of the type of behavior this action would prevent. This is a type of harassment and should not be allowed to stifle ongoing debates.

It’s pretty obvious that the Op was begging to be flagged.

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Aaaand the OP is flagged. :rofl::rofl:

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ppl stil gonna be flag , if upost some thin then think is bad , can not go of forms , but some time ppl r not good of if it can go , bc it hard to no , if ppl r bad post , bc them can akshalee wanna be nise but then they post r bad by aksident

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OP here. I have a valid point to present. I’m very tired of coming to the forums and seeing a large percentage of posts flagged.

Let me ask you a question, does this opinion look like Spam to you? Because that’s what it was reported as.

the history of the posts you make, makes it spam.

If the flag isn’t warranted, then Blizzard will ignore it. Eventually they will fall off and there will be no lasting effect.

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People flag one another without discression because Blizzard won’t action them.

I have not posted since mid-September. So, this post clearly is not spam. Spam is when I post the same subject multiple times in a short duration. I get your point though, and appreciate your point of view. Many of my posts have been critical about specific topics (multiboxing for one). However, this is my first post to address forum-flagging abuse.

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In order to punish someone for “abusing” the flag system or harassment you have to first prove that it is being used incorrectly. Is this thread spam? It is subjective but under the forum code of conduct

Creating threads for the sole purpose of causing unrest on the forums

is listed under spamming and trolling. In your op you talk about wanting punish account holders who regularly flag posts that would normally be compliant and having that go back 3 months retroactively. To some people statements like those are seen a inflammatory and made to sole cause unrest on the forums. By flagging your op they are well within their understanding of the code of conduct. So you cannot claim they are abusing the system or harassing people, when they are trying to keep the forums free of unrest.

Now all that I just posted is most likely a giant crock but there is no way for you or Blizzard to prove that it is not true. So taking action on someones account that is not blatantly putting it out there is hard.

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Blizzard lied, topics died.

Most forums who have these kinds of penalty systems are easily able to track everyone who violates a rule and to statistically identify users whose violations are largely outside the norm. Statistically, you can take all of the users who participate in a forum and then determine the average number of flags per user. Then use standard deviations to identify and then warn all players outside of 2 standard deviations. Then I would track those accounts/ip addresses to ensure the behavior no longer continued. If it did, silence, then ban.

I appreciate the irony.

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Dunno when you made those multiboxing threads, but I’ve been reporting all of the ones made the last day or two since they announced the ban. Because they’re spam. A ridiculous amount of spam. I think at last count I ran out of reports on FIVE of my characters because there have been so many.