Today I received an email indicating that my THIRTY (30) year old account has been permanently banned because of “abusive chat.” There is absolutely nothing so egregious I would have said to warrant an account ban. I looked at the support and the appeal page and there is no information as to what context caused the ban.
My inquiry comes from the source of the ban though. The ONLY recent instance I can contemplate that could have been deemed as a Code of Conduct infraction is I was World PvPing and a group of 7 players kept taunting, harassing, and ganking me. I never went off on them (it’s world PVP, we know what we sign up for), but when I was finished with the PvP quest, I “/yell[ed] You guys are pathetic.” I’m sure they took that opportunity to mass report me, because they certainly felt the need to continue /whisper[ing] me insults and taunts. The question I have though is does Blizzard even look at the chat logs/action logs going on when someone is reported? Surely if a human reviewed the report they would have seen these people whispering me insults and harassing me. Honestly, as I stated, I’m a 30 year old veteran player so I don’t bother reporting or /ignoring most of the time because trolls are going to be trolls and this has always been part of the community so perhaps I’m more apathetic towards them. But now I have to wonder if Blizzard reviews that data and takes live actions at the time of reporting into consideration when issuing account actions.
Customer Support - would you please provide some insight to this process?
I am sincerely mind-blown that Blizzard would ban a thirty (30) year account over such a miniscule infraction, especially when I was not the instigator. I’ve served on the WoW Community Council, have had several changes made within the game from my input and experience, am on the WoW Research Team, and have been a part of this community since the game released. To ban a thirty year old account over “abusive chat” without context seems like an injustice and an oversight on Blizzard’s process.
Customer Support - would you please provide some assistance on this matter? I would be disheartened to permanently leave Blizzard products over this scenario. I don’t even know if my account was hacked and started spamming chats which could have results in the reports. Not having any context for a PERMENANT ban is mind-blowing and not really fair for the player. I can’t even provide a coherent response on the appeal page to contest the validity of the ban considering I don’t have any context as to why I was banned aside from a generic “abusive chat.”
You can keep apealing till they tell you to stop. They dont ban on the first offense theres always more to this becareful poking the panda you will get more then you bargined for
A permanent from abusive chat means you must’ve passed a silence, several times suspensions upon which they may warn you they can and will close your account.
This is the first issue. You can’t point the finger to others’ bad behavior if you didn’t report it.
The only focus here is on you. Context means nothing.
They only ban accounts (there is no veteran status that gives brownie points of anything of the sort) after they get tired of incrementally increasing suspensions for chat/social infractions.
Technicality. WoW has only been out for 20 years, bnet about 15 years. While Warcraft has been out for 30 years, wow has not. Only a technicality though.
The penalties only involve your account, not others. We your fellow players can not see what lead to this closure, but I can assume it was not your first run in with penalties since it lead to account closure.
PVP is not necessarily against the rules.
Taunting and harassing are, but you are not allowed to respond with language that might also violate said rules.
A mod will likely clarify why the action was taken.
What I’m seeing in these reports may be a macro, but it does seem a bit spammy.
That might be overlooked.
Unfortunately, I’m also seeing F bombs in both whispers and in public. Not many, but one is enough.
This is FAR from the first infraction of this type. In fact, that’s why this is a ban. It’s not for severity, the sanction is based on number of previous like infractions on an account.
I don’t know what the outcome of this will be, but your appeal is in queue.
Thanks for the prompt response! Is there a way for me to view exactly what caused the ban so I can dictate a more proper response in the appeal page?
I was curious if it was the macro. My Warlock uses the macro to call out Fears and my mage is on a role-playing server who laughs whenever she puts someone in crowd control since her personality is written to be a pretentious snob.
When you say “F bombs” are not tolerated - I’ve never used them as an insult (IE: I don’t say “F You”), but rather an adverb (IE: This is F-ing annoying). I’m confused why that would be deemed an offense since there is a built-in Mature Language Filter. I could definitely understand if I was using the obscenity to insult, but I don’t. So using it as an adverb is now against the Code of Conduct?
For those who were asking/commenting about “first offensive.” No it’s not and I’m well aware I was previously silenced in this game. My good friend died to suicide and I couldn’t save him almost 2 years ago to this day, and it made me mad at the world at that time. I was definitely not a pleasant person when that happened and I got silenced on the game for being explosive at people in chat. I understand why they silenced me then. That’s why I’m baffled for an account ban now because, as I stated, there was no way I said anything egregious to rise to that type of level of a ban.
Thanks to Orlyia for your response. I appreciate it! Hopefully the Appeal Committee recognizes the infraction was simply a crowd-control notification macro.
The filter isn’t a reason to break the rule - the rules states any form of cursing, may that shorten, or misspelled, is against the rules. End of story.
It been against the rules, but folks been reporting more for it. There’s nothing ‘new’ about it in this.
Masked language is still reportable and actionable as for the macro that could be considered.spam and annoying. Penalties stack and dont go away unless the apeal is successful.
All centering around Your soul is mine “insert player name” Like I said, will likely be overlooked, but if this does get overturned - I’d be careful how often those go off.
Honestly I’m shocked someone would report that macro. The “Your soul is mine ” is just a macro to notify them I’m soul stoning them haha. Odd someone would report that as spam.
There is no “proper response”. An appeal is not for you to argue your case, or try to wiggle out of it. As was told to you above, context is not up for debate. There is no context where using profanity is allowed.
An appeal you you asking them to review the account action to see if there is an error. If there was an error, it will be overturned. If it wasn’t in error, it won’t be. In the case of profanity, it’s pretty cut and dry. Did you say it? Yes? Then it’s going to stand.
Yes, Orlyia said that the macro is spammy. But that isn’t the whole issue. The profanity is not allowed, ever, for any reason.
It always has been. It doesn’t matter why or how you were using it, or who it was directed at. You said it, and that’s the violation.
As Orlyia said:
You already rose to the point where the next violation would end in a permanent ban. No, they don’t tell you that, because then players would keep getting actioned up until that point, and the goal is to stop it with the first punishment, not the last.
And IF this gets overturned somehow, you are still going to be at the level where the next infraction is a permanent ban. That doesn’t go away.
Has always been against the code of conduct. The filter does not allow you to use any type of profanity. Also does not matter if it is directed at anyone or not. Not allowed at all the end!
I normally don’t post in these kinds of threads, but you seem actually genuine OP. First, thing in a public chat that repeats itself say in under a minute or so could be construed as spam. Or even hitting the macro again before in scrolls of your screen. Second offensive language of any kind is against the ToS. Just avoid that and you be all good. And I know toxic behaviour didn’t come up, but avoid that as well. We are all here to have fun just like you. I wish you the best on the appeal, and if it does get over turned, just mind your P’s and Q’s and you will be solid.
I’ve reported macros as spam a handful of times over the years. Generally they have to be really obnoxious (such as someone having a Yell emote whenever they active a commonly used ability) and go off multiple times in a fight or two. No one wants the same message over and over and over.
I have no idea how often your macro went off, but maybe something to consider.
This action feels more about the cussing though. The rules on that are pretty cut and dry. Hopefully for your sake it can be lessened to a shorter duration suspension. If it is, it would be very very careful about what you type in chat going forward.
Cussing has never been allowed, directed at others or not. Users as a whole seem to be reporting those more often now (yay!) so even if it always seemed like it was fine it wasn’t. Something like going 50mphs down a 40mph road for years then one day a cop finally catches you.
Just keep in mind they are (and have always been) against the code of conduct whether directed as an insult, used as an adverb, or used in jest. Since you are so close to a ban, I would just avoid them. All it takes is one. Also note, the whole reason for the mature language filter is like a safety net incase someone does break the Code of Conduct. Like when you used it as an adverb, the mature language filter prevented someone from seeing it, but it doesn’t absolve you from the responsibility of following the code. So definitely avoid it.