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81

Like your reaction to getting a 24-hour silence in the forums?

If the only way you can make your point is by attacking someone, you’ve lost.

Don’t bring up what character someone posts on, what level they post on, what type of activity they appear to do in game.

Some players pick a character to post on, even if they don’t play the character most of the time. It doesn’t tell you everything about the player.

The achievements a fellow poster has does not give the whole story of what or how that player plays, just what is done on that account. They could have a separate Battlenet account they PvP on. Yes, some players like to separate their activities that much.

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82

Make that 100% and you’re golden, Ponyboy.

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He picked a couple things out, but that’s only 1% of my posts. He intentionally tried to find things that he felt were bad. (obviously)

I couldn’t even find those posts… that’s how deep he had to look! LOL

It doesn’t matter though, as my past forum posts are meaningless to the reason i was banned for a day.

It didn’t matter if I was the worst poster on the planet. I was banned for saying “dense”.

That’s a pretty ridiculous reason.

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I’m only upset because I’m a paying customer, and was banned for no reason. When I asked for a reason, I got a cookie cutter response.

I wasn’t really all that upset at the time, but when you feel you have no voice, and can get banned for seemingly no reason…

Yeah it upsets me.

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LoL, well played

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And those 1% are against the rules, hence why you received a forum suspension. Don’t do it AT. ALL.

Make it 0% of the time.

Incorrect. Your posting history is very relevant. It shows a pattern of behavior. If your pattern is good, and this is a temporary blip, perhaps the punishment is a warning. If your pattern is bad then it’s an ongoing issue that needs more severe penalties to get your attention.

Like a 24 hour suspension got your attention.

In your opinion. Blizzard has a different opinion.

Guess which one matters on these forums?

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87

No, I highly doubt they looked at my “past” posts to make a decision.

They simply got one post flagged, looked at it… didn’t like “dense” and was like… whatever ban him.

So, no… my past posts make zero difference. I’m pretty certain about that.

EDIT: Further, if my “past” had anything to do with it, then they should state that in the reason for the ban. But since they didn’t, it obviously wasn’t that.

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Your certainty is inspiring. It’s also wrong.

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89

LoL, perhaps… but how do you know?

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You were suspended for being insulting toward other posters - and that was not the only post of yours that did that.

You have had that very patiently explained to you over and over.

Stop insulting others. It does not matter if YOU think the comment was fine. You need to consider social norms within a polite society.

Go back to an old etiquette book if you wish - manners and being polite are age old. They are not some construct of modern society.

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91

K, well I guess we need to ban 95% of the forum posters. They insult each other more than I ever have.

Dense is a bad word now… got it.

EDIT: Any other words that aren’t bad, but are now bad I should know about?

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The bottom line is you don’t have to agree with someone but manners cost nothing. Soon as you insult, swear etc then you have lost the argument .

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93

OK, I have chimed in on my break at work. I cannot believe this is up to 81 posts as me typing this. That said, I am going to explain exactly why you are wrong about sticks and stones.

The CS regulars know I think most of this, if not they know enough, and will probably learn some more right now. This very well may be crossing a line, I honestly don’t know. If it is, a mod will either action me and silence me, or possibly just delete it. Time will inevitably tell. But this is a dark ride. You have been warned.

I was 4 or 5 when my parents got divorced. I remember it. It was ugly. When I say the ugly came out in both of them in ways I would not wish on my worst enemy, man. I vowed I would be one and done. It took me a long time to marry. Mid 30s. We had been together for a decade before we ever did.

My wonderful son is 17 now. He is a straight A and B student. Always has been, his entire life. Until last year, when he was 16. About a year ago or so, this started. An illusion to the kids that all was well, when indeed it was not. He is not dumb. He saw it. He saw the cold actions, changes in both of us. HIs grades dropped. Got his first C ever last semester. F as well. Currently failing a class now. All because, and he had not heard the nasty 4 little words, all because he KNEW they were said.

I became very withdrawn at those words. Depressed, Angry, Short of Temper and mouth, eager to fight anyone anywhere, etc. Those 4 words did not break my bones. They broke me. They broke me to the point I almost lost my job. They broke me to the point I had to call an 800 number for professional help of the UTMOST urgency. The kind of help that had I posted on the forums would have been flagged for real life threats so that Blizzard could send authorities to my home to check on my own personal well being and evaluation.

Almost a year later I am still broken. Better, but absolutely still broken. I sit here typing this wondering if today will be the day the process server knocks on my door to present me the papers. Papers I already have a copy of, as she has sent me the PDF copy anyway. I still battle anger, I still deeply battle depression. I still have little will to have fun and do things for myself.

4 words. From a foul mouth make a sailor blush tough as nails dislocate AND bruise my elbow in a wrestling tournament and not only pin the guy, but wrestle 2 more matches to win it that day. In short, my skin is thick. And 4 words broke me to my core.

Honestly, I don’t know if I will EVER be the same again. On top of that, I still defend her. I know it makes regulars here angry at times. That said NOT ONCE have they ever insulted me about it, called me dense or anything. When expressing their opinions, they have been nothing but respectful in their words to me.

So yes, words do hurt. They hurt more than you know. Take me as an example. Take my smart as nails 2nd degree blackbelt son and his lifetime grades until this started as an example. They do hurt. They can cut.

Just because you do not mean it as an insult does not mean it is not an insult. I have spent a year learning this point over again. Learning how to get my point across in a normal tone. And I am not even talking typing. I honestly don’t think I would have been able to control myself until recently. I am talking real interactions.

So take this for what it is worth. You never know the other person on the other side of the screen or what they are dealing with. You never know what your words will do to them, thick or thin skin alike.

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94

No, insinuating that people are stupid is rude and tends to generate conflict.

Stop insulting people when they don’t agree with you. If you have to do that, then you already lost the discussion.

“dense” has been a way to insinuate people are stupid for a VERY long time. Well over 100 years. Dense, block headed, rocks for brains, dumb as a brick.

Don’t pretend that being polite to others is something new.

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95

Well, that is more a debate than a discussion if we want to be specific about the terminology. Debate often is a means in which both parties are attempting to sway the other into their line of thinking. In that thread it feels like others don’t see agree with your point of view, not that they don’t get it.

No, I’m not. You may not agree that calling someone dense can be considered trolling, but my goal isn’t to convince you that you should feel it is. Only that our policies, that you agree to abide by when you post on our forums, may consider it so.

No I did not. That may be how you interpreted what I said but I said "I don’t think you understand my meaning”, not “slow to understand”. There is a difference in the two statements.

I didn’t say that, I was commenting on the Sticks and Stones rhyme, which I disagree with. Not that calling someone dense is in the same category as some other fairly nasty things people say to each other.

You may not fully appreciate my job but yes, I am extremely careful with my words here. In person? No, I can be flippant, extremely sarcastic and I can say things that may disparage others when I’m angry.

I make no excuses for my failings as a human, it is something I’m always working to improve. The difference between on the forums and off though is the process of typing out the response. It isn’t as if you stubbed your toe and the words just tumbled out onto the forum. You have to consciously type them out.

What you may be misunderstanding, Harsh, is that what you said was simply not appropriate and was absolutely something that can fall under trolling. We have a very limited means of informing a poster that their behavior may be inappropriate, even mildly so. The only means we have to do that is to penalize the account so that they can review their recent activity and learn what not to do.

That is why the penalty was 24 hours, which is the base penalty for any action and serves as just a “Hey, this wasn’t great, please avoid it in the future”.

Based on your tickets you obviously understood what you were penalized for, you just didn’t agree.

Those posts were within the same thread, Harsh, I didn’t go searching through your entire posting history, it was a single thread that contained the dense comment…

Well no, because they weren’t really appropriate so I deleted them. It was also to prevent others from searching for the exact phrase used and finding the post on their own so you could keep anonymity if you wanted, since you were posting on an alt when you started this thread.

You weren’t silenced for “no reason” you were given the reason, you simply don’t agree with it.

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96

I understand your job. I’m a software developer that does work with State and Local agencies, and as such I need to respond to tickets from time to time when my software has issues, or they’re having issues with it.

I obviously have to be very careful with what I say, as you must here.

Make no mistake, I understand why you’re careful with your words here.

I, on the other hand, am just a civilian and simply talk with people on the forums like I would with any normal street conversation with a friend.

I type just as fast, if not faster than I can speak. I type what I think and let it fly… I guess the forums here have evolved to a point where that’s not longer allowed.

Probably why I couldn’t find it then… lol

This much is certain. I don’t agree with it. The people that flagged it weren’t offended. They didn’t like what I was saying, and to get back at me, they flagged my post.

What they did was just as spiteful if not more so than anything I’ve said. I highly doubt these people were “offended”.

People report you for reasons other than being “offended”, they flag/report for spite. (I fully believe that’s exactly what happened here)

EDIT: And as you can probably tell, I’m not worried about my character’s “Anonymity”. Although I appreciate you being cautious… It wouldn’t bother me if you announced to the forums all my alts… LOL

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97

Perhaps this is where you need to take a step back and understand that the majority of those reading your posts likely don’t know you personally and aren’t “friends”. They’re people who play the same game as you do. So talking to them like you would with your friends, doesn’t necessarily work the same way.

You do understand that this is, at best, an assumption on your part right? You don’t know who let alone why people reported your post(s). You only know the end result was a 1-day silence.

I tend to browse the GD forums from time to time myself and while I rarely post there, I do indeed report posts that violate the forums rules. When I report, I move on. I don’t hang around to see if a player received any sort of penalty so that I can be like “YES! I got one!!” I report to try and help keep the forums a fun and friendly place to be.

All the best to your Harsh!

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Just for the sake of clarity, the “why” is almost entirely irrelevant when it comes to reports. We can’t ask, nor really verify if, players are personally offended by something and, as I said, it doesn’t matter if they are. If a thread is reported and a moderator reviews it, they look at the content of the post reported. That’s about it.

We do keep an eye out for folks abusing the reporting system though. If verified we absolutely do take action to curb that kind of behavior.

I think we’ve gotten as much as we can out of this thread so I’m going to lock it up. Thanks, all!

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