I recently received a 7 day suspension due to “abusive language”, but I don’t believe I have said anything in public or private chat that would be under abusive language/cursing. I rarely use any profanity/cursing in public or private chat, and the only cases I can think or using filtered words would be with close friends through private whispers, so wanted to check on this.
The one thing I can think of recently was responding to someone in the LFG channel if the server (Living Flame) was a healthy population. I did mention that the server seems to be low activity/low population, due to half the population transferring to Wild Growth during the short transfer window. I did mention that we are kind of stuck here as prisoners until transfers open up again.
So I am not sure if I was mass reported by players for the above, but I didn’t think this would fall under abusive language.
Would I be able to check what was flagged as abusive language, and I can try to avoid this in the future?
Edit: regarding penalty length, I assume this is the case due to previous infractions with character naming violations. I previously had many infractions due to multiple characters with names that went against Blizzard’s naming policy (all of which have been changed or deleted since then). It seems to have piled up since I had multiple characters with naming violations – after the first suspension, if I logged on to the other characters, their names also got reported, actioned/turned into longer suspensions, until I finally cleared or deleted all of my characters of their names. Just wanted to add more clarity on the penalty length above, as I don’t think its related to previous abusive language incidents.
One report or one hundred reports, they’re handled the same.
Do you happen to use any role playing add-ons that allow you to customize info about your characters? If so, do you have anything inappropriate in that add-on?
Otherwise, you might need to wait for a blue to jog your memory.
You still used it, even one time will be actioned. Also, you don’t have to be using profanity to be actioned, just toxic behaviour alone will get you into trouble.
That would have gotten you squelched, if it did happen. You copped a suspension, means a GM did look at it and agreed with the reports.
I guess I should correct this in saying I can’t even remember the last time I’ve used a curse word in-game outside of friends whispers or bnet chat with friends (in private chat sense this is more casual/friendly chat, non aggressive use of cursing).
For Addon’s the only one I use that publicly announces in game is Nova World Buffs, but thats more of a buff drop reminder announcement. Maybe Details with character name frame, but I think that only lists my in game name (no nickname added on Details).
It doesn’t have to be profanity that can get you reported. Spamming / Advertising frequently or in the wrong channels, toxic behavior (name calling without profanity), inappropriate discussions in public channels (politics / religion, racism) all fall under “abusive chat” and can get you penalized if reported.
Your only recourse if you’ve not done any of the above it to send in an appeal ticket.
With the above, would posting LFG related messages in city trade channel fall under this? Although I wouldnt put it as spam messaging, I am guilty of posting LFM x dungeon/raid in city trade channel, as I am hoping to get more traction/audience to fill groups faster
I guess the same logic would be used by all of the “WTS Summon x location” advertising that goes into LFG channel though.
Has anyone been penalized for selling/advertising summons in LFG Channel, or for posting LFM x dungeon/raid in trade channel previously?
For Retail, all advertising related messages for runs / carries go in the Trade Services channel only. Advertising in Trade Chat can get you reported and actioned.
For other versions, I’m not entirely sure of the policy, but I would suppose that LFG is for LFG and Trade is for Trade.
Also, posting to frequently, even if in the correct channel, can be seen as spamming. My rule of thumb is not to post a message more than every 2 minutes. If you post more frequently than that it’s likely the same people are seeing it.
Oh actually I guess there might be one more incident to add where multiple players could have reported chat from me. At least a few players responded saying “report player name” for gameplay sabotage etc. in BG chat
During AV, I did post in BG/raid chat for members to recall (use AV trinket to port back to our base), as the opposing team had broken through our defensive line and they were close to getting to our boss (drek or van).
Some players just want quick 3-4min AV games (win or loss), so with me asking the team to recall/port to base to defend, these players will ask everyone in BG to report me since I could potentially ruin their 3-4min quick AV game.
Not sure if this would be considered abusive chat, but I did post this in multiple AVs when our defenses were penetrated, as most players do want AV games to actually be engaging instead of 3-4min rush losses/wins
None of that, as described, would rise to the level of meriting account action. Even if the entire BG reported, no GM would impose a penalty unless there was something in your communications that crossed the line.
Now, being salty, toxic, or the slightest bit profane or insulting while “exhorting” your team towards a particular strategy would be actionable. And PvP is pretty famous for people losing their cool and saying things with excess spice and color.
If you think really hard I’m sure you can remember what you said that was abusive. Go back a few weeks see what you can come up with.
Pro tip: It’s not about being reported it’s about what you typed and hit enter on in the game. Masked language is the same as typing it out fully, I see that a lot of times within the game people using masked language thinking it won’t get reported. It takes ONE report to get chat looked at. If you did nothing wrong then nothing will happen.
Yup can guarantee nothing salty, toxic, or profane was added on that message to the team. Was literally a message along the lines of “Need more to RECALL, use your [AV Trinket], they have breached our defenses”. Generally about 4-5 people will eventually recall back to our base, and a lot of the time we end up wiping them on boss or pushing them out of our base, so this is why I will post this to the team when needed.
Looking through other threads, I guess team diversion/strategy messages could also be viewed as gameplay disruption, which is also actionable.
But I completely know what you mean with the above – I think we have all seen that person in BG chat that is just not having a good day.
It is important to understand that regardless of if one person reports you or one hundred, the key to consider is that outside of a possible temporarily squelch, nothing else should generally happen unless the reported text is verified as violating our policies.
Well, looking over recent reports, I would avoid a few things.
First, name calling. It doesn’t seem common, but that falls on the toxic side. Trolling in BGs by attempting to trick someone into using /afk to be removed would be problematic.
What seems to have done the trick here though is a focus on discussing and illustrating those areas a bathing suit covers.
Avoid profanity as well. Clear or masked, it still violates policy and if reported can earn a penalty.
No, naming and chat violations are usually separate. You appear to have had multiple chat infractions since 2022. Four of them just this year. I’m actually a little surprised that this is only a week given the history.
In either case, I hope that helps avoid such penalties going forward.
Thanks this is super helpful in understanding the case.
For the chat violations, I’m actually surprised there are 4 incidents from this year. For this year, this is probably the first one thats come up as “abusive language” in actions. For earlier this year, everything was connected to the characters with naming violations (based on the email updates, they all list naming infractions from this year, and this is the only one that lists abusive language)
Actually, you are correct. Those seem to be naming, not chat. That explains why your current penalty is only a week. This is what happens when I don’t open up the window all the way… there’s a slider!
