Fix The Actual Reporting Problem: Remove/Nerf the Squelching System

Community General Discussion
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The squelching system allows a group of players to report others and ultimately apply Silence effects to the reported player. This system works fine under the assumption that all reports are accurate, but it’s ripe for abuse from false reports from those with an agenda, or players who are ignorant of the rules.

This system has been problematic over the years but has really shined brightly with the recent boosting policy changes. Guilds/individuals are consistently being squelched, with GMs subsequently overturning the squelches, simply because other players feel that others shouldn’t be allowed to post advertisements that fully comply with in-game rules and guidance.

The effects of a squelch are the same as an official Silence, with the exception that a squelch is not marked as an official penalty unless confirmed by a GM. That is, not only is chat crippled, but other in-game features, such as mailbox usage, premade group finder, etc. are crippled, leaving many innocent players unable to enjoy the game due to false/inaccurate reporting. Those are detailed in the following article:

Allowing a toxic group of players, or players ignorant of the rules, to quash the playing abilities of others, regardless of innocence, should NOT be permitted. Either one of the following solutions should be implemented as soon as possible:

  • Nerf squelching so that its effects are limited to the channel that the reported message is contained in. This seeks a balance between “someone shouldn’t be able to spam racism all night” and “I did nothing wrong so why can’t I use mail or join groups too, and now I have to deal with tickets as well?”
  • Remove the squelching feature altogether and only allow reported players to suffer consequences if a GM, and only a GM, determines a violation occurs.

In any case, the current squelching system that is, in essence, weaponized by anti-boosting mobs, players ignorant of the rules, or other groups, needs seriously addressed.

For those who don’t want to see advertisements that are compliant with the rules, use the ignore feature and quit making false reports.

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Okay? So how do you propose to deal with those advertising selling gold, pushing highly inappropriate chat, ToS language violations and all that? Wait for days or weeks of them doing it til a GMs gets around to looking at it? That’s how it was before they added the squelch?

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Did I not plainly spell that out already?

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Or you could just not be a nuisance.

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I’d really prefer they hired more people handle reports than this system, but we probably know that won’t happen because of $$$. It’s a shame because a lot of people end up getting actioned until someone can look at their case.

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Okay, what if they are doing it over multiple channels? General, Trade, LookingGroup and and so on? Make a report for each channel? Whats to prevent them from hopping channels and continue posting?

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…Yes? Is right-clicking 3 times instead of 1 time that big of a deal?

And in a CRZ situation, you’ll probably only ever see them on /1 unless they’re in your realm group anyways.

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Certainly more efficient. And it would stop the channel hopping.

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So far, I have only seen people spamming/insulting others get squelched. It might not be a good/constructive pool of people, but rarely do I ever hear about people abusing the system on reddit/discord/forums.

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If they’re willing to hire as many GMs as they used to have back in WoW’s prime to monitor and quickly respond to reports, sure. That seems unlikely though.

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I’d 100% apply to be a GM for minimum wage if they went back to that system and allowed for remote-working. Definitely wouldn’t relocate, but as a work-from-home job it’d be perfect for supplemental income

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Could just split squelches specifically off into 3 segments.

Chat based = still able to use mailbox and groupfinder, but can’t speak in chat.
Groupfinder spam = no longer able to use the groupfinder.
Mailbox spam = no longer able to mail.

If verified by a GM to be legitimate, a silence still puts out the same consequences as now.

Though I suspect Humanbeak is significantly exaggerating the number being an innocent party being hit by this. Harder to say if this is worth working on or not.

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Then report them in multiple channels. It prevents their spam and doesn’t penalize people in group content who are legitimately following rules.

Your opinion on someone using trade chat for trade is irrelevant.

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Somewhat disagree OP, both the squelch and silence systems should be removed altogether due to the high incidence of false/bogus reports (as we are seeing the past few days). Because the in-game effect is basically the same between the two (another player is no longer able to chat), might as well scrap both systems due to the common abuse via false/bogus reports.

WoW was fine from 2004-2015, when an argument arose in the chat or you ran into a toxic player you… simply put them on Ignore and got on with your day :man_shrugging:

And the Ignore button is not abuseable by the general public, while the silence system is. With “industrial-scale” boosting communities now gone, and their heavy trade chat spam also gone, the existing Ignore button should suffice for most players as far as running into the occasional toxic player etc.

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I disagree that the silence system is abusable. Silences require manual review by a GM.

Squelches are what’s automated and easily abused.

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Well, a certain manbaby streamer with a cult following left the game after getting /spit removed…

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We actually haven’t seen any PROOF of false/bogus reports. Just because people said they got squelched and claim they just innocently posted a message about an individual/guild carry with no affiliation to the boosting communities, doesn’t mean they weren’t actually spamming the message and being disruptive of the chat channels.

A person or guild can still easily be spamming advertisements without any affiliation with the boosting communities at all, gotta remember the entire reason the squelch system was implemented in the first place was because people were spamming advertisements to join guilds and didn’t have anything at all to do with the current situation.

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18

I take it you don’t read the CS forums where even blues acknowledge squelches followed by overturns.

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What we have now is better than it used to be - as it used to auto-suspend for 3 hrs or some such until it could be investigated. A squelch is already a compromise to avoid it effecting you wholly.

If people are independently reporting such messages and no one is saying “report X” then generally you want to change your typing behavior until things are sorted out. Whether that’s no longer using adverts in that channel and instead waiting for someone else to advertise they’re looking to buy a boost, or taking it to Discord servers etc.

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https://us.battle.net/support/en/article/44277

YOU CANNOT
Reply to Whispers from WoW Friends/Non-friends
Talk in global channels (General, Trade, etc.) or Instance Chats (Raid, Party, Battlegrounds)
Create Calendar Invites/Events
Send in-game mail, party invitations to Non-Battle.net friends, or War Game and Duel invitations
Use the Premade Groups tool
Send or receive Arena team and Guild invitations
Speak in Battle.net Chat (including communities and Real ID)

For many people, they may as well consider themselves wholly affected and just log out.