This is just a question in general that I can relay to my guild because we’ve had a few people be silenced because of abusive language reported (myself included). I was wondering if I can gather information reguarding what punishements go up to from repeat offenders or just how it gets based off from severity. This is info that I think would be useful to my guild and in general keep a few of my guildies who are on their 3rd to 4th strike from possibly being banned.
I introduce the Forums Code of Conduct!
I encourage everyone to read the Forum CoC to make sure they are not getting themselves into trouble.
I wish you all good luck and to have fun. Till next time.
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A silence is the very first level for the most part. That said, depending on severity, Blizz is within their rights to choose a level of punishment they feel appropriate for the offense.
We have seen several instances (you can search this forum in particular) where abusive and inappropriate language has led to account closures.
Language doesn’t have to be vulgar in order to receive an account action.
First offence is typically a silence, followed by a week long suspension, then something closer to a 2 week suspension, then a month (in some cases) or six months. Beyond that, it’s like saying goodbye to your account because you can’t follow the rules.
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for in game usually now first time you get a silence for about a week. After that you get a suspension for a week and goes up from there very quickly up. They are not very tolerant of it any longer! We have seen a few people posting here who have got perma a banned for this
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Instantly into a week suspension? I thought it was 3 days first then 7, but ig that makes sense since the silence is also 7 days
I haven’t seen or heard of them doing a 3 day in a very long time now.
Thankfully, as adults, we can learn from our transgressions and choose not to type inappropriate or toxic things.
Don’t fall for others trying to ‘bait’ you either. Report and ignore.
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Maybe it’ll just be another silence for me since its been like 2 months since my last violation/reporting. idk if they reset that penalty track dependent on good behavior overtime
Nope! Those don’t fall off, even after years of good behaviour.
Just follow the rules. It’s not hard.
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Well that sucks to know, maybe they’ll change that someday, but thats just wishful thinking lol
That’s generally been the case/standard since they launched the game.
They give plenty of chances to do better. Eventually, they stop giving those chances when people simply cannot stop being toxic. We don’t need that sort of garbage in this game and I’m glad that they’ve made it so much easier to report and that they’re taking a strong stance on it too.
If you don’t want to lose your account, follow the rules you agreed to follow.
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Fair point indeed, 20 years and never once been penalized and finally since things have gotten a bit strange I’ve been punished for it. Gonna have to change some rules in my groups to account for it. Whats this MVP thing next to your name btw?
I’m a player who has been an active poster in the CS forums for many (close to 15 years now I think) many years. MVP posters are simply players who have been chosen by Blizzard for providing helpful and accurate information to other players over time.
Blue posters are actual Blizzard employees.
Edit: I should note that there are other types of MVPs too, but the greens who post here, for the most part, are CS or Tech/CS MVPs. Some are even MVPs for other games like Diablo etc 
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Thats pretty cool ngl, would like to have a title like that but I’m not active on here lol. Went ahead and added some rules to my group about what we say, honestly if I do get in trouble and get silenced again I just hope I can still do M+ and Raids with my friends, but idk if silencing lets me do M+
This support article discusses what you can & cannot do while silenced.
| You Cannot | You Can |
|---|---|
| Reply to Whispers from WoW Friends/Non-friends | See Whispers from WoW Friends/Non-friends |
| Talk in global channels (General, Trade, etc.) or Instance Chats (Raid, Party, Battlegrounds) | Party/Raid Chat (with Invited friends) |
| Create Calendar Invites/Events | Talk in Global Channels that have a moderator |
| Send in-game mail, party invitations to Non-Battle.net friends, or War Game and Duel invitations | Share Quests |
| Use the Premade Groups tool | Use the Dungeon and Raid Finders |
| Send or receive Arena team and Guild invitations | Use Guild Chat |
| Speak in Battle.net Chat (including communities and Real ID) |
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Over the years we have tried different penalty systems in an attempt to deter folks violating our Code of Conduct. We used to only apply suspensions, which would increase in duration until the account was closed. Several years ago we were trying to use silences. Each consecutive silence would multiple, which could result in an account being silenced for months/years if they continued.
Now we start off with a silence as the initial warning, but move to a suspension that continues to grow. Most of the time it goes from 1 week to 2 weeks, ,etc… until eventually the account is closed.
Penalties used to decay fairly fast, but we found folks would misbehave until they got up the chain a bit and then stop for awhile until they returned to doing it again.
We’ve been giving less chances to correct the behavior overall before that final penalty is applied. While we believe in giving folks the chance to correct the behavior we also have to take into account how that person is impacting other players.
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As others said, penalties do not drop off the license. If you have already been Silenced, the next penalty will be a Suspension of at least a week. No matter how mild the offense. It is very much a black and white thing - if the reported text breaks the rules then they have to give the next penalty up. They can skip to a HIGHER penalty for really really bad stuff, but not a lower one than the penalty ladder allows.
Oh, and on MVPs, there are a few types - Community MVPs that function within the specific game community, and Tech/Customer Support MVPs. There are also a few odd others for specialized positions like API development or Addon making.
This pinned post on the WoW General forum is for Community MVPs, but it applies to the TS/CS program for the most part as well. Scroll down to the explanation of MVPs there.
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They tried starting with shorter penalties. These were found to be ineffective
The blue stamp of approval has appeared, tysm Vrak! Sad to think that people would abuse the fact that penalties would slowly go away, and thanks to them the rest of us have to suffer. I’ll be correcting behavior from now on and also enforcing my group to stay humble
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They stepped things up because the old punishments where not being effective
Which is unfortunate, especially in this day and age where people get offended by every interaction. I fear the amount of accounts that have been warned or worse due to behavior they’ve had for years.