Question about what would be actionable for account penalties

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I have questions about what would be actionable offenses so I can try to avoid getting my account closed. So obviously I know that apparently calling people out in chat is actionable.

What about just general profanity? (i see it all the time in wow there is a profanity filter) like “bleep it, pull”

What about real world topics in chat that aren’t toxic or saying something stupid in chat? For example, if politics is discussed in barrens chat, I might say something like “Joe Biden and Trump in WWE cage match winner take all.” or how “I’m in love with my undead female toon and she is my waifu.”

I do try to avoid chat (barrens chat usually) if people are being super toxic.

I do agree with silence I got, because I was being a jerk in BG chat, but I am worried like if I get reported multiple times Blizz looks at those reports doesn’t find those reports valid but saw a week ago I said something weird in barrens chat and decides that was actionable.

Finally, why are there fishing nodes in AV if non participation can be actionable because I did see in a post that non participation is actionable. For example, horde were getting camped in the cave in AV so I just hid all the way in the back?

I did check through my email this was my first chat violation. So I am assuming I’ll be fine if I just avoid being mean to the team if they frustrate me.

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Avoid politics religion sex masked profanity toxicity avoid name calling insulting someones inteligence. Just because theres a filter doesnt excuse u for abusing it.

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Your first example is explicitly forbidden and has been since the game’s inception. No exceptions.

Real world topics with their nature rooted in division are highly recommended against and can also be sanctioned. It all depends on the nature of the crowd you’re ‘entertaining.’

Meme-adjacent chat isn’t usually actioned against unless it contains other factors that run afoul of the rules.

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If reported, Will nail you every time. Nor is the profanity filter a bypass for it

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The filter is in place as one extra guard to try and protect minor children or even adults who don’t want to see that mess in chat. It does NOT give anyone the approval to just go ham. Think of it this way. Just because someone dons a bulletproof vest, it doesn’t give anyone the freedom to just start shooting.

As to the rest? It doesn’t matter if it is directed towards a player or just generally with no particular target. Toxicity, vulgar language and the like will get you dinged. If you see it happen, report it. A bit of advice though, don’t tell people you’re reporting them for X. It just invites a whole other level of chaos.

Please note that social sanctions stack. Your week silence will be a week’s suspension next time. And they tend to double from there until Blizzard gets tired of punishing a player who doesn’t learn and doesn’t change their ways - then the account is banned.

Some reading for you:

[EDIT] Apologies. I’ve a bad habit of not having a post completely finished before submitting it, or I think of something else to add.

In addition to above, just a reminder of the Social Contract we all must agree to in order to play the game. While it’s not all-inclusive of the things we can and cannot do, it does a good job of some basic common sense guidelines.


Source

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I feel like this was all answered in your other topic?

That isn’t how it works. They don’t go fishing for stuff to action over, especially if it was weeks removed from the actual report. Most likely they look at chat in a limited time frame from the initial report, but that is not specific knowledge anyone would have and GMs wouldn’t give out.

I have reported players for using cuss words just like in your example. Even if not targeted at anyone, it’s still rule breaking and I don’t want to see it.

It is NEVER a good idea to talk about politics in game. There’s too many emotions tied up in that topic for it to ever be civil. Also, it just has no place in the game at all.

Posting cringe sentences may or may not get actioned it fully depends on what was said, but honestly, who wants to read that?

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I

That’s mean. I generally don’t report anyone UNLESS they are bullying someone else, and sometimes people who are spamming chat. But now that I know people could lose their accounts I may not even do that. (except for bullies I would still report that) People are so sensitive nowadays. I feel its like kindergarten. You said a no no word. I’ve worked in warehouses, restaurants, etc. You should see the words that come out of some workers mouths especially warehouse mgmt and the chefs. Gorden Ramsey but worse.

Also, if the penalty system requires people to report stuff then it’s not effective. For example Path of Exile has a really fast penalty system that doesn’t require any player reports, as soon as you say anything that is against the rules, you will get silenced with a reason almost right away. WoW needs something like that then. Because I see so much toxic crap especially when I played retail (classic is barrens chat and bg chat really, that is a problem sometimes)

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It’s amazing how it always turns into an issue about other people, never the people that are actually the common denominator around any given scenario. Like clockwork, really. Tangentially, what happens at one establishment doesn’t necessarily mean it’s permitted at that establishment, it just means you aren’t getting caught or doing it in a way that harms the business. It also doesn’t mean it’s permitted at other establishments.

It also doesn’t require people to be sensitive, either. It doesn’t have to be offensive to be inappropriate. Keep doing things that go against the rules you agreed to in order to play the game and you’ll eventually just find yourself unable to play that license any longer.

They’ve tried stuff like this in the past. It was subverted in minutes.

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Congratulations on being part of the problem.

So you want Blizzard to employ 100’s or more GM’s to monitor every chat channel across every realm, across every region so that they become proactive instead of reactive when it comes to reporting?

Right!

Will you be happy with the game time cost increasing to support this massive increase in workforce, equipment and office space requirements, IT support, wages, super, insurances and the like?

Didn’t think so. Me neither.

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But it’s not. This is not rated M for mature. There are minors that play this game. There are adults that just don’t like those words in the game. Cuss words are against the rules and, crucially, have always been against the rules.

We aren’t at a Gordon Ramsay show. We are in a video game.

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I and many others do NOT wish to see your profanity that you may or may not spurt out. How hard is it to just scream your profanity at your screen, it takes so much more effort to type stuff out and hit enter. Yet if you just scream you’ll only upset your household or neighbours. And won’t have blizzard suspending you or something.

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Blizzard has always had a strong stance on what is appropiate and what isn’t appropiate, especially along the lines of chat. Things like profanity has never been allowed within the game. Even with the language filter, it doesn’t change the rule around. If anyone uses profanity, they are then of course subject to action. Now, Blizzard is usually pretty lenient when it comes to taking action, as they give people a chance to change, but if people refuses to take those chances to change their behaviour within the game, then that is when the punishment gets a lot more harsher towards the player, eventually leading to the closing of the game license or the closure of the entire BNet account.

B. Rules Related to “Chat” and Interaction With Other Users.
Communicating with other Users and Blizzard Entertainment representatives is an integral part of World of Warcraft and is referred to in this document as “Chat.” Your Chats may be subject to review, modification, and deletion without notice by Blizzard Entertainment. Additionally, you hereby acknowledge that Blizzard Entertainment is under no obligation to monitor Chat and you engage in Chat at your own risk. When engaging in Chat in World of Warcraft, or otherwise utilizing World of Warcraft, you may not:

(i) Transmit or post sexually explicit images or other content or language which in the sole discretion of Blizzard Entertainment is deemed to be offensive; nor shall you transmit any unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable content or language, nor may you use a misspelling or an alternative spelling to circumvent the content and language restrictions listed above;

(ii) Carry out any action with a disruptive effect, such as cause the Chat screen to “scroll” faster than other users are able to type to it, including setting up macros with large amounts of text that, when used, can have a disruptive effect on the normal flow of Chat;

(iii) Disrupt the normal flow of dialogue in Chat or otherwise act in a manner that negatively affects other users, individuals or entities, including, but not limited to, posting “Spam” messages on World of Warcraft (“Spam” messages as used in this document include, but are not limited to, any effort to use a computer or other electronic device to post an unauthorized and/or unsolicited advertisement to World of Warcraft);

(iv) “Spam” by posting or sending more than one unsolicited message or piece of mail to a single address or in a chat area;

(v) Communicate or post any user’s personal information in or on the World of Warcraft, or websites or forums related to World of Warcraft;

(vi) Use bots or other automated techniques to collect information or communicate or post any user’s personal information in or on World of Warcraft, or websites or forums related to World of Warcraft or Blizzard Entertainment

(vii) Harass, threaten, stalk, embarrass or cause distress, unwanted attention or discomfort to another user of World of Warcraft or other person or entity; or

(viii) Cheat during game play, including but not limited to modification of the game program files.

(ix) Participate in any action that, in the opinion of Blizzard Entertainment results in an authorized user of World of Warcraft being "scammed " or ‘defrauded’ out of gold, weapons, armor, or any other items that he/she has earned through authorized game play in World of Warcraft.

source from 2004

Original User Manual also backs up the statement.

This has nothing to do with people being sensitive or being in kindergarten. Let me put it this way, and this is only on the basis of my own opinion, but why do you think the toxicity within the game isn’t as bad as some other games?

If Blizzard did allow for people to get extremely toxic, then things could go way down hill for World of Warcraft.

I mean, it is here in Australia

https://www.classification.gov.au/titles/world-warcraft

But Australia is not the only country that plays WoW.

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All it would take is an AI program. Companies already offer solutions for auto moderation. For example, let’s say I say something mean in chat, AI chatbot sends me a whisper saying the message has not been sent in chat and reminding me to be mindful of the rules.

or something like “This message has profanity and is not allowed.” AND then let’s say I get creative with trying to swear, then people report me and I get silenced. In this situation, the game is telling me I’m breaking the rules, so if I try go around that, it should be a silence. . I am really trying to wrap my head around the current system, having a profanity filter in game, but at the same time it being against the rules. I can understand having a rule against super obscene language like if every word out of someone in chat is cuss word, and they’re referencing body parts (like I did) that should be a silence.

I see profanity all the time in chat and nothing is done, so I only know they only enforce the rules when enough people report, otherwise based the rules, I would have been banned in my first year coming back to classic. I will def be more mindful of what I say in chat, now, however. No more cringy jokes, or anything like that. But I will still probably say stuff in AV like “this is bleeping stupid” when we are getting cave camped by allies, and go fish.

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Suggestions are thataway

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I don’t think blizzard is going to trust ai to monitor chat as I have seen already in numerous posts in other areas and here about how blizzard supposedly has ai doing things already. Which means if you got flagged by the supposed ai chat monitor that you would still come here claiming your innocence. If you see profanity then report it and have a feel good moment that you helped clean up the game from toxicity.

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Well, as someone with ASD I have trouble with communication my whole life, so I don’t believe in being the communication police. When I was a young adult, my first customer service (people interaction job) was a retail job, and customers would come up to me say “good morning,” or “how are you” and I would be like “not good, or no its not a good morning” Why people say that stuff still baffles me to this day, but after having a meeting with HR where they read all the complaints from customers about me, I learned people don’t really care about how you are doing when they say that good morning and stuff.

My job a few years ago was at a hospital delivering patients food to them, I got written up because I had been delivering a patient’s meal who was basically almost passed away, but because of the ASD failed to read the room with the family in there and got written up for being “insensitive”

However, that doesn’t mean I think people should a free pass to say whatever they want on the internet, as we’ve seen how having permissible attitude towards anything goes on social media can lead to violent real-world consequences or criminals using that service for illicit activity.

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My opinion is that until you actually read the rules, understand them, and most importantly, FOLLOW THE RULES…then you have no business telling Blizzard how they should enforce the rules.

This quoted part is two in-game rule violations, and one forum violation. Don’t come crying when you lose your account (or forum posting privileges) for repeated violations in the future.

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Only takes 1 report.

And if you think nothing is done, have a look at the topic list in this very forum, there have been multiple threads about account action due to profanity/chat violations.

The filter is to protect those of us who really don’t want to read it when others can’t self-censor what they type BEFORE they press enter.

If bleeping is interchanged with any profanity/cuss word regardless if it’s directed at someone or not, it is still reportable.

As is non-participation.

What, exactly, is the purpose of this thread?

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Not a defense nor an excuse.

That’s your choice. But that doesn’t mean you can break the rules and expect to get away with it.

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So… I should let allies farm me in the cave? Why have fishing nodes in AV?