Questions about mass reporting

[Mogrann-faerlina]

I am a person that follows the rules. I have only had a gm contact me once since Classic and that was about a pet name. Other than that no actions on my account.
My guild has had people get a “ban” from mass reporting. This is in relation to the AQ mount quest chain. Apparantly other guilds are mass reporting people so that there are less people farming.
I was informed to not talk in general/ say/ or whispers to people I don’t know. This does seem legit because I have never got so many random whispers from people I don’t know. Same as people running up and talking to me in say.
My questions are:

1. Is it true about mass reporting? Can a guild get many people to report you and you instantly get kicked from game?
2. If the above is true if the reporting is found to be false and done to control the farming of the bugs is anything done to the reporters?
3. Should I follow what was suggested? Is the only way they can mass report be from clicking your name in game?

I will say this is causing me anxious moments as I enjoy playing. I enjoy helping out my guild but am also scared that I could lose my account.

Thank you to anyone who has information for me on this subject:)

[Ravenhawk-blackwater-raiders]

Okay, the only thing a mass report from right click reporting is that the target is squelched real fast, pending a GM review. There is no way to mass report for an auto ban or suspension. That’s not how it works.

[Ravenhawk-blackwater-raiders]

@Mogrann-faerlina

is anything done to the reporters

Oh yeah…stick around here long enough you’ll see the complaints from the reporters.

[Ravenhawk-blackwater-raiders]

The reason for the disconnect when squelched is currently the only way to disconnect you from the chat system.

[Rufflebottom-bloodhoof (Rufflebottom)]

@Mogrann-faerlina

Can a guild get many people to report you and you instantly get kicked from game?

No. Reports are investigated before any account action is taken.

@Mogrann-faerlina

if the reporting is found to be false and done to control the farming of the bugs is anything done to the reporters?

Potentially a history of false reporting can be actioned.

@Mogrann-faerlina

Is the only way they can mass report be from clicking your name in game?

No. There are others, like targeting you and right-clicking your portrait.

There has been recent account action in Classic for questionable acts leading up to the opening of AQ. Blizzard is likely keeping an eye on activity there. A guild reporting a lot of other players would likely come to someone’s attention.

Edit:
If someone was suspended when they were reported it wasn’t because of that report. It was because a previous report had been reviewed and acted upon. The only “automated” system is the squelch system. It limits chat but still allows you to play. The squelch itself does not cause a suspension/ban. That only happens after a review of the report.

[Ravenhawk-blackwater-raiders]

@Mogrann-faerlina

I was informed to not talk in general/ say/ or whispers to people I don’t know.

Actually, that’s good advice for the current climate on those servers. Just know, those that abuse the mass report will get what’s coming to them in no time.

[Dathrel-malfurion (Dathrel)]

@Mogrann-faerlina

Is it true about mass reporting? Can a guild get many people to report you and you instantly get kicked from game?

No. Almost all people who complain about being victim of “mass reporting” have actually done something wrong and are just trying to create a false narrative to garner sympathy. Attempting to discredit enforcers and accusers is a common tactic among the guilty, but it’s particularly worthless in WoW because Blizzard doesn’t act if there’s ambiguity. Luckily they have policies that are very binary and logs that are very thorough.

[Orlyia]

Just for anyone that might run across this and think abusing our reporting system is a good idea - it’s not. We, in fact, take a very dim view of that.

[Mogrann-faerlina]

Ty for all of the replies. I have shared this post with my guild.

[Mirasol-mannoroth (Mirasol)]

Orlyia it seems this topic is kind of a big deal already and the narrative around it is leading to a lot of false, or misinformed statements being put out on gaming media.

The situation is that a person on reddit claims to have been suspended 7 days based on mass reporting by another guild.

r/classicwow - Sulf Ally abuses mass report to auto ban Scarab Lords

That thread is nearing 1000+ comments now and has resulted in other venues covering the topic - also with information that does not match what we were told about Blizzard’s automation, or lack thereof.

Wowhead has now written and promoted a news article about it that is misleading at best and has a lot of speculation in it.

Classic Scarab Lord Griefing - Mass Reporting Leads to Automated Ban

Is it possible that Blizzard might address this officially? I know that Araxom used to handle the roving CS issues on Reddit but I am not sure what resources are around still.

[Orlyia]

Oh, I’m aware. The thing is - we don’t do this stuff in public. Folks that jump on these kind of bandwagons - well, if you find yourself needing to appeal in connection to this event, do make sure to mention that in your appeal.

As to people abusing our reporting system, not recommended - at all. But again, that will be between us - and them. I’m again going to say, we take an exceptionally dim view of that behavior.

[Mirasol-mannoroth (Mirasol)]

@Orlyia

The thing is - we don’t do this stuff in public. Folks that jump on these kind of bandwagons - well, if you find yourself needing to appeal in connection to this event, do make sure to mention that in your appeal.

I know you don’t usually do much in public, for good reason. My concern is that without correcting misinformation about the system, it breeds a lot of false narratives that actively discourage people from using the reporting system, and appealing via the tickets.

I am not used to Wowhead being so off base and spreading what is not only unconfirmed about the scarab lord thing, but also misrepresenting the Asmon situation again.

The title of their article claims AS FACT that the person was suspended due to an automated system. They have no way to know that and it goes against everything we have been told.

“# Mass Reporting Leads to Automated Ban”

[Delimicus-heartseeker]

@Mirasol-mannoroth

but also misrepresenting the Asmon situation again.

Yeah, that wowhead article even states he was given an automatic silence after being mass reported. They’re not differentiating between the squelch and silence penalty systems. Here’s the quote from that article:

Asmongold famously showed this off in a 2016 video in which he engineered a situation to have a group of followers mass report him for abusive language after saying “I love World of Warcraft”, resulting in an automatic silence.

[Mirasol-mannoroth (Mirasol)]

@Delimicus-heartseeker

Yeah, that WoWhead article even says he was given an automatic silence when being mass reported. They’re not even differentiating between the squelch and silence penalty systems. Here’s the quote from that article:

Exactly! That is what I am talking about AND it leaves out a critical fact - Asmon got a suspension for abusing the reporting system by having his followers do that.

• Mass chat report = Squelch (designed for spammers like gold sellers)
• Overturned on appeal
• Suspension from game was then issued for abusing the report system

This was all public back then and I am surprised to see Wowhead get it wrong.

EDIT - this would have been a great opportunity for Wowhead to explain that Blizzard does punish abuse of the reporting system - and Asmon was a perfect example of that!

[Orlyia]

Pû - your first and last warning. Not the day to start with your pot stirring.

Just a word to the wise.

[Pû-eitrigg]

I’m serious. I think it’s important to clarify that what wowhead is claiming did NOT happen as they say it did. It looks like someone may have misinterpreted what happened and reddit took off with it and then wowhead ran with it. What wowhead’s done is a disservice to the blues here and the regular posters here who try to correct people with accurate information when they start making wild claims like the existence of automatic suspensions. That’s all.

[Loriley-dalaran]

I’d agree that it would be wise to do some official statement about this. I often tell people who claim reporting doesn’t work, or only works with mass reporting that they are wrong. It was tiresome to discuss with these people before, with wowhead running full tilt with this narrative I know it’s gonna get worse. In my classic guild there are some people that constantly run the narrative that bots don’t get dealt with, everything is automation from blizzards part, now that they have a “news story” to support their narrative it’s going to be very very tiresome. Some public declaration will be needed here, even just what is and isn’t automated (squelch can be, suspensions are not) etc.

[Glaxigrav]

Thanks for your patience while we investigated this one, everybody. After reviewing the accounts in question, we can confirm that the actions did not happen as the result of abuse of the reporting system. While investigating the accounts involved, we did discover evidence of some players who were attempting to file false reports with bad intent and have actioned those accounts for abuse of game systems.

As a reminder, the reporting system is there to help us combat bad behavior, toxicity, and unfair gameplay. Attempts to trick or defraud a Game Master or abusing the system will result in account actions.

For anyone whose account received a suspension or action and would like to appeal, please submit a ticket and our Game Masters will investigate. We’ll continue to review these appeals on a case by case basis, and as always overturn and make it right if an error was made. As I won’t be able to discuss the specifics of the accounts involved, I’ll be locking this thread. Thank you for bringing this to our attention, everyone.