"Silenced" For 7 Days From Players Abusing the Report Function

Support Customer Support
1

Hello, I was Silenced for 7 days in WOTLK Classic for Advertising I would help heal heroics for gold here is my ad…

“150g Per Heroic. Full BiS 4pc T-7 Holy Pally. Selling Heals for Anything you need Quick Runs/Achievements/BiS Hunting ETC… Message me 123 before inviting or i will not accept.”

I understand some players do not like that people might ask for gold for healing or tanking but it clearly states in Article ID: 187406 -“Individuals and guilds selling boost or assistance in raiding, dungeon, or PvP activities for gold is allowed but can only be advertised in-game through the Trade Services chat channel.”

I find it extremely unfair that because enough random people reported my ad your system automatically silenced me for 7 days but now it can take up to 7days for a mod to read my appeal I made “in-game”. This is a huge inconvenience added to my account and I personally feel all the players that abused the report function should be penalized and silenced back as stated in Article ID: 42673 - “While we encourage you to report players that are behaving in a disrespectful manner, falsely reporting another player with the sole intent of restricting their gameplay is also unacceptable and will result in penalties to your account.”

I understand the report function plays an important role in keeping out people selling services and such for real money. But it should not be this easy to punish players who did nothing wrong and fall victim to the player’s Abuse of the report function. A real person should have investigated the report and if I’m wrong about all this I think a simple warning and a link to the rules I broke to explain what not to do next time!! would have been enough not straight to a 7-day silence on my account. I can’t use a mailbox I can’t find group’s I can’t speak in the game, it’s a HUGE inconvenience. Also What happens next time I go to advertise healing for gold and players abuse the report function AGAIN do I get banned? It seriously makes me not want to play at all.

2 Likes
2

First the only part of the system that is automatic is the squelch. If your peers report you enough a squelch is applied until a GM reviews the report. Seeing you have a 7 day silence, a GM did review the reports and felt a time out was warranted. You can appeal the decision, however the ticket time is a bit on the long side right now.

7 Likes
3

Here’s the thing, GMS personally look at your chat history or something before taking action From what I hear, so I wouldn’t be so quick and judge the players. I would also base it on how many times you were saying that message.

4 Likes
4

While you are correct in that there isn’t anything wrong with the message itself, and so long as you are only posting in the Trade channel - that part you’re doing the right thing for. Without knowing all that the GM saw on their side of things, the only other thing I could imagine to be the issue is the frequency of your posting.

It’s not an abuse of the feature if a GM ( a real live one, at that) agreed you were in violation of the rules. People could report you day in and day out, but if no rules were broken, the worst you’d have is a temporary squelch until a GM reviewed the reports. In this case, a GM agreed you were in violation of the rules, hence the official 7 day silence. With that validation of your realm mate’s reports, it takes away the clain of abuse, I’m afraid.

And since you were found to be in violation of the rules, however, that real live GM cited it to be, it’s supposed to be an inconvenience. It’s supposed to be a punishment to help remind one of what can happen when they are in violation of the rules. Fair warning though - it won’t be a silence if you get pinged again. Usually, the in-game silence is the big warning before actual suspensions come into play.

Now, if you truly feel that you were wrongly silenced, I absolutely encourage you to appeal the ruling. Yes, ticket times right now are atrocious, and it’s likely your ticket won’t be answered before your silence is up. But the bigger thing to look for is if your appeal wins out, that black mark of your silence will be removed from your account. It may seem like a small thing after losing out on these lost days, but it goes a long way when they look at player history should you find yourself under GM review again.

I do wish you luck, however you choose to roll with it.

8 Likes
5

Okay then again, how do you know you were reported for that? Because I don’t think they outright tell you what you were reported for, for the first time. You could’ve been disrespectful or something.

6

There is nothing “automatic” about it. Enough spam reports can cause a squelch, but that is only until a GM can review the chat. When the apply a 7-day silence, it was done by a real live human being.

To your question:

I believe this is for retail, and I could be wrong, but Classic does not have a channel like this. For Classic, this ad can only be in Trade, not LFG. But even then, it is still subject to the same spam rules. If you are posting it too often, you can still be actioned for it.

Unfortunately, it’s even longer right now, which is not what anyone wants. You should keep the appeal open, because if they overturn it, the “black mark” is removed from your account. The next action would be less that way.

Well, yes. They should, and would be. However, in your case, it wasn’t any level of abuse. A GM agreed with the reports.

Also, that article is discussing people who habitually try to harass people with squelchs. Even if the reports were 100% wrong, there needs to be a pattern of it. Blizzard does not require someone to be correct when reporting. Everyone is encouraged to report, and let Blizzard sort it out.

They’ve tried that. It was highly ineffective. Players continued to break the rules. In fact, they’ve mostly moved away from silences because not only were they ineffective, but some players rebelliously tried to get the longest possible silence.

If it was for spamming, then give much more time between advertisements. Posting it non-stop is only going to get it seen by the same players multiple times. Give it time to cycle people in and out of the cities so different players see it each time.

4 Likes
7

First time or fifteenth, as has been mentioned in previous posts, they are supposed to offer a snippet of the chat that got them in trouble. Now, sometimes it doesn’t populate like it should, or even picks an incorrect snippet. So from their wording, their ad was likely the snippet they received.

1 Like
8

Blockquote Rigatoní:
Okay then again, how do you know you were reported for that? Because I don’t think they outright tell you what you were reported for, for the first time. You could’ve been disrespectful or something.

Because the email I received said that was the reason…
" Game: WoW
Your fellow players reported your LFG Poster multiple times for violating the Code of Conduct, and we’ve modified 150g Per Heroic. Full BiS 4pc T-7 Holy Pally. Selling Heals for Anything you need Quick Runs/Achievements/BiS Hunting ETC… Message me 123 before inviting me or i will not accept. as a result.
{{SpecialInstructions}}"

Also I never EVER Spammed my message, my “message was in my LFG Que post” The only people who could SEE it or READ it are the people who moused over my name and took the time to read it!! so again I was reported by players who did not like the fact I was asking for gold to heal. Also, there is no way they can look at every single report THEY have to have an automatic system in place for things like this I assume when I certain amount of people report and a threshold is meant that’s when some kind of algorithm steps in, and decides if I should be suspended or not.

Blockquote Melaesia:
There is nothing “automatic” about it. Enough spam reports can cause a squelch, but that is only until a GM can review the chat. When they apply a 7-day silence, it was done by a real live human being.

I disagree I doubt they have the manpower to have a GM review every single chat report. But again I don’t know so maybe you are right until I read a blue post or hear from a GM saying they review each report and then decided I have to assume it is based on the number of reports sent.

Edited Recently added:
After thinking about this and going over the email i was sent and posted here, the email states players reported my LFG for breaking the code of conduct?? if you read the code of conduct and my LFG post. I don’t see any rules broken and I’ve read the code of conduct multiple times now. I feel even more now I was wrongly punished, unless I do not understand the code of conduct. Then in that case, if someone who truly understands it could explain the part I broke I will apologize and take my 7-day silence.

9

There you go. You even quoted the article that said “only in Trade Services”. You cannot advertise like that in LFG, both the channel and the feature.

You can disagree all you want, but it’s the truth. No account actions are done without a GM reviewing the report(s) and arriving at their own conclusion. They are not infallible, which is why the appeals system exists. But nothing is automatic, no matter how hard you try to believe it.

Do a quick scan through this forum, and you will find many.

You cannot advertise these services in LFG, both the chat channel and the LFG feature.

There is no need for an apology. We’re here to clarify it for you, if you don’t understand. It’s perfectly understandable to want more information. :slight_smile:

7 Likes
10

Botom line were not allowed to discuss account actions the only thing u can do is apeal the tickets are averaging 7-8 days. THis is all that is needed for this post.

1 Like
11

It says I broke the Code of Conduct, Not that I posted in the LFG Que, Not that I spammed or anything else. You are not a mod, and you’re not a GM… I’m not here to debate or argue with you. I posted on Customer service in the hope to engage with a mod or GM, I’ve been replying trying to shed more light on my situation for when that happens. Im glad you feel you understand Blizzard’s systems and practice enough to preach them here but for the rest of us i like to use this Customer service forum topic to engage with someone who actually works with customer service.

2 Likes
12

Welcome to customer support forum not service its a player to player support forum with blue moderation not to be confused with GMS and any blues on this forum have gone home for the nite.

3 Likes
13

The customer support forums are a player run help desk. NOT a direct means to contact Blizzard, that is what tickets are for. There are no GMs here, just SFAs. And they are not here 24/7.

4 Likes
14

There are no GMs on the forums.

If you want to appeal an account action, a ticket is the only way.

Just to reiterate, there are no automated silences. A squelch is automatic, but it requires a number of unique accounts to cause one. A 7-day silence means that a GM already looked at the logs and agreed that there was an issue an applied a silence. My guess would be that it was for spam.

But keep your ticket open and see if your appeal is successful.

Lastly, yes, further reports of breaking the rules, once looked at by a GM, could result in a suspension.

5 Likes
15

Really because it says right on the topic “Blizzard Support Agent moderated Forum to discuss and inquire about in-game and account-related issues” It doesn’t say “Player ran customer support help desk” It is a means to speak and engage with blizzard customer support. This is my last response to player comments… I can see this is turning toxic and I apologize for that I guess hope everyone has a good night.

16

It’s not. Sorry you misunderstood.

Directly from the pinned post:

As a reminder, the Customer Support forum is not an alternative contact point for In-Game, Technical or Account Support.

7 Likes
17

Wait for your appeal.

7 Likes
18

Then blizzard should change the way it describes this forum then? “Blizzard Support Agent moderated Forum” Kinda sounds like there should be a Blizzard agent moderator correct? If that’s not the case that’s fine but not my fault for assuming something they said… Thank you for all the links and posts verifying you are indeed correct… this is peer-to-peer help.
@Ravenhawk Yes sir, I will wait for that appeal thanks!
you all have been such an amazing help thank you soo much, Again hope everyone has a great night.

2 Likes
19

All the best to you. Again, please do follow through with your appeal and keep it open. Even if the silence isn’t removed, if overturned the black mark against your account will be removed.

20

“Moderated” does not mean “Blizzard, and only Blizzard, responds to every thread”. It means that this forum is moderated by Support Forum Agents, and not the Community Managers in other forums.

If you read the sticky “Welcome to the Customer Support Forum”, you will see that this is a player discussion forum. Blizzard will chime in when clarification is needed, but generally, they do not when the correct information has been given.

Not exactly, though you are not the first to think this. It’s understandable. And “Customer Support” is not the same as the Customer Service you receive through tickets.

7 Likes