The trade goblins have come for me

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It finally happened to me. Was whispered by an unguilded level 70 dragon telling me that i needed to remove my prices from trade chat and that “others” had approached them about what to do about me. I have only recently reduced my JC prices in order to keep up with the growing number of folks on my server that are now doing crafting for tips. I am relatively late to the game here, or so i thought.

The fact that it is so well known that players can get together to mass report someone who is abiding by the game’s rules in order to bully or silence them is appalling.

I reported this person for their threats and for directing me to take actions that i did not need to comply with.

I am posting this here for if/when i am auto banned by the system (edit) /reporting me for just playing the game.

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There is no such thing as mass reporting / auto ban. At the most, you may receive a temporary silence if a lot of people report you and then that silence and associated reports will be reviewed by an actual GM. If you’ve done nothing wrong the silence will be overturned. If you’re found to be breaking the rules an account action can be applied.

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For the most part, suspensions and silences are still handed out by GM staff. And appeals are handled by GM staff, not automated. If you are ever silenced or suspended for chat violations, and you feel it did not, that is what an appeal is for. Keep in mind though, that spam is a factor in most silences/suspension, not just improper language.

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If you get reported, nothing you post here will be relevant. GMs who handle investigations, sanctions and appeals do not come here.

So long as you didn’t respond with any foul language or whatnot, you likely will be fine. Right-click, report, and keep on about your business. I hail from one of the largest servers there are. This is the first time I’ve heard of anyone trying to do a mafioso takedown of a competitor. The person who whispered you likely has no backing to or was hoping to stir up some grand conspiracy mess.

And just because it has to keep being reiterated - THERE ARE NO AUTOBANS.

If you’re not doing anything? Nothing will happen. At the absolute worst is the temporary squelch. That and the warnings are the ONLY automated part of the whole report and appeals process.

A warning is just that. It’s a warning to stop doing what you’re doing that could be in breach of the CoC or ToS. These leave no black mark against your account. This part is automated.

A squelch is a temporary silence on the account. This is a temporary measure to stop any questionable chat or behavioral violations. It is only in place long enough for a GM to look over the data. The squelch in itself is not a black mark against your account. This part is automated.

Now, following the squelch, ir can go one of two ways. Either the GM disagrees, the squelch is removed and the player can enjoy the game in it’s entirety. Now, if they agree? Here is where it goes into bad territory.

A silence is the removal of all social interaction from the game. Cannot chat, cannot form groups, etc. You can play the game, but in a way so as that you cannot be repeating whatever action earned you this punishment. This will leave a black mark on your account. It also is something only a real live GM can apply. This part is NOT automated.

A suspension is when you’ve either been silenced already or what you’ve done was so heinous they jumped right to this part. It is a complete denial of Blizzard’s properties for that account for a set amount of time. For most chat and social infractions, this can double each time you’re suspended up until the time they decide you’re a lost cause and the account is banned. This leaves a black mark against your account. This part is NOT automated.

A ban is when you’ve done something so egregious or have had enough suspensions that they’re just done with the account. It is complete account closure - for good. There is no time limit on this. This part is NOT automated.

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To your point, we are aware of how folks use the reporting system and we do what we can to mitigate the bad actors involved. It isn’t perfect and Game Masters make mistakes, but we do what we can to correct those along the way.

If you have feedback on how you believe the current reporting system and those warning messages impact you, I’d recommend submitting feedback through the “Submit a Suggestion” option through the in-game window.

I believe this discussion is starting to go around in circles so I’m going to end it here. Thanks, all.

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how is this rumor being perpetuated?

where are people hearing this?

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Thank you everyone for the replies and re-assurances. I was a bit spooked by some users posting experiences on Reddit. I kept my cool with the individual, so i do not think that i have anything to worry about. Thanks again!

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Reddit is a dangerous place that is full of misinformation. If you ever have a concern? Don’t hesitate to come here and ask questions. We will always do our utmost to help clarify something or find a real answer that isn’t a lot of conspiracy nonsense. :slight_smile:

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Asmongold did a video where his own raid team all /reports him and he is immediately disconnected from the game and unable to log back in. He did this intentionally to prove that, at the time at least, there was no human review of the system. I am not trying to refute what is being said here, but he has a large audience and that is a likely source of this rumor.

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There is a popular streamer (who shall remain unnamed) that posted a video supposedly proving that auto-bans are real. He encouraged his large following to mass report him and he did receive a silence / squelch. The video was heavily edited and showed that he did receive a suspension, but left out the part the suspension was for abusing the reporting system.

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See one post below yours about the certain streamer who edited his video, it’s just disinformation at this point that the video can remain up.

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I’m not sure why people keep bringing up this video. It’s been discussed ad nauseum. He was squelched for the reports because it was listed as spam. The suspension came because he was encouraging players to report him in stream, this was reviewed by GM staff, and he was suspended from trolling.

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There has been a squelch system in game to deal with Gold spammers and their ilk since way way before the Silence system even started. It depends on a lot of unique reports in a short time period. The squelch is a measure to stop the behavior until a GM can review it.

That predates the Silence penaty by years, but was not commonly known.

Asmon tripped that squelch system by having a lot of unique reports at once. He proved that the squelch system can stop someone pending GM review.

What ended up happening is that he got Suspended instead for abusing the reporting system.

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i have no doubts at this point that was the case, i am just answering the question about where i had initially seen this.

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He did not get suspended for trolling. He got suspended for abuse of the reporting system. Having his followers intentionally falsely report him is a punishable offense.

So Kozzae was not quite correct in how he stated that, but the basics are right.

Asmon proved that the Squelch system works as advertised and that the GMs will punish you for abusing the reporting system.

I have to assume he knew the Squelch system existed before he tried that stunt for clicks and views.

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Thank you for the run down and helping to reduce my ignorance. :slight_smile:

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Just keep doing what you’re doing. As long as your ads aren’t considered spam (posting too frequently) or you’re not using language that’s against ToS, and that includes responding to whispers, you’ll be fine.

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Same place they hear about flat-earth, COVID denial, bigfoot, the Loch Ness monster, alien abduction, the Chupacabra, chemtrails, fluoride in the water, etc.

Probably Reddit, with some 4chan thrown in for good measure. You go post that the Chupacabra was in your backyard in either of those places (include a blurry picture of your cousin behind some bushes with a blanket covering their head) and you’ll get 15k upvotes.

Well, maybe 4chan would rip you to shreds, but I digress…

Hey, some of these nonsense conspiracies pre-date the internet! Maybe it’s not Reddit’s fault! Maybe… it’s humans… and their strange inclination to believe anything anyone else says, as long as that person has at least one other human in agreement.

We used to tell our children, “don’t believe everything you see on TV,” but with the internet being the “new TV,” we don’t say that anymore? I dunno.

:neutral_face:

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I would also submit a ticket with the character name, the time frame, and the context of the messages and state you feel as though you were a target of an abuse of the report system.

That way even if you aren’t silenced or anything of the sort, blizz can still look at the accounts purposefully false flagging folks. If they are doing it to you I’m sure they are doing it to others too.

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Honestly, without using foul language and with some tact, I’d tell this person and the “others” that are with them to go take a hike.

I find their actions laughable. If someone whispered me to say they’d formed some kind of posse to combat my pricing, I’d literally laugh out loud. For some reason I find that quite amusing.

Then I’d drop my prices 10% in response to that nonsense. Just to give them an idea of how “scared” I am over some threatened mass-reports. Let 'em ruin their own accounts by submitting a bunch of baseless reports. They’ll see the account action, not you.