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Flood Control: Please wait 300 seconds between posts!
When was this implemented and why? Can ArenaNet not afford forum bandwidth any longer? Should we go back to mailing letters by parcel post and have them typeset into newspapers? I’ve never had this message pop up before today. It is infuriating.
The Community Team has updated some features on the Guild Wars 2 Forums which give us a tiered system of forum privileges & access based on number of infraction points. We decided to offer this tiered approach so players lose various privileges versus receiving harsher suspensions and permanent bans. We would like our players to consider their posting habits and encourage following the Code of Conduct. We are confident that this approach is more conducive to guiding a more positive experience for our community.
It wasn’t that you wrote a haiku, it was the content which was problematic. Flood control will drop off over time. That time is based on how many active infraction points you have at one time.
Howdy again,
We don’t give out the numbers, because too many people will game the system.
If you wish to discuss flood control, yes.
As a side note, we are preparing an updated post regarding this and numerous other changes. It should make things more clear for everyone.
Making things clear would be highly appreciated.
If I am allowed to make side notes too then as a side note I would say that making things clear is all I am asking for in my email appeal, with no still answer from your part, but I would be perfectly fine with you clarifying things on the forums instead of replying to my ticket.
Apologies for not responding; it’s been pretty busy with the new updates and all. What I can say, which might help others caught in this scenario:
It is never appropriate to incite the community to spam any of our communities. Whilst we understand it was a joking comment, it unfortunately led to many people coming to one of our official Community Channels to cause disruption. We understand it was not your intent to do so, but we had to call in extra staff to help moderate the Livestream chat.
This also meant that those who showed in good faith, with good questions, were buried under the mess created. It is frustrating for the viewers and for our staff.
We treat any post which asks people to abuse our communities equally. We simply do not tolerate it and reserve the right to shut down said abuse in whatever means we need to do so.
While this all sounds harsh, the effects of such a small joke impacts our staff’s time and work, and on the other player’s experiences.
Does that help to clarify?
Volkon, let me check your points to verify they’re correct. You should have already had a reduction in points after our discussion.
Thank you Danicia, it’s appreciated.
Oh, and for anyone that may be wondering, I will only post the haiku one more time here, in spoiler tags, and with Danicia’s expressed permission to do so if it’s determined to be relevant to the overall discussion in this thread.
I would recommend folks PM you with the request rather than posting it. Also, your account should be accurate now.
Yah, we’d like to update more fixes on the back end, but really, once the numbers are sorted, it’s all good.
Zelyhn, the fact of the matter is, you incited others to spam. It doesn’t matter where you incited to spam, be it our forums, our livestream, another player’s livestream or anywhere else on the internet. You told people on this forum to go to our livestream chat and spam, and for that you were punished and the punishment was well deserved.
You can argue subjectivity all you want. The only reason you weren’t infracted for similar actions is the past is simply because you didn’t get caught. The moderation team cannot read every single post on the forums. We rely heavily on user reports and what we are able to read in the course of the day. If you see an offending post and think “why didn’t he get infracted for that?” you should stop and report the post, not point out flaws in our moderation because you found a post that violates the code of conduct.
If you have to live in fear of being infracted over what you might post, you should take a good, hard look at your posting habits and what you consider acceptable. Then read over the Code of Conduct again and try and understand not just the letter of the law, but also the spirit of the law as well.
What you referred to as a subjective clause is the following:
Forum moderators have full discretion to address any behavior that they feel is inappropriate. Your membership and participation in these forums is a privilege and not a right. ArenaNet reserves the right to suspend or terminate your access to these forums and/or to the game itself at any time for reasons that include, but are not necessarily limited to, your failure to abide by this Code of Conduct.
This is in there precisely to allow us to take action against those in violation of the spirit of the Code of Conduct. We do not abuse this clause as an excuse to remove anything we want, we use it to keep the forums a respectful and constructive place for our players to interact with each other and our staff.
As your active infraction points expire, you will start to regain more forum privileges. As example, if you currently have 900 second flood control, as your points start expiring, the flood control numbers will go down.
It’s the same with other forum privileges.
Could you possibly set the ‘Support’ forums to neither be limited by nor trigger flood control? Its excruciatingly annoying to have flood control block you from trying to get help with a support issue. Or to have dealing with a support issue cripple your ability to interact in the more general topics areas.
Alas, our forum software does not allow for that. And the best place for Support assistance is the Support System.
If you wish to discuss flood control, yes.
Wait, why did I just get infracted for discussing flood control related forum policies?
No, you were infracted for discussing your infraction. If you wished to discuss flood control only, that’s fair as that is on-topic to the thread. Contesting your infraction is not appropriate.
This topic is for flood control. If you wish to discuss your infraction itself, you can submit an appeal to [email protected]
