Curbing unnecessary chat toxicity

Hi all,

BACKGROUND
This may come as a surprise to some yet a common occurrence to others....

There has been a recent spate in "Minecraft trolls/troll gangs" attacking /global when moderators/staff are offline or afk. Even though trolls eventually get reported or banned once a, their interval of activity on global can cause a variety of problems. Troll toxicity on global makes new players feel the urge to leave the server as racist/foul chat stains their impression of the server. As of late, 6 of my town residents have used local to express their disbelief at conversations on global, 5 have left the server. I urge that the server commit resources to tackle this issue, as what may seem like a nuisance to old meeper's, will harm Meepcraft's reputation.

Many mods may be unaware of this conduct as some of these players must be aware of /modlist.

Identities of these "Trolls"

When I talk about "trolls" I am not talking about old meeper's with opinions, or people with a short temper like captain unix, rather something much worse.... These trolls aren't meepers, just people who join the server, go on a racial,politcal or offensive rant on global and leave the server(whether by a ban by staff member who happens to log on, or an intentional log off). Troll activity has become more prevalent with more frequent "troll gang" attacks on global for instance the Tw8 trio. To summarise, "trolls" have no interest in participating in server activities, rather to ruthlessly attack, humiliate or annoy. To stress once again, these trolls mentioned are not old meepers just people who visit, swear/racially attack, leave and repeat.

These trolls come to be racist and swear until they get banned. The sooner they get silenced the better.

Suggestions to combat intense/offensive stuff in chat when mods are not online

1. Trusted players who can mute new members that join meep(within 24hours). When they see a toxic player, they can temp. mute the player until a mod comes online. All recent chat from the offender will be saved until a moderator comes back online. These trusted players will be anonymous(to prevent lookouts) and can only use their powers when a mod is offline and cannot use their powers with old players. Extreme suggestion

2. /Report. For new players who have joined in the last 24hours, a report function should be available. This would mean that when a certain people (i.e. 5 or 6) people report a player using /report, they would be temp-banned or preferably be muted until a moderator comes online. Only people that have joined in the last 24hours should be able to be temp banned in this way until a mod comes online. The moderator will see their chat history and decide whether to /unban or /permban them. Another suggestion, instead of banning them, they can be muted until a mod appears online. Suggested.

3. 15min wait time to use /g and /w for new players. A 15 min wait to use /global for new players. Not suggested.

4. More moderator opportunities. Our existing mods come online daily and do a really good job, so it must exhaust them out. I do not blame them for not being online, cuz they have a life just saying that we probably need more helpers maybe? Maybe give helpers mute privileges?

****Recommendations from my town's residents and I who were online during an incident, feel free to make any recommendations***


ONCE AGAIN. I did not create this because I felt offended by this, rather because new members in my town and some of my friends whom' I invited to the server feel offended by this. Again, this is not anyone from meep's fault, just suggestions.

 

What reputation...

Look there will always be trolls on the internet and I'm not excusing their behavior but for a server that can barely scrape together 40 players at a time I kind of feel that they are the least of our concerns. If meep was a big server with lots of new people funneling in it would be worth it to at least try and deter them somehow but at this point I don't see how. Trolls can't harass new players if new players aren't coming in.

 

Just apply for staff if its really that bad lol. Mag said in discord that people, i believe when you posted this, were being all toxic, saying things about others mothers, but staff have a life. Sucks balls that some staff members aren't as active as they were before but what can you do really? Just make a modreq or player report so they know to ban them when they log on.

 

Perhaps the better solution would be to, at the least, give helpers a mute command. This command should, as suggested, add a time stamp and record the player reported so the chat log can be checked later and the offenders banned. The original suggestion from @diamondkid123456 is too extreme, but the issue needs to be dealt with. I feel this counter-suggestion is less strict to avoid harming new players, but needs some buffing to be effective enough for this problem. Banning powers aren't needed in this situation, at least, not by lower staff or veteran players.

 

Not saying that you, the active players are toxic at all, rather lesser players that just join and leave. They do not affect me as such but others. I understand the normal banter, which is totally acceptable. But sometimes the chat gets infiltrated by new members. Im not saying that any existing members should be banned, rather those who just join and say "niggrrr niggr, kill def niggrs" and stuff repeatedly. Once again, this only occurs when NO MODERATORS are online and during off-peak times.

I totally agree with superdyl's suggestion, however this was not brought up because of the limitations of helpers, but because of a staff shortage.

Hey look, I don't really care and just /gtoggle but some people in my town and such complain a lot about this. Again, this affects off-peak times for a majority of people on the server.

--- Double Post Merged, Jan 18, 2018, Original Post Date: Jan 18, 2018 ---

A modreq/player report will not solve this problem. These people just join, create trouble and leave. Today, there was an incident where for half an hour new players were repeatedly saying "kill the jews, f**ksdadasd the n*ggrrrrsss, ur all ret*rds etc...". So yes, you can ban them but more will just come back on. We need instant bans for these type of people. I understand saltiness but some people take it way too far. This does not occur when moderators are online however.


And with that thing about reputation, I had to persuade a new player "Uber Twilight" to stay on meep after that outburst. Look, Meep Moderation is GREAT but we either need more mods for off-peak or find another solution... And once again, I'm not being a pansy about this, but like mother stuff is annoying ig but when it turns racial, when new players are being told to kill themselves by these trolls it takes it a step further.

Yet again, this is not attacking staff because Meep staff rock. Rather, just a suggestion to what we should do when they're offline.

 

lol not a thing bud. its /ban <player> [reason] and /tempban <player> <time:m:d:h> [reason] on and there is also /banip <name:ip:uuid> /kick <player> [reason] /mute <player> [reason] and /tempmute <player> <time:m:d:h> [reason] however a few /smite 's usually work.

 

I don’t think “trusted” players should be able to mute. First of all, how do staff decide which players get to mute and which don’t? Secondly, if those players are “trusted”, they might as well apply for staff.

I think /mute for helpers though would be nice.

 

wait wth do helpers not have mute lol. whats the point of the trial staff rank if all they have is /tempban. if thats all they can punish with, isnt that just setting them up to get reported for a ban threat?

 

I feel that the OP has a genuine concern which is why I'm taking the time to reply. We should strictly steer away from any drastic or complicated solutions like time limits and bans.

Personally nothing in chat can bother me but I get that new players (especially younger ones) might get scared off.

The simplest solution would be the best to just get these people muted until a review can occur. If you are in global and your peers deem it fit to have you muted that should be allowed.

A "staff" position purely for /mute function and shouldn't even come with a title or any other duties/responsibilities. It shouldn't require the whole wishy washy affair of an essay application and popularity contest to get the position as not much harm can be done with one command and should probably be private (only staff can view apps). Only a short application with focus on your playing times and time zone and your history on the server to try and get a good spread throughout each day. Then some strict guidelines on what should be muted and it's only to be done when no staff are online. Abuse it and get kicked from the position. Simple?

 

yeah these are good

this

yes. Count the active staff. Here's a list:
CluelessKlutz
NinjaRoxy
oKling
CuddlyKittens14
OKNEM (only lately)

And that's pretty much all the active staff. If only active players had applied lately... The problem mostly seems to arise because there isn't staff online at all times. (And, not to push for this because they're my friends, but both korpi, bloody, and vex play a lot, especially when staff aren't online)

 

If there is a player misbehaving file a /modreq with his or her name with what they are doing and you can even use the Report a Player forum section with proof of rule breaking which will be handled in reasonable time.

 

But the issue is that is too long. By the time a staff member has replied to the report the person has gotten bored and moved onto another server to troll. We need a solution that allows quick responses (5-1omin) vs current ones (4-48hrs)

 

We are not going to have an automated system that automatically kicks people when a /report is made so one way or another you will be waiting for a reply from a staff member when a modreq is made. The only option would be to create an integration on slack so we can view filed modreqs when not in game which really will get similar response time to reports on forums.

 

Think about it this way. You're worried about dedicated troll gangs right? Like they're going out of their way to troll... What better way to troll than to acquire and abuse power when mods are offline to bully or single out people? -1 for me, the only way to curb the issue is to get meep popular again so we have enough players to where the staff base is large enough that there is always at least one helper or mod online.

 

Do most of these players bother to finish the tutorial first? If not, they should not be able to use global chat until they finish the tutorial. Even if most of the trolls finish the tutorial first, it's not a bad safeguard

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk

 

honestly *most* toxic people are toxic for a reason. Be nice, and people are nice back. Why do you think I'm only majorly toxic when klutch is on!?

 

Just to say it once again, this suggestion was not for current/normal meepers, Just for those trolls who come on and join the server for the first time say racist/neo-nazitic stuff when mods aren't online.

 

those people are 90% angry ex-players/banned players abusing alts to "get back" at the server. If you really want to fix that, then fix ip bans (yes I know that's drastically harder than it sounds but it's possible)
but somebody somewhere made them mad. Would iNexXeR spam gore if he was banned for just duping? not likely. Does he hate the community, staff, and server? probably, since he spent 4+ hours of his Saturday screaming racial slurs in /g on alt accounts.