On AtWar Toxicity and New Moderation

When Dave said that he would crack down on toxicity, I didn't imagine it would turn out like this. This is a competitive game. Shit talk and banter are staples of that. If I say, for example, "4nic sucks" in game chat, I fully expect him to say "No, as a matter of fact, Nero sucks" and then we play it out. This is a game of grown men. We don't need a mod to watch our every word to make sure everyone is playing nice. Also, it seems that Off-Topic has become the most heavily moderated forum, when that shouldn't be the case. Off-Topic is that, off topic. Anybody can write anything. Balkan flamewars, competitve flamewars, etc don't hurt anyone and are very fun to watch. Unless it's illegal or straight up ganging up on someone, it shouldn't be deleted.

Now about the moderation and supporter system. Dave seems to have the utmost trust in his team. The same team that he has known for not even four months. The same team that kisses his ass in public, and acts completely different elsewhere. Now that bans are being passed out willy-nilly, maybe it's time to lay out solid toxicity rules with ban times. It can no longer be ambiguous. It seems that it's different rules for different people, based on the mod.

It quickly turns from friendly banter to explicite bullying. The issue is its hard to know where to draw the line. Are they joking, or trying to make a joke? Or are they trying to undermine your stance on a topic? Or humiliate you as a human being. Personally i love banter. But i cant participate in it do to individuals taking things much to far.

Eh, except it's not always friendly banter. Quite alot of people from your clan disrespect boundaries of others. They shouldn't be surprised when they get rightfully muted. Mods are doing a fine job. They make mistakes sometimes, which is understandable and human. Some trolls got used to lenient moderating and are now complaining about rules being enforced. I have never had a problem with moderators in the last six years and it's not like I never troll. You gotta know and respect the limits!

Wr1tt3n by Nero, 14.02.2019 at 10:36

... Shit talk and banter are staples of that. If I say, for example, "4nic sucks" in game chat, I fully expect him to say "No, as a matter of fact, Nero sucks" and then we play it out. This is a game of grown men. ....

Are any mods going into games and modding your banter with your friends? If so, then yes, they've perhaps overstepped.

Not sure if there was a specific event that triggered this, but i'd love to hear it. What you describe shouldn't be happening, and Dave has clearly stated that if a mod is abusing powers, he will step in. He gave us clear guidelines and those have been posted for all to see. Message me with details and if there's something legit, i'll remove this post. ♥

Wr1tt3n by Nero, 12.08.2015 at 09:10

Troll Nero will be toned down until the community gets some sort of voice. You would think the Admins would take note of the how angry the community is becoming from all the posts and things said in the game chat. However, this is not the case as 2 new, kind of random, mods were selected with no prior notice. I, and I am sure the community, would like some kind of announcement at least.

All true, bans are being thrown around like they are nothing, its pretty clear that a group of mods are being abusive with their powers (either that or theyve got no clue on how to moderate transparently. reasons: too young/immature/bad judgement skills)

Kinda weird how some mods do occasionaly enforce the rules and give out a ban, AND are still seen as just mods, while this group of mods that i wont name do the same amount of bans but are seen as bad at their job, clearly they dont make the right decisions, and arent fit for the job and should be replaced with someone better.

Currently i know a handful of players whove stopped playing atwar after dave encouraged the mods at giving bigger punishments, for said reasons above they cant cope with the frustration of being banned for vauge reasons by an incompetent band of mods.

Wr1tt3n by Chess, 14.02.2019 at 11:00

Eh, except it's not always friendly banter. Quite alot of people from your clan disrespect boundaries of others. They shouldn't be surprised when they get rightfully muted. Mods are doing a fine job. They make mistakes sometimes, which is understandable and human. Some trolls got used to lenient moderating and are now complaining about rules being enforced. I have never had a problem with moderators in the last six years and it's not like I never troll. You gotta know and respect the limits!

No offence but you're one of the most prim 20 year olds i've ever met. You're the archetype of a forum moderator. You're hardly a typical example of your everyday player.

Then we've the likes of boywind. He's just an edgy class clown. He's harmless. I'd love to see how his latest ban is justified.

Wr1tt3n by Chess, 14.02.2019 at 11:00

I personally rather have 20 soywinds running amok than one Chess.

Please go away from me Unleashed.

Wr1tt3n by 4nic, 14.02.2019 at 12:35

... a group of mods are being abusive with their powers (either that or theyve got no clue on how to moderate transparently. ...)

Kinda weird how some mods do occasionaly enforce the rules and give out a ban, ...

.... players whove stopped playing atwar after dave encouraged the mods at giving bigger punishments, ....

Bans are the most serious consequence a mod can give out, and to my knowledge there is no abuse. Yes, different mods have differing opinions on length of bans for repeat offenders. Some mods are forgiving, believing that past conduct should not have much impact on the length of a ban, while other mods feel repeat offenders warrant longer bans since the ban length clearly wasn't effective in the earlier incidents. This can be frustrating. However Dave, as you have indicated, has given us some clear direction and while it is untrue that he is encouraging us to give bigger bans, he is encouraging us to enforce the rules we have to address specific issues that were not being addressed while Amok and Ivan were admin.

If you are aware of mod abuse, please report it privately to a different mod so it can be addressed. If you try two or three different mods, and feel they are conspiring against you, send your messages and efforts to clovis or dave as a last resort. ♥

Free boywind, he dindu nuffin, he's a good boy

Monetization starts with creating accessibility in the game for the target demographic, that starts with limiting banter.

Wr1tt3n by Chess, 14.02.2019 at 11:00

And it's not like I never troll.

Did he just say he trolls?

Wr1tt3n by Chess, 14.02.2019 at 11:00

it's not like I never troll.

no bro... you dont troll...haha...

YOU GET TROLLED

Wr1tt3n by 4nic, 14.02.2019 at 16:02

no bro... you dont troll...haha...

YOU GET TROLLED

Bro dont be so toxic. They gonna getcha!

Wr1tt3n by Guest, 14.02.2019 at 17:29

Wr1tt3n by brianwl, 14.02.2019 at 11:34

Are any mods going into games and modding your banter with your friends? If so, then yes, they've perhaps overstepped.

Yes, you.

♥

I agree on trash talking especially in cws and off topic, but all these threads makes me think i'm some sort of slavic unicorn.

During my time on aw, "allegedly" i've informed around 90% of competitive players that i had sex with members of their family (mom, dad, abusive uncle.. i dont mind), including all of my clan mates. Almost always in public chat and i had my share of fun on gl chat too. I think i also used my entire arsenal of insults i have. And some mod can correct me, but i cant remember any mute or ban i had. Probably got some for a day or two, would be surprised if otherwise.

So do atwar mods love serbs which would be fucking hilarious or should i pick up my trash talking game, cuzz i hate to be left out like this D

Wr1tt3n by Steve Aoki, 14.02.2019 at 17:40

... And some mod can correct me, but i cant remember any mute or ban i had. Probably got some for a day or two, would be surprised if otherwise.

So do atwar mods love serbs which would be fucking hilarious or should i pick up my trash talking game, cuzz i hate to be left out like this D

No history since Jan 2017.. 2 years role model player ♥

[Most mods secretly wish they were Serb.]

Wr1tt3n by brianwl, 14.02.2019 at 17:47

Most mods secretly wish they were Serb.

..yes, also once a year that fat fuck Santa goes thru every chimney in the world to deliver us toy cars and stuff D

Wr1tt3n by brianwl, 14.02.2019 at 17:47

Wr1tt3n by Steve Aoki, 14.02.2019 at 17:40

... And some mod can correct me, but i cant remember any mute or ban i had. Probably got some for a day or two, would be surprised if otherwise.

So do atwar mods love serbs which would be fucking hilarious or should i pick up my trash talking game, cuzz i hate to be left out like this D

No history since Jan 2017.. 2 years role model player ♥

[Most mods secretly wish they were Serb.]

Mods confirmed to be turk stink dogs

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Circlejerk

See, I told everyone this was gonna happen. But no. No one's listens. Smh, bad bad bad

Wr1tt3n by Nero, 14.02.2019 at 10:36

When Dave said that he would crack down on toxicity, I didn't imagine it would turn out like this. This is a competitive game. Shit talk and banter are staples of that. If I say, for example, "4nic sucks" in game chat, I fully expect him to say "No, as a matter of fact, Nero sucks" and then we play it out. This is a game of grown men. We don't need a mod to watch our every word to make sure everyone is playing nice. Also, it seems that Off-Topic has become the most heavily moderated forum, when that shouldn't be the case. Off-Topic is that, off topic. Anybody can write anything. Balkan flamewars, competitve flamewars, etc don't hurt anyone and are very fun to watch. Unless it's illegal or straight up ganging up on someone, it shouldn't be deleted.

Now about the moderation and supporter system. Dave seems to have the utmost trust in his team. The same team that he has known for not even four months. The same team that kisses his ass in public, and acts completely different elsewhere. Now that bans are being passed out willy-nilly, maybe it's time to lay out solid toxicity rules with ban times. It can no longer be ambiguous. It seems that it's different rules for different people, based on the mod.

"Grown men"

Wow I wonder why Steve Aoki has never been muted. Maybe that had something to do with 4 mods in MK in which all were his friends. However no complaints, It's funny cause most of us have been there. It's to the point where if you have a mod friend you're known as an "Ass kisser" Back in the Acqui mod era a couple years back obviously he had Illyrias back, I honestly get that. There really isn't any hard feelings about that. As someone who ran evoL and had 5 mods in his clan at once things were quite lenient for me. Anyways, I just think now that rules are actually being enforced we realized how many rules we were actually breaking without some sort of repercussion. Although I do agree friendly banter does not condone any bans or even clan rivalries deserve any ban. I mean I cant imagine this type of rule enforcement back in the Illyria vs evoL days, none of us would've been able to play cause we all would've been banned! I think we need to focus on the real issues. And what I mean by that is the people spamming racist things in general chat, help chat etc... If a new person were to come to the website and see someone being called a derogatory name because of their race or belief, most likely they wont come back.

TLDR; Let rivals be rivals, but be the referee and step in when a line is crossed.

Wr1tt3n by Mr_Own_U, 15.02.2019 at 02:28

MK a mod stacked clan.. Well thats a first.

Wr1tt3n by Nero, 14.02.2019 at 10:36

When Dave said that he would crack down on toxicity, I didn't imagine it would turn out like this. This is a competitive game. Shit talk and banter are staples of that. If I say, for example, "4nic sucks" in game chat, I fully expect him to say "No, as a matter of fact, Nero sucks" and then we play it out. This is a game of grown men. We don't need a mod to watch our every word to make sure everyone is playing nice. Also, it seems that Off-Topic has become the most heavily moderated forum, when that shouldn't be the case. Off-Topic is that, off topic. Anybody can write anything. Balkan flamewars, competitve flamewars, etc don't hurt anyone and are very fun to watch. Unless it's illegal or straight up ganging up on someone, it shouldn't be deleted.

Now about the moderation and supporter system. Dave seems to have the utmost trust in his team. The same team that he has known for not even four months. The same team that kisses his ass in public, and acts completely different elsewhere. Now that bans are being passed out willy-nilly, maybe it's time to lay out solid toxicity rules with ban times. It can no longer be ambiguous. It seems that it's different rules for different people, based on the mod.

I couldn't agree more, espeically in regards to the last few lines that you wrote, but I'll get to that at the end of my post, I kinda wanna respond to what you said.

Some mods have gone too far, I couldn't agree more. It is a competitive game, and trashtalk is inevitable; it's part of life. However, there is a line, and we all know what that is (unless your from Serbia and your name is Steve Aoki and thats how you flirt :S ). The point is, theres nothing wrong with shit talk, but there is a problem when it becomes obsessive, incessant, and leaks over into a multiplicity of occasions. Repetitive racial slurs and a daily grind of degrading remarks is not trashtalk, that's way beyond. So this will be moderated and dealt with when it reaches this extreme. I can't tell you how many times I've received complaints such as "pls ban this guy, he told me im stupid. thats toxic!" or "he called me a jew, thats racist ban him!" or "omg he said the N word... ban him! (and pls dont ban me for almost saying it)." It gets old quick (seriously guys, pls stop spamming me with those...). Of course I wouldn't take action in these situations, that's just retarded, as you would agree.

In regards to off-topic.. Not sure what you mean by heavily moderated when there's only been 2 topics removed in the past couple weeks, both of which didn't belong in public forums regarding the general rules of the forum.

But where I agree with you the most in is dealing with player bans. There are most definitely some bans that come across as "personal" and biased. However, what most people don't realize is that bans aren't applied without majority mod agreement. Sometimes even when there is majority agreement, we still don't ban a play because we want to give them the benefit of the doubt, and we give a second chance (in some cases too frequently...). Nevertheless, I think there needs to be some sort of forum, log, or monthly report (idk maybe someone can have a better idea..) of moderator actions ranging anywhere from mutes, to bans, and reasoning for taking such action. To all the mods who are reading this, yea sadly that will require more work on our end.... but being a moderator comes with responsibility, and part of that responsibility should being held accountable to the rules that we enforce. I've been saying this for a while now, but as I haven't had the time to actually do much with this idea, its just blabber and jargon. Maybe in conjunction with this post, enough people out of the community could rally behind the concept of 1) cleaning up the rules to make them more easily understandable and less vague, and 2) promoting more openness of moderator actions. "Fake news" is rampant, and rumors spread because of this lack of openness. If we can work together on this one, I think it would prove to help AtWar's administrative efficiency increase.

Hi, im nero

My god please don't associate the words rivalry and competition with atwar game chat cancer. Sure it's funny af but atwar-level shit talk doesn't happen all that much in real competitive sports. This is an online game get a grip ffs D

Wr1tt3n by Wheelo, 15.02.2019 at 14:49

My god please don't associate the words rivalry and competition with atwar game chat cancer. Sure it's funny af but atwar-level shit talk doesn't happen all that much in real competitive sports. This is an online game get a grip ffs D

Ah here, bog off ya knacker. Go back to your Caravan!

Wr1tt3n by Permamuted, 15.02.2019 at 16:10

Ah here, bog off ya knacker. Go back to your Caravan!

Go back to Britain!