#1 - Dec. 14, 2011, 9:06 p.m.
The current solution... "create a ticket" ... doesn't work as is evident by trade trash talk. It punishes the observer more than the offender.
- There is no "immediate" known response in the equation
- There is the belief that nothings happens.
- Creating a ticket takes time and effort from playing
- Impacts the creator's UI, prevents additional tickets on game concerns.
- The observer is immediately punished with lack of ticket access.
The only "immediate" action a player can take is ignore or "report spam" and ignore does nothing to the offender and actually punishes the observer (reducing their ignore count which is limited).
What is needed is an _immediate_ negative consequence that is placed on the offender for their action. The problem is that Blizzard can't police everywhere and players can't be trusted to police for them.
The solution is a policing system that is immediate, done by players, and double checked.
My thoughts on the system --
1. Offender speaks in trade channel
2. Observers flag offender and he is silenced temporarily only to them like "spam". The notifier is told that a false accusation can be punished before they click "accept".
3. Offender gets an on screen notification and a counter of how many people have observed his violation and have ignored him / reported him -- an immediate consequence.
4. If the number reaches 10 (or something), the last 30 posts made by the player are automatically sent to blizzard along with the accounts of the players that flagged him as offensive.
5. Blizzard reviews the log (as they have to do tickets today). If the reports are false, the notifiers are punished. If the reports are true, the offender is silenced in public channels for some period of days or whatever punishment by Blizzards choice.
Honestly, for any punishment to be effective, the punishment has to be immediate.
The "report notification" is your "soft punishment" knowing that if the number reaches high enough the "hard punishment" is coming.
The observer is pleased because he sees the immediate silencing of the offender from his perspective and knows that if others agree, the offender will get more action.
A false accusation would only hurt the accuser.
In very short order, people will behave more like they are in public because their actions have immediate reaction.
