disable ability to mass message
 

i think it would be useful to have a staff ability to stop a player's ability to mass message. servers such as UN would definitely profit from this - they wouldn't have to continually jail players and enforce ludicrous "crackdowns" on masses - they could just disable certain player's ability to mass message for a variable amount of time, or permanently if need be. i dislike it when ignorant little kids can spam up mass messages about how subjectively awesome one server is against another, throwing about personal insults and what-have, forcing staff to step in making their own mass messages (which go through my filter unless i have them on ignore) and jailing individuals, which leads to a lot of players hating on staff when it's really the only way to control the problem

I like this idea.

I approve. It would be nice to just punish players who abuse masses by cutting off their access rather than throwing them in jail/banning them. Especially for minor things/warnings.

It's already possible, through scripting. It was actually done on Valikorlia a few years ago. However, you should be aware that people pay for this privilege. I believe a PWA said, back when Valikorlia did it, that it was against the rules to disable masses without the person being jailed. It was a while ago, so I don't really remember. But I'm pretty sure Bell was the PWA that dealt with it, at the time.

I really don't see why there's a problem with jailing people. They're going to hate on staff no matter how you punish them.

I gotta say... so what!(to the PWA). I can do worse with a ban, which can pretty much disable their ability to play on my server... or even a simple jail is worse, and they're worried about punishment being that I've disabled someones ability to mass? Wow.

Well, the way "mass bans" were delivered weren't exactly fair. This was when our NAT (de facto manager) was some 30-year-old loser named Aren. Like I said, it was a while ago, and I can't remember the details of the conversation I had with the PWA.

But, really, I don't see any reason why this would need to be implemented. Jails and bans do the job just fine. Troublemakers are going to hate staff no matter what.

It's not about not having people hate staff, but offering varying levels of punishment. Sometimes a mass does not warrant jailing, but it was just bad enough to give them a small timeout from masses.

no, they only just get the job done, they don't actually solve the problem

if someone is jailed or banned, they usually know that they have gone over line and have broken some rule. masses are quite different, because most servers do not specify rules regarding masses other than the "don't spam, don't curse" type things that are obvious to every server - i doubt most people read rules regarding masses anyways since it can be subject to difference across servers. when someone gets jailed over a mass message it is quite differently received than if someone gets jailed, usually quite negatively

there are also instances where jailing a person only fuels their might in making more mass messages, or instances where a person really shouldn't be jailed but they shouldn't continue to mass message. while it's true that jailing can be a simple method of punishment for mass messages or stopping people from massing, it would be a lot nicer and much more well received if you could just stop the masses of that player. once you enforce a jail for one person's mass, than you have to enforce it for everyone, and a server full of arguing players can lead to a lot of jail time for a large population of the server

Oh, so you want to go easy on them, because they backlash when you jail them? :) You don't negotiate with terrorists, bud. What server are you on anyways? I've never been on UN and seen huge arguments about masses.

Anyways, do you really think it's going to matter how you punish them? Why would people be mad about somebody being jailed for massing, and not be mad about somebody having their masses disabled? After all, if you enforce mass disabling for one person, you have to enforce it for everyone. Different punishment, same outcome, except this one will likely annoy people even more.

But hey, that's your prerogative. What happens on UN need not happen on Valikorlia.

not necessary in my opinion.

it's not taking it easy on them, it's removing a certain privilege players have when they abuse it. when you jail someone you take all their rights away, and that isn't always the correct response (albeit the only one) and while true that it shouldn't matter what they say, wouldn't you want to be able to solve the problem in more ways than one, with a varying degree of punishment?

usually in mass message flaming and the like, it's only one or two people that are really causing the ruckus. if you disable masses on those troublemakers, then you don't have to stop the entire discussion for everyone who can mass message appropriately. why should we have to jail people for getting a little out of hand on mass messages? i'm sure on a RP server it's different, because people have to watch and (hopefully) think about what they say so that it comes out correctly, they have a persona to keep up and if they want to continue to RP they'll have to get along with at least some people - on a classic server, it's just personalities of the normal players coming out, so there is more of a tendency for good, loyal players to get out of hand with personal insults and topics of discussion not fit for the children who play this game (although i think that argument doesn't have a lot of weight to it as it could easily be fixed so that people could mass about whatever they wanted, but that's another thread entirely). sure you can tell them to PM each other, or that jailings will occur if they don't stop, but that's just the problem: threatening to jail people for mass messages usually doesn't stop people from mass messaging. if anything it makes them more angry and they mass message more. you'd have no problem with these player's if you could just stop them from massing altogether

I don't even see what the problem is with mass messages, if you don't like what someone is saying use the ignore option and quit crying about it. I don't even see why people are getting jailed for it no matter how vulgar the messages are as long as they are giving out malicious links.

I'm not sure how vulgar you mean, but there are things as harrassment.

There is also an option to ignore the person. I'll walk you through the steps if you're really not smart enough to figure it out yourself.

i don't see where your animosity is coming from, but ignoring the person doesn't remove the problem of their mass messages. it's just like jailing - it only just gets the job done, it doesn't actually solve the problem

if you are going to try and make a free speech argument for mass messages, you are on the wrong forum to do so - they don't take kindly to people who try to have free speech

I don't take kindly to criers, and if you care enough where you have to post on the forums about someone massing mean stuff about you and you don't even use the ignore option that makes you a crier. As long as they aren't massing out personal information and what not or trying to give you links to sites where you'll download trainers and stuff I don't see the problem with it.

i've had mass messages off for a couple of years now, what's your point? this thread isn't about what should and shouldn't be allowed in mass messages, it's whether people should have the privilege to mass at all once they go over the line as determined by the server staff, and that as jailing or banning is the only option open; it seems like a good idea to add in a removable right from players to stop them from massing in the first place instead

It's a waste of effort because maybe someone else would like to hear what the person has to say.

so we shouldn't jail people for masses either, in case someone else wanted to hear what they have to say? we all know that that doesn't ever happen nor is it what will ever happen. server's have a subjective line that players can reach with mass messages before they are jailed to stop them from massing, and that isn't the point of the thread, like i said - the ability to just stop players from massing is a better option that removing their ability to play the server altogether, and that when you do jail them, it doesn't quell their mass messages

Honestly, you kids need to learn to take an insult. I'm not even going to argue about this because frankly I don't really care because I don't play UN.

this isn't just about UN, if it was just about UN i would have posted this thread in the UN section of the forums

and if you aren't going to argue then why did you post in the first place?

Hey hun'.


I would also opt for a background history on Graal when someone starts Graal for the first time.

because i'm bored and no one is on wow, myspace, or facebook.

Why should we have to turn off mass messaging to not get vulgar messages from a few people? That is, in affect, removing the right from the decent people.
I kind of like the idea of being able to disable mass messaging from people who wont use it appropriately, because most of them who do it, are only doing it for the shock effect, and attention, so take it away from them.
But repeat offenders should be dealt with more harshly.

I don't see how it would affect you either way, considering you don't even play.

Stop saying that. I do play, just not often RIGHT NOW. I am very familiar with the gameplay of Graal. :\

No you don't play, yet you make all of these self-righteousness statements all of the time, but even if everything in the entire game was changed to your liking you still wouldn't log on. It was the same on Classic when they made changes that you advocated, where you acted like a moral superiority, but didn't even bother to log on since.

Guess what? I'm not going to argue with you. Think what you want, I will still voice my opinion. ;)

I just have to ask, because you don't seem to understand how crime & punishment works on Graal: how will this solve the problem? By disabling masses? You can't mass from jails, either; hell, in a couple of Valikorlia's jails, you can't even chat. As soon as they're able to mass again, they're going to cause another problem, especially if jailing never stopped them before. If it's a serious problem, deserving of a permanent mass ban, then I think it's a bit silly to stop at preventing them from massing. If it gets to that level, it's probably time to consider actual banning.

I'm glad, because Internet hypocrisy is hilarious. ;)

I'm glad you're on topic, Rufus.

I have to say that this isn't really needed. I'm not going to get into all of UN's apparent problems with cracking down on mass messages, but if people are sending masses that are bad enough to warrant punishment, then they can just be jailed or banned. Staff shouldn't have to go easy on people by stepping them through small punishments like this.

Just put the annoying people on ignore. You're all going soft, the lot of you.

If someone is massing something they shouldn't be they'd be jailed anyway. Muting players for being annoying is kind of lame, ignore function was created for a reason.

Personally I'd mute repeat offenders.

Jail/Banning is so out of style, new forms of punishment are in!

I.e: On Zodiac I have a flag I can set so the person can't pickup/trade/buy/sell items.

Typically I'd use this on someone expecting to be jailed/banned, but instead doing something that might have a chance of actually impacting them.

So if you massed something that broke the rules, you'd rather be jailed(where you can't mass anyways), than just have your ability to mass taken away for a few hours while you can still play and such?

right?

you guys are looking at this on the wrong perspective, of "well i wouldn't be the type to do such a thing so it won't affect me in the least"

Disabling Mass Messages could not only be used to do that.

Perhaps an RPG server wants the people to just communicate on Player?

Or Era... I could see Era people only using the Mall and Guild Chat/Phones etc.

Yeah, lets take away the only thing to do on Graal just to stick it to a few players.

I'm in jail on UN for massing Jew. Jew by itself should not be offensive to anybody. It is an alternative to Jewish.

Rather you disable my ability to mass than jail me in the middle of a spar. Makes me look dishonorable.