Graal Central accounts and player commenting.
 

Graal Central now has a system allowing you to register an account. Once you register, you're given a verification code which you can forum PM to me or tell me in-game to prove that you're who you say you are, then your account is verified.

Currently, creating or verifying an account doesn't actually allow you to do anything, but it will have uses in the future. In consultation with the rest of the server, I'll create a set of rules to govern a player commenting system, which will be a system where players can post whatever they want (good or bad) about other players. Those rules will then be put to a referendum, which anybody who meets certain eligibility requirements will be able to vote on (having a Kingdoms Gold account will be one. They'll also have to have a certain minimum number of hours online. I'm thinking between 50 and 100.)

After this, there will be elections for a few people to moderate the commenting system. I myself will have no moderation powers over the system unless I'm elected as a moderator. The elected moderators will have to periodically run for re-election (unless they don't want to) and can be forced to run for re-election if enough players complain about them.

The moderators will manage the commenting system. It's my intention that no comments are to be permanently deleted or made invisible, but moderators will be able to do things like move comments considered spam away from the "main" page of comments on a player to a special "spam" page, which will be linked to on the "main" page, so that the "main" page contains only those comments considered useful.

In addition, as part of the referendum a list of "crimes" will be created. When players make comments, they'll be able to mark whether or not they're accusing the player in question of committing a crime. It will be the job of the moderators to investigate these claims and see whether or not they consider them valid. If they do, they can "convict" the player (it will almost certainly require more than one moderator considering the accusation valid to "convict" a player). It will be possible to see how many/what crimes a player has been convicted of on a page about them. So if you're doing business with somebody and are worried they might be a scammer, you can see if they've been convicted of any scams (assuming the players vote to make scamming a crime). Moderators will also be able to reverse past convictions, including past convictions made by other moderators.

Players will be able to propose amendments to both the list of crimes and the rules governing the comment system, which will be put to referendums. The playerbase will also be able to create guidelines they think the moderators should follow in determining whether or not a player is guilty of a crime.

On voting:

You will be able to vote in elections/referendums in two ways. One is on the forums. Votes made on the forums will have to be made public so that only votes made by people who meet the eligibility requirements are counted. If you have a verified Graal Central account and meet the requirements you'll be able to vote secretly. Therefore you do not need a Graal Central account to be able to vote. Only to be able to vote while keeping your vote a secret.

Other notes:

- It will be continually emphasized, on all pages, that the comments posted, convictions, etc. are simply the opinions of the players/moderators and are not necessarily 100 percent accurate.

- Nothing stated in this post is necessarily going to happen. If players vote that they don't want it to happen, it won't happen.

- You won't need a verified Graal Central account to make comments or have comments posted about you. However, if you make a comment without having one, your comment will be demarcated with a message saying that you may not necessarily be who you're claiming to be.

- It will be possible to respond to/argue against comments.

- Post your suggestions/comments/etc. in this thread.

Interesting, though I think it will only be abused.

mi ideaz, u haz them.

Okay, since nobody seems to want to make any suggestions, let's start with scamming, which is obviously going to be one of the proposed rules voted on. We have to decide what constitutes scamming and what guidelines moderators should follow for determining whether or not an accusation of scamming should be considered sufficiently proven.

Outsmarting the other players shouldn't be illegal.

I think a good way to help players avoid being scammed is to list general prices for items such as the worth of diamonds or FIDs.

I want to do that, but the problem is that it's only possible for around 20 items.

Prices are constantly changes to what the seller demands.

There is a understood average which is leveraged by either the need of the seller or the need of the buyer.

Unfortunately, it's not understood enough. There's been plenty of times when I've tried to do something like maybe sell a diamond for 600 (reasonable price, if the person wants it badly enough, right?), but the person replies saying "No, it's 500" in a way as if that were law. Sometimes I take the time to explain that I can charge whatever I want if I'm not desperate to sell, but other times I have no patience and I just ignore the person. And sometimes they keep bothering me with "500, k?" or something of that sort even if I already said "no" or "600".

So maybe a short explanation on this should be provided, if Googi does a price list.

Sellers can only set prices, not values. If you can't sell something for 600, it isn't worth 600.

Or no one has that much.

I'm sure this isn't the case ...

Good point. I try that all the time.

An item is worth what it can be sold for. If no one has that much, it can't be worth that much.