Tips On Not getting Muted

[Tytonium]

Hi,

I'll try and make this one short.

Over the past few months I have seen the number of players being muted increase by quite a bit. I myself have been muted a number of times due to reasons I perceive as being petty, but I understand might seem as somewhat legitimate to others. A couple weeks ago I was muted for being mean to a number of devs and generally raising trouble. I can understand that mute as I was being a bit of a dickwad so I accepted the mute and moved on. Since then I have been on my best behavior to avoid another mute. I've played nice, I've attacked no one, and I have tried being a bit more encouraging to my teams.

Logged on today and I have been once again muted for "Racism, harassment, general toxicity" for 2 weeks. No warnings, no other feedback. Nadda. Of course I would like to know exactly what I did, and I am sure I will find out eventually, but this kinda thing is indicative of a far greater problem when this kind of thing can just happen to people. I can assure you that the people in this community I am close with would vouch for me in saying that I am not a racist, or a person that logs onto RenX just to cause trouble and to attack the people who create this game. I have no quarrel with any developer or moderator, I just get a lil miffed whenever people in the community are muted for the pettiest of reasons, which is also why I was being dickish a few weeks ago.

But I don't wanna get into that, and I have made this post to ask explicitly:

• What words immediately result in a mute/ban/kick
• What topics, if discussed, will result in a mute/ban/kick
• What moderators, developers, or players, if talked about in a seemingly negative connotation (even if jokingly), will result in a mute/ban/kick
• What other unspoken rules, if done by a player, will result in a mute/ban/kick
• Can we please get a warning to stop certain behavior before the mute hammer is smashed into someone's forehead

I am not asking this in a condescending way or to stir up more trouble. I am genuinely asking this so that I and many other players can avoid being muted seemingly out of the blue, with no warning, or with any indication that we have done something wrong.

Muting someone in this game not only splits them away from the community but also severely dampens the team aspect of the game. Not being able to call out rushes can quite literally cause a team to lose, and that has happened to me more than once. What I am asking for is more explicitly stated rules, and maybe, just maybe a warning before a player is muted for multiple weeks. Here would be a good example of a proper moderator-player interaction that follows good ethics on both sides:

ChickenWaffles: "Cmon man your apc driving is like a woman!"

ChickenWaffles: "Or are you from Chinese descent? XD"

Private from AGoodMod: "Hey chickenwaffles, some players are taking what you said as an insult. I'd like to ask you to stop or you might be muted"

Private to AGoodMod: "Oh hey man, I'm sorry I didn't know. I was just joking but I will stop."

Private from AGoodMod: "Thankyou for your understanding, I know you were joking but some players take things too serious sometimes. Have a good rest of the match :D"

[Tytonium]

 

[Agent]

7 hours ago, Tytonium said:

• What words immediately result in a mute/ban/kick

Any slur or bigoted remarks will put you at great risk of being muted; this is probably the fastest way to get muted. Using those in your name, especially if you're already muted, will probably be met with a warning/kick/ban depending on context.

7 hours ago, Tytonium said:

• What topics, if discussed, will result in a mute/ban/kick

Hack/cheat distribution or development, encouraging others to use hacks/cheats/severe glitches, encouraging others to break rules in general. Otherwise it's just normal stuff like don't be hateful towards or harass others.

7 hours ago, Tytonium said:

• What moderators, developers, or players, if talked about in a seemingly negative connotation (even if jokingly), will result in a mute/ban/kick

So, I guess the question here is more "when does it become harassment?", and this is going to depend a lot on how the receiving person takes it, whether others agree that it was offensive, and whether this person's been targeted before (especially by the same person). In general, don't make public comments or jokes at other people's expense if you're not really buds with them or otherwise are sure they aren't going to complain to a moderator about it.

The receiving person complaining/reporting to a moderator is probably one of the most significant bits though. Generally if nobody complains, we either just don't know about it or just assume it's a joke that nobody cares about.

7 hours ago, Tytonium said:

• What other unspoken rules, if done by a player, will result in a mute/ban/kick

Nothing's immediately coming to mind.

8 hours ago, Tytonium said:

• Can we please get a warning to stop certain behavior before the mute hammer is smashed into someone's forehead

It's generally encouraged that folks are warned first, but this step often doesn't actually get taken for a host of reasons. For reports, or anything that requires team discussion before acting, it's common that a mute isn't placed until well after the incident actually occurred, and by then it can be harder to actually track down or reach out to the person. Also if someone's been warned or muted in the recent past for similar to what's being reported, action is more likely to follow through than a simple warning. Anything deemed egregious enough will skip warnings as well.

8 hours ago, Tytonium said:

Logged on today and I have been once again muted for "Racism, harassment, general toxicity" for 2 weeks.

For your current mute specifically, you were actually probably the least egregious offender of the 4 who were all muted for 2 weeks each. Someone reported some extremely bigoted stuff from in-game to the team, it was then brought up and discussed among the moderator team, and pretty much anybody involved just got chat banned for 2 weeks. That being said, it's probably not a great idea to wish death upon folks or to say "no lives matter", especially if others in the chat are being terribly racist and littering it with slurs. Doing so really just encourages the more egregious offenders to keep going, in addition to still being distasteful. Reading through those chat logs was just gut-retching, and not what we'd want players to have to be exposed to, especially if they're new players.

8 hours ago, Tytonium said:

Over the past few months I have seen the number of players being muted increase by quite a bit.

This is true. For a while now (probably at least 5 months or so) I've been trying to encourage more active moderation and more team-wide responsibility/discussion. One goal was to increase team responsibility, so no longer would any individual be responsible or blamable for every mute they place, but rather the moderation team as a whole, since anything beyond 24 hours would need to be discussed as a team. This helped ensure folks they were being treated fairly as well. Another goal was to hopefully spread out responsibility for receiving and handling user reports, since for a while I was receiving the majority of them, most of which were just handled by pointing people to server moderators instead. I still probably receive the bulk of the user reports though, so typically I triage (basically make sure it's valid, collect any relevant logs, and forward) the report to the greater moderator team and query for opinions to see if there's consensus.

Time constraints are still a thing though -- with DDoS attacks going on, there were some weeks where I was spending as much time doing RenX-related stuff as I was with my full time job, putting a huge strain on personal life and relationships (which I think @SMayhew could attest to). It wasn't uncommon that I just didn't even have enough time or energy left to even cook on some days. A consequence of that was I just didn't really have the time or patience to keep going through what felt like the same exact discussions every time which always ended up feeling like an endless cycle of warnings and hand holding, nor did I want to distract other folk who were really focused and working hard on trying to mitigate attacks. These issues still needed to be addressed though, so chat bans got entered, and things just moved on.

More recently, normalcy is returning so those rapid responses have gone back to wider discussions that then get retroactively acted upon, such as with these 4 bans. Not everything is the same though, and we're still trying to be more responsive moderation-wise and trying to be more responsible for what happens in the game. I don't think anybody wants players feeling like they're being bullied by the community and pushed out the game, and the same certainly goes to developers and moderators as well. We've brought on new moderators who were active in the community servers, as part of the new official servers. The new and active moderators have been doing a great job relaying reports to the moderation team as a whole, greatly improving our responsiveness. The previous unanimous-consent mod-jury thing has been replaced with moderator team consensus instead as well, meaning we're actually able to process through reports faster and more voices are being involved in every part.

 

A lot of what I've posted is really just repeating or updating on what's happened since the moderator guidelines were last updated, which are currently posted here (I'll update these sometime in the next few days if I remember to):

 

 

I'm not sure if those answers were quite what you looking for, but I hope that at least clarifies what's been going on.

[TheOlsenTwins]

23 hours ago, Tytonium said:

What topics, if discussed, will result in an unmute

Any infos on a supposed "Cave Apache"

[Tytonium]

15 hours ago, Agent said:

I'm not sure if those answers were quite what you looking for, but I hope that at least clarifies what's been going on.

Thanks for the thoughtful reply, this was precisely what I was looking for.

Although I still heavily disagree with my mute in particular as I was not agreeing with the racial discussions in chat, just offering a disappointing world view that has at some truth to it. Not dropping N-bombs and just trying to create trouble like some of the others. But I digress. Another 2 weeks it is I suppose.

There will come a time in game where you'll be separated from your team. Not just to Agent but to everyone involved in this games development and moderation. You will be behind our lines, on low health, and unable to find the right choice to get out. There may not even be a right choice, and you could already be doomed. You will think and think, desperately trying to find a way out of the situation... And that's when you'll see it. Me. Standing there watching you. I will stand there completely still to the point where you aren't even sure if I see you or not. Eventually after enough time has passed, you will no longer be able to handle it. You must know. You call out to me. There is no reply. You cannot be sure but you believe this entity is unable to speak, nor muster any semblance of communication at all. How this could be you have no idea. You are cold. So very cold. Each passing minute with this demonic entity looking at you feels like an eternity of having your soul fractured. The overwhelming existential dread is too much to handle. You can no longer take it. You press escape and hover over the suicide button. A thought occurs right before you click. What if this entity is expecting this reaction, and what if it intends to gain something from your death. You push the thought to the back of your mind. You are willing to take the risk as it your only chance at escaping no matter what. You click, and everything flashes before you. You mind starts to leave this plane of existence. The last thing you hear is words spoken from the entity. "you've got talent! :D". And your spirit leaves.

 

[kira]

10 hours ago, Tytonium said:

Thanks for the thoughtful reply, this was precisely what I was looking for.

Although I still heavily disagree with my mute in particular as I was not agreeing with the racial discussions in chat, just offering a disappointing world view that has at some truth to it. Not dropping N-bombs and just trying to create trouble like some of the others. But I digress. Another 2 weeks it is I suppose.

There will come a time in game where you'll be separated from your team. Not just to Agent but to everyone involved in this games development and moderation. You will be behind our lines, on low health, and unable to find the right choice to get out. There may not even be a right choice, and you could already be doomed. You will think and think, desperately trying to find a way out of the situation... And that's when you'll see it. Me. Standing there watching you. I will stand there completely still to the point where you aren't even sure if I see you or not. Eventually after enough time has passed, you will no longer be able to handle it. You must know. You call out to me. There is no reply. You cannot be sure but you believe this entity is unable to speak, nor muster any semblance of communication at all. How this could be you have no idea. You are cold. So very cold. Each passing minute with this demonic entity looking at you feels like an eternity of having your soul fractured. The overwhelming existential dread is too much to handle. You can no longer take it. You press escape and hover over the suicide button. A thought occurs right before you click. What if this entity is expecting this reaction, and what if it intends to gain something from your death. You push the thought to the back of your mind. You are willing to take the risk as it your only chance at escaping no matter what. You click, and everything flashes before you. You mind starts to leave this plane of existence. The last thing you hear is words spoken from the entity. "you've got talent! :D". And your spirit leaves.

 

epic