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Dear Ms. Nettie,
I am at a loss here and am requesting input that perhaps can help me. I have a stalker who has been harassing me for over a year.
She makes new accounts with Guest Passes and litters the lobby chat with unkind words and never-ending rants. At one point her paid account was banned (not suspended) for her continued abuse of me and others. Unfortunately, some kind soul, albeit misguided, reinstated the account with I imagine a proscription against her longstanding bad behavior and an insincere promise to not harass and abuse others in the future.
Well, not only has the bad behavior not stopped, it has escalated. I have now been stalked and harassed for over a year now. In spite of the hundred of abuse reports filed she continues. She makes at least two new screen names every week and stalks me on those as well as on her paid account. She enters rooms and plasters the rants – using macros as the verbiage never changes, misspellings included.
Some time ago, I had a ticket/s against this player for the abuse/stalking. I was informed by Pogo that if I added to it I would be assessed a TOS violation and that I am to use the in game/room reporting system only. The in game/room report system has been used by me nightly to report her abuse and stalking. Many others in the room report her various SNs for abuse of me and others. Yet, she continues this behavior.
My question is: What am I to do? Muting is useless as she makes multiple names and this does little to stop the nasty/libelous remarks she leaves in multiple lobbies. The other night I said “okay you bore me now…off to Canasta”. And, I watched on a friends’ list while she loaded 30 canasta rooms trying to find me (screen shots taken of this)… she thereafter returned to the original room and complained that I was not in Canasta and continued to besmirch me.
Basically this player continues these memberships for little more than a tool to harass me and others. The in-game reporting is not working to rid us of this menace. Besides the room disruption, she is using these pass SNs and rants to bait others into responses that will garner others TOS violations. The in-game room reporting is ineffectual unless a player is being extremely vulgar or cursing, racial epithets etc. and even that has proven to be ineffective at times. The filters are not grabbing the rants, or stalking behavior or catching on to the use of macros.
Can you assist me in some way with the wording I should use when filing these complaints? Apparently, when I say things like stalking/harassment/abuse for over a year this gathers no attention. Are there key words I could use? I would appreciate whatever help you can provide to end this player’s relentless dogging and abuse of me and others. She is actually stalking harassing me as I type this inquiry. Any assistance will be appreciated.
Thank you in advance for your attention.
Sick of Being Stalked
| Dear Sick of Being Stalked,I’m terribly sorry that you’ve had to deal with such atrocious behavior. This player is obviously disturbed. Can you imagine spending so much time and energy trying to cause problems for total and complete strangers? Instead, she could spend that time trying to improve her life, but alas, she’s probably so miserable all she wants to do is bring misery to others. Let’s be thankful we’re not walking a mile in her shoes. Pogo was wrong to have not taken your concerns seriously and it was definitely not right that we told you that you were threatened with a Terms of Service violation yourself for continuing to attempt to solve this issue. The good news is that big changes have been made in our Customer Experience department, and these sorts of things shouldn’t happen again. In some extreme cases Pogo will allow for a name change. Certainly, yours is one of those cases. I have emailed you and and we’ll work together to get your name changed. Unfortunately, stalking is extremely hard to prove through the Abuse Report system. Our representatives look for evidence of abuse, and stalking, unfortunately, is hard to see. So, what do you do? Your case is different as it’s been going on for over a year, but for those folks who may have a new stalker, and for anyone reading, I’ll offer some advice. First you try to dissuade the stalker from stalking you. How do you achieve this? Mostly by ignoring them completely. When you boil it all down to motivation – stalkers are after one thing, and one thing only: attention. When they get the attention they crave, it’s addictive and they want more. If you continue to feed them, the stalking and harassment will escalate. However, if you commit yourself to a campaign of ignoring them and force yourself to not take the bait that they throw, you will soon become boring to them, and in most cases they will move on to someone else. Here are a few other things you can do:
If you have a serious stalking issue and feel that only a name change will help, then you will need to contact our Customer Experience team and let them know that you are being stalked and that you would like to change your name. You may have to go through a little back and forth with them before they realize the seriousness of the situation. If it feels like you’re getting nowhere, ask to communicate with a supervisor. |
Dear Nettie,
I was playing Boggle Bash today and I was informed that if there are chimes ringing after a round, that means someone is using a bot/cheat program. Is this true?
Bell the Cheats!
| Dear Bell the Cheats!,Oh how wonderful that would be if it were true, wouldn’t it? But alas, this is a rumor. Most BOGGLE Bash cheaters use third party word descrambling web sites that Pogo can’t detect. I suggest that you simply continue to play as if there are no cheaters. Yes, there are folks that do cheat, but there also a huge number of very adept players who actually play faster than the cheaters. |
Dearest Ms. Nettie,
I was unsure who to address this to, but I was in a room with someone who had the below badge, people were commenting about what it “looked like”. Some out there may take offense with this image, knowing how people objected to the black bar outfit/background.
Unfortunately the image really does look like what was proposed as well as what it is supposed to be. I, myself, am not offended, but I can just imagine the hailstorm that could be hitting the Pogo community in general as more people see this and start to talk, if it’s not already happened.
Sincerely,
Wants to Keep Peace on Pogo
| Dear Wants to Keep Peace on Pogo,Thanks for your e-mail. While I actually do understand why people were not so happy with the “Black Bar” Minis, this I really don’t think is offensive in anyway. The brains of the martian are visible, and look more like brains than… well, whatever you thought they might look like. This martian is obviously an homage to the martians depicted in a movie from several years back. Alas, there will be times when people do find some of our art objectionable (like the black bar Minis). Pogo’s audience is mostly adults, and on occasions we push the PG-13 limits, but only barely. |
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