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Dear Ms. Netiquette,
I, for one, am getting really tired of hearing about the mute as the all-time solution for players who are harassing, insulting and abusing other players just because they can. Pogo has Terms of Service for a reason. Any violation of the Terms of Service should be taken seriously, not only by Pogo members but by Pogo as well. Otherwise, what is the point of having them if they are not followed nor enforced.
I have been in some game rooms where the harassment of good players has gone over the top leading innocent people to leave the room. I have also been the victim of harassment for attempting to defend the good players, who are not using bot programs but are simply good at playing the game.
I refuse to use the mute button, but would rather use the report abuse button and file complaints against those that continually harass and abuse other members which is clearly a violation of the Terms of Service of Pogo. It is only a temporary respite to mute the offending players but then they do not learn anything from the error of their ways and only see it as encouragement to continue with their conduct.
Since members who have filed abuse complaints are not informed as to what action has been taken, it is usually assumed that if the offending member is still violating the Terms of Service and still active on the site that Pogo has decided to take no action whatsoever. This only encourages further abusive conduct and leaves players who are being victimized feeling like it really does no good to report another’s offensive conduct.
Perhaps this assumption is wrong but actions speak louder than words and Pogo really needs to start taking effective action against these abusive players that firmly believe they can make someone else’s enjoyment of a game a miserable experience.
So, please stop limiting the actions that one can take by suggesting merely muting the abusive player and start including reporting the abuse as well. I have started doing just that when I am in a room where players are being harassed for no reason other than they are getting better scores than the sore losers in the room. Most of the time the warning works if they know someone in the room is willing to report them to Pogo, and that the consequences might be losing their Pogo account for good. Other times, the experienced harassers will post, “go ahead and report me, Pogo doesn’t do anything anyway!”
Perhaps it is time that Pogo start enforcing their Terms of Service and mute these offenders for good from this site. Thanks for listening.
In Seek of a Better Option
| Dear In Seek of a Better Option, Thanks for your letter. Regular readers know that I do encourage players to consider reporting abuse whenever they see a Terms of Service violation. However, most people who come to Pogo do so because they want to play a game. They’re not here to police the chat rooms. Pogo does take the time to read every abuse report that is filed, and we do take them seriously. Many, many, many players have lost their Pogo accounts for Terms of Service violations. There are many reasons why you may see the same people back after they’ve been reported. It could be that what the reporter perceived as abuse is not actually abuse. It could be that the perpetrator of the said abuse was given a warning for their behavior. It could also be that the abuser did in fact lose his or her account, and is back with a very similar looking one. Or perhaps one of our agents made a mistake. Is the system completely fair? Do all abusers get justice? Of course not. Mistakes are made, communications are missed, and stuff happens. It can be frustrating, I know. Our Customer Support team is dedicated to making sure that each Abuse Report is handled appropriately, and on occasion they may miss something, but overall, they do a stellar job. It would be nice to be able to rid the site of abuse, but it’s not going to happen. Pogo is one of many popular places on the Internet where people chat. If you think that abusers congregate only here, well I’ve got some tea fields in Alaska I’d love to sell you. The reality is that abusers make their presence known all over the Internet. If anything, Pogo probably has fewer instances of abuse than a lot of other sites. Some players do come here for the sole purpose of causing problems for others. I’d venture to guess that not a single person comes here for the sole purpose of reporting abuse. Thus, I encourage people to make a habit of employing the mute feature whenever they see chat that they don’t wish to see as opposed to reporting abuse for every infraction that they witness. Nobody’s arguing that it’s not upsetting to have to contend with abusers. It is. However, we can improve our experience by learning to deal appropriately with them. While I do commend you coming to the defense of others in the room, and am glad that the occasional warning has prevented some players from continuing their abuse, I encourage players to report and mute abusers as a matter of policy. Abusers are after one thing and one thing only: attention. They thrive on causing others to be upset. When they are ignored, they have no way of gauging the effectiveness of their abuse, and will more often than not go elsewhere to find the attention they so crave. So, rather than publicly defend the victims of abuse, which will likely just cause more abuse since the abuser now has achieved a higher level of attention, I would suggest you converse privately with the victim through the whisper command or private chat and let them know about the Report Abuse and Mute features. And finally, while we would absolutely love to rid Pogo of the abusers, the rudeniks, the poor sports, etc… the reality is that we can’t. Abusive players can create new accounts using different information and even an alternate IP address. So, it is in our best interest, as players, to learn how to best deal with them. Ignoring them allows you to maintain control, and doesn’t give them the attention they seek. |
Dear Ms. Netiquette,
My concern is about blocking friends. I was accused a few days ago of blocking a couple of my friends. I believe they could see my profile, but could not see me playing in a room. This has happened a few times. They come into a room where I am playing and claim they do not see me on their friends list. They are on my friends list and I can see them, but they can’t see me.
I have been playing with these friends for a long time and I understand them being upset if they were being blocked. Needless to say, they don’t want anything to do with me now because of that.
My question is how is it possible that they can’t see me when they are on my friends list and not blocked? I don’t know if anyone else has had this problem, but I can tell you it has cost me friends that I cared a lot about.
Not Invisible
| Dear Not Invisible, This is most unusual. At first I assumed that you must have adjusted a profile setting somewhere that would prevent your friends from seeing you. However, I did test two accounts to make sure there wasn’t a problem on our end. Guess what? There is. I took two accounts, put them both on each others’ friends lists, and proceeded to enter game rooms with each account. Account 1 could see that Account 2 was in a game, but Account 2 could not see that Account 1 was in a game. So, it does appear that we have an issue on our end that is causing some folks to not appear in a game room when in fact they are. I will forward this to our Quality Assurance department to have them look into it. As for your situation, I recommend you reach out to those friends and direct them to this column so that they know that the issue is not with you, but rather with us. And on behalf of Pogo, I do apologize for the trouble you’ve endured. |
Hi Nettie,
I read your column on and off and when I saw the letter from “An HONEST Player” (Ms. Netiquette, 1/14/20100), I got the urge to respond. I am a Pogo Bowl fan and have played it regularly since discovering Pogo in 2006. As you can imagine, I wouldn’t play the game if I didn’t enjoy the challenge, and with thousands of games of practice I have become pretty reliable at getting high scores.
What I have found effective when playing this competitive game with others in the room is engaging in game-related commentary. Give congratulations for a nice round, accept congratulations with a thank you, encourage a player that is struggling, and you will find the attention to your own results will be of a more positive nature.
Another approach you can take with the embittered players that can’t match your score is to tell them what you do that works so well. There are definitely some strategies in Boardwalk Sea Ball that work well for the various rounds of the game. Share a little and point out that with practice you can consistently get great scores.
Whatever you do, play the game the way you have learned to play it and don’t fight with anyone that has the audacity to accuse you of cheating – they are powerless without your consent!
An Honest Pogo Bowler
| Dear Honest Pogo Bowler, Wow, what a truly wonderful letter and a great way to end this column and this week! You have come up with a truly elegant and divine way of handling accusations of cheating. May we all learn from your letter. Bravo! |
Have an etiquette question for Ms. Netiquette? Email msnetiquette@pogo.com
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