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Dear Ms. Netiquette,
I was playing Bingo this afternoon in one of the ‘Members Only’ rooms and was flabbergasted when I was asked to ‘stop chatting’ while tourney scores were being collected.
When I questioned this, I was told I was in a ‘tourney room.’ Now the last time I checked, I could read quite well and there was no “tourney” in the title of the room I had chosen. The 8 tourney rooms that had been allotted by Pogo were mysteriously lightly populated. When I questioned this also, I was told I was wrong about the tourney rooms. I understand that Pogo ‘allows’ tourneys, but I had assumed the ‘tourney rooms’ were set aside for this purpose. I was also told these tourneys are ‘sanctioned’ by Pogo.
Now just to assure myself I was correct in my definition of ‘sanctioned,’ I looked it up and it said, essentially, that a “sanction is a valid or binding approval made by an authority.”
I’m I to assume that Pogo endorses this?
This is highly disruptive to members that are there to play and have fun, only to be asked to abide by tourney rules when we are in fact not tourney members.
To get more to the point, aren’t these tourneys supposed to be utilizing the designated rooms for tourneys, or are they free to roam around disrupting and dictating to other rooms as well?
Thanks for your time
Melissa
| Dear Hi Melissa, WHEW! I need a two-bag cup of tea for this one! Before I begin, please understand that I must look at tournaments from both sides. This would be so much easier if all the tournament leagues and leaders would run their tournaments in the orderly and respectful way that many of them do. But, alas, there are some tournament leagues and leaders out there who don’t. So, to you, Melissa, I would say I completely understand your frustration and don’t blame you for feeling put off by the tourney director. The behavior exhibited was not only impolite, but incorrect. There are tournament rooms in Fortune Bingo. These are the rooms where the leagues should be conducting their tournaments. There may be occasions where the tournament rooms are all filled and the league will have to choose another room in which to hold their tournament. No matter where the event takes place, tournament participants and directors must adhere to the exact same Terms of Service that applies to everyone else. So, in your case, the tournament director could have saved a lot of time and prevented some frustration by simply muting you. Instead he or she instructed you to stop chatting, which caused you to question the request. Tournament participants and leaders have an obligation to the community to conduct themselves in a polite and orderly manner. They should do whatever they can to keep the room disruption to a minimum. Furthermore, tournaments should always be held in tournament rooms whenever possible, and when that is not possible, leaders should do their best to find a room with low occupancy. Having said all that– let’s now look at the other side of the issue. Tournament directors do not have an easy time of it. Out of love for the game, and the love of the social elements of playing with others, they have volunteered to lead and organize tournaments. Beyond just adhering to the Terms of Service and doing their best to oblige the community by showing good manners, they must organize the participants in their tournaments and do their best to pull off a fun event. To balance the needs of the community at large and the needs of your small group, plus all the tracking, decision-making, and directing these folks need to do is no small feat. We, as a community, do need to recognize this. So, if we see that a tournament director is doing his or her best to run a polite and respectful tournament, then we should do our best to let them be. We have the power to mute as many people in the room as we want, and if a tournament starts in a room, we may be doing everyone a favor by muting the directors and possibly the most vocal of the members. Pogo does not “sanction” or endorse league or tournament play. However, we do allow it provided that the participants obey our Terms of Service. If you are in a room, and you see obvious Terms of Service violations, then you may use the Report Abuse feature. And finally, I would encourage everyone to do their best to get along here. Yes, you may be annoyed by a league that comes into the peaceful room that you are in and begins to run their tournament, but you have the power to mute the participants, and you may find that forty seconds of right-clicking and muting is preferable to watching the chat fly by during the tournament. |
Dear Ms. Netiquette:
I would like to address the issue of some of us players that may have medical disabilities. I love playing Hearts and in recent games I have been told the card I played was a “Dumb Move” and even called a vulgar name.
Due to a auto accident, in which I received a head injury, I have trouble with memory and have even had to retired because of it. I was in the legal field and do not feel that I am dumb or the vulgar name the person called me. I realize there are some people that can’t enjoy that it is “JUST A GAME” but I wasn’t sure how to handle this situation.
Should I have said I have a disability or that I am playing the best I can?
Thank You
Wondering in Ohio
| Dear Wondering, It depends on how much information you’re comfortable sharing. This is the Internet, and one of the nice things about it is that you don’t have to share everything about yourself. Many people feel that sharing is more honest, and many others feel like they have no choice but to share certain pieces of information with the rest of the world, so why not be relieved of that when playing on the Internet? In the “bad move” situation, one question you might want to ask yourself is whether or not the move you made is a result of the head injury that you incurred. If so, and you feel like an explanation would help, then you might want to share that information. A simple “I’m sorry, but I have a disability and sometimes I have trouble with my memory” should suffice. But keep in mind, even if you were not in any way disabled, you would run into this type of rudeness on occasion. Most people are pretty nice, but there are people who are going to be rude and unkind no matter what. In a situation where someone calls you a vulgar name, you always have the option of reporting them for abuse. If you decide against sharing the information, and someone is rude, you might simply choose to find another game. Why waste your time playing with someone who is unpleasant? |
Dear Nettie;,
I was in Vaults of Atlantis having a conversation with another player. It was an adult conversation. I will admit it was a little flirty, not obscene or sexual in nature. I was in a 40s room.
Suddenly, in the middle of this conversation, a player broke in and told us to move to an uncensored chat because her child was reading what was written. When I suggested that this player either move her child to the teen room or turn off the chat she became hostile and said that her child wasn’t going any place. She said that her child had a right to be in the room.
I tried to explain to her that this room was really intended for adults. I suggested once again that she turn off the chat so her child would not read anything that was written. This player responed by in caps saying “Don’t tell me how to raise my child.”
My daughter lets her children play Poppit! But she turns off the chat to ensure that her children don’t read anything they shouldn’t. It’s no surprise to anyone that adults in an adult room would be speaking to each other and not thinking that a person has a young child in the room.
Please tell me what your viewpoint is on this matter and how do you think it should have been handled? This player told me she “turned me into Pogo.” I told her “If Pogo thinks that I was doing something wrong, then Pogo would suspend me or give me a warning on my behavior.” I recieved nothing about this from Pogo.
Thank you
OK What To Do?
| Dear Okay What To Do?, What is my viewpoint? Well, if she did file an abuse report on you, then it would appear that our representatives did not see any Terms of Service violations in the report, which is why you didn’t receive a warning or suspension. Pogo is intended for players over 13 with parental/guardian permission. We don’t know how old the child is, but she does deserve credit for monitoring the child’s online experience. However, her best option in this case was to either turn off the chat or mute you and the person with whom you were chatting. While she is certainly within her rights to request that the chat be taken elsewhere, she could save herself a lot of time by using the tools that Pogo provides. Instead she chose to be stubborn, which resulted in an escalation of unpleasantness. In the future, if you are chatting with a friend and a player makes a request that you “tone it down” or “take it to another room” and you are not violating any Terms of Serice (of course!) then you might kindly remind the player that there is a mute feature. A simple “You are welcome to mute me” should suffice. If the player doesn’t know how, then you can teach everyone in the chat room the magic of the mute! If, on the other hand, the player starts to become hostile, then you should take it upon yourself to mute the player and be done with it. |
