Let's talk about the "Community Blacklist", and why I personally think we should abolish it.

Hello fellow Royallers, it is I, the dedbeat OG Mememen mains from days of yore since 2015, I've basically promoted to full time forum lurker, with the occasional chiming in with a kick of spice. This feedback thread is no different from any other, I will try to be as objective as I can (pardon me as I am a little rusty with my writing skills, my thoughts may not be as clear and coherent as I'd like them to be).

Introduction
The Community Blacklist thread should not be unfamiliar to most players who actively visit the forums. Had your apple yoinked during apq? To the blacklist you go. Leecher dced after taking your mesos? Right this way. BUNDLE SCAM? BHLASPHEMY. Come on in. Etc. Yes, it is a (mega)thread where people report questionable behavior in royals.

Position
Now you must be thinking, surely there isn't a downside to a community blacklist right? We get to avoid players who behave questionably in the server and save our time to deal with them. Except... It has come to my observation that people are so trigger happy to jump straight to making a post on the blacklist without first trying to do a fundamental important thing. Yes, it is dealing and working with people which you do not get along with.

I get it. You paid your mesos to your leecher, he logs off on you. You panic, you run to forums to create a blacklist post. Maybe he comes back afew hours later, his house got hit by a typhoon (lol jk a little extreme), internet died. you get your refund. Case closed. Maybe someone comes into your stopper map, you guys bicker but one party didn't know how ~mapowner works. They make a post on the blacklist, more needless back and forth ensues on the forum.

Sometimes it really amuses me. But, this whole recent episode over -1 defame (from not just 1 user mind you) truly rubs me the wrong way. We do not need to create a blacklist for these kinds of petty events. Also the people who have multiple entries. Are you really that accident prone, or does drama like to come find you? How many times do you want to play the victim card until people stop taking pity and release just maybe, something is up with you instead? Maybe I'm just speculating on my end but truly I'd want nothing to do with players like these even more than those you have one off instances with other members of the server. Why not get a third party to mediate instead where common ground and understanding can be found. We are already a small playerbase, if you really need to blacklist, just use your personal one ingame, no need to air dirty laundry for all to see.

We only have one person running the thread, poor @Shiratsuyu who has to make a judgement call for every petty little incident. We also only have one forum janitor moderator, @Dave Deviluke. I get it, he's not perfect but he does do his job to the best of his ability. It is not easy.

Proposal
Close the thread. I personally feel it's lost its purpose. Unless you're extremely famous as a serial looter or apq apple stealer, chances are noone's going to the blacklist thread, Control + F your ign to check if you're on it. Either that or we need to regulate entries a lot more as a lot of them are petty bickers to which only benefit said individual due to (what is perceived to be) a bad encounter.
Except you @KDT you clown imagine being on the blacklist for bundle scamming LOOOL

Closing Thoughts
I'm curious to see what the community thinks. Maybe I'm actually in the minority. Perfectly fine by me. I just felt like something had to be said about recent entries, and the general direction of the current community blacklist. if you've made it this far, thank you for taking your time to read this. It's not perfect, I might edit it down the road. I'd like to hear what others have to say. Please be civil about it though. I'm just a dedbeat (mostly) retired royaller.

Thanks

-Yer Beloved Ex mm main

Sena

 

I would be for changing the list and clearing things up. I did add a footnote on the front page of the blacklist about FM spots being stolen and how it's not blacklist worthy, unless the person is botting (in which case, they should be reported to GMs and get banned). While the "3. Any accusations that devolve into petty bickering will be ignored." rule already exists, I feel like it's very open for debate what this actually means. Stolen FM spots reports are almost non-existing nowadays since I added the footnote. Maybe if rule 3 was more clear on what sort of petty bickering could be, less petty reports would be made perhaps. Anyway, I'm definitely curious to see what other members think about this

 

I'd suggest ways to rehabilitate currently blacklisted individuals.
Perhaps a panel of players can help and assist @Shiratsuyu with respect to decisions or appeals.

I know it is supposed to be a community blacklist but sometimes it feels like the person with more popularity sways the opinions of others even if they shared part of the blame.

 

You get to see people fight over the smallest things(popcorn), why destory the arena? What would Rome be like without the Colosseum?

CHAOS

 

dont abolish please, i want my daily dramas community blacklist thread

 

bundle scamming ? gaps i did no such thing
https://makeagif.com/i/91VRkz

 

I see Dota chibi artwork I upvote.

 

I think letting people submit their reports privately to the blacklist manager(s) to go over the incidence & evidence.

Then, blacklist manager(s) contacting the abusers to confront both side of story and evidence privately.

Finally, blacklist manager(s) organizing the whole incidence from both side with evidence and decision and post it in blacklist thread would be much more efficient. (But it requires more works for manager though)

 

I believe people should be publicly named and shamed when they commit acts that harm the integrity of the community. Theres countless examples of people having done scams or stolen items that were guilted into returning or paying back what they stole. For that i feel the thread has an important purpose. Do people take petty qualms to it as well? Of course. Someone looting a single onyx apple one time that refuses to give it back is not blacklist worthy imo and doesnt need to have 3 pages of bickering clogging up the discussion.

I also believe the blacklist thread is a good place for high profile cases of shitty behavior. Obviously Saledor and Nani are the two more recent examples but the community should be made aware of those type of situations just to remind ourselves there are people who posses questionable moral character that'll take advantage of anyone friend or stranger and to do your due dilligence when you trade, drop, boss, buy or sell any service in game, that just because someone says theyre well known doesnt mean you should ignore a possible scam or bad deal. Im looking at you "pay me first for the 300 APRs you wanna buy then ill drop them in fm cause its faster, trust me bro everyone knows me" guy.

If anything we should just look to refine our guidelines for blacklisting.


Youre still my favorite markmeme Home Homie!

 

Blacklist serves its purpose when used correctly - when you show what behavior is not acceptable.

I think maybe we could form some guidelines of what is and what isn't a blacklist-worthy behavior.

 

what community interaction is left in the game? believe it or not the various petty forum drama is one of the few things bringing people together

 

For me a person never take the list seriously I want to say the list is not even useful, why some people care that so much? A part of players like me never look the list finding a known person, or some don't even use forum.

Instead of closing the arena, why not find a way make blacklist more useful? Like yellow server message pop in game showing this month who are blacklisted, force all players see it? (don't laugh at me if this idea is stupid haha)
If the list could be more useful, I expect it can somehow warn people not to do bad behaviors, and make conditions to put a person on stricter/clearer, decreasing dramas too.

Anyway for those caring the thread, they must needing a place to fight or to create dramas, if the thread close they will find other place and post a "Don't APQ with xxx" in community thread, I don't know which one is better but both of them will work. So for the ease I vote no, closing the thread can not stop they fighting.

I know I'm a chaotic evil and like drama always, I would like to say this first in case some people take my post too seriously.

 

I never look at the blacklist because I don't care and this is a videogame. Normally I'd be in support of removing a thread that mostly serves as a way for players to throw punches at each other, but Fli makes a good point. All of you who are too addicted to watching María la del MapleRoyals and other telenovelas will create drama no matter what, so it's best to have a dedicated thread for it so I can just ignore it.

 

i think if u are trying to support someone, u shld disclose if u are their friend/guildie

 

I think that the blacklist could use a cleanup.

Remove old cases (lets say 2020 and below, unless its a severe case), stop giving APQ crybabies / krex ch8 nonsense attention, and actually have legit reports submitted to the blacklist that deserves to be there.

I personally feel like I reported something stupid not a long ago (about a defame) and it feels petty and childish and that it shouldn't be there.

The blacklist is a good idea, and it serves it's purpose to some extent, but there are a lot of things that ruin the whole thread like the ones mentioned above.

Multiple pages on that one stupid, petty, childish and pointless argument that will lead to nothing.

The blacklist manager shouldn't deal with these things.

 

Perhaps instead of a blacklist thread, it would actually be better to have a forum section? That way, each incident could be its own thread, and it might be easier to "formally" stop the most ridiculous discussions? (i.e. just lock the thread, and say do not start another about it).

 

We should blacklist people who make stupid blacklist posts, then blacklist people who have dumb reactions to said blacklist, then blacklist people who argue against that blacklist, then blacklist people who then come out in support of that blacklisting, then... [click to expand]

 

Are we paying this blacklist manager and making sure they have a background in psych/HR?

This is more work than most GMs do with less tools LOL