Boards›Player Behavior

My approach to Player Behavior & Moderation threads

ModWuks··17 votes·2,234 views

The Arbiter Program was implemented about two months ago, and since then, many of the Arbiters have been able to find a specific voice. This post is about explaining the voice that I choose to take in my replies and why I take that approach.

When the program first started, in my mind, a lot of the work that we'd be doing would be looking at chat logs and referencing resources to answer questions that other Summoners might have about the Player Behavior and Moderation. But as I worked with more Summoners, I realized that this sub-board is what you make of it. Whereas some people come for the smites and to re-affirm that a player was suspended justly, I decided to take another approach to suspension threads in particular.

When I see a suspension thread, I set a few goals:

  1. De-escalate the situation. The OP is probably hella upset that his account was suspended. Although (s)he may have deserved the suspension, I tend to put myself in their shoes and do my best to sympathize with their situation. How would I feel if my account were suspended? It's pretty easy to see them as just another name on the Boards, but I think everyone should be treated with respect and I do my best to do so.
  2. Clarify. If a player has a misaligned view of the Player Behavior systems, clarify those views with either personal experience or data/statistics/released information about the system.
  3. Look for opportunities to reform. If the OP has provided information about the circumstances in which (s)he was suspended, try to explain why (from what you can see) the suspension was justified. Furthermore, go beyond that and relate to them on a personal level or relate the example to a real-world situation to make their situation more understandable from a relative perspective.

Being able to humanize the people you interact with from behind the computer screen is huge in being able to retain positivity both on the Boards and in-game. Whether or not they want to accept your advice is irrelevant; what's important is that you've tried.

I strongly urge you guys to take a similar approach and see how it goes.

Stay true in victory and defeat! Wuks

Merry fucking christmas riot can i plz get a soft ELO reset?

Want to chat up an Arbiter? Stop by the Community Discord chat!

30 Comments

Samus722 votes

More chemistry homework upon ye?

As noble an approach as it is, it's very difficult to feel sorry for someone who was given two chat restrictions, then a fourteen day ban, and then comes to the forums upset that they were permanently banned. These are lengthy warnings. Two weeks of real time being unable to play the game. I cannot put myself in the person's shoes because they wouldn't fit! I know better than to do the things people who have been banned do to get themselves excised. I simply cannot relate to their inability to learn.

I'm right there with you on clarification.

I cannot make people reform. Many people who are banned don't understand why the actions that got them banned were bad things. The morality of right and wrong seems to be less of a thing nowadays. It's been my experience, and not just on Riot's forums, that showing or explaining to someone why throwing out racial slurs are very bad things doesn't resonate with people. And they usually just become hostile and insulting. If you tell someone that typing out certain words is wrong, they just shrug and say "No, it's not." Personally, if you don't have the common sense to know that insults and harassment is wrong, you don't need to be playing any kind of social game.

And believe it or not, banning people for bad behavior doesn't make a lot of folks realize their behavior was bad. They create another account and get banned all over again.

That would probably keep me from being an Arbiter. I cannot sympathize when someone breaks the rules.

ModWuks2 votes

{quoted}

More chemistry homework upon ye?

As noble an approach as it is, it's very difficult to feel sorry for someone who was given two chat restrictions, then a fourteen day ban, and then comes to the forums upset that they were permanently banned. These are lengthy warnings. Two weeks of real time being unable to play the game. I cannot put myself in the person's shoes because they wouldn't fit! I know better than to do the things people who have been banned do to get themselves excised. I simply cannot relate to their inability to learn.

I'm right there with you on clarification.

I cannot make people reform. Many people who are banned don't understand why the actions that got them banned were bad things. The morality of right and wrong seems to be less of a thing nowadays. It's been my experience, and not just on Riot's forums, that showing or explaining to someone why throwing out racial slurs are very bad things doesn't resonate with people. And they usually just become hostile and insulting. If you tell someone that typing out certain words is wrong, they just shrug and say "No, it's not." Personally, if you don't have the common sense to know that insults and harassment is wrong, you don't need to be playing any kind of social game.

And believe it or not, banning people for bad behavior doesn't make a lot of folks realize their behavior was bad. They create another account and get banned all over again.

That would probably keep me from being an Arbiter. I cannot sympathize when someone breaks the rules.

Each Arbiter has a different approach, and this is simply my approach. There are a good number of individuals who post regularly who would be great candidates for an Arbiter position because each person brings their own voice and perspective to the conversation. Contributing to the conversation is the most important part of being a positive force in the Player Behavior & Moderation sub-boards, so keep up the good work!

Daen2 votes

{quoted}

And believe it or not, banning people for bad behavior doesn't make a lot of folks realize their behavior was bad. They create another account and get banned all over again.

That would probably keep me from being an Arbiter. I cannot sympathize when someone breaks the rules.

So to an extent, I actually feel pretty similarly in some situations. There are some people that you just can't help, realistically speaking, and at that point it can actually be better to basically debunk everything he/she says so that other players don't get roped into a misinformation spiral stemming from that one person's issues.

I tend to take this approach relatively often, and it's why Wuks and I make a great team in regards to the Arbiters. He works more from the perspective of helping the OP, whereas I work more from the perspective of making sure other players don't get sucked into the OP's negativity when things get too far.

Basically, what I'm getting at is that a huge part of the strength of the Arbiter program is that we each approach the same issues in completely different ways. Having trouble sympathizing when someone consistently breaks the rules isn't necessarily a gamebreaker, it's more important to find a niche that really fits how you like to interact with people.

Transgressor2 votes

Question pretty plox:

This has ALWAYS mingled my mind; what is done for the cases that an arbiter is in a "fuck this post in particular" mood for whatever personal reason(a shitty day, a breakup, a headache or whatever), and brings down the deletion-hammer without fulfilling his/her role? We are only human, we're bound to make mistakes, to be weak and flawed in different ways. So how can it be made sure, that one's flawed modus operandi, doesn't ruin a NABoards(or any other region's Boards) member's experience?

To put it simply, how do you as arbiters, make sure everyone does their job the way they're supposed to? Because I know for a fact, were I to have the power to moderate, 70% of the people here would get their posts deleted, I'm that kind of an asshole :D

ModWuks2 votes

{quoted}

Question pretty plox:

This has ALWAYS mingled my mind; what is done for the cases that an arbiter is in a "fuck this post in particular" mood for whatever personal reason(a shitty day, a breakup, a headache or whatever), and brings down the deletion-hammer without fulfilling his/her role? We are only human, we're bound to make mistakes, to be weak and flawed in different ways. So how can it be made sure, that one's flawed modus operandi, doesn't ruin a NABoards(or any other region's Boards) member's experience?

To put it simply, how do you as arbiters, make sure everyone does their job the way they're supposed to? Because I know for a fact, were I to have the power to moderate, 70% of the people here would get their posts deleted, I'm that kind of an asshole :D

I always love a great question, so thank you for asking! The easiest answer to your question is that Arbiters actually do not have the ability to moderate threads (delete, edit, pin, etc); that's an exclusively moderator thing.

However, addressing your point about how an Arbiter goes about his day when he has a "fuck everything" mentality: it's a volunteer position. The golden rule is "don't be a dick", and I think I'm doing an okay job with that. If I'm having a particularly bad day, instead of posting some relatively negative posts on the Boards, I'll probably just browse to see what TV shows are on and just watch TV for a bit. Going a bit beyond just "don't post when you're not feeling like being positive": the Arbiter title, to an extent, implies that the individuals who hold the title are paragons within the community. If I can't be positive, how can I ask others to be positive?

Transgressor1 votes

Ayy, cheers for the reply.

Arbiters actually do not have the ability to moderate threads

Welp glad you cleared that out for me before I made a fool of myself somewhere else.

to an extent, implies that the individuals who hold the title are paragons within the community. If I can't be positive, how can I ask others to be positive?

This notion I can get behind. A nice break from all the self-depricating hypocrites polluting the NA Boards. If you yourself, uphold the principles you stand for, then I can guarantee you're doing a good job.

Going a bit beyond just "don't post when you're not feeling like being positive"- it's a volunteer position

Yeah, I can see how that might complicate things. One is counting on people's goodwill when one knows people are well, people. And people mostly suck, even more so on the internet.

paragons within the community

To be honest with you, I've come across a genuine asshole of an arbiter a bunch of weeks ago. He's been blacklisted from my end. I find rather amusing the lengths some people will go to impose their train of thought and eloquently derogate individual opinions. His position gave him the power to do so, and the thread was full of like-minded people, so I was basically caught in the wolf's den so to speak. I do not believe in this ideal, paragons are wish-fulfillment :/

But it doesn't really matter. I've started blacklisting all the pricks/shamers/hypocrites. Now all we need is a filter function so we can chose which sectors we actualy want to partake in; I feel it would solve 90% of the issues, and would help identify those who actually go out of their way to be assholes.

o/

ModWuks1 votes

{quoted}

Ayy, cheers for the reply.

Welp glad you cleared that out for me before I made a fool of myself somewhere else.

This notion I can get behind. A nice break from all the self-depricating hypocrites polluting the NA Boards. If you yourself, uphold the principles you stand for, then I can guarantee you're doing a good job.

Yeah, I can see how that might complicate things. One is counting on people's goodwill when one knows people are well, people. And people mostly suck, even more so on the internet.

To be honest with you, I've come across a genuine asshole of an arbiter a bunch of weeks ago. He's been blacklisted from my end. I find rather amusing the lengths some people will go to impose their train of thought and eloquently derogate individual opinions. His position gave him the power to do so, and the thread was full of like-minded people, so I was basically caught in the wolf's den so to speak. I do not believe in this ideal, paragons are wish-fulfillment :/

But it doesn't really matter. I've started blacklisting all the pricks/shamers/hypocrites. Now all we need is a filter function so we can chose which sectors we actualy want to partake in; I feel it would solve 90% of the issues, and would help identify those who actually go out of their way to be assholes.

o/

Hey, it's unfortunate to hear that you had a negative experience with an Arbiter. As a new group, we're always looking for opportunities to improve, whether that's with a specific Arbiter or with the group as a whole. If you're willing, I'd like to hear a bit more about your situation. Stop by the Community Discord Chat, and let's talk about ways that you think we could improve.

Samus722 votes

Badness, did you have a point other than to be a jerk posting that?

TheBadness1 votes

{quoted}

Badness, did you have a point other than to be a jerk posting that?

if you couldn't grasp the point based on what was already written, then there's no point in trying to explain further because your reading comprehension apparently isn't up to the standard of conversational English.

Samus721 votes

I will try, Captain.

Tract1 votes

I come here to try to help the people who post about punishments, whether they are complaining about supposed injustice or looking for help reforming. All in all, a pretty similar approach, although the most annoying situation is when someone repeatedly says that they "clearly arnt toxic, Riot is stupid, or their teammates where babes" while flaming the people who pointed out the toxicity in their posted logs. I always try and help the person...but its more annoying than usual. Keep the good approach up.

ModWuks1 votes

{quoted}

I come here to try to help the people who post about punishments, whether they are complaining about supposed injustice or looking for help reforming. All in all, a pretty similar approach, although the most annoying situation is when someone repeatedly says that they "clearly arnt toxic, Riot is stupid, or their teammates where babes" while flaming the people who pointed out the toxicity in their posted logs. I always try and help the person...but its more annoying than usual. Keep the good approach up.

I see the same threads that you see, so I completely understand what you mean ;) If anything, even if the original poster doesn't get the message about reform and his/her actions, at least the people who stumble upon the thread will get something out of what you have to provide. Keep up the good work as well, and I'll see you around!

Samus721 votes

My approach would be "common sense." Don't do bad things, bad things won't happen to you. In the past, this outlook has always labeled me "Mr. Negative." "You won't put yourself in the other person's place." Illogical. I don't need to pretend to be Bob to know that robbing a bank is a bad thing and you'll go to jail for it. Bob was wrong. He may have bought his family dinner for a month with the money he stole. But he still robbed a bank. To which people tell me "You just don't care." It makes me wonder if judgment is really something I'm good at.

I'd sign up for the Arbiters (where you do that anyway?) but I just have a feeling that after a few weeks, Riot would tell me to empathize more and quit being so "heavy handed." I am so used to that anymore.

Daen1 votes

{quoted}

My approach would be "common sense." Don't do bad things, bad things won't happen to you. In the past, this outlook has always labeled me "Mr. Negative." "You won't put yourself in the other person's place." Illogical. I don't need to pretend to be Bob to know that robbing a bank is a bad thing and you'll go to jail for it. Bob was wrong. He may have bought his family dinner for a month with the money he stole. But he still robbed a bank. To which people tell me "You just don't care." It makes me wonder if judgment is really something I'm good at.

I'd sign up for the Arbiters (where you do that anyway?) but I just have a feeling that after a few weeks, Riot would tell me to empathize more and quit being so "heavy handed." I am so used to that anymore.

To whom are you replying? It's hard to tell without a quote or reference, since chronological view doesn't automatically do that stuff. Either way, an answer!

I certainly haven't had Riot tell me how to communicate, and I'd expect that unless there were a legitimate problem the goal would be to let people discuss things the way they prefer. That being said, there are some situations where pure logic can get into a bit of a grey area. I agree that common sense between you and me is, well, obvious, but in many cases a player that got punished isn't necessarily aware of just how much he/she is ruining experiences.

It eventually becomes a bit more intuitive, identifying who truly wants to improve versus people that straight up just don't care, but at first it's a lot of sort of...trying to sleuth out whether someone's wasting your time or not. Part of the Arbiters program is identifying where you're needed and being available for those that really want some input, and so there's a certain baseline of empathy needed to help people out as an Arbiter.

As for your point on signing up, that's not something we offer at the moment since the group is so new. We're essentially making sure we're having the desired impact then will hopefully expand if conditions are right, though I have no clue what form that might take.

Samus721 votes

{quoted}

To whom are you replying? It's hard to tell without a quote or reference, since chronological view doesn't automatically do that stuff. Either way, an answer!

I certainly haven't had Riot tell me how to communicate, and I'd expect that unless there were a legitimate problem the goal would be to let people discuss things the way they prefer. That being said, there are some situations where pure logic can get into a bit of a grey area. I agree that common sense between you and me is, well, obvious, but in many cases a player that got punished isn't necessarily aware of just how much he/she is ruining experiences.

It eventually becomes a bit more intuitive, identifying who truly wants to improve versus people that straight up just don't care, but at first it's a lot of sort of...trying to sleuth out whether someone's wasting your time or not. Part of the Arbiters program is identifying where you're needed and being available for those that really want some input, and so there's a certain baseline of empathy needed to help people out as an Arbiter.

As for your point on signing up, that's not something we offer at the moment since the group is so new. We're essentially making sure we're having the desired impact then will hopefully expand if conditions are right, though I have no clue what form that might take.

Eh. I was merely curious.

ModUlanopo1 votes

{quoted}

I'd sign up for the Arbiters (where you do that anyway?) but I just have a feeling that after a few weeks, Riot would tell me to empathize more and quit being so "heavy handed." I am so used to that anymore.

There isn't currently a system for accepting applicants. The current Arbiters are all people with an extensive history of volunteering and advocacy. We have some rough guidelines and have been discussing a "junior Arbiter" program, but mostly we have been focusing on making sure the new board is healthy and vibrant.

As for censorship, no one at Riot has ever told me what to say or what not to say, which is pretty impressive, given that I'm the tough-love "stern dad" of the group and the most likely to say something that comes across as cold and judgmental.

Samus721 votes

{quoted}

There isn't currently a system for accepting applicants. The current Arbiters are all people with an extensive history of volunteering and advocacy. We have some rough guidelines and have been discussing a "junior Arbiter" program, but mostly we have been focusing on making sure the new board is healthy and vibrant.

As for censorship, no one at Riot has ever told me what to say or what not to say, which is pretty impressive, given that I'm the tough-love "stern dad" of the group and the most likely to say something that comes across as cold and judgmental.

As I said, I was merely curious. I'm a forum moderator for a web-based game. I'm not that fresh faced.

My experiences with corporations have had that glass ceiling set pretty low. It's difficult to expect that isn't the same everywhere. But then, I've never worked for a video game company either.

TheBadness1 votes

funny how Riot went and made a troll a fucking arbiter.

Goes to show Riot's priorities and intentions.

Just another reason why Riot went and deleted my posts exposing Jubbinaut as a troll.

ModWuks4 votes

{quoted}

funny how Riot went and made a troll a fucking arbiter.

Goes to show Riot's priorities and intentions.

Just another reason why Riot went and deleted my posts exposing [snipped] as a troll.

Rest assured; I have full faith that the individual in question was a great candidate based on his previous extensive experience in the Player Behavior forums and current experience in the Player Behavior & Moderation sub-boards. If you have concerns that this Summoner violated Boards Guidelines in anyway, you're more than free to submit that information in a ticket for investigation.

TheBadness1 votes

{quoted}

Rest assured; I have full faith that the individual in question was a great candidate based on his previous extensive experience in the Player Behavior forums and current experience in the Player Behavior & Moderation sub-boards. If you have concerns that this Summoner violated Boards Guidelines in anyway, you're more than free to submit that information in a ticket for investigation.

What would be the point of submitting a ticket? Their investigation would show no evidence of my claim because RIOT DELETED THE EVIDENCE.

ModUlanopo3 votes

{quoted}

What would be the point of submitting a ticket? Their investigation would show no evidence of my claim because RIOT DELETED THE EVIDENCE.

You are always welcome to send things to [email protected].

TheBadness1 votes

{quoted}

You are always welcome to send things to [email protected].

Or you can click on my profile, look for the thread that this happened on and piece it together yourself.

Daen3 votes

{quoted}

Or you can click on my profile, look for the thread that this happened on and piece it together yourself.

Alternatively, you could make everyone's lives easier and provide a direct link to the content so we don't have to go hunting through your entire Boards history for posts that were already deleted.

If this is actually something you want to chat with us about feel free to add me in the client or join the Discord chat (as per the OP), otherwise I'm not sure what your goal is other than to stir up controversy.

ModUlanopo1 votes

{quoted}

Alternatively, you could make everyone's lives easier and provide a direct link to the content so we don't have to go hunting through your entire Boards history for posts that were already deleted.

This was my hope, as well.

TheBadness1 votes

{quoted}

Alternatively, you could make everyone's lives easier and provide a direct link to the content so we don't have to go hunting through your entire Boards history for posts that were already deleted.

If this is actually something you want to chat with us about feel free to add me in the client or join the Discord chat (as per the OP), otherwise I'm not sure what your goal is other than to stir up controversy.

it's not like it's hard to find. It's the longest posts and it's directed towards jubbinaut. The posts weren't all deleted. Just the ones that expose him for being a troll.

KuribohOP1 votes

If anyone could clarify my "MMR boosting" ban I would be impressed RIOT hasn't managed to in any of the support tickets I have submitted the only response they give is they consider the matter closed followed by closing the ticket without providing evidence that I have "MMR boosted" (I know none can exist but I guess they must have something they consider to be evidence) nor disputing the evidence I have provided that I have not "MMR boosted". I now also appear to suspended from the RIOT games support website for some reason.

De-escalate the situation. The OP is probably hella upset that his account was suspended.

I am not sure about upset but I am definitely extremely frustrated by what I consider to be an extremely poor customer service.

ModWuks1 votes

{quoted}

If anyone could clarify my "MMR boosting" ban I would be impressed RIOT hasn't managed to in any of the support tickets I have submitted the only response they give is they consider the matter closed followed by closing the ticket without providing evidence that I have "MMR boosted" (I know none can exist but I guess they must have something they consider to be evidence) nor disputing the evidence I have provided that I have not "MMR boosted". I now also appear to suspended from the RIOT games support website for some reason.

I am not sure about upset but I am definitely extremely frustrated by what I consider to be an extremely poor customer service.

Hopefully we were able to clarify your situation through the chat. If you have any further inquiries, don't hesitate to ask!

KuribohOP1 votes

Yes it has been clarified but the underlying issue is still feels no closer to being resolved. Looks like I will have to continue my chain of tickets until I find a support staff who will listen to reason. I appreciate you taking the time to chat if only the support staff were also able to communicate effectively I might be able to get this issue solved.

Daen1 votes

{quoted}

I appreciate you taking the time to chat if only the support staff were also able to communicate effectively I might be able to get this issue solved.

Happy to help! Unfortunately I'm not sure how much additional information you'll be able to gain, seeing as Riot tends to be relatively closed off when it comes to boosting details.

As we discussed in the chat, Riot has personally checked your case/account and ascertained that at least one ranked game was played by someone else at some point prior to your suspension; provided this doesn't happen moving forward, a permanent suspension won't be issued.

KuribohOP1 votes

True but they have yet to address the fact that I have played in exactly the same way after the suspension as I did before. It may be me being stubborn but I still think that they can rectify their mistakes. On a side note I would like to challenge anyone to find a game/games that looks out of place on my match history not because I think it will prove anything but because I am curious for a neutral opinion.

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