Updated Player Behavior Guidelines

Hello, Player Behavior!

We've been brainstorming for a while on ways to improve the Player behavior experience. We started a few months ago with changes to the way we moderate responses.

We’ve also gotten a lot of feedback about this subboard over the past year or so, and we’ve been tossing around some ideas. Now that we’ve put together a plan, we’d like your thoughts and input so we can see what changes or adjustments we need to make before we roll things out.

Simply put, we’re looking at adding a few simple rules:

PB Specific Rules Be Helpful In general, all responses should assume good intent on the part of the poster, even if there is strong evidence to the contrary. The only exception is when Riot officially presents evidence of misbehavior.

Most people who come to Player Behavior after a ban or chat restriction are frustrated, angry or upset. It is important that our responses remain positive and come from a genuine desire to help them understand what happened and why. Replies that are overly negative, dismissive or combative are not appropriate and may be removed.

These include (but are not limited to):

• Low-effort taunts such as the Rammus “ok”.
• Saying the community is better off without them.
• Telling people you’re glad they’re banned.

Don’t Be a Robot We see a lot of the same questions over and over in Player Behavior, which leads to the habit of copy/paste answers. Responding to people in this way can feel cold and dismissive. If you choose to use scripts, you should also include something that is specific to that request.

No Dumpster Fires (Low Effort/Inflammatory Comments) While we understand the need to vent from time to time, threads that only serve to start drama and provoke arguments are subject to removal as low-effort per the Universal Guidelines.

Additionally, threads whose sole intent is to vent, rage, or express displeasure without regard to reform or assistance will be removed per low-effort. We want this Board to be a genuine avenue of reform and guidance.

Examples include:

“Riot bans people to make money off them repurchasing skins.” Threads with comments that are only intended to insult others. “You’re just a toxic idiot, glad you got banned.”

Leave Bad Chat in the Logs Players are strongly encouraged to post their complete and unedited chat logs whenever they are asking for feedback on a chat restriction or suspension. Accordingly, these will often include words and phrases that would otherwise be subject to strict moderation. They are permitted here, but only in this context.

It is not permitted to attempt to bypass the boards filters. If you wish to clarify what you said, please do so in a different fashion.

No Tests, No Experiments

Posts that encourage people to behave in ways that are likely to trigger the Instant Feedback System (IFS), posts suggesting methods of trolling in ways perceived as unlikely to trigger the IFS are not allowed, and posts that attempt to report the results of a “study” will be removed as they do not serve a purpose on the Board and are not permitted, regardless of the reason.

While we can understand the value of things such as ‘experiments’, the Boards are not the place to post that kind of content.

Let People Leave Sometimes people will come to Player Behavior to say how they’re quitting. They often ask others to do the same. Similarly, they may ask for a boycott of purchasing Riot Points. Insulting people who decide to leave or telling them something along the lines of “good riddance” isn’t appropriate or necessary.

Do Not Argue Context Discussions about why a particular word or phrase is likely to trigger a punishment are subject to strict review. In general, the only context that matters is what the League community in a specific region considers worthy of punishment. As such, discussions about the differences between the League community and other environments are likely going to be removed under the ban on political and social discussions.

To be explicit, no, we don’t care if a word used to have a different meaning, if it has a different meaning in other countries, or if it’s acceptable in other communities or cultures. We do not care if certain people believe a word or phrase can be reclaimed. Similarly, we don’t care if you personally consider a word or phrase to be inoffensive. While it’s an opinion you can have, it’s not especially relevant or helpful.

Give and Receive Honesty Coming into Player Behavior and creating a post means opening yourself up to criticism and discussion around behavior. If you plan to post on this sub-board, especially in terms of posting your chat logs, expect people to be honest with you about why your behavior could possibly be problematic. If you’re not open to feedback, the board isn’t going to be able to help.

There is a difference between honesty and disrespect. Try to be honest and helpful, not rude.

Good honesty: “You told people to die, typed several words that are considered slurs under Riot’s filter, and threatened to grief your team. All of these things are things Riot doesn’t tolerate, and they escalated your account accordingly. I recommend you try to be kinder to your teammates, and try to focus on your gameplay instead of others.”

Bad honesty: “You were awful and toxic, no one wants to play with you ever. I hope you get banned or smited so people don’t have to be next to your ass anymore.”