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Adding a 'Favorite/Mute user' option on the boards?

Maester Bacman·11/20/2014, 4:15:49 AM·1 votes·1,423 views

I've been reading the boards for a while. I have run into many wonderful opinions, comments and suggestions made by many players. There are some members of the community that have given such detailed feedback and opinions, I can't help but being impressed. I have even seen Rioters manifesting interest and admiration to some of the ideas given, and that approach to the community is awesome.

However, although positive and negative feedback is welcome, nonconstructive criticism is still a rampant issue. Sure, the boards have dealt with those posts filled with spam, insults and flames. But I have run into many posts that, while not rule-breaking at all, are extremely toxic. Some people show extreme aversion to change, some talk in a very condescending way, some believe that their issues are more important than everything else, some people don't show enough patience and understanding, some abuse of their rights as a "valued customer", and some others believe that they can run a MOBA company better than anyone at Riot.

I love listening to opinions, as long as they provide some value to the discussion. However, I have seen that many people expressing nonconstructive criticism regarding an issue are usually not down-voted, because there are many people who might be sharing the same frustration around that issue at that moment. While it is important to provide visibility to a suggestion or complaint, it's also important to bring something constructive to the table, and I believe that there is room for improvement in that aspect.

I was wondering if some sort of personalized feature could be implemented in the future. Just like we can mute toxic players in the game, can we get a 'mute' option in the boards to deal with the people with extreme negative behavior? It will help keep the board open for healthier discussions. And, maybe in conjunction with that, can you guys at Riot select and 'Favorite'/'Honor'/'Recommend'/'Riot liked' a user due to the quality of their posts? I know that this feature might be very hard to implement, since there are many variables to consider, but I just wanted to give some food for thought. We all want to hear feedback, but constructive feedback should dominate the conversations. Thank you very much for your efforts, guys. Tristana

3 Comments

Hyrum Graff11/20/2014, 8:22:43 AM2 votes

I think if the boards are working properly, then voting should do most of this filtering for you. As in, you shouldn't have to hide content that sucks because mass downvotes will do that for you, and you won't need to choose particular users to float to the top because upvotes will bring good content up.

That being said:

  • I don't think the current system does a great job of this.
  • My suggestion to improve it
  • Riot is actually planning on adding a 'subscriptions' feature, where you can follow users (get notifications when they post).
    • No official eta yet. It's on the short list though, after better quoting
dustwind811/20/2014, 9:28:33 AM2 votes

I understand your frustration with this situation. I agree that these people shouldn't be doing this stuff, but I would also like to point out that some of the things you said are subjective to each individual...

Extreme aversion to change is not something that you can say is something that harms the boards. Sometimes, people who don't like change are the best people to discus with they might shed light on why changes are bad or good that people haven't considered. I'm against certain changes other people want, does that mean that those people should mute me? I have voiced my concerns with peoples proposed changes and those people refuse to discus, instead they try to tell me to get off their thread if i disagree (it's happened many times in the past and a few times here).

On the internet, you are reading words, there are no tones to indicate the emotions associated with what someone wrote. So what you interpret as condescending, may not be so. My favorite part of the boards is the champion and skin concepts. I love to go through some of those champion concepts and review them, critique them, and try to make the OP think about things that they haven't considered or are not clear about. People will view this as condescending, but it's only to try to help the OP create the most solid champion concept they can. Trust me, people get really protective over criticism, or trying to point out things that don't make sense. To those people it feels like you are attacking them, when all you are trying to do is help. If those people just mute everyone who they don't like their review of... A lot of concepts would never evolve.

I hold my beliefs about what issues are more important then others... and i know that some of the things that i want are WAY less important then other things others want... But that does not change the fact that i would still like to see them implemented first. This one is highly subjective to each individual. I've voiced my concern over the potential for abusing the up and down vote system where groups who feel that their topic/suggestion/concept/etc are so much more important that they down vote anything and everything else. I feel that is a more pressing issue then spammers, toxic people, trolls, board jackers etc. Riot will most likely see this thread you've created and most likely will make a note of it... but in the end it's them who decide which issues take precedence over others.

Most of these issues are just a side effect of giving people the freedom to say whatever they want, and the anonymity to do so allows them to post freely as well. Every online society is going to have people who everyone will dislike, or problems that they want to hide, but just as we shouldn't chase homeless people out of cities because it looks bad of aggravates citizens. We cant allow people to turn a blind eye to the problems that affect every online social group. The admins do their best, and we all help by trying to keep everyone clam, reporting posts that harmful, and accepting each other for who we are, flaws and all.

As for your suggestion of "Riot liked/etc" users, that would actually make riot take longer to implement changes, as now part of their process if going to be deciding if a certain user should get this privilege. What is one rioter likes a guys post but another feels that they don't deserve the honour? It would create problems, not to mention a possible elitist section in our community when people get this title. What do we do as well if someone has this title and starts causing problems because they feel superior? There are just as many flaws that could pop up as this will solve... but i leave that debate up to other people. :)

Maester Bacman11/22/2014, 4:45:35 AM1 votes

Hey, thank you very much for the feedback, guys! I love having these discussions. I learn a lot from your points of view. :)

Dustwind8, I think you have put a great perspective over the problem. Let me comment on your thoughts:

Sometimes, people who don't like change are the best people to discus with they might shed light on why changes are bad or good that people haven't considered.

I totally agree. Everyone is welcome to dislike certain changes, as long as they provide constructive criticism and understanding. I failed to put an specific example about the type of reaction to changes I meant to talk about. I was referring to extremely negative comments with very blatant tones, such as: "OMG, you ruined this champion! Clearly you have no idea of what you are doing. FIX IT NOW!" I see comments like this staying visible and up in the boards. Yes, we are frustrated about that champion, but we don't want Riot to read this over the better feedback. I want people to disagree and voice their opinions, not to yell and threat, even for the right reasons.

I've voiced my concern over the potential for abusing the up and down vote system where groups who feel that their topic/suggestion/concept/etc are so much more important that they down vote anything and everything else. I feel that is a more pressing issue then spammers, toxic people, trolls, board jackers etc.

YES! Exactly! You said it perfectly! I think that one of the best threads that reflects such problem in the current version of the boards is this one: http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/story-art/QU1FzRg5-graves-cigar-got-removed?show=nested We ALL agree. Graves losing his cigar sucked, but this is an example on how the boards allow storms to be built in a glass of water. Rioters' comments and people who said "it's just a cigar" got below threshold and insults to the company are clearly visible, because many community members were very angry and treated this worse than a sex scandal. It's sort of like a "bully and witch-hunt" effect, where one states "she's cursed" and everyone who is angry and frustrated follows. This is a perfect case study for desired improvements.

As for your suggestion of "Riot liked/etc" users,... There are just as many flaws that could pop up as this will solve...

Yeah, I have to agree with your comments about the Riot liked/etc" users. I admitted that I had my doubts about it the moment I was writing the suggestion. I honestly put it because I believe that, as there should be a way to punish nonconstructive criticism, there should be a way to promote constructive criticism, so that the Rioters will look at this board with more happy faces. :)

I like that Hyrum Graff made that suggestion! I love the idea of starring thoughtful posts. The biggest thing would be to define how a post should be "star-worthy" without being nonconstructive, just because everyone agrees. And I admit that the fog is still thick from my point of view regarding that problem. Maybe the "follow" function could help. How about calculating star rankings based on the number of followers you have accumulated on the boards? Of course, popularity would be a factor to consider in many cases, but if people like your posts and they keep following you, you might deserve a star on your future posts, and it could improve visibility of nice posts in the long term. That is, of course, assuming that people would follow nice guys in the long term. :P