With every community there will be people who disagree with each other. In this community I like to encourage differing opinions, and I like open and honest discussion. Although, one thing that is not tolerated here is harassment. Unfortunately, there seems to be a bit of an outbreak of harassment in this community. I am not singling anyone out at this time, and I understand there are those here who speak plainly and bluntly. I don't want to discourage that. So what I'd like to talk about here is first what harassment is, how it is dealt with in game, and then how it relates to SSG.
SOE's "Reporting Inappropriate Language / Harassment" defines Harassment as a relatively broad term, and that comes in different forms. Several examples are included here:
- Abusive/inappropriate language/threats directed at an individual or group of players
- Abusive/inappropriate in-game email
- Use of house signs or city names to defame or ridicule another individual or group of players
- Using a vehicle or pet to disrupt a player's targeting, or prevent a player from providing service for others
- Following a player around and interfering with their hunting/questing
- Spamming / sending repeated tips/invites to a player.
Each incident is looked at on a case by case basis, and any action taken will be commensurate with the type of harassment found or witnessed.
In game if you are a victim of harassing behavior (Paraphrasing Amu'lette and Lona here) the best way to deal with it is to /report and send a Community Standards ticket. The syntax is "/report <name>" for example "/report Tziena". This captures the last few minutes of chat, group chat, guild chat and instant messages and sends it to the CS's log database. This does not actually file a report against the offender. Although, to preserve the chat information you must /report anytime you wish to report anyone for harassment. The next thing to do is to file a customer service ticket ("H" by default). Please, cite the name of the harasser and the approximate time the incident took place.
There are a couple of things to note regarding SOE's definition of harassment and sexual harassment:
7. You may not abuse other players, customer service representatives, or the tools provided to request support.
The following is a short list of things that would be considered "abuse" in game:
Hate Mongering - participation in or propagation of Hate literature, behavior, or propaganda related to real -world characteristics.
Sexual Abuse or Harassment - untoward and unwelcome advances of a graphic and sexual nature. This includes virtual rape, overt sexual overtures, and stalking of a sexual nature.
Attempting to Defraud a CS Representative - Petitioning with untrue information with the intention of receiving benefits as a result. This includes reporting bug deaths, item loss, or fraudulently accusing other players of wrongdoing.
Impersonating a Customer Service Representative - falsely representing yourself to another player as a SOE GM or other SOE, LucasArts, or Lucasfilm employee.
CS Personnel Abuse -- sending excessive unsolicited tells to a CS Representative, excessively using say or other channels to communicate to a CS Representative, making physical threats, using abusive language against a CS Representative
Submitting inappropriate or spamming CS tickets Submitting tickets with abusive language and/or profanity or continual submission of CS tickets regarding any issue which Customer Service has already determined is closed.
Using Threats of Retribution by GM Friends - attempting to convince another player that they have no recourse in a disagreement because favoritism is shown to one of the parties by the SOE or LucasArts staff.
Please note that this list is not all inclusive and a GM and/or a Lead GM may determine that other actions are considered abuse. This will be done on a case by case review.
Abuse of others will result in disciplinary action being taken against the account that may include official warnings, account suspensions, or account terminations depending on the severity of the incident which will be determined by a GM and a Lead GM. Multiple suspensions or account termination will result in the termination of all SOE game accounts.
8. "Roleplaying" does not grant license to violate these rules.
Though Star Wars Galaxies is a roleplaying game set in the Star Wars universe, the claim of "roleplay" will not be accepted in defense of any of the anti-social behaviors mentioned above. As an example, you are in no case (PvP or otherwise) allowed to "train" a guard onto an enemy in protection of your homeland.
By all means we want to encourage you to play your role, we just cannot allow that role-play to be done at another customer's expense.
For more information please see the following links:
[SWG] Rules and Policies: Rules of Conduct[SWG] Community Standards: Reporting Inappropriate Language / Harassment[SWG] Customer Service: Using the /report commandWhat does this mean for SSG? There are two things I would like to say regarding harassment and SSG.
First, we do not in anyway condone harassment on these forums. If you believe you have been harassed either in a thread or a private message, send a report to the admin. This will point the admins to the thread in question or send a copy of the PM to the Admin. (There is no way for admins to go to your private message box directly.) At that point the Admin will take action accordingly.
Secondly, unfortunately, in game harassment does not affect a person's rights on SSG. SSG is not tied to SOE's customer service team. So, unfortunately, unless someone causes issues on this forum, there is no way we can perform any disciplinary action against the player's account on this site. But if the actions spread to this site, please, report it to us and citing screenshots from in game to support a chronic behavior issues is acceptable. We do -not- want anyone to feel uncomfortable about posting on this site because of a harassing stalker.
In closing I'd like to mention that this admin team is here to help facilitate roleplay on Starsider. Harassment and similar behavior does not promote or in anyway perpetuate our goals with this site. If you need someone to talk to about these types of issues, please, do not hesitate to send one of us a PM. Anything you say will be held in the strictest confidence. Reporting issue like this not only helps you personally, but helps better the community over all.
Thank you for taking the time to read this.
Tziena
