Use of Rumour and personal information on irc, in forums, ingame and other places like skype and fac

[Miriam Ics]

Everyone have the right to complain, even the ones called "unsportish".

The fact that some still think that this event was not that bad, is a proof itself of how bad it was.
We lose one player. This is serious.
We might lose more. For some, the fun is gone forever. For many, the bad ambiance will last for long time.

[Stue (DC)]

A note from the Magistrates:

These cases are left open after the verdict is posted for people to productively discuss the verdict or seek clarifications. This is not a license to attack the Magistrates, launch personal attacks on either party to the case, or otherwise complain about the decision. All Magistrate verdicts are final. If you strongly disagree with the verdict your appeal may be sent directly to Tom, and to him only. Criticism will only be accepted if it is constructive.

[Geronus]

That's enough. You may state your disagreement with the verdict, but you do not have a license to use this opportunity to further smear the victims or accuse the Magistrates of favoritism with absolutely no basis at all for doing so. If you think we are compromised and have any kind of evidence at all, take it up with Tom. Otherwise refrain from making baseless accusations.

Since this nothing productive is coming out of this, I'm locking the thread.

[Geronus]

I have unlocked this topic to permit further comment.

Please keep any commentary constructive. We will be moderating this very carefully and personal attacks and flames will not be tolerated.

[Penchant]

While this isn't so much on the case itself, I would like to say I am glad to see someone get punished and accept it without anger, and I am also glad to see the good moderation. Although the only reason to lock it seemed to be Stue (DC) so in the future I find a temporary muting of the offender to be better than locking for 5 days. (I am definitely happy that while you locked it, you unlocked after things have hopefully cooled down, so like 4 stars on moderating.) :)

[egamma]

Although the only reason to lock it seemed to be Stue (DC) so in the future I find a temporary muting of the offender to be better than locking for 5 days.

Muting happens at 50 points; a moderator can only give someone 20 points a day, although Tom can give however many points he wants.

Also, it was the Magistrates doing the moderating, and all they can do is thread maintenance in this subforum, not give points. They did do a good job though.

[Deytheur]

Thanks for unlocking the topic for comments Geronus. I assure everyone I am not just QQing but trying to be constructive in case something like this happens again and to send a message to deter further harassment.

I want to thank the magistrates for their time spent on this case.

I would like to say though that I am not sure it was enough. The defendant still has 2 Duke Margrave characters in Perdan so he wasn't stripped of all his positions and I'm sure everyone who plays BM will agree that Duke Margraves have a lot of power and influence over the politics of their realm. Losing rulership and keeping those positions isn't much of a punishment. Perdan are still pushing very harsh peace terms against my realm while leaving the other two realms that were at war with them virtually untouched. Before he was locked he eve felt the need to send me an OOC message trying to explain how what they were doing to me was for game balance, which really makes no sense to me and really not necessary if the terms were solely for IG reasons.

I know that I might be a bit biased because it is my realm getting screwed over, in 3 years of BM I haven't seen terms so demanding and that maybe I am being a bit paranoid but it feels like the campaign he launched has had an effect on my reputation and the reputation of my realm and it will last a lot longer than the 3 days he was locked for.

If we look at the increasing number of harassment cases then I think a very hard line needs to be taken to make people really think before going so far. I don't think that locking someone for 3 days really sends the message that harassment really will not be tolerated.

Of course maybe this is just because I am involved and other may disagree but I will quote someone from IRC to finish (someone who by the way is neutral) 'Multicheating gets your whole account locked, it's a shame violating the social contract isn't given the same importance.'

[Blue Star]

@Deytheur

You are correct you are not QQing, you are attempting now to push harder for punishment on a player/character who accepted his punishment and regrets what he has done. I have played with and against the umbar family since the umbar's first stepped off their ships and he keeps ooc and IG for the most part separate. I did not speak during his trial for it wasn't my place and I don't know the details of what truly occurred. Though it did get me to finally venture to IRC (interesting truly).

Your realm getting "Screwed" not because of some OOC reason they decided to act against a realm and strike out to attempt to gain lands and squash what realm destroyed Ibby. I would say the demands are steep, but no steeper than the betrayal that was brought to Perdan, 3v1.

Note* The other position was recently acquired, he did not have it prior to the 3 day lock.

Please Lock this thread no good out of it being open obviously can come from it being so.

[Miriam Ics]

Reading that last answer, having read some posts IC, having read several messages on IRC, I realize that for some people, the punishment was unjust. For me, it was rather unfair. The punishment should have been greater for the damage done.
Accusing someone of being manipulating the game due to personal relationships, to convince other players to believe this lie, change the course of the game based on these allegations, it is serious and no matter what the punishment was, the damage is irreversible.
Siana has no more chance to promote themselves as a character. Laura will always be the one on which it is rumored that took advantage of a personal relationship to achieve results in the game.
Even if Alexandros wrote in big red letters that he was sorry it would not change. This is the big problem of baseless accusations: Once disseminated, can no longer be controlled. There will always be someone who will believe what was spoken.

[Deytheur]

@Blue Star

No, whatever I say I don't think that the punishment will be changed in this case, like I said, it is for the community to decide if this is really the message we want to send to future cases.

He was meant to be stripped of positions for a month so even if he got it since it is still like the verdict was completely pointless and hasn't been enforced.

Also no, there was no OOC reason for 'betraying' Perdan. It was actually Perdan that first betrayed our realm by conspiring with Westmoor to get our previous Duke of Al Arab to secede. And your argument is slightly flawed as when you say it was betrayed by 3 realms yet it is only us that is losing so much.

[jaune]

I'm not quite on par whats up.

Atanamir got stripped off his throne. And is not able to be king for a month...

I think thats pretty decent punishment and he has shown some good attitude that he understands why he got that and he has apologized.

What you guys want? That he quits? That he nulls all the war efforts Perdan made? or what?

Let it go. Lesson learnt by everybody me thinks.

-jaune

[Geronus]

I have opened up a Q&A thread to discuss the issue of verdicts in cases of harassment. If you feel this verdict was too lenient, we want to hear your respectful suggestions:

http://forum.battlemaster.org/index.php/topic,4944.0.html

Someone else locked this thread while I was doing all this, so I am going to re-lock this now - please direct your further feedback to the Q&A thread, but note that it should be directed at the specific question of what we should do about cases like these in the future, not this case specifically. I do not want to re-litigate this.