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BattleMaster => Case Archives => Questions & Answers => Topic started by: Geronus on July 29, 2013, 06:36:51 PM

Title: Punishments in cases of harassment
Post by: Geronus on July 29, 2013, 06:36:51 PM
I am opening this thread in response to criticism of the verdict in the Use of Rumour and personal information on irc, in forums, ingame and other places like skype and fac case:

http://forum.battlemaster.org/index.php/topic,4420.0.html (http://forum.battlemaster.org/index.php/topic,4420.0.html)

What I would be interested in is hearing what else those who believe this verdict was too lenient think should have been done. Please note that a permanent account lock is not something that we can apply without approval from Tom. Such a punishment has been referred to by Tom as the worst thing that we can do to a player, and to my knowledge it has only ever been used against multi-cheaters in the history of this game. Given the severity of such a punishment, I would say that it's not something we would consider applying except under the most extreme and unusual of circumstances. To do it for a first offense is therefore probably out of the question.

So, what else should be done in cases of harassment? Please note that our standard options at this time include only warnings (public or private), account locks of up to 3 days, and stripping of titles which can be applied to any or all characters on an account and also bars those characters from regaining the same positions for two weeks (the Devs extended the time in this case). If you feel other options should be added, please feel free to make suggestions, but keep them reasonable and to the point.

Please try to express your thoughts in a neutral or hypothetical context. I don't want to re-litigate the case that this topic stems from.
Title: Re: Punishments in cases of harassment
Post by: nanakisan on July 29, 2013, 07:14:39 PM
While the loss of Jason was extremely tragic. I actually believed the punishment was appropriate, given the tight parameters the magistrates have to work with. lately EI has seen some incredibly good IC developments of which i'm not disclosing. Even a new RP has started in Caligus. The realm is becoming stable with the new king. Along with many things its dying down again. So yeah i think the 3 day removal of atanamir from the game was sufficient to air out the room.
Title: Re: Punishments in cases of harassment
Post by: egamma on July 29, 2013, 07:17:40 PM
I think some people wanted the duke/lordships stripped as well, perhaps add that on to the standard title strip, or possibly as an additional option (although I know that there are probably limits to how many votes the Magistrates want to hold).
Title: Re: Punishments in cases of harassment
Post by: Geronus on July 29, 2013, 07:50:24 PM
I think some people wanted the duke/lordships stripped as well, perhaps add that on to the standard title strip, or possibly as an additional option (although I know that there are probably limits to how many votes the Magistrates want to hold).

It is a standard option to strip as many or as few titles as we want from each character attached to an account. There were two factors at work here that led to the current situation in Perdan:

1. His character who was a Duke at the time of the ruling was not King.

2. His character who was King, was not a Duke.

Since the ruling, the character who was King became a Duke; had he been one at the time I applied the punishment, I would have stripped those titles as well but he didn't have them then, so it's a moot point.
Title: Re: Punishments in cases of harassment
Post by: Dante Silverfire on July 29, 2013, 09:19:09 PM
Please note that a permanent account lock is not something that we can apply without approval from Tom. Such a punishment has been referred to by Tom as the worst thing that we can do to a player, and to my knowledge it has only ever been used against multi-cheaters in the history of this game. Given the severity of such a punishment, I would say that it's not something we would consider applying except under the most extreme and unusual of circumstances. To do it for a first offense is therefore probably out of the question.

My question is: What crime is worse than driving players away from the game?

Harassment can do that just as easily as multi-cheating if not more so. If your personal actions drive away players from the game because you are breaking the rules in some manner, then in my opinion you deserve the harshest punishments possible. If that requires Tom's personal approval, then that shouldn't stop the Magistrates from ruling on that, and requesting Tom to take that action.

At the very minimum, titles ought to be stripped and banned from receiving them for X amount of time. Temporary account locks for less than a week are seemingly meaningless punishments in my opinion, and are essentially warnings.
Title: Re: Punishments in cases of harassment
Post by: Geronus on July 29, 2013, 09:44:00 PM
My question is: What crime is worse than driving players away from the game?

Harassment can do that just as easily as multi-cheating if not more so. If your personal actions drive away players from the game because you are breaking the rules in some manner, then in my opinion you deserve the harshest punishments possible. If that requires Tom's personal approval, then that shouldn't stop the Magistrates from ruling on that, and requesting Tom to take that action.

If Tom's willing to consider it, then so will we. But until he says something one way or another, permanent account locks are not on the table as a routine punishment, even for something as serious as harassment.

Beyond this narrow question of how Tom would view such a punishment option, I also would have reservations about using it for all but the most clear-cut of harassment cases. These tend to be highly subjective, contextual, and subject to disputing interpretations as it is. Using such a harsh punishment in cases that tend to have significant shades of grey could very easily lead to injustice being done.

At the very minimum, titles ought to be stripped and banned from receiving them for X amount of time.

This is exactly what we did. The ban only applies if a position is actually stripped however, so in the case that led to this thread, the affected character was able to gain a type of position that he had not held prior to the punishment being applied because it was never stripped in the first place. That said, he will not be able to regain any of his previously held titles for at least 30 days.

As a general response to this point, which titles should be stripped? As I mentioned, we do have the ability to strip as many or as few titles as we want from each character on any given account. In the prior case, we chose to strip just one character, because it was felt that it was that character and his goals/responsibilities which led the player to do what he did, but in theory we could have stripped them all, from every single character on his account. That doesn't seem just to me, but I'm still curious as to what people think about how we should use this option in the future.

Temporary account locks for less than a week are seemingly meaningless punishments in my opinion, and are essentially warnings.

We considered locking the account for a week (which would have required special Dev assistance), but the vote was ultimately for a 3-day lock. Three days is still a long time, however. A lot can happen in three days that is detrimental to your characters, let alone an entire week. I went away this weekend and lost a whole unit on one character, while missing the chance to influence some rather important political developments on two more.

What makes a week so much better than three days? This is a serious question. I would like opinions about the efficacy of locks as punishments and whether we need to add options for longer locks, or possibly replace the mechanic altogether.
Title: Re: Punishments in cases of harassment
Post by: Geronus on July 29, 2013, 09:49:58 PM
stuff

We do not have the ability to admin Q&A threads, but I have reported your post to the mods as I feel it violated the guidelines I am trying to set for this discussion. Please focus on whether the applied punishment fit the infraction and on what might be done to better handle harassment verdicts in the future including commentary on our existing punishment options, not on what has already transpired as a result of the related case or the details of that case.
Title: Re: Punishments in cases of harassment
Post by: Dante Silverfire on July 29, 2013, 09:51:49 PM
What makes a week so much better than three days? This is a serious question. I would like opinions about the efficacy of locks as punishments and whether we need to add options for longer locks, or possibly replace the mechanic altogether.

A week is better than three days, because there are no game-mechanic downsides for a three-day lock. However, with a week long lock, you will lose all of your government and lordship positions. You won't be banned from them, but you will temporarily lose them due to inactivity. Can you regain them? Sure. But, it means that that particular character has enough trust from his realm-mates even following the punishment, to regain that position. In such a case, he would deserve to regain them.

If you are gone for three days, a lot can happen. Or, nothing can happen. I've been gone three days before and missed 200 messages. I've been gone three days and missed 10. A three day lock sends a message to a single player that their actions are something to reconsider. A week long lock sends a message to every player that interactions with that person's characters, that certain things aren't tolerated.

The question is, do you want just one person to change, or do you want to preemptively make sure abuses such as harassment don't occur in the future from others?
Title: Re: Punishments in cases of harassment
Post by: jaune on July 29, 2013, 09:53:27 PM
I just dont get this...
I would somehow understand that people want harder punishments, if in this particular case, "guilty" part would laugh or insult magistrates or continue harassment.

If someone makes a mistake, admits it, apologizes and never does it again... + all this hazzle around the issue.

What diffrence you think harder punishment would do? Now THIS hunting is starting to smell like OOC harassment...
Title: Re: Punishments in cases of harassment
Post by: Dante Silverfire on July 29, 2013, 09:59:05 PM
I just dont get this...
I would somehow understand that people want harder punishments, if in this particular case, "guilty" part would laugh or insult magistrates or continue harassment.

If someone makes a mistake, admits it, apologizes and never does it again... + all this hazzle around the issue.

What diffrence you think harder punishment would do? Now THIS hunting is starting to smell like OOC harassment...

I don't know any of the details of this case, so if you're accusing me of such, it is misplaced. I am simply commenting on the fact that for a while now I have felt that the lack of harsh punishments is undermining the Social Contract and IR's.

So, I'm giving my recommendations on "in general" as it seems that this question is worded.
Title: Re: Punishments in cases of harassment
Post by: nanakisan on July 29, 2013, 10:03:19 PM
There are other methods outside of a in-game lock that might prove effective. If the player in question is of such detriment to the realm or heck the Islands game play in general. Then he should be exiled from the island indefinitely. A additional course of action would be the route of fining him travel expenses for his characters relocation to another island. Reset their honor and Prestige, heck even going as far as taking fame points away from the player themselves. Taking away someones long worked for achievements stings harder then a permanent ban.
Title: Re: Punishments in cases of harassment
Post by: Geronus on July 29, 2013, 10:05:00 PM
A week is better than three days, because there are no game-mechanic downsides for a three-day lock. However, with a week long lock, you will lose all of your government and lordship positions. You won't be banned from them, but you will temporarily lose them due to inactivity. Can you regain them? Sure. But, it means that that particular character has enough trust from his realm-mates even following the punishment, to regain that position. In such a case, he would deserve to regain them.

If removing their titles was our goal, I think I'd rather just use our ability to strip titles. If that's what we were after, I wouldn't want them to be able to regain them so easily; that would negate the point of doing it in the first place.

The question is, do you want just one person to change, or do you want to preemptively make sure abuses such as harassment don't occur in the future from others?

I understand this point, but to make an effective example we would need to have a very strong case, one that would be beyond dispute. I think that's an exceptionally high bar to meet when it comes to harassment.
Title: Re: Punishments in cases of harassment
Post by: Geronus on July 29, 2013, 10:08:03 PM
There are other methods outside of a in-game lock that might prove effective. If the player in question is of such detriment to the realm or heck the Islands game play in general. Then he should be exiled from the island indefinitely. A additional course of action would be the route of fining him travel expenses for his characters relocation to another island. Reset their honor and Prestige, heck even going as far as taking fame points away from the player themselves. Taking away someones long worked for achievements stings harder then a permanent ban.

Stripping titles is a way of taking away (some) of someone's achievements. I don't think we'd want to mess with fame, as I doubt that it is technically easy to do what you're suggesting, but I'll let the Devs correct me if they think it's a good idea.

As far as deportation goes, well that is something we could consider. There is one previous instance where it was used in a case, and there have been a few other occasions when is is something I would have considered using.
Title: Re: Punishments in cases of harassment
Post by: Wolfang on July 29, 2013, 10:29:30 PM
Force-pausing one or more characters.
Title: Re: Punishments in cases of harassment
Post by: Geronus on July 29, 2013, 10:33:40 PM
Force-pausing one or more characters.

Interesting... For how long? And should the affected player get the character slot back to use somewhere else (or even to remake a new character in the same realm)?
Title: Re: Punishments in cases of harassment
Post by: Anaris on July 29, 2013, 10:34:27 PM
Personal attacks, particularly against the victim of the recent harassment, will not be tolerated. Such posts will be removed from the thread, and their posters will receive official warnings.
Title: Re: Punishments in cases of harassment
Post by: Wolfang on July 29, 2013, 10:43:34 PM
Interesting... For how long? And should the affected player get the character slot back to use somewhere else (or even to remake a new character in the same realm)?
Idk, that'd depends on the severity of the infraction, up to the magistrates to decide. I think you can get quite creative with this.
Title: Re: Punishments in cases of harassment
Post by: Geronus on July 29, 2013, 10:57:37 PM
Idk, that'd depends on the severity of the infraction, up to the magistrates to decide. I think you can get quite creative with this.

Pausing would remove them from their positions, cause their units to disband, and (I think) cause their bonds to be redistributed. I do not recall what would happen to their gold on hand. We'd have to consider these effects if we were to use this option.

We could set it up like a vacation pause that expires within a set limit. Sort of like locking an account I suppose, but only one character. The only thing is, I'm having trouble envisioning when we might use this.
Title: Re: Punishments in cases of harassment
Post by: Tom on July 30, 2013, 12:19:16 AM
Everyone is too focussed on punishment for my taste.

The purpose of Titan and Magistrate actions is not punishment. Their purpose is to guard a friendly in-game atmosphere. If 3 days of locking don't do that, neither will 5 or 10. It's not about hurting someone as much as possible, or "adequately much", it's about sending them a message.


Title: Re: Punishments in cases of harassment
Post by: Sacha on July 30, 2013, 12:55:25 AM
And everyone else too, for that matter.
Title: Re: Punishments in cases of harassment
Post by: Miriam Ics on July 30, 2013, 02:48:52 AM
My point is that I'm not sure if the message was sent, in this case or in other cases. Not sure if the judgement will avoid what started the harassment to happen again.

Harassment begins for one reason, to get something in general. In two cases I have followed here, it seems to me that those who were punished more were precisely those who were persecuted because the punishment for the defendants, who were harassing, were not enough to prevent them to get what they seemed to want IC.

Note that I say "seemed".

In the case of the players with multi-account, the account deletion will refrain them to make it again, because they know exactly what will happen.

In cases of harassment, way more difficult to analyze and judge, will the consequences avoid anyone to do the same again? Or will they think that having their account locked for 4 days Is worthy to do it?

Jaune, I am not persecuting anyone but I am really worried about this.
Two players left the game "allegedly" because of the harassment. For me this is a reason good enough to discuss deeper about the matter.
Title: Re: Punishments in cases of harassment
Post by: Geronus on July 30, 2013, 02:54:02 AM
In the case of the players with multi-account, the account deletion will refrain them to make it again, because they know exactly what will happen.

That's... Not necessarily true. I know of one offender who was caught at least three times that I am aware of.
Title: Re: Punishments in cases of harassment
Post by: Miriam Ics on July 30, 2013, 02:58:37 AM
That's... Not necessarily true. I know of one offender who was caught at least three times that I am aware of.

Well, this might be the "Exception that proves the rule" :)

Title: Re: Punishments in cases of harassment
Post by: Anaris on July 30, 2013, 03:09:46 AM
My point is that I'm not sure if the message was sent, in this case or in other cases. Not sure if the judgement will avoid what started the harassment to happen again.

I think that the fact that some players feel the need to publicly claim, OOC, that those who were victims in this case were actually conspiring to smear the culprit, who was as lily-white and unstained as new-fallen snow, shows that, at least on some level, the message has not been received by the players.

I think this is a serious problem, and that it is caused, at least in part, by the same willingness to take IC conflicts OOC, and view the player as being as much your enemy as the character is your character's. Thus, sometimes over a number of years, people who might otherwise be perfectly reasonable begin to form a view of certain other players in the game as being deeply untrustworthy, and willing to go to any lengths to "win".

The result is the sort of thing we have all seen in this case—not only the incidents that actually led to the case being filed, but also a number of the public interactions surrounding the case.

And frankly, whatever you think of the outcome of this particular case, whether you think that Atanamir should have been punished or praised for his actions, I would think that everyone should recognize that the level of OOC antagonism represented here is terrible for the game, and needs to be toned down in general.
Title: Re: Punishments in cases of harassment
Post by: Geronus on July 30, 2013, 05:41:41 AM
I think that the fact that some players feel the need to publicly claim, OOC, that those who were victims in this case were actually conspiring to smear the culprit, who was as lily-white and unstained as new-fallen snow, shows that, at least on some level, the message has not been received by the players.

I think this is a serious problem, and that it is caused, at least in part, by the same willingness to take IC conflicts OOC, and view the player as being as much your enemy as the character is your character's. Thus, sometimes over a number of years, people who might otherwise be perfectly reasonable begin to form a view of certain other players in the game as being deeply untrustworthy, and willing to go to any lengths to "win".

The result is the sort of thing we have all seen in this case—not only the incidents that actually led to the case being filed, but also a number of the public interactions surrounding the case.

And frankly, whatever you think of the outcome of this particular case, whether you think that Atanamir should have been punished or praised for his actions, I would think that everyone should recognize that the level of OOC antagonism represented here is terrible for the game, and needs to be toned down in general.

I think that harassment cases in general are often full of shades of grey and that reasonable people can often reasonably disagree over whether something is harassment. I don't believe that everyone who disagrees with this verdict is doing so in a bad faith manner. Different people are bound to interpret these things differently. That's part of what makes these cases particularly difficult. Some people obviously thought we didn't go far enough in the verdict, while others seem to sympathize more with the defendant. It's worth noting however that there have been recent cases that were even more controversial than this one was, and all we did in those was hand out warnings. Talk about a slap on the wrist, and yet some people acted like we were perpetrating the greatest injustice in the history of the game.

Ultimately, our mission as Magistrates is in part to preserve the friendly, "playing a board game with friends" atmosphere to the best of our ability. To that end we'll certainly hand out punishments when we feel its necessary, but as I've said elsewhere, one should always make a good faith effort to work things out with the other player before one resorts to filing a Magistrate case. If it comes to us we will do our best to resolve the situation, but keep in mind that our first priority is in fact to maintain the atmosphere of the game, not to punish people who make mistakes. We'll enforce the rules, but we're really not in the business of ban-hammering people. Players of good faith shouldn't need much more than to be told that they are in the wrong to make adjustments to their behavior, and by and large that's what we've seen happen in our cases; the guilty party accepts the judgment and apologizes, and we all move on. Which is as it should be.
Title: Re: Punishments in cases of harassment
Post by: nanakisan on July 30, 2013, 05:52:41 AM
The issue here is. A player competitive nature forced him to make brash accusations on two other players. His handy work forced them to essentially forget what was fun about this game and leave.

I am a former admin to once large sci-fi RP communities forum. There were many thing s of incredible intrigue. Many things happen but all the players followed a strict code of conduct. The code was simple, don't be a jerk and mix OOC with IC situations. A I was forced to close a lot of RP's that went to far out of the realm of allowance in certain RP themes. Many people got angry at me for these decisions but i didn't make them alone. I had a team (much like how the magistrates and titans are here). We handled things as they came along. However the most common issue of anything is the competitive nature of people. So to take them down a notch my team and the community leaders involved with specific RP forums edited posts. We basically altered te players history as punishment making them lose titles and ranks they worked hard for. This left a incredible impression on them and made them rethink their goals. It told them that this is only a game and that there is punishment if they stepped out of line.

When someones behavior is so extreme to the point that its driving people away. I would perma ban their buns in a heartbeat to preserve the community i tried to keep happy and healthy. Leaving them alone or just swiftly kicking them in the groin with a minimal punishment just wasn't enough for some people and they were easily caught doing it again.

The same applies here. The situation Geronus talks about is if the administrative volunteer task force IE the Magistrates did a good enough job with the situation. I agree given the parameters they were set forth by the developers and Tom himself they did a decent enough job. However while i agreee a harsher punishment should have been considered. We need to keep in mind that Jason did in fact instigate the investigation into these matters after he decided to leave. By technicality Atanamir is only guilty of creating a foul enviroment but wasn't fully responsible for Jasons leaving. So with that in mind the punishment would have to be suitable for someone who likes the game. Something that sends a message and i believe the message was sent. However "IF" the player of atanamir managed to get the ruler position back and start this madness again. Then by that time i would feel he is beyond redemption and remorse and should suffer the greatest penalty there is.
Title: Re: Punishments in cases of harassment
Post by: Geronus on July 30, 2013, 06:03:05 AM
"Players of good faith" are not likely to be repeat offenders, and I expect that to include 99% of the players of this game. Repeat offenders who demonstrate bad faith can expect harsher measures to be taken in future cases.
Title: Re: Punishments in cases of harassment
Post by: Tom on July 30, 2013, 10:35:23 AM
My point is that I'm not sure if the message was sent, in this case or in other cases. Not sure if the judgement will avoid what started the harassment to happen again.

If it happens again, there will be another 3-day-lock. In general, our history is quite good, we have very few repeat offenders. Your opinion on the individual case may differ, but in general, the system works well.
Title: Re: Punishments in cases of harassment
Post by: Anaris on July 30, 2013, 01:10:43 PM
If it happens again, there will be another 3-day-lock. In general, our history is quite good, we have very few repeat offenders. Your opinion on the individual case may differ, but in general, the system works well.

Tom, I'm afraid that seriously misses the point.

If the message was not clearly conveyed here, "another 3-day lock" will not convey it if it happens again.

And remember what would be meant by "it happening again": Atanamir harassing the player of the ruler of an enemy realm to the point where he leaves the game.

So if it happens again, what you're saying is that another decent player would have left the game permanently...and the person responsible for creating such a toxic environment that at least two people left BattleMaster because of it gets a grand total of six days where he can't play the game.
Title: Re: Punishments in cases of harassment
Post by: Tom on July 30, 2013, 01:46:29 PM
And remember what would be meant by "it happening again": Atanamir harassing the player of the ruler of an enemy realm to the point where he leaves the game.

No, that's not what it means. Please DO report this guy again as soon as he starts. I do take a dim view on repeat offenders, but right now, thinking that he message might not have come through is not enough. I don't believe in calling people guilty just because they did something in the past.
Title: Re: Punishments in cases of harassment
Post by: Anaris on July 30, 2013, 01:49:08 PM
No, that's not what it means. Please DO report this guy again as soon as he starts. I do take a dim view on repeat offenders, but right now, thinking that he message might not have come through is not enough. I don't believe in calling people guilty just because they did something in the past.

OK, then I misunderstood, and I apologize.

I don't believe in calling people guilty just because they did something bad in the past, either.

However, if they showed a pattern of behaviour that tried to walk just this side of the line, with plenty of words of appeasement any time someone started to say things looked fishy, and then after getting a punishment they claim that they have learned their lesson and will never do it again...I'm gonna keep an extra eye on them.
Title: Re: Punishments in cases of harassment
Post by: Atanamir on July 30, 2013, 05:31:58 PM
I seriously dislike these theories what I could do in the future to someone in this game and what would happen then.
It looks to me that some people take repeated offense by my side for granted and will do any small thing to find something against me.
Some might call this also a witch hunt. I will not comment even on the theories I read that current IC behaviour of the realm Perdan is connected to my OOC case at all.
It's like saying 50-60 people in Perdan are stupid and were and still are just my drones, and their only fun is to harm a player. This is a serious insult to the intelligence of these players.

At least this is how it looks to me here - and it gives me this feeling, esepcially since Geronus opened this post here to talk in general about this kind of cases, ano not, like in almost every second post - or more - in here, which is about me or related to me.
If it's going that I am marked now for the next longer time with such continued commenting on my specific case, I could delete as well my account just now and follow Jason out of this game.
Because seriously I don't need this as well, especially that people do not accept the punishment, and start arguing what I would really would have deserved.

As Geronus said, we all took a lesson and move on...



Title: Re: Punishments in cases of harassment
Post by: Gustav Kuriga on July 30, 2013, 05:50:51 PM
No, that's not what it means. Please DO report this guy again as soon as he starts. I do take a dim view on repeat offenders, but right now, thinking that he message might not have come through is not enough. I don't believe in calling people guilty just because they did something in the past.

Honestly I'm more worried about future harassment from different people.
Title: Re: Punishments in cases of harassment
Post by: Penchant on July 31, 2013, 08:45:14 AM
Honestly I'm more worried about future harassment from different people.
Well your advocating for the wrong thing. If you care about other people knowing it is serious and will not be tolerated, locking Atanimir's account for a longer time isn't going to magically tell them that. The obvious way is through a public message although I do not believe it should mention this case specifically, just saying something along the lines of in light of some recent issues we would like to remind the playerbase that harassment of other players is not ok and will not be tolerated as it is a very serious issue.
Title: Re: Punishments in cases of harassment
Post by: Vellos on August 01, 2013, 02:32:44 AM
Hold on.

Are people seriously suggesting that they think we'll be able to make a competitive internet game harassment-free?

I'm sorry, but when I was in this game as like a 14-year-old or 15-year-old I saw lots of not-in-good-fun mocking and harassment in Oligarch, and between Oligarch-Sirion. Let's not act like players getting mad at each other is something new or something curable: nor are perpetually jerkish personalities. As a proud owner of such a personality, I resent the idea of being cured.

What the Magistrates can do is try to address each case, marginally decrease frequency, and establish accepted patterns of behavior.

Did we address this case? Yes. Defendants' cohort thinks it was too harsh, plaintiff's side says too lenient. To me, that says we just hit on ideal Burkean compromise. I'm happy when nobody's happy. If you think that there's a solution to harassment where we all go home smiling and feeling good about the situation then you're deluding yourself. I've been involved in quite a few harassment cases (not as one of the parties, mind you; it was a job-related thing), and I've never seen a plaintiff walk away going, "Yeah, I feel like I've really been heard and things have been set right!" even when insanely punitive rulings are handed down. Why? Because JUSTICE CANNOT REWRITE THE PAST.

Will this marginally decrease harassment frequency? Hard to say. We did establish some clear no-nos about things players shouldn't do. Could we have said more? Yeah. But we've shown that we can hear harassment cases and can, even without extensive evidence, make a reasonable ruling. I am very skeptical of the idea that anyone will harass more after this case, and feel reasonably confident that at least someone will be less likely to harass in the future. This I think the chance of us accomplishing this goal is pretty good.

Did we establish accepted patterns of behavior? No, not just here: but the Magistrates are slowly and steadily building up a growing amount of interpretation and jurisprudence. We can increasingly say about marginal cases, "Hey, we've ruled on this before: here's the answer." We aren't there yet, but we're getting there, and, in my opinion, this verdict was a very good step.

So for everybody who hates this verdict apparently: judge it from the perspective of the possible. We can't respond to every harassment complaint with kicking players out: especially on a first reported offense. This is the harshest punishment the Magistrates have EVER given.