NationStates Jolt Archive


Suggested Guidelines for Soft/Hard Ignores

Sarzonia
23-03-2005, 20:47
Standard disclaimer "borrowed" in part from Treznor: I am not a moderator and the opinions expressed here do not reflect those of Max Barry, the administration or moderators therein or the prevailing opinion of the people who choose to post in these fora. These are solely my opinions and suggestions based on playing this game for approximately one year.

I created an earlier thread (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=367424) in which I explained the differences between a soft ignore and a hard ignore of a player. I also added the partial ignore, or the specific ignore, of a player's technology, thread, etc. I've seen people announce ignores of certain people that has drawn a warning for flamebaiting and has resulted in the thread being locked. However, I have also seen an ignore announcement that was not viewed by a moderator as flamebait because of the way it was done. What's the difference? Let's look.

1. To tell or not to tell, that is the question.
First of all, my example of an ignore announcement that was not locked or considered flamebaiting notwithstanding, moderators generally frown upon making public announcements of ignores. They also look unkindly upon certain specific announcements of ignores because of the way the ignore was worded.

2. If your ignore statement is intended to inflame your ignoree, do not announce it. Trust me, it's more trouble than it's worth. Your best bet is to quietly click on the profile of the country you want to ignore and select the option to place the country on your Jolt ignore list. Then, you will not be able to read the country's messages unless you click on a link to allow you to read them. If someone is looking for drama and you don't give them drama, they will most likely go elsewhere looking for it.

Going back to my earlier example of an ignore statement that wasn't given the mod smackdown, I typed one OOC sentence: I object to this country joining this alliance because I have a hard ignore on him. That's all. The reason I did it was because it was a RP thread and having both him and me in the same alliance would likely lead to an attempt at IC interaction. I think Kahta once typed something along the lines of, "hey look, I ignore you. Please don't waste your time posting here." If it's done courteously, it stands a better chance of surviving mod scrutiny.

3. If you explain your reason for ignoring another RPer with FACTS and not opinions, you have a better chance of withstanding scrutiny. Explaining that you're ignoring someone for a specific reason without resorting to insults is more likely to pass muster than calling someone an asshat. That may very well be your opinion and the opinion of other people who saw the incident in question, but it's not for you to say that on these fora or in TGs. They all can get reported to the moderators and you can get into huge trouble.

Remember, this isn't a First Amendment issue. This is Max Barry's board and his rules are in effect. You explicitly agreed to follow all the rules of this board by signing up for it and posting here. Respect for others, even those you dislike, is crucial to your privilege of using these fora and playing this game. Remember, I said it's a privilege, not a right.
Euroslavia
23-03-2005, 20:56
very good Sarzonia!

I always consider using a Jolt Ignore as the absolute last resort. So far, I don't have anyone on my ignore list, though it was tempting to put someone on there (I'm not giving names). In my opinion, using the ignore function is the easy way out, rather than just ignoring someone's posts by seeing that they posted; however, for specific people, it may become necessary. Perhaps you could provide a few examples of when the use of an ignore wasn't needed, and when it was appropriate (links).
Cogitation
23-03-2005, 21:09
Just one correction:
Remember, this isn't a First Amendment issue. This is Max Barry's board and his rules are in effect. You implicitly agreed to follow all the rules of this board by signing up for it and posting here. Respect for others, even those you dislike, is crucial to your privilege of using these fora and playing this game. Remember, I said it's a privilege, not a right.
No, it is not implicit. You explicitly agreed to follow the rules of this board when you created a nation. In the nation creation process, there's a little checkbox that says "I have read the NationStates Terms and Conditions and I agree to abide by them" (or something to that effect). You must click that checkbox or the game won't let you create a nation.

So, it's explicit, not implicit.

--The Modified Democratic States of Cogitation
"Think about it for a moment."
NationStates Game Moderator
Sarzonia
23-03-2005, 21:16
Just one correction:

No, it is not implicit. You explicitly agreed to follow the rules of this board when you created a nation. In the nation creation process, there's a little checkbox that says "I have read the NationStates Terms and Conditions and I agree to abide by them" (or something to that effect). You must click that checkbox or the game won't let you create a nation.

So, it's explicit, not implicit.Ah. Corrected.

That means there's even less of a leg for violators to stand on.
Sarzonia
23-03-2005, 22:58
I find I'd rather not deal with seeing the posts of someone I put on my Jolt ignore list, so it's easier for me to put a Jolt ignore on them.
Sarzonia
29-03-2005, 19:39
bump
Frisbeeteria
29-03-2005, 20:16
bump
I'm not sure why you're bumping this. It looks like guidelines for RP, and Cog corrected the single error. Is there another response you're looking for from Moderation?

What would make sense to me is for you to repost this in NS or II and get one of the Sticky owners to link to it in their sticky.
Bodies Without Organs
29-03-2005, 20:37
One question remains unanswered concerning the 'hard ignore' function: is it seen as against the rules to use a puppet nation to evade an ignore, or for another poster to quote your text so as to bring it to the ignorer's attention.

This came up and was discussed without any real ruling back in this thread;

http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=399744


I later started another thread to see if any ruling was forthcoming, but it met with no response.


By the way: here's the link to Kahta's ignore announcement that is referenced by Sarzonia -

http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=8207935&postcount=541
Euroslavia
29-03-2005, 21:43
If you'd like, I could add it to the Moderation forum sticky.
Sarzonia
29-03-2005, 21:59
If you'd like, I could add it to the Moderation forum sticky.That'd be great, thanks.

Oh, and Frisbeeteria, I wasn't sure if reposting this on I.I. was a good idea or not, so your suggestion took care of that for me. Thank you.
Sarzonia
04-05-2005, 17:36
One question remains unanswered concerning the 'hard ignore' function: is it seen as against the rules to use a puppet nation to evade an ignore, or for another poster to quote your text so as to bring it to the ignorer's attention.Sorry for the belated response to this (and sorry for "gravedigging" this thread), but in my opinion, it is against the rules to use a puppet nation to evade an ignore. I think it goes far beyond the simple RP transgression of puppet wanking and if a Moderator has given you a "stop posting in [so and so]'s threads or you'll be deleted" kind of warning, I think it's a deletable offense.

As far as quoting your text is concerned, it may depend on the context, but I for one don't appreciate it when I've made it known that I ignore someone and another person quotes his or her posts to bring them to my attention.

Again, sorry for the "grave dig," but I don't think this question ever really got answered on this thread.
Frisbeeteria
04-05-2005, 18:08
As far as quoting your text is concerned, it may depend on the context, but I for one don't appreciate it when I've made it known that I ignore someone and another person quotes his or her posts to bring them to my attention.
I see your point, but disagree that the mods should be the ones taking action to enforce your dislike of another poster. This HAS been addressed in the The One-Stop Rules Shop (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=416023) sticky and associated comment thread, and the decision was that we will enforce it when it breaks other rules of the forums, i.e. flaming, harassment, or spam.

Mods aren't here to make sure everyone gets along with everyone else. We're here to make sure that everyone follows the rules, whether they get along or not. Micromanagement of individual player likes and dislikes goes far beyond what we have time for.