A Response about Mods

As many of you know, I’m very pro  mod.  (Moderator) I’m only one of many. I sent in yet another letter and I finally got a response back. It wasn’t really what I was expecting or even hoping for. But I’ll share it, because it does give important information about what to do if you need to report another player.

Mine:

Hello there, Please forgive me if this isn’t sectioned under the right subject, what I’m about to ask certainly feels like a game issue. How do you want players to proceed when it comes to reporting player issues? And by that I mean, how do you want us as a player base to report and handle issues like:

— Bullying

— Cursing

— Spam

I’m asking because for global chat, this is a constant. If I could describe the global channel in a word, it would be volatile. It’s always an option to close the chat window or to avoid the channel when things are getting heated. One might think that’s an easy feat to do. For an adult like myself, who only plays around to unwind, yes. But I imagine that for the age group this game is targeted for, it’s not quite that simple to turn the other cheek.

I say all this to suggest a moderating system. From what I understand, messages are moderated now, but there are times when immediate action is needed. Especially for the bullying. Never in a million years did I think I’d be saying this, but there really needs to be consequences for the wrong actions. And I think the player base needs more clarity on what those actions are. I’ve heard rumors that a volunteer system is being tested out, and I’m hoping that this is true.(My fingers are crossed.) But until then, what would you like us players to do when we are in or we witness these situations in the chat room?

The two major things that pop in my head are to avoid the conflict, to use the ignore function, and close the chat window. The other is to take a screen capture and send it in. But what kind of details would the staff need to know? (Other than details of the situation.) I really enjoy this game, and I want to see it grow. Mind you this is just my opinion, but I really do believe that a moderator system would help it do just that.

Thanks for your time.

Sincerely,

##My Real Name##

(Player Avery NightRoad)

The Response:

Hi (My real name),

The chat is indeed moderated and there are consequences for bullying, which ranges from temporary suspension to permanent ban and removal of the ability to chat.
At the moment, we cannot put moderators on all our servers – we have around 15 servers in several different languages in different countries with different time zones – and it is impossible for us to manage the chat this way. We currently read through the chat logs every day. Our chat systems flags anything that is against the rules or seems to be filter avoidance for us to look at and we can act on it.

If you wish to help and want to report players, just message us to this address with the username and what they did that breaks the rules. You can also send us screenshots of the chat window when you see someone being abusing, flooding the chat with repeated symbols or harassing other players for their accounts. Anything that breaks our Terms of Service can be reported and we will investigate it and deal with the user breaking the rules.

Thank you for your message and your feedback.

Regards,
Catherine, Star Stable support

So what to do should you see bullying, spam or filter blocking.

– Take a screen shot (See link below for tutorial)

– List the user name of the party(ies) involved

– They don’t list this, but give them a time if you can, it may make it easier for them to comb through chat logs.

– Send it to the support team.

(I tend to get faster response with the contact form)

After this my hope for moderators on all servers was definitely deflated. 
Not diminished. Just deflated.

Related articles

• Cyber bullying is not okay.
• Screenshot Tutorial (PC Or Mac)
• Help get moderators!

How to make a screenshot (PC or Mac)

Ever wonder how players take pictures  in game? Well, wonder no more! I’m about to show you how. On top of that I’m going to show you how to remove the interface so you don’t have maps, buttons and stats choking up your pretty pictures.

Psst… this is for PC and Mac users!

Step one:

Open the end game menu.

You can do this two ways:

A) Click on the phone

or

B) Use the [Esc] button

Step Two:

Select Options

Step Three:

Select  “Hide user interface”

Step Four:

Click Okay. Don’t worry, you can turn your interface back on by hitting the [Esc] button again.

Step Five:

Okay, this is where people get lost.  Just stick with me and you’ll be okay.

PC Peeps:

You’ll need to open something to “Paste” an image into.  I use “Notebook” because I can write about the pictures as well as save them but basic paint will work just fine. If you have photo shop or PSP, or even Gimp, those will work fine too.

(If you don’t have those programs, go to your accessories and open paint)

Okay, got something open and waiting?

Let’s move on.

Look at your keyboard, and find your [prnt sc] button.  It stands for “Print Screen” .

If your computer has keys that shares functions like mine, it may be a secondary key.  If this is the case,you’ll do this:

Press your

[fn lock] key

or

hold your [Fn] key as you push [prnt sc]

If you print screen key, doesn’t have other stuff on it, don’t worry about the Fn stuff.

Go to the paint program you opened (or whatever program you used)

Edit –> Paste

You’ll have something like this:

File –> Save as

Name the file what ever you like

Save it as one of the following:

Jpeg, or PNG, make sure you’re saving it somewhere you can find it. For example I have a folder on my desktop where I keep all of my SSO pictures.

Mac Peeps:

Screen shots automatically save to your desktop.  Lucky you!

Here’s how you do that:

Press and hold these three buttons

[Command] [Shift] [3]

My computer at work, makes a little camera noise that lets me know it’s working.

You’ll have to rename the file. (I think that’s a pain in the bum) and move it where you want it.

You now have an image that’s ready to be uploaded!

You can now upload your picture onto the internet!  I upload my photos by Facebook and wordpress the majority of the time, but if you find that you need somewhere else to upload it, I recommend photobucket. It’s free and there’s a lots of space for pictures.

That’s how you take a screenshot. If you need help just give me a shout, I’ll do my best to walk you through it.  You can also use other programs to add filters to your images, but I’ll cover that later.  This is just the bare bones basics.