Help: Petition to add moderators to "Rookie"

Do we need moderators on ROOKIE?

  • Yes, that channel is trollcentral

    Votes: 31 86.1%
  • No, I like a place to troll.

    Votes: 4 11.1%
  • Other idea? Post below.

    Votes: 1 2.8%

  • Total voters
    36
  • Poll closed .

Sub-Zero

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Hello!

I had a conversation with a Calypso Adviser today about this matter. We both agreed that it needs moderation because of the negative impact it has on new players because of all the trolling/harassment's out there.

He told me that, in the past when he asked MA about it they said "We prefer not to interfere with Rookie channel". And he guess that it would take a significant amount of player support in order for them to introduce it.

However there's hope because it came as a shock to me that all Calypso Advisers are originally players and they were also surprised when MA recruited them.

So I ask this of you. Show your support for this petition in hopes that they might one day add moderators to rookie and make this channel a better place for new players.

Sign in your in-game name below & it'll be added to this post.

PS: Too lazy to sign-in your name? Vote in poll!
 
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I guess you could break this poll down a bit.

First - Should Rookie chat be moderated at all?

Second - If yes to the first, who should do the moderation?
There could be several options to this part, ranging from MindArk Officials, to the PP (Calypso/Arkadia/etc) Officials, to the various planet advisers, to a different special group of players appointed by MA.

Players always have the option to 'Ignore' anyone who's trolling in Rookie, and most will work that out pretty quickly.
But I've said time and again in Rookie: it's the one channel that all new players see, right from the avatar creation area.
In part, that's great as some get stuck in there and Rookie lets them ask for help.
But I can also imagine some logging in as a new player to be hit with some of the stuff that gets posted in Rookie and decide to leave and not ever ever return.

A lot of people use Rookie as it's the one 'game-wide' public channel that everyone has right from the get-go, and it's great that we have that as a way of keeping in touch.
But maybe MA should re-name that one to 'Universal' - and set up a new Rookie one that's only for new players (and mentors?)?
 
I guess you could break this poll down a bit.

First - Should Rookie chat be moderated at all?

Second - If yes to the first, who should do the moderation?
There could be several options to this part, ranging from MindArk Officials, to the PP (Calypso/Arkadia/etc) Officials, to the various planet advisers, to a different special group of players appointed by MA.

Players always have the option to 'Ignore' anyone who's trolling in Rookie, and most will work that out pretty quickly.
But I've said time and again in Rookie: it's the one channel that all new players see, right from the avatar creation area.
In part, that's great as some get stuck in there and Rookie lets them ask for help.
But I can also imagine some logging in as a new player to be hit with some of the stuff that gets posted in Rookie and decide to leave and not ever ever return.

A lot of people use Rookie as it's the one 'game-wide' public channel that everyone has right from the get-go, and it's great that we have that as a way of keeping in touch.
But maybe MA should re-name that one to 'Universal' - and set up a new Rookie one that's only for new players (and mentors?)?

as one who uses rookie as a universal chat(and at times helping people) this is probably the best idea
 
I guess you could break this poll down a bit.

A lot of people use Rookie as it's the one 'game-wide' public channel that everyone has right from the get-go, and it's great that we have that as a way of keeping in touch.
But maybe MA should re-name that one to 'Universal' - and set up a new Rookie one that's only for new players (and mentors?)?

Universal sounds like a good option for a rename, plus I like your idea of new players and planetary advisors and mentors in Rookie.
I would add Rookie should therefore be capped for the new players, for instance to 15k Skill points or some other deciding factor.
I would also say it will still need moderators as some mentors are not averse to trolling. This could perhaps be done by a player group who then report the worst transgressions to MA. That way it would reduce the workload increase for MA itself.
Those who troll, use unnecessarily foul language or sexual harassment could then be given a warning, but depending on severity 2 or 3 strikes and you are out.
Make Rookie what the label implies.. a place for new players to seek help and advice, as well as to meet with mentors and other new players.
Those players who genuinely want to help, but don't currently have time to mentor, could simply make themselves a mentor, but note their mentorship page that they are not currently recruiting
 
A lot of people use Rookie as it's the one 'game-wide' public channel that everyone has right from the get-go, and it's great that we have that as a way of keeping in touch.
But maybe MA should re-name that one to 'Universal' - and set up a new Rookie one that's only for new players (and mentors?)?

This is a good idea since new players will go to Rookie chat thinking they could get help when all they get is our trolls yelling at them for even joining or making fun of for nothing. The channel itself could be put under some control but still it wouldn't help the new players.
 
I guess you could break this poll down a bit.

First - Should Rookie chat be moderated at all?

Second - If yes to the first, who should do the moderation?
There could be several options to this part, ranging from MindArk Officials, to the PP (Calypso/Arkadia/etc) Officials, to the various planet advisers, to a different special group of players appointed by MA.
I think since MindArk managed to appoint Calypso Advisers, and arkadia appointed Arkadia advisers. It would be up to them to decide who gets the position, of course other PP's would get the same option too. Optimal would be to get moderators for different timezones so rookie could be moderated during most time of the day.

Players always have the option to 'Ignore' anyone who's trolling in Rookie, and most will work that out pretty quickly.
Yes that is true. Most new player doesn't know if it even exists or how to do this and ignore only solves it for that one player not the majority. In some cases ignoring is even worse than not to. Because then you don't even know what kind of damage that particular player is doing.

But I've said time and again in Rookie: it's the one channel that all new players see, right from the avatar creation area.
In part, that's great as some get stuck in there and Rookie lets them ask for help.
But I can also imagine some logging in as a new player to be hit with some of the stuff that gets posted in Rookie and decide to leave and not ever ever return.
Yes they do see it, however if a player gets bad experience from it they may choose to even disable rookie forever, heck even myself have it disabled at times.
The best case scenario the new player gets lucky and don't see the shit and get a good mentor early, but in most cases they may see it and never come back again. The bolded the part is the main reason why I think there needs to be a change, either by moderators or other option it just can't go on like this. It's bad for the game in general.

A lot of people use Rookie as it's the one 'game-wide' public channel that everyone has right from the get-go, and it's great that we have that as a way of keeping in touch.
But maybe MA should re-name that one to 'Universal' - and set up a new Rookie one that's only for new players (and mentors?)?
A great idea, but we already got so much chat lag already I'm not sure if the servers can handle another universal channel.

Needless to say we sure can agree that the way rookie is running atm cannot go on.
 
Rookie isnt *that* bad.

There are a few folks who are total douchenozzles. I have 4 people on my block list from that channel.

One is an overt racist.
One is a thief
One is a temporary block, he will be removed once I'm sure he wont repeat the same question to me over and over again.
One is Calypto, who basically deserves to be blocked universally. His personal insults have included the handicapped, and his personal attacks know no boundaries in or out of game.

Folks coming in from other games have had to deal with trolls too. On a certain level the constant conversation topic changes show life in the game, which is important.

What I would do is the following:

Rename Rookie into "Global"

Create a real Rookie channel that has the same requirements as Thule and same level limits for non mentors as Gauntlet

Move on with life.
 
It doesn't matter what game you are in, these channels attract jackasses because they essentially have a captive audience.

A) Most of the douchebaggery is actually from the newer players
B) Some of us with slightly more than 15k skill points hang out there to answer questions
C) It would be really bad to leave the rookies to their own devices w/o grownup supervision

What I have recommended before is that they either use moderators who randomly pop in, or give us an option to vote people off of the channel. Five people set you to ignore and you are gone for an hour. Next time, for a day, then a week, etc.
 
About moderation: Who will guard the guards themselves? I don't support it.

About separating newbie channel from global channel: first, there is no need in universal chat. People have their socs for general chat, and there are planet-specific channels like #calypso or #arkadia to discuss local affairs. There is basically no common subjects between people on different planets. The only reason for most people to come to #rookie is newbies, some specifically come to help, others are just fascinated by all this bloom of innocence but end up helping too. Of course there are trolls too, it's inevitable part of any online community. But most of the time that boiling pot serves good.

Now what will happen if you add artificial barriers?

Option 1: make it newbie-only, no one higher than, say, 10 lvl can enter. I don't even know where to start to count all the harm it will do. Left to themselves, new people will spread and sharpen weirdest theories and beliefs. Even now it's hard sometimes to deliver any info because, e.g. "my mentor said that eco doesn't matter because all is compensated in loot" + "i heard that too" = no one listens to you anymore.

Now, real trolls - not half-time jokers - do create alt accounts and will continue doing it under the new rules. Also there are people who make new accounts with the sole purpose of defaming EU and/or promoting other games. And there won't be anyone around to object that.

Option 2: make it newbie-only but allow older people that meet some criteria, like specific levels in Mentor and such. At best, it won't change anything because there are enough of the good, bad and ugly to fit any criteria. Disciple grinders, "ubers" that hardly remember how a daikiba looks like and so on. At worst, it will leave out a lot of really helpful people, like it happened now with Gateway.

Conclusion: #rookie is not perfect and occasionally gets real nasty but it works. Alternatives are worse.

or give us an option to vote people off of the channel. Five people set you to ignore and you are gone for an hour. Next time, for a day, then a week, etc.

Now this could work. Needs some polishing up of course to not be abused.
 
I like the idea of renaming and setting up a global tab and a Rookie tab. I actually renamed my Rookie tab to Troll tab when I started playing the game.

I don't think Rookie should have a skill requirement because it is way better to get help from many sources and to get different opinions. Most players in Rookie do like to help out and they offer different skills like eco advice, mining advice, etc. I think we are all rookies at different things. Someone might be a complete noob at Coloring but be an advanced hunter.

As far as moderating, I think the idea of voting someone to Mute is ideally a good one but it could be abused by players who want to gang up against someone so, maybe you can vote to mute but only a limited number of times a day or a limited number of times per IGN. If I am being muted, I'd like to see a reason why (for example, "Spamming" or "Verbal Abuse").

A General or Global or Universal one is needed I think for those players who love to chat. This might relieve the troll spam in Rookie.

I suppose it could be implemented and then tested and tweaked until it works right but definitely something has to change.
 
Rookie isnt *that* bad.

There are a few folks who are total douchenozzles. I have 4 people on my block list from that channel.

One is an overt racist.
One is a thief
One is a temporary block, he will be removed once I'm sure he wont repeat the same question to me over and over again.
One is Calypto, who basically deserves to be blocked universally. His personal insults have included the handicapped, and his personal attacks know no boundaries in or out of game.

Folks coming in from other games have had to deal with trolls too. On a certain level the constant conversation topic changes show life in the game, which is important.

What I would do is the following:

Rename Rookie into "Global"

Create a real Rookie channel that has the same requirements as Thule and same level limits for non mentors as Gauntlet

Move on with life.

anyone of these start with an M ends with an L and seems to have missed his crazy pills?
 
anyone of these start with an M ends with an L and seems to have missed his crazy pills?

Nah Im surprisingly tolerant of folks in game.

It might surprise people who know me from the forums. :)

The way I figure it is this:

In-game folks have to respond quickly. They dont have time to read, reread, look things up, and put in their own time to sit and think about what another person has said.

So they deserve to be approached as any conversation would. With a grain of salt.

On a forum though, you have time to collect yourself.

If all a person can muster is "screw u fanboi" or respond with some trite remark then they have already paid me a disrespect, since I took the time to write something at least somewhat thoughtful and they rather discourteously dismissed it. I have no problem returning the favor.

On that note, Rookie Chat really deserves at least on a fundamental level to its own devices. I dont mind splitting it, and it might be a good thing. But I'd be careful not to expect too much out of it. It is new players. Some of them are not going to stick around, and they know it.
 
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