NEW RULE/Strict actions to be taken against false reports.

Suggestion:

Making a report or accusation against a user without solid evidence will lead to an infraction on the users account, or in some cases a temporary or permanent ban.

Reason for this suggestion:

There have been far too many reports in the past few months from ''butthurt'' users or some market traders in an attempt to slander other community members for multiple reasons ranging from loss of business, to just an attempt at ruining reputation or banning a user by false pretense.

I understand Sythe Mods/Admins alike have the power to work as part of the staff team to make choices on these reports, but that doesn't stop members from attempting to (indirectly or not) slander other users by having an open report against them which may contain no valid evidence actually worthy of a report.


TL'DR: There have been too many false reports in the past few months to try and slander other users or cause loss of business etc, Report a player section should be taken more seriously and punishments given to those who abuse it.

I'm also sure the staff don't want their time wasted on people being immature, as it happens enough already due to scams or he said she said childish crap.

 

Can you provide an example of this? Seems far fetched

 

Users who accuse others of scamming without proof are usually given warnings, often infracted. I guess it really depends on the extent of the false reporting in which users are given severe punishments. There have been users who were banned for attempting to frame/falsely accuse others in reports, one that comes to mind is this. If a report is titled as "Prince 1337 scammed me" and there is no proof in the main post, the thread is usually locked, asking for the reporter to include proof. There shouldn't be a punishment assessed in that instance unless it's evidently clear that it's a troll or whatever. Basically, this should already be a thing.

 

no support

 

Depends. There is no way to put a rule in place. You'll often see reports where you think "he truly did get scammed by who he claims" yet the victim just doesn't post enough proof. However if they are scam reports that are forged, faked, etc., then it is a bannable offense.

 

so i agree with you. generally, my approach to these things is:
-if some random user posts something like "scammer!!" on a thread, i just let it sit or sometimes delete the post if it's clear there's no proof
-if someone attempts to frame another user, they get banned, no questions asked
-for all things in between -- e.g., if someone tries to slander someone else -- we'll take it on a case by case basis. if it's gross slander, i'm happy to ban for it; if it's purposefully making someone look bad, i'm happy to ban for that too. if it's pettier, it's probably just gonna be an infraction. if a user asks for a thread title to be edited in rasc, i'm happy to do that for a fake/unproven report.

if you have specific cases you want to discuss, i encourage you to post them here

 

Going to need some specific examples/context before I agree or disagree, because usually it's just an impostor or if it's a legitimately fake report like the one Ghast posted, they end up banned anyways. I cannot recall too many occurrences of users reporting each other for scamming just because they disliked each other and nothing against the rules actually went on, and usually in those cases infractions are dealt for wasting staff time I believe.

 

It's whatever lol.

I've had countless false reports made against me that everyone knows are simply meant to just be a dick move/hurt my reputation.


I just move on with my life and ignore them so to be honest I'm 50/50 on this.


Considering I'm probably one of the most victimzed people on sythe with false(and perhaps legitmate reports sometimes), I truly view it as a minor annoyance vs a problem.

 

Thanks all for the feedback.
Maybe make a rule in the format of the post that unless evidence is clear, I.e. not just an IP match from an IP lookup, users cannot include other users name in the title of the post, because people can view that and before reading the text in the thread they see the title of it, I.E. ''Jane Doe scammed 500M'' is the thread title, but there is no valid evidence on said Jane Doe in the report. Users can go on a whole page ranting with speculation on said Jane Doe and none of it is valid, or it may be valid but not relevant to the report and the reporter is just inadvertently grave digging old reports or information that is not relevant and the reporter is just trying to make things seem twisted or worse in an attempt to slander the user. When others read the report they see irrelevant information about the Jane Doe being reported and it gives others a bad impression of said Jane Doe.

 

With regards to actual reports in the Report a Scammer section, I'm very hesitant to punish users who create a report with no or very little proof due to the fact that normally they are new users or are panicking a lot due to the fact they've just been ripped off.

On the assumption the person I'm dealing with is a long term member and what's been provided is obviously an attempt at slander and was not posted in the best interests of the Sythe community, sure, I'll take action then.

Whether it warrants it's own sticky or rule, I don't know.

 

I don't think this is necessary at all. If someone's causing trouble, a mod will handle it as they see fit. Can give them a temp ban if necessary.

 

Another valid point to make is that by potentially punishing incorrect/incomplete reports... You run the risk of potentially scaring off users from making reports.

Sometimes somebody doesn't make a valid report because they don't have all the facts.

I would say that this couldn't really be implemented just because it could potentially increase scamming and decrease reports.

 

New Users excluded, and yet again, Sythe Staff still have discretion on what actions to take against the user given the type of report anyways.

Also, here is an example happening right now.
http://www.sythe.org/report-ban-evader/1939752-ihatequesting-ban-evasion.html

His name in the title, nothing is proven and literally everything is just speculation.

Another example, YousuckV2 had gotten me banned once, why? Because he made an IP lookup report against me. There was no evidence, literally just speculation and it was extremely inaccurate. There is even a mention that '' an IP lookup is not enough proof'' in the sticky area, yet the report was made based off just that, a public Wifi ip match to a member who had no link to me and I was given a ban by Mod sellerman until I disputed it and made them realise it was bogus.

 

Staff make mistakes, their human to.

Discouraging potential reports by punishing those who make inaccurate/incorrect reports is not the path to take.


I cant imagine how many times staff have posted "use the proper format".

Would you have people punished for saying "BUS369 SCAMMED ME" with no format or anything?

A punishment for something so minor is overkill, especially when 99% of the time staff try to get rid of fake/inaccurate reports by archiving them.

If a false report is made, u can request it be archived simply by PMING a staff, or waiting till they move it, saying the poster of that report needs punished is quite overkill.

 

Reports are deleted upon request by the accused if there isn't evidence of wrongdoing and/or the accused is 0% at fault for the actions.

Creating false evidence is already a perm ban.

Creating a false report just to create a report isn't really an issue. Depends on the staff who deals with it/the severity. Might just get deleted or ignored, might get the OP banned.

I've not seen an issue with this of enough severity or frequency to warrant creation of a new rule.

 

Unnecessary. Slander/false reports/reports with insufficient proof are already handled accordingly as is. Denied.