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=== Beyond Reasonable Doubt ===
=== Beyond Reasonable Doubt ===


In case there is any possible doubt, a player should be considered not guilty.
If there is any reasonable doubt, a player should be considered not guilty.


=== Moderator Independence ===
=== Conflict of Interest ===


Moderators must not process reports if they know the involved parties (accuser or accused player). Playing online with the involved parties does not mean to "know" them. "Know" means: knowing them personally or playing with them online very regularly.
Moderators must not process reports if they know the involved parties (accuser or accused player). Having played online with the involved parties does not necessarily mean to "know" them. In this context,"to know" means: knowing them personally or playing with them online regularly.


=== Appeal ===
=== Appeal ===


Players have the right to appeal against the moderation decision by forwarding received moderation email to "contact@boardgamearena.com".
Players have the right to appeal the moderation decision by using the appropriate section in the Contact Form.


They '''MUST''' explain in the email how the moderator did not follow the BGA Moderation Policy. If the explanation is not convincing, the email will be ignored. If the player is obviously guilty and if the Moderation Policy hasn't been violated, BGA admins will double the penalty.
They '''MUST''' explain why the moderator failed to apply this Moderation Policy.
 
 
* If the message contains attacks/insults against anyone and/or trolling/spamming/disparage of the moderators, it will be ignored (= no reply) and you may get an additional penalty.
* If the message is asking us to also give a penalty to another player, it will be ignored. The correct way to do this is by reporting this player, not by appealing your own moderation.
* If the message is complaining without referring to our Moderation Policy (example: "this penalty is too harsh"), it will be ignored (= no reply).
* If the message is not convincing in any way, it will be ignored (= no reply).
* If the message is clearly abusive (multiple emails or appeal while the player is obviously guilty), it will be ignored (= no reply) and you may get an additional penalty.
* If none of the previous points are valid and if the moderators made a mistake, you will receive a reply and the penalty will be changed (or cancelled).
 
It is worth noticing that 99% of the emails we receive on the Appeal procedure are not relevant messages (not convincing / contains insults) coming from angry players, this is why we have to set this strict "no answer" policy.
 
In all cases, do not expose your case publicly, for example on BGA Forums. See why here:
https://forum.boardgamearena.com/viewtopic.php?t=26665


=== Penalty Grid ===
=== Penalty Grid ===


Moderators should follow the Penalty Grid as much as possible. However, they have the right to adjust the penalty depending on the gravity of the case. The following situation can lead moderators to increase the penalty:
Moderators should follow the Penalty Grid as much as possible. However, they have the right to adjust the penalty depending on the gravity of the case. The following situation can lead moderators to increase the penalty:
* the player has been reported several times for the same type of case.
* the player has been reported several times for the same kind of misconduct.
* the player's wrong action can be qualified by one or several of the following terms: racism, xenophobia, homophobia, sexism, and as a rule of thumb any type of discrimination against a particular category of people.
* the player's wrong action can be qualified by one or several of the following terms: racism, xenophobia, homophobia, sexism, or any type of discrimination against a particular category of people.
* in case there is provocation, the penalty may be be reduced a little, and the author of the provocation may receive a warning, BUT as everyone should keep quiet and polite even if they are are provoked, this is up to the individual moderator.
* the player's words include any sexual content or wishing extreme harm to others.  
* in case there is provocation, the penalty may be be reduced a little; however, everyone should remain polite even if they are provoked. Important: the provoker will not be punished unless they are also reported.


=== Relapse ===
=== Relapse ===


In case there is a relapse, the penalty increases exponentially.
In case there is a relapse, the penalty may increase exponentially.


It is the moderator's job to determine the correct penalty in this case, considering the fact that the player had been warned by the first penalty.
It is the moderator's job to determine the correct penalty in this case, considering the fact that the player had been warned by the first penalty.


Moderators should consider it a relapse, only if the new wrong action occurs AFTER the previous penalty has been applied and the associated moderation email has been sent.
Moderators should consider a relapse only if the new wrong action occurs AFTER the previous penalty has been applied and the associated moderation has been sent.


Considering that it's a lot of work to analyze reports about players, who do the same action again and again, the "ban forever" penalty can be applied to any case if the player relapses.
Considering that it is a lot of work to analyze reports about players who do the same offence again and again, a "ban" penalty can be applied to any case if the player continues to relapse.


=== Special Urgency Ban Procedure ===
=== Special Urgency Ban Procedure ===


Whatever the case type, moderators has the right to ban a player from the website (forever) if this player set up a situation that is out of control and must be stopped within hours. This special procedure should only be used if there is an immediate danger for the community (ex: vandalism, flow of insults, massive spam, ...).
Whatever the case type, moderators have the right to ban a player from the website if this player creates a situation that is out of control and must be stopped quickly. This special procedure should only be used if there is an immediate danger for the community (ex: site vandalism, pornographic content, massive spamming in the general chat, ...).


=== Private jokes ===
=== Private jokes ===


If a wrong action happened in a private circle (ex: at a game table, with no spectators), and if none of the present players reported the action, the moderator must consider this was a "private joke" and must not apply any penalty. In the contrary, if the wrong action is public (ex: post/comment on the wall), the moderator may consider this as a wrong action even if there is no report.
If questionable content is restricted to a private circle (ex: at a game table, with no spectators or in a private chat), and if none of the players reported the behavior, the moderator should consider this a "private joke" and should not apply any penalty. On the contrary, if the inappropriate content is public (ex: post/comment on a wall), the moderator may consider this as an offence even if there is no report.


Note: In case a moderator discovers that this is obviously not a private joke, and that something must be reported, the moderator is allowed to create a report for the case. However, in this case, this moderator is not allowed to judge the report.
Note: If a moderator decides that this is not a private joke, and that something must be reported, the moderator should create a report for the case themselves. However, in this case, this moderator is not allowed to judge the report.


=== Prescription ===
=== Timing ===


For operational reason, a report that is older than 12 weeks may be closed by moderators because it is too old.
For operational reason, a report that is older than 12 weeks may be closed by moderators because it is too old.


As a rule of thumb, every report should be judge in a 4 weeks delay.
As a rule of thumb, every report should be judged within 4 weeks.


=== Player Profile Influence ===
=== Player Profile Influence ===


The player's profile IS taken into account to determine if the player is guilty or not guilty. Moderators give more credit to players with a good profile than the other.
The player's profile IS taken into account when determining if a player is guilty or not guilty. Moderators give more credit to players with a good profile than those in poor standing.


The player's profile is NOT taken into account when choosing the penalty if the player is found guilty.
The player's profile is NOT taken into account when choosing the penalty if the player is found guilty.
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* A good thumb up / thumb down ratio.
* A good thumb up / thumb down ratio.
* Player is registered for a long time / has a lot of games played.
* Player is registered for a long time / has a lot of games played.
* Players is involved in the website (ex: realized translations).
* Players is involved in the website (ex: validated translations).
* Player is supporting BGA (member of the club).


You should also take into account the profile of the reporting player (report author) : a bad reputation and/or an important number of reports already judged as "not guilty" should incite you to be very careful with this player report.
The fact that a player is Premium or not is not taken into account when judging/applying the penalties. To say it differently: moderators do not judge Premium players differently than the others. Reports from Premium players do not benefit any kind of priority.
 
Moderators also take into account the profile of the reporting player (report author): a bad reputation and/or an important number of reports already judged as "not guilty" should incite moderators to be very careful with this players report.


=== Incomplete Reports ===
=== Incomplete Reports ===


Analyzing reports takes a lot of time, and many reports are received. If any needed information is missing in the report, moderators may (and most of the time, should) close the report.
Analyzing reports takes a lot of time, and many reports are received. If any relevant information is missing in the report, moderators may close the report.
 
=== Penalties and Premium ===
 
As stated in our Terms of Services, being moderated is not a valid reason to ask for a refund of a Premium account. We do not refund Premium players that has been banned or that have chat restriction.
 
The reason is simple to understand: it would encourage all players that need a refund to deliberately be moderated.


== Penalty Grid ==
== Penalty Grid ==
=== Insults or inappropriate discussion ===
We moderate insults and inappropriate chat discussion everywhere on the website, wherever they happened: at a game table, in private messages, in group discussion, in the global chat, ...
If the incident concerns the BGA Global chat or a very visible space, the penalty is higher.
Concerning insults and aggressive attitude, we are particularly intolerant about relapse: if the player has already been moderated for insults or aggressive attitude in chat in the last 2 years, the moderators can apply a penalty from the next line. If there are multiple moderations already, moderators can applied the most severe available penalties.


{| class="wikitable alternance centre"
{| class="wikitable alternance centre"
|+ Titre
|+ Titre
  |-
  |-
  ! scope="col" | Category
  ! scope="col" | Level
  ! scope="col" | Case type
  ! scope="col" | Title
  ! scope="col" | Details
  ! scope="col" | Details
  ! scope="col" | Standard penalty
  ! scope="col" | Standard penalty
  |-
  |-
  ! Insults
  ! 0
  | Insults during a game, on table chat
  | Rudeness with no insult
  | Must be present in the report: table ID, and the insults terms. If the insult is not in English, or if the insult is not obvious, the report author must specify why this is insulting.
  | no real insult: "zzzzzz", "faster!", "hurry up!", "play!"
  | Forbid to chat or publish for 3 days for small insults and insanity, 30 days for real insults. Smaller penalty (ex: 1 day) can be applied if this was obviously a stupid joke. In any case: the player should be warn that this is the last warning before ban.
  | Simple warning (with no penalty)
  |-
  |-
  ! Insults
  ! 1
  | Insults on general chat
  | Little Provocation, swearing without personal attack, obvious sarcasm
  | Must be present in the report: the insult terms. If the insult is not in English, or if the insult is not obvious, the report author must specify why this is insulting.
  | Examples: noob, fuck, freak, shit, "geez, really great play", "shut up"
  | Forbid to chat or publish for 30 days for small insults and insanity, forever for real insults. In any case: the player should be warn that this is the last warning before ban.
  | -10 karma penalty
  |-
  |-
  ! Insults
  ! 2
  | Insults on public space (wall, forum, comments...)
  | "light" insult
  | Must be present in the report: where to find the insult, the insult terms. If the insult is not in English, or if the insult is not obvious, the report author must specify why this is insulting.
  | Examples: stupid, idiot, loser, dumb, imbecile, cheater
  | Forbid to chat or publish 3 days for small insults and insanity, 30 days for real insults. Smaller penalty (ex: 1 day) can be applied if this was obviously a stupid joke. In any case: the player should be warn that this is the last warning before ban.
  | 1 day no-chat (+ reset Karma to 50)
  |-
  |-
  ! Aggressive attitude
  ! 3
  | Aggressive attitude during a game: can't wait the other player, provocation, ...
  | Insult
  | As a rule of thumb: as long as there is no insult, this is not an issue: thumb down are the solution. BUT, if the player is really borderline and should be warned, a moderation action is needed.
  | Pussy, motherfucker, fuck you, go fuck yourself, trash, dick, any kind of threat, whore, slut, asshole, dog, rat, pig, goat...  
  | -1 to -10 reputation penalty. Moderators should explain that this is a small warning, and that a change of attitude is needed.
  | 10 days no-chat (+ reset Karma to 50)
  |-
  |-
  ! Avatar
  ! 4
  | Inappropriate avatar: explicit sexual content, extreme violence, advertising...
  | Major insult
  | If needed, report author should explain why this is inappropriate. Avatar is really inappropriate in 3 cases:
  | Insult with racism, xenophobia, sexism, discriminatory against a certain kind of people. Example: nigger, gay, faggot, insults against a certain country or origin...
1°) It can hurt underage players (explicit sexual content, extreme violence)
  | 30 days no-chat (+ reset Karma to 50)
2°) This is advertisement / this violate some intellectual property
3°) The avatar contains a reference that discriminate a group of people (ex: nazi cross)
  | Avatar immediate removal + Forbid to chat or publish between 3 days and forever depending on the gravity. In any case: the player should be warn that this is the last warning before ban. If the player obviously don't measure the meaning of the avatar, the penalty can be reduced.
  |-
  |-
  ! Avatar
  ! 5
  | Inappropriate username
  | Insult against BGA authority
  | If needed, report author should explain why this is inappropriate. Username are inappropriate when this is obviously an insult for many people. Moderators shouldn't moderate a username that is insulting by accident in a language that is not widely used on BGA.
  | Insulting moderators, BGA team members or BGA as a whole
  | Ban from the website. Moderators should explain that the player is welcome with another username on BGA. Note that if the player has a long seniority on BGA (=many games played), moderators should be very cautious on the case: if no one noticed the username until now, it is probably not inappropriate.
  | 30 days ban (+ reset Karma to 0)
  |-
  |-
  ! Table description
  ! SPAM
  | Inappropriate table description
  | Spam or advertisement
| If needed, report author should explain why this is inappropriate. Table description is inappropriate when it contains insults, insanity, or tend to discriminate a group of people.
  | Publishing the same message many time, to advertise for anything. Advertising for other online gaming services is strictly forbidden.
| Forbid to chat or publish 3 days for small insults and insanity, 30 days for real insults. Smaller penalty (ex: 1 day) can be applied if this was obviously a stupid joke. In any case: the player should be warn that this is the last warning before ban.
  | 10 days no-chat (+ reset Karma to 50)
|-
! Kingmaking
| Kingmaking action during a game
| The report must contains SEVERAL table id of game with 3+ players (the CANNOT be any kingmaking on 2 players games), the exact moves numbers, and the exact explanation why this is a kingmaking action. To declare a player guilty, the player must have played an obvious move against his own interest, and it has to be a good player (clues: his ELO, number of game played, ...). As the difference between a mistake and a kingmaking action is very tight, one kingmaking report is not enough to find a player guilty: only players who regularly play against their interest should be found guilty. Note that 99% of kingmaking reports are not accurate enough, contains not enough information, and are closed because of this.
| -1 to -10 reputation penalty. Moderators should warn the player that this is a only small warning. Relapses can lead to higher reputation points penalties.
|-
! Bug exploit
| Exploit a known bug during a game
| The bug must have been reported in the forum, and an exact reference to this bug must be in the report, with the table id and the move number. Minor bugs that can be considered as "variants" are NOT concerned (ex: pick 4 cards instead of 3). Bugs that violate the spirit of the game are concerned.
| No penalty applies: if there is a bug that has been widely used for a game, a global ELO reset (or an ELO adjustment for players who exploited the bug) will be done.
|-
! Private information
| Some player gives some private information during the game
| Players have the right to pretend things during a game. As these infos could be true or false, and could be exploited by other players too, moderators should be cautious when judging these cases. This case concerns players that had a strong intent to kill the pleasure of the game by giving some private information during the game.
  | -1 to -10 reputation penalty. Moderators should warn the player that this is a only small warning. Relapses can lead to higher reputation points penalties.
|-
! Multiple accounts
| A player is using multiple accounts (most of the time: to boost his ELO rank)
| The report must contains the usernames of all intimidated accounts, and the reason why the report author think that multiple accounts are used. It is very difficult to find out if different accounts corresponds to different person. For example: BGA accepts that multiple players plays from the same IP address, to allow people from the same family to play at the same table. In addition, some players are using multiple accounts, but these accounts are not playing together (which is acceptable). Strong tools are available for moderators to detect multiple accounts that are used the wrong way.
To detect multiple accounts, you should focus on ELO boosting, which is the reason of the multiple accounts 99% of the time. You should look at player game history, for a given game, and look at frequent opponents with a very good / perfect win rate.
| For secondary accounts: ban forever. For main account: ELO reseted to 1500 / ELO penalty for all games.
|-
! Something else
| Spam / advertising / inappropriate links
| The player is using BGA for advertising. In particular: links not related to the purpose of the page, advertising for other online boardgaming websites, spam, ...  
  |  
|-
! Something else
| Translation stealing / vandalism
| The player is writing inappropriate / poor quality translations (or writes a lot of very minor modifications to someone else translation) to gain free club membership,
| Immediate ban from the website (to avoid vandalism).
|-
! Something else
| Player is slow to play
| Players have the right to think as long as they do not go over their allotted time. If the player is slow on purpose, the good answer is: thumb down.
| No penalty
|-
! Something else
| Player quit the game before the end
| In this case, player automatically gets a ELO penalty + a red mark on his profile. There is no need to do something else.
| No penalty
  |-
  |-


|}
|}
 
=== Inappropriate avatar or username ===
 
==== Details on Policy concerning Avatars and Usernames ====
 
 
What is strictly forbidden is basically everything that may hurt a minor child or is forbidden by the law:
* Sexually explicit content (ex: porn, pictures of genitalia, ...).
* Extreme violence or shocking images.
* Explicit reference to drugs.
* Offensive/vulgar content.
 
 
The following categories are also forbidden, but we may tolerate some of them depending on the context (see below):
* Advertisements:
** As a rule of thumb, advertisement is forbidden.
** However, if it refers to a "cult brand" with no intention to provide a real advertisement (ex: football team), or if the reference to the brand is not obvious or is discrete (ex: joke on Apple logo), it may be tolerated.
** Advertisement for board game publishers / board games in general is authorized.
** Advertisement for another online gaming service is strictly forbidden.
* "Sexy" images:
** If the main purpose of the image is "to be sexy" or "erotic", it is forbidden.
** However, if the image is a fictional character that is considered sexy (ex: some heroic fantasy character, super hero, ...), it may be tolerated.
* Politics / Religion / opinions:
** Images that refers to extreme positions / provocative ideas are forbidden (ex: nazi or other racists symbols).
** For the others: as a rule of thumb, players should avoid using their avatar to advertise for politics/religion or any other opinion. However, if the image is clearly not shocking for the vast majority of BGA players, it may be tolerated.
* Text on image: our policy is also applied to the text on avatar images.
 
==== Penalties ====
 
Moderators immediately remove the inappropriate avatar or username.
 
For Avatars, the penalty is the same as the corresponding "insults" (ex: if this is a racist image, it should be a Level 4 penalty).
 
For Username, the penalty is also the same as the corresponding insults (see insults grid).
 
=== Inappropriate table description ===
 
The penalty is the same than the "insults" grid.
 
=== Kingmaking ===
 
You cannot report a player for Kingmaking.
 
The best way to fight against Kingmaking is to give a "Red thumb" to the corresponding player ("public red thumb").
 
If many players give this player Red Thumbs, his reputation will decrease and players will stop playing with him/her.
 
=== Bug exploit ===
 
To be moderated, a Bug Exploit should met these conditions:
* the bug must have been reported in the BGA bug system
* the accused player should use it often and deliberately
* the report's author must prove that there is a benefit for the accused player
 
The standard penalty is the removal of all the points (ELO, Arena) obtained by using this technique. If it has been used many times, a complete reset of ELO/Arena points and awards removal can be done.
 
=== Giving red thumbs without explanation ===
 
You cannot report a player for this reason.
 
Players have the right to give Red Thumbs to any player they do not want to play with anymore.
 
=== Sharing private game information in the chat / slow to play / ruin a game ===
 
We totally understand that this is painful, however, you cannot report a player for these reasons. There are many ways to play each games, and this is almost impossible (and consequently risky) for our moderators to understand the full context and do the right thing.
 
The good way to handle this is to give the player a "Red Thumb" ("public Red Thumb"). If many players are doing this, this player reputation is going to decrease and nobody will want to play with him/her.
 
=== Multiple accounts ===
 
BGA is fighting against multiple accounts used for cheating the competitive system (rankings, tournaments, ...), or to harass players and avoid moderation. Moderators only take actions in the previous cases, so this is useless to report a multiple accounts case for another reason.
 
For Multiple accounts cases, Moderators expect to have quite a lot of information and proof from the report's author. Reports that only contains accusations without proof will be ignored. It is very difficult to find out if different accounts corresponds to different person. For example: BGA accepts that multiple players plays from the same IP address, to allow people from the same family to play at the same table.
 
Proofs can be:
* List of games where the accounts are playing together to cheat the system
* Statistics (ex: taken from "player games history" page) showing an abnormal number of victories between 2 opponents
* Game+moves references that shows that a player is deliberately losing a game or making a move that is abnormal considering the level of this player.
 
It happens frequently that the level of information required by our moderators is not reached. In this case, the report is closed, waiting for more reports from other players to help the case.
 
Penalties:
* Removal of the secondary accounts
* Rank reset (ELO/Arena) and awards removal
 
=== Translation corruption ===
 
Deliberately corrupting translation is a very serious attack on BGA.
 
Standard penalty: 10 days no-chat + forbid player to do translation + removal of Gift Points received for Translations

Latest revision as of 11:56, 13 May 2023

General Rules

Beyond Reasonable Doubt

If there is any reasonable doubt, a player should be considered not guilty.

Conflict of Interest

Moderators must not process reports if they know the involved parties (accuser or accused player). Having played online with the involved parties does not necessarily mean to "know" them. In this context,"to know" means: knowing them personally or playing with them online regularly.

Appeal

Players have the right to appeal the moderation decision by using the appropriate section in the Contact Form.

They MUST explain why the moderator failed to apply this Moderation Policy.


  • If the message contains attacks/insults against anyone and/or trolling/spamming/disparage of the moderators, it will be ignored (= no reply) and you may get an additional penalty.
  • If the message is asking us to also give a penalty to another player, it will be ignored. The correct way to do this is by reporting this player, not by appealing your own moderation.
  • If the message is complaining without referring to our Moderation Policy (example: "this penalty is too harsh"), it will be ignored (= no reply).
  • If the message is not convincing in any way, it will be ignored (= no reply).
  • If the message is clearly abusive (multiple emails or appeal while the player is obviously guilty), it will be ignored (= no reply) and you may get an additional penalty.
  • If none of the previous points are valid and if the moderators made a mistake, you will receive a reply and the penalty will be changed (or cancelled).

It is worth noticing that 99% of the emails we receive on the Appeal procedure are not relevant messages (not convincing / contains insults) coming from angry players, this is why we have to set this strict "no answer" policy.

In all cases, do not expose your case publicly, for example on BGA Forums. See why here: https://forum.boardgamearena.com/viewtopic.php?t=26665

Penalty Grid

Moderators should follow the Penalty Grid as much as possible. However, they have the right to adjust the penalty depending on the gravity of the case. The following situation can lead moderators to increase the penalty:

  • the player has been reported several times for the same kind of misconduct.
  • the player's wrong action can be qualified by one or several of the following terms: racism, xenophobia, homophobia, sexism, or any type of discrimination against a particular category of people.
  • the player's words include any sexual content or wishing extreme harm to others.
  • in case there is provocation, the penalty may be be reduced a little; however, everyone should remain polite even if they are provoked. Important: the provoker will not be punished unless they are also reported.

Relapse

In case there is a relapse, the penalty may increase exponentially.

It is the moderator's job to determine the correct penalty in this case, considering the fact that the player had been warned by the first penalty.

Moderators should consider a relapse only if the new wrong action occurs AFTER the previous penalty has been applied and the associated moderation has been sent.

Considering that it is a lot of work to analyze reports about players who do the same offence again and again, a "ban" penalty can be applied to any case if the player continues to relapse.

Special Urgency Ban Procedure

Whatever the case type, moderators have the right to ban a player from the website if this player creates a situation that is out of control and must be stopped quickly. This special procedure should only be used if there is an immediate danger for the community (ex: site vandalism, pornographic content, massive spamming in the general chat, ...).

Private jokes

If questionable content is restricted to a private circle (ex: at a game table, with no spectators or in a private chat), and if none of the players reported the behavior, the moderator should consider this a "private joke" and should not apply any penalty. On the contrary, if the inappropriate content is public (ex: post/comment on a wall), the moderator may consider this as an offence even if there is no report.

Note: If a moderator decides that this is not a private joke, and that something must be reported, the moderator should create a report for the case themselves. However, in this case, this moderator is not allowed to judge the report.

Timing

For operational reason, a report that is older than 12 weeks may be closed by moderators because it is too old.

As a rule of thumb, every report should be judged within 4 weeks.

Player Profile Influence

The player's profile IS taken into account when determining if a player is guilty or not guilty. Moderators give more credit to players with a good profile than those in poor standing.

The player's profile is NOT taken into account when choosing the penalty if the player is found guilty.

Good profile elements are:

  • A good thumb up / thumb down ratio.
  • Player is registered for a long time / has a lot of games played.
  • Players is involved in the website (ex: validated translations).

The fact that a player is Premium or not is not taken into account when judging/applying the penalties. To say it differently: moderators do not judge Premium players differently than the others. Reports from Premium players do not benefit any kind of priority.

Moderators also take into account the profile of the reporting player (report author): a bad reputation and/or an important number of reports already judged as "not guilty" should incite moderators to be very careful with this players report.

Incomplete Reports

Analyzing reports takes a lot of time, and many reports are received. If any relevant information is missing in the report, moderators may close the report.

Penalties and Premium

As stated in our Terms of Services, being moderated is not a valid reason to ask for a refund of a Premium account. We do not refund Premium players that has been banned or that have chat restriction.

The reason is simple to understand: it would encourage all players that need a refund to deliberately be moderated.

Penalty Grid

Insults or inappropriate discussion

We moderate insults and inappropriate chat discussion everywhere on the website, wherever they happened: at a game table, in private messages, in group discussion, in the global chat, ...

If the incident concerns the BGA Global chat or a very visible space, the penalty is higher.

Concerning insults and aggressive attitude, we are particularly intolerant about relapse: if the player has already been moderated for insults or aggressive attitude in chat in the last 2 years, the moderators can apply a penalty from the next line. If there are multiple moderations already, moderators can applied the most severe available penalties.

Titre
Level Title Details Standard penalty
0 Rudeness with no insult no real insult: "zzzzzz", "faster!", "hurry up!", "play!" Simple warning (with no penalty)
1 Little Provocation, swearing without personal attack, obvious sarcasm Examples: noob, fuck, freak, shit, "geez, really great play", "shut up" -10 karma penalty
2 "light" insult Examples: stupid, idiot, loser, dumb, imbecile, cheater 1 day no-chat (+ reset Karma to 50)
3 Insult Pussy, motherfucker, fuck you, go fuck yourself, trash, dick, any kind of threat, whore, slut, asshole, dog, rat, pig, goat... 10 days no-chat (+ reset Karma to 50)
4 Major insult Insult with racism, xenophobia, sexism, discriminatory against a certain kind of people. Example: nigger, gay, faggot, insults against a certain country or origin... 30 days no-chat (+ reset Karma to 50)
5 Insult against BGA authority Insulting moderators, BGA team members or BGA as a whole 30 days ban (+ reset Karma to 0)
SPAM Spam or advertisement Publishing the same message many time, to advertise for anything. Advertising for other online gaming services is strictly forbidden. 10 days no-chat (+ reset Karma to 50)

Inappropriate avatar or username

Details on Policy concerning Avatars and Usernames

What is strictly forbidden is basically everything that may hurt a minor child or is forbidden by the law:

  • Sexually explicit content (ex: porn, pictures of genitalia, ...).
  • Extreme violence or shocking images.
  • Explicit reference to drugs.
  • Offensive/vulgar content.


The following categories are also forbidden, but we may tolerate some of them depending on the context (see below):

  • Advertisements:
    • As a rule of thumb, advertisement is forbidden.
    • However, if it refers to a "cult brand" with no intention to provide a real advertisement (ex: football team), or if the reference to the brand is not obvious or is discrete (ex: joke on Apple logo), it may be tolerated.
    • Advertisement for board game publishers / board games in general is authorized.
    • Advertisement for another online gaming service is strictly forbidden.
  • "Sexy" images:
    • If the main purpose of the image is "to be sexy" or "erotic", it is forbidden.
    • However, if the image is a fictional character that is considered sexy (ex: some heroic fantasy character, super hero, ...), it may be tolerated.
  • Politics / Religion / opinions:
    • Images that refers to extreme positions / provocative ideas are forbidden (ex: nazi or other racists symbols).
    • For the others: as a rule of thumb, players should avoid using their avatar to advertise for politics/religion or any other opinion. However, if the image is clearly not shocking for the vast majority of BGA players, it may be tolerated.
  • Text on image: our policy is also applied to the text on avatar images.

Penalties

Moderators immediately remove the inappropriate avatar or username.

For Avatars, the penalty is the same as the corresponding "insults" (ex: if this is a racist image, it should be a Level 4 penalty).

For Username, the penalty is also the same as the corresponding insults (see insults grid).

Inappropriate table description

The penalty is the same than the "insults" grid.

Kingmaking

You cannot report a player for Kingmaking.

The best way to fight against Kingmaking is to give a "Red thumb" to the corresponding player ("public red thumb").

If many players give this player Red Thumbs, his reputation will decrease and players will stop playing with him/her.

Bug exploit

To be moderated, a Bug Exploit should met these conditions:

  • the bug must have been reported in the BGA bug system
  • the accused player should use it often and deliberately
  • the report's author must prove that there is a benefit for the accused player

The standard penalty is the removal of all the points (ELO, Arena) obtained by using this technique. If it has been used many times, a complete reset of ELO/Arena points and awards removal can be done.

Giving red thumbs without explanation

You cannot report a player for this reason.

Players have the right to give Red Thumbs to any player they do not want to play with anymore.

Sharing private game information in the chat / slow to play / ruin a game

We totally understand that this is painful, however, you cannot report a player for these reasons. There are many ways to play each games, and this is almost impossible (and consequently risky) for our moderators to understand the full context and do the right thing.

The good way to handle this is to give the player a "Red Thumb" ("public Red Thumb"). If many players are doing this, this player reputation is going to decrease and nobody will want to play with him/her.

Multiple accounts

BGA is fighting against multiple accounts used for cheating the competitive system (rankings, tournaments, ...), or to harass players and avoid moderation. Moderators only take actions in the previous cases, so this is useless to report a multiple accounts case for another reason.

For Multiple accounts cases, Moderators expect to have quite a lot of information and proof from the report's author. Reports that only contains accusations without proof will be ignored. It is very difficult to find out if different accounts corresponds to different person. For example: BGA accepts that multiple players plays from the same IP address, to allow people from the same family to play at the same table.

Proofs can be:

  • List of games where the accounts are playing together to cheat the system
  • Statistics (ex: taken from "player games history" page) showing an abnormal number of victories between 2 opponents
  • Game+moves references that shows that a player is deliberately losing a game or making a move that is abnormal considering the level of this player.

It happens frequently that the level of information required by our moderators is not reached. In this case, the report is closed, waiting for more reports from other players to help the case.

Penalties:

  • Removal of the secondary accounts
  • Rank reset (ELO/Arena) and awards removal

Translation corruption

Deliberately corrupting translation is a very serious attack on BGA.

Standard penalty: 10 days no-chat + forbid player to do translation + removal of Gift Points received for Translations

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