Recently, I was banned for rate abusing @Legionious ' profile. That ban was perfectly fine as I did it with the intention to get banned. However, after coming back I then saw that people had commented on my profile saying things such as "rip" "hah" "banned. LOL" etc. I decided to rate 8 different individuals. http://imgur.com/IxZtx93 After committing this action, I was told that I would no longer be able to rate posts for thirty whole days. Before I decided to like all these statuses I wanted to make sure it wasn't rate abuse, I did so by checking the rate abuse threads which states : What is rate abuse? As a rule of thumb staff view 3+ ratings to one person in a relatively short period of time either positive or negative, as rate abuse. The problem with this being the official rule is people will use this as a guide to get around rate abuse to help their friends achieve trophies or to abuse someone and not get banned by rating 2 an hour and so on. This is exactly why it's not defined as "one hour" but defined as "a short period of time". It's very easy to rate someone 3 times by accident in one hour. It's staff's decision to make the calls on those specific scenarios. Because of this rate abuse varies in many ways. One of those ways being listed above. But there is more: Rating someone with the intention of gaining that person trophies is also abuse. If I were to rate someone 2 times because they said they needed 2 more likes for a trophy, that would be abuse of the rating system. Rating someone negatively without reason would also be abuse. (Bad spelling with no errors for example) Rate farming is also a form of rate abuse. You can rate farm by posting statuses asking for likes. Posts like these are not allowed and will be deleted. Warning points may also be applied. Rating specifically only one person repeatedly could also be seen as farming/abuse. Rate abuse will result in warning points and the removal of the rating applied to the account. If abuse of the system continues you ability to give ratings will be removed temporarily. If after these steps the user continues to rate abuse it will result in a permanent removal of the ability to rate posts as well as give "likes". -------------------------------------------------- Now, no where in that entire thread does it state I cannot give eight different individuals one like each. I was sure it was allowed, since I had seen it been done many times by others in the situations of birthdays or earning a new title on forums such as well-known member. For example, earlier today, @Rodeenie gave five likes in one hour, yet no warning for her. Regardless of what @Rodeenie has done, I still have not, according to the rate abuse thread, broken any rules at all by liking 8 comments on my profile. And yet I got a message from @Flazer telling me to refer to the rate abuse thread : Hello Ares, Your ability to rate posts has been removed for 30 days. The abuse has also been removed. Continued abuse of the ratings system can and will result in the removal of the ability to rate posts permanently in the future. Please keep this in mind when rating post or using our site. For further clarification of what "rate abuse" is please refer to this thread here. There is nothing in the rate abuse thread referring to what I just did, I did not intentionally try and get these players trophies, I did not spam these players with ratings, I did not break a single rule by liking those comments and yet they were removed and I have had my ability to rate posts taken away. Anyhow, it'd be nice if there was an actual set of guidelines I could follow, as before rating those posts, I did research, and from what I found it was not against the rules. (The removal of my ratings did not occur from the Wolfbane incident, it occurred from the "rule" I apparently broke afterwards) Please no Wolfbane abuse discussion, this is about the rules not being stated in the rules.
Since this is always in discussion, how about you say what your views of rate abuse are? How would you personally define rate abuse?
Yea I was accused of rate abuse when I like what I like. I don't do it for rates, to assist with rates. I do it just to show that I liked what was said. >.>
1 hour. Wow. Damn, i give a crap ton of likes in 1 hour with no intention to rate abuse. I see nothing wrong with it? I don't go on profiles liking random things, i go on threads. Also, since when was that reportable/punishable? You can give eight different individuals likes, although not within 2 minutes like you did. This is something that puzzles me as well, when it is someones birthday, they *like* it and nothing is done about it, am i right? Exactly.
Why can I no longer rate posts then? It's not because I rate abused @Legionious I couldn't care less as long as I have a clear set of guidelines which I can follow, I am now punished because of a failure to properly display what the rules are. Tell me if you can find any thread which states I cannot like 8 different individuals posts on my profile likes. I've seen you go over 5 in an hour at times but did you get a warning?
They should be listing out what the rules actually are. I have now gotten a message off a deleted post stating "We are discussing it.". It's amusing because the moderators don't even know what the actual rule is themselves.
Yeah, I don't see how individually rating different people once exactly breaks the rule of rate abuse. Hopefully this can get cleared up soon.
It's because there are no clear rules on the issue, so half the moderators may think it's abuse and the other half may not.
I always feel that whenever somebody says something like this there is just some level of miscommunication. I'm sure that the staff know the rules. They wouldn't be promoted otherwise. It's just that I see commonly people immediately taking their issues with the staff team publicly instead of attempting to solve their problem with whichever staff member first. I'm sure there's no harm in asking for clarification of the rules. Rate abuse has always been touchy. Instead of complaining, a more productive habit would be to confer with the (lovely) staff team. Talk to Pile, or some other mods and see if you can get some clear-cut rules out of them. the staff are nice people
Lets not turn this into a staff hating thread. In the rate abuse thread it does state that its the mod's call in certain scenarios. Every single instance of every single rule cannot be written out in black and white. One mod may think its abuse, one mod may not. We do have the ability to make our own decisions based on what rules are written. If you have a problem with the staff that made the call, discuss it with them. If you do not get a satisfactory response from the mod, take it higher to a head mod. No need to create a thread that you know for sure will start a "hate on the mods" thread.
It's better if it's done in front of everyone, that way abuse is way less likely to occur and everyone can have their own say in the situation.
I'm not intending on this thread having anything to do with the staff team, that is the wish of @Nitro I repeatedly state the problem lies within the rule book, as this is something very big that should've been addressed, the amount of actual ratings you can give in one hour is not stated, and it should be.
