In my opinion there are lots of good people on Home, but there are always going to be wan*ers in life! Just stay strong, and belive in people’s empathy. You will find it. Great read, and well done for writing it.

It was also interesting that, in each instance, the harasser was playing to the crowd, showing off how he could intimidate a victim for fun, get her to run away, or get her to fight back so SHE could be reported. I have had several friends get banned for profanity for fighting back!

The person who tried to help did so without being asked. And, usually was effective in getting the harasser to leave. As one of them pointed out, “there are 3 of us who will report you, not just one, and the Mods WILL take action”. Then he told me, “the more people reporting the same perv at the same time for the same TOS violation, the more likely they will be banned.” and the perv in question navigated away immediately.

Most people who fight against the attackers are just as horrible themselves. On top of that it’s noisy to listen/look at the bickering.

There is no win. You ignore it, learn how to deal with it, report it and hope it doesn’t fall on deaf ears, or leave.

It sounds pessimistic. That is how it is set up to be. There is no charge to play home and aside optional mini-games there is no level of intelligence requirement. Unless you fix the population or come up with some ability to.. possibly ban everyone from your site when playing? Just isn’t going to happen.

To me, the easiest solution would be to implement enhanced blocking features that are user-controlled (features which couldn’t be abused or strain the system). Empowering the user alleviates the burden on the moderation team and discourages the trolls, because they know they won’t get anywhere.

It does surprise me, frankly, that after two years of open beta, this issue still hasn’t been solved. And lord knows it’s a big one.

I usually find if you turn around the accusation on them they fold and go away. Many times running.

Other good things to do are:
-- Type “afk” and sit still for 20 seconds
-- Women type “I’m really a guy. Is that okay with you?”, then “You were picking me up, weren’t you?”
-- Men type “How long you had a thing for men?”, then “I’m not really into men, but for you I will make an exception.”

People always tell me that I dress gay. My response is “You are not impressing any women wearing that dirty default t-shirt, so you must be picking me up.”

Confidence has ruled the day for me. So far, no stalkers. Just as they can gain confidence from anonimity, so can you. They absolutely cannot hurt you. So fire back words that they are not ready for. Likely they will run.

It is annoying. It is high school all over again. But now is your chance to learn to beat them. Take every situation as an opportunity to practice cracking their will. It is a fun game. A little too easy, but fun.

As a Homeling, I try to adhere to our code of respect (even for those who would show none to me) as best I can during these situations; needless to say that following this code is quite trying at times…moreso when I see others being victimized by these fools-in-default-clothing (call it my misplaced sense of chivalry).

This does not mean I am defenseless. While I have never gone out of my way to provoke anyone, I always do stand my ground (I don’t block and mute as it smacks of denial to me). Considering the general level of intelligence one is dealing with when confronted by said griefers, it is not overly difficult to make them feel very small, very quickly, without being aggressive or disrespectful in one’s language. More often than not they simply go away…those that do not will usually say enough to get them banned after a report.

Unfortunately, there are many who frequent Home who simply do not have this mechanism. In my opinion, the really shouldn’t have to…Home is supposed to be for R&R, not a field of practice to sharpen one’s wit.

Those who run Home are well aware of the problem…the official forum has been littered with a variety of complaints (and a handful of solutions) on the subject. But their response has been, thusfar, deafening in it’s silence.

A note of caution: While i appreciate the idea of a ‘rogues gallery’ of sorts, I wonder if the idea lends itself too much to vigilantism. Although I believe that such a section would be started with the best of intentions, those same intentions often become the building blocks to a proverbial Hades. Slippery slopes are hard to crawl back out of.

All this, of course, begs the question: why are we having to deal with this garbage in the first place? The answer covers far to much psychological and sociological ground to touch one here, but it is a question which we should bear in mind when discussing this problem.

Thank you for the article, Keara.

As you can see, I was able to catch the non-verbal offensive behaviors with the built-in Home camera. We cannot publish the names of the offenders due to the TOS. But I have had no difficulty posting pictures of those miscreants -- and I tell them that is what I am going to do. If the attack immediately ceases, I do not take the picture. But, I am seriously considering putting a Rogue’s Gallery in this magazine’s Forum section where anyone who is attacked and takes a picture can post it. That way, we will know who to avoid. And, if the Moderators who read this ARE interested in cleaning up Home, we can, privately, give them the names that go with the pictures.