Reporting Abuses on Home
by Kassadee Marie, HSM team writer
There is an option to report abuses on Home, and I’ve had to avail myself of it many times in the last year and more that I’ve been visiting Home almost daily. While I’m very sorry there is a need for this option there, there is a need. I sincerely hope that if you have seen things like some of the horrors I’ve seen and read, that you have reported too. Actually, if you’ve spent much time on Home, I’m sure you have seen and read many disgusting things. I have to say that I don’t know how effective reporting is in general, but I have heard many people say they were suspended at times, so I know Sony is taking some action with these reports.
(NorseNote: It’s effective.)
There are two ways in which I would change reporting on Home. One would be to make the process simpler to understand and achieve, and the other would be to have a list of “real” and current reasons to report, when a person does so.
Right now the reporting procedure is to hit the Select button and wait. Then, you scroll down to “Submit a report” on the menu, hit X to continue, and when the next screen comes up, hit X to access the list of names, scroll to the name, hit X to select the name, hit right to highlight “submit”, hit X on submit and then a third screen comes up. Here you hit X to access a list of report reasons, scroll to the reason, hit X on the reason, hit right to highlight “submit” then hit X to submit…
Are you still with me? No? I don’t blame you. What we need is to be able to report a person on the same menu where you can ignore them. A less cumbersome process would almost certainly lead to greater reporting accuracy.
(Which reminds me: mute? If a person is in your group and you feel the need to mute them, you’re in the wrong group.)
The list of reasons to report at this time reads as follows:
Page 1:
- Religious Abuse
- Using Home for Commercial Purposes
- Impersonating an Official
- Cultural Abuse
- Verbal Abuse
- Disrupting Games
- Disrupting Game Launching
Page 2:
- Racial Abuse
- Text Abuse
- Distributing Offensive URL’s
- Revealing Spoilers
- Account Scamming
- Revealing Another’s Personal Data
- Stalking
- Sexual Harassment
- Causing Offence
We can see that Sony has a vested interest in some of these report reasons and they won’t be removed. No one likes to have a game disrupted, for instance. However, some of these options I just don’t get. Nor do I understand the order they are presented in. With “verbal abuse” on the first and a different page from “text abuse” people may not even realize the second option is there and that it’s different. And again, if you’re listening to verbal abuse, why are you in a group with this person?
I would like to see a list of real reasons that would read more like this:
- Obscene/Offensive ID’s
- Inappropriate (sexual) conversations in public
- Inappropriate (sexual) actions in public
These are the three main reasons I see to report, but we also need to keep some of the ones on Sony’s current list:
- Religious Abuse
- Cultural Abuse
- Racial Abuse
- Text Abuse
- Stalking
- Sexual Harassment
- Causing Offence
However, since a mod will read the conversation being reported, I think they could combine them as follows:
- Religious/cultural/racial abuse
- Stalking/Sexual Harassment
- Text Abuse/Causing Offense
And at we need at least two more:
- Child predation or its appearance
- Threat of injury to self or others
I really don’t know what Sony could do about the last two reasons, but I know I can’t stand by and not report these activities. I usually say something like, “I’m reporting you for your suicide threat,” so that the mod will know why I’m reporting.
Which brings me to the last issue. I tell people when I’m reporting them.
I have two reasons for this. One is that I don’t like to feel like a sneak, and the other is that I want people to know that their actions or conversations are found to be inappropriate to others and that they have been reported. I usually ask people to stop first, but if they don’t, I report them. If I say I will report, I will. If I say I have reported, I have. Yes, I’ve been abused many times for telling people what I’ve done. One time the person I reported for inappropriate remarks to a female invited friends to share in abusing me and one of them appeared to be a female also. She made the most and worst remarks to me. I have been called names, including “snitch” and “narc”, sometimes by third parties who were not involved originally. I have been told many times to mind my own business, as if a conversation that takes place in a public space where I am at the time, somehow isn’t my business.
A final thought: I’ve no idea what the volume of reporting is, but if Sony is being overwhelmed by reports, they need to find out why and what they can do to alleviate this situation. How many potential customers have been lost, simply because there are people who will not put up with the conversations and actions of these perverts and trolls? I stand by my contention that these types are not the ones spending the most (if any) money on Home, nor are they the long term users a for-profit enterprise would wish to support.
December 4th, 2011 by Kassadee Marie | 10 comments
Home is endlessly entertaining to this California girl. Kassadee has been in Home for about four years, and loves almost everything about it (with a few notable exceptions). She spends way too much money there, and perhaps too much time... Someday she will travel the world and write about the people she meets and the places she sees.
I agree with you on this one Kassadee. The reporting system needs to be streamlined and made much simpler for people to use. For those new in Home it is hard enough to learn all of what is necessary to survive without making it hard to report those who are abusing them. One of the things I dislike most about some of these trolls behavior is when they say something to the effect that they don’t care if you report them as they will just make a new account or that this is a “throw away” account they are on. I believe that anyone with that type of attitude needs to be immediately perma-banned, no escape, because it is quite obvious they are trolling because they love to hurt others, and that is totally unacceptable in my book.
Great article again, you gave everyone something to think about.
personaly i’ll add: intentionnal freezing!
Here is an excellent reason as well….Idiots who are all about disrupting conversations with acting like they are part of said convo….I usually Just walk away
I agree with this post as well. I hate to be in a public space while trying to have a casual conversation with friends when some person will just walk up in the middle of it and start interrupting. Usually i don’t mind it, but other times we’ll get people that will interrupt saying obscene words that well.. I can’t say. I have reported some, But normally i don’t report.. Only to those most severe.
I agree with kassadee the report system must be made simplier to use so that trolls can be reported as soon as they commit the act and the sony can add screenshot or screen capture functions that captures caption as well so that the troll can be caught red handed!!!
Actually the way the reporting system works right now when you do one it time stamps it so that they can see what was said by who. That is why it isn’t a good idea to go tit for tat with a troll as you might get in trouble as well.
As far as I know it already takes a screen shot and captures the log. This is one reason there is a pause when reporting; it is gathering data.
I truly believe that it isnt that we need to evolve and develop thicker skin but evolve and develop a thicker sense of honor. And Im not saying that anyone really suggested that we should just become more calisted and endure the barbed words of trolls and haters. Doing so often builds walls that not only keep the bad out but the good as well. I don’t have any suggestions on how to disarm a troll or at least not any realistic suggestions only idealistic and that would involve reason which troll inherently prove that they don’t possess.
Hit ignore is the best way….End of !!!!
I wish that were true. The reality is even when you can’t hear trolls, they can troll by their actions. There is no way I can ignore someone kneeling too close to me or dancing right on me. Also, they often provoke people around me into conversation, so I can infer what they are saying anyway. And I have the added worry that a friend will get upset, say something they shouldn’t in defending me and get reported.