Discord is Going To Give Out Warnings Instead of Permanent Bans (theverge.com) 25
Discord is overhauling the way it moderates its platform with a new warning system and teen safety assist feature. From a report: The new Discord warning system has been totally revamped to be far more transparent, educating Discord users how they've broken rules and are restricted from parts of the service rather than permanently banning them. "The new system gives users more room to learn from their mistakes and correct misjudgments," explains Savannah Badalich, Discord's senior director of policy, in a briefing with The Verge. "We're moving away from permanent bans to one-year temporary bans for many violations, except for violations that are extremely harmful."
In the coming weeks, Discord will start to limit features for rule breakers, instead of banning them outright. If a Discord user violates the rules, then they'll be met with a DM from Discord letting them know about the warning or violation and what action Discord is taking. So, if a Discord user uploads an image that breaks the rules, they might temporarily take away the ability to post images.
In the coming weeks, Discord will start to limit features for rule breakers, instead of banning them outright. If a Discord user violates the rules, then they'll be met with a DM from Discord letting them know about the warning or violation and what action Discord is taking. So, if a Discord user uploads an image that breaks the rules, they might temporarily take away the ability to post images.
Re: Discord finds out about VPNs (Score:5, Interesting)
It isn't an IP ban, you just need to make a new email address. But most teenagers register with their mobile number and it is more work to get around such a ban. I predict that Discord will eventually remove the ability to register with an email address.
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Getting a disposable phone number costs a Euro on eBay. Pre activated SIM. It might be a deterrent to spammers, but not for trolls.
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In the US and Canada you have to activate your SIM. You can get ones preloaded with minutes but you're really just buying a contract, and you still have to enter your address and a credit card for billing. There are still a few loopholes left in the US to get a temporary number assigned. But you'll occasionally be required to 2FA your account and lose it again when you cannot respond.
I think the easiest for Americans that want to use a service that requires a phonenumber is to buy a new $5/mo sim every mont
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You have to activate SIM cards here too, but the eBay sellers do that for you using their credit card and name/address. They don't put any credit on, so you usually can't send any texts or make calls, but that's fine for creating accounts. They only last about 6 months max before getting deactivated due to not having any credit put on them.
Re: Discord finds out about VPNs (Score:2)
Pre-verified Discord accounts are sold online for a buck or two a pop⦠cheaper in bulk.
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One thing I wonder if Discord should offer, would be a hardware validation token. Something like a physical keyfob, like a Swiss made Token2, which ships branded from Discord. This way, it is a specific device that isn't expensive for someone only needing one for 1-2 Discord accounts, but can run a botter out of money fairly quickly. This would be the top level of validation.
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That has been an age-old problem with MUDs. Ban someone, they pop back up somewhere else.
One way that might stop it, is to do what I've seen a few boards to -- charge some small fee for newcomers. Not too expensive, but enough which will discourage botters, and at least get some money in the coffer if a troll does create a lot of fake accounts.
Another way I've seen that mitigates trolls is a shadowban flag. I've written something like this for MERC and CircleMUD way back when, and what it does it just sp
Re:Discord finds out about VPNs (Score:5, Interesting)
Most teenage trolls ranting on Discord are too stupid to use a VPN. It's pretty trivial to block most VPNs from accessing an internet facing service, the IP ranges are well documented for most consumer VPN services.
You can also stop the trolls simply by requiring a phone number for account registration, validated by SMS, and rejecting the use of Google Voice or similar services. Try to set up a G-mail account right now, you might get it created w/o SMS validation, from your residential ISP. Try it from a VPN, Tor, public Wi-Fi, etc., and you'll be immediately stopped unless willing to cough up a valid phone number.
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A sim card is $2 (https://one.nz/mobile-plans/buy-sim-card/) with free delivery, you can get throw it out the next day, if you want to bypass the ban you can. As long as you are not constantly getting band its not a major cost.
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Maybe they just noticed something Reddit still didn't learn, that there are people out there that find it funny to get someone else banned by fabricating complaints.
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Getting perma-banned on Reddit is easy. Just post something that a moderator disagrees with. It doesn't have to violate any rules. There is no chance for review.
Wish reddit would do the same (Score:5, Informative)
Mods of power trip subs can basically get the admins to ban you for whatever they want, and you can get banned for essentially no reason.
Warnings and actual appeals are reasonable.
PS: be careful when reporting spam accounts on reddit for being spam. You'll get banned for it.
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When your only tool is a hammer, all problems start to look like nails
I know a few victims (Score:5, Interesting)
I know more than one person who was a paying customer, and then suddenly their account was locked, and they never found out why. And I don't think this is a case where "they know what they did". I think they have no idea whatsoever, and Discord refused to even hint at it. Did they break a rule? Maybe! Will they ever be told which rule? No! So there's nothing they can do to change their behavior to fix it, and no reason not to just make a new account and use that instead.
The main effect is, there's no circumstance under which I'll ever pay Discord for anything, because multiple people I know got cheated out of money they paid to the service and never even got a hint as to what they supposedly did, let alone a chance to see what the "evidence" was, or dispute a finding.
Cant have permabans (Score:3)
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Using permabans as the only moderating tool can quickly end an entire community, specially with voluntary mods that may be for example grammar nazis.
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Are you sure you don't mean they're leading us into WW2 like Trump said?
Reddit (Score:1)