Thanks for writing in. Privacy is important to us, so we do not discuss moderation actions with anyone other than the account holder. We’re a small team and we don’t have the resources to monitor each active table. If you encounter inappropriate behavior, reporting it to us will allow our Team to take action. Each report submitted is reviewed by our Team and worked on within 24 hours.
There needs to be a protocol for more serious player conflict resolution. Replay is essentially an MMORPG. The site should acknowledge this and accept commensurate responsibility for social monitoring.
If someone decides to start targeting me personally and engages in an ongoing campaign of bullying that rises to the level of harassment, I should have some recourse other than clicking “report” every time they start abusing me in chat again. And there should be a way to recognize the difference between a one-off “someone was rude” and a systematic campaign of targeted abuse against specific users, with commensurate escalations in consequences.
Instead, no matter what I write to describe the absurdity of the abuse, all I ever get is this boilerplate response.
In most gaming communities, players who are repeatedly flagged for being purposely antisocial eventually get removed. That doesn’t seem to happen on Replay. I find this extremely disheartening, irresponsible, and unfair.
I made a post about the offending party here previously. Multiple users chimed in to add their voices that this person was also abusive to them. The consequence?
-for the offendor: no consequence
-for the reporter: my post removed, and a slap on the wrist about publicly airing grievances (I should instead have clicked “report” so that I could get the lovely boilerplate message again)
If anyone does display any harrasment towards you, please send me or any moderator on duty a PM with the table number. We will be there, obsereve table activity & take necessary action. Harrasment to others will not be allowed at Replay Poker.
Thank you in advance my friend & gl at the tables.
thanks @Litenin but I always report the abuse. I’m making this post precisely to point out that consistent, patterned abuse constitutes a different level of misconduct that calls for a different response from the hosting platform.
In other words, if the same player always abuses me in the chat, it’s not fair to put the onus on me to “report” every time it happens. Once they’ve shown they are going to do this as a pattern, I should be able to report the PATTERN and have the offender face more serious consequences.
Right now there doesn’t seem to be a mechanism in place for this. It’s just the same “report” as a one-off would receive, with apparently the same consequences.
Why isn’t it that simple? As soon as their name pops up click the mute button. Couldn’t be any easier and a whole lot quicker and more efficient than asking support for any help.
For example, imagine a player who plays in all the games you regularly play. This player is constantly calling you names in the chat and making fun of you. Sure, you can just mute them, but is it really fun logging on to your free-poker play-for-fun social gaming site every day and knowing someone is typing “rickswfla is a loser” every time you sit down, whether or not you see it?
If a tree falls in the woods and you’re not there to hear it did it make a sound, did it really fall? Besides all that, does it truly bother you if you are the butt of name calling and so forth if you aren’t there? Don’t be so sensitive.
First, I appreciate your perspective and agree that often, it’s best to just not let rude people “get to you.”
Second, while I agree it’s good to be thick-skinned, “deal with it/ignore it” should NOT be players’ only recourse.
Third, without getting into the specifics of my personal situation, suffice it to say that some kinds of abusive chat are troubling and harmful even if you don’t read it yourself.
It’s always best for you to decide to have a good day.
Don’t let anyone make that decision for you.
It will always be a bad day when they decide for you!
Realize that you have no control over the situation like when it rains.
There are some people out there that when it rains, they decide it’s going to be a bad day.
Something they have no control over, you see?
So, take control and decide to have a good day.
Better yet, take up meditation and be the observer of your thoughts until they disappear.
The peace is always within you.
From my perspective, it’s your ego that causes you problems.
Remember, the universe always reflects back to you.
The idea that the universe reflects back to you is often associated with the concept of manifestation and the law of attraction. These ideas suggest that your thoughts, feelings, and actions send out energy into the universe, which then returns similar energy back to you. Here are a few key points:
Law of Attraction: This principle states that like attracts like. Positive thoughts and feelings attract positive experiences, while negative ones attract negative experiences.
Visualization: Many people practice visualizing their goals and desires, believing that this focused intention helps bring those desires into reality.
Affirmations: Repeating positive affirmations can help shift your mindset and align your thoughts with your goals.
Gratitude: Cultivating a sense of gratitude can raise your vibration and attract more good things into your life.
While these concepts are more spiritual and metaphysical than scientific, many find them helpful for personal growth and achieving their goals.
The Law of Attraction is one of the most harmful, insidious, and counterproductive “self help” philosophies out there. Here is a nice explainer in simple terms:
@Litenin my position is that some levels of abuse warrant a personalized response and dialogue between administrators/moderators and the aggrieved party.
Replay’s current policy is that this is never warranted—someone could literally find out where I live and begin sending death threats to my family, and all Replay would do is send me an email saying “Thanks for writing in. Privacy is important to us, so…”
By the way, I was never directly threatened, but this is actually what happened to me: the user who has been serially abusing me in chat once found my personal info and started dropping names of my family members and contacts in the chat, for all to see.
If I were running Replay and it came to my attention that this had happened, and the targeted user complained about it and expressed concerns about their privacy/safety, I would immediately PERMANENTLY BAN the offending user, and I would LET THE TARGETED USER KNOW I HAD DONE THIS.
I think that’s the MINIMUM acceptable response in cases that cross so many bright lines of privacy and appropriate conduct.
People have a choice in how they react: People have different sensitivities and may react differently to the same situation, but how we choose to react is ultimately up to us.
People have autonomy over their feelings: People have the right to feel and the choice to choose their response.
People can choose not to be offended: People can choose not to be offended and can take ownership of their words and actions.
Being offended can have negative effects on mental well-being and self-worth. It can also lead to conflict with others or make others walk on eggshells around the person who takes offense.
Some tips for responding to someone who has offended you include:
Taking ownership of your words and actions
Understanding the other person’s perspective
Being constructive about how you respond
Clearly communicating how other people impacted you
With all due respect to the moderators, this at least potentially crosses legal boundaries as well, and probably isn’t something most of them are qualified to deal with.
The only response I would hope for is that they’ve forwarded this on to their legal department, but I think it’s unlikely anyone at replay will ever be able to tell you much more than that. (Not a lawyer, just my pessimistic view of the very litigious world we seem to be living in these days).
You should probably also consider notifying law enforcement. If this player gets so upset about free poker that they’re willing to cross these lines, what happens when they are genuinely aggrieved? They’re probably just an ■■■■■■■ and not actually unhinged, but if someone is motivated enough to start doxxing your family, there isn’t really any way of keeping them off the site permanently. Unfortunately, you’re just going to have to ignore them until they’re no longer motivated enough to keep harassing you, or they’re motivated enough to stop.
Two suggestions. First is maybe just play some SNGs for a bit and be the last player to join so you know you won’t encounter the abuser.
Or maybe it’d be a good idea to take a little mental break from the site for a bit too. It’s Christmas week so just enjoy the holiday and only log in to get your daily login award.
Replay talks the talk of being inclusive and community driven but it does not walk the walk. Any positivity in the community is down to the community itself while the admin does little to nothing to foster it.