Moderation Changes
Posted by Admin-Mat on 12 Sep 2016, 11:24 pm
Our moderation tactics have been changed in response to player feedback. Many of you have come to us with concerns about bullying and attacks in the forums, and our new infraction system is our solution to that problem. From this point forward, moderators will be issuing infractions for behavior that violates our Site Rules, and an accumulation of infraction points will result in impartial site bans.
We need your help here more than ever in reporting behavior that is inconsistent with our rules. We want the game to be fun and relaxing to play, and if you witness any behavior that bullies or attacks another player on the forums, we encourage you to report it. In the past we had a very lenient system of flags and warnings, but our new system will ensure that rule-breaking behavior is swiftly and fairly punished.
Prior behavior has been expunged from every player's record (with the exception of existing bans). If you had a warning or a flag on your account, you are starting clean with a fresh record.
In addition, our rules have been updated with the following changes:
- We no longer forbid discussion of alcohol or drugs on Furvilla. However, players may not encourage or discuss the illegal or underage use of these substances in their discussions. They may also not solicit any drugs or alcohol on Furvilla. We have decided to relax this rule because Furvilla is not a children's website, it is a website that caters to a general furry audience without the sexual content common on furry websites.
- Players are now permitted to have off-topic discussions in the chatrooms.
- Clarifications have been made regarding off-site trade right now during beta, and after beta.
- We do not allow players to post threads stating they want to harm themselves or commit suicide.
- Players may not beg or severely lowball others.
- Players may not be vulgar, overly aggressive or abusive toward staff members in their communications.
In addition, we wanted to share some information about our future plans: we are in the process of implementing two major features, the plush collection feature and the indoor decoration feature. The majority of our focus will be toward these two features as they will both be major sinks for items and currency in the economy. In addition, one of our programmers is working on mini-games, per the suggestion of many players.
We would also like to announce that our official opening date is scheduled for December 1, 2016!
Have a nice day!
Infractions are just a way for not allowing players to speak their mind.
I will now duct tap my mouth shut in fear of Infractions
Tone & FurgieShiba
Generally I would like to agree with the both of you in regards to the block function, but the fact that this is the internet and people are going to disagree with each other on various topics doesn't mean that blocking others should be the first reaction to interacting within a social networking site. Essentially that is what Furvilla is, a social networking site where individuals who share interests and likes congregate and talk about various topics.
If blocking someone is the first reaction to something you disagree with, what does that speak of you? If preventing others from explaining the hows and whys for their opinion is acceptable then why interact with others? I'm not trying to undermine or anger anyone, I'm trying to understand the whole discourse. I don't interact much on the forums here or on Flight Rising to really get why people are so defensive about blocking everyone except for their friends.
It doesn't make sense to block someone without getting to know them.
This all sounds great!~ It's also cool that the official opening date is the day before my dogs birthday!~ I reall do love this online game!
thank you for relaxing on the rules. Some of the bans people have gotten have been over very ridiculous reasons, and I'm very happy to see it be relaxed!
release the hamhams. :'c
im happy about these rules for personal reasons...
Thanks for the update on rules and such! Pretty excited about the two major features! Mini games are great too! :D
why can't people just scroll past something they don't want to see? not that hard really
Oooh, can't wait to see the new plushies and decoration stuff! =D Also, great to see the sites official opening date! =D
@arts-waifu
Block feature is fine, even against people that don't break the rules. IRL we have a block feature called "avoiding", "walking away" and "locking the door" that we would do anyway if we wanted to avoid an undesirable person or situation. It's really not that hard to do IRL so I don't see why it has to be difficult to avoid a thing online at all. It can't be helped that we control what content we see on the internet or seek to control it. You already have a lot of control as it is, the moment you decide what website to go on, the ability to block images thanks to browser setting and extensions, you even have the ability to block ads now.
To you it might be "abuse" to block someone who is behaving okay, but it's really just a lot like real life. You take an adult class, you choose who or what you sit next to, and you choose who you do or dont interact with. There's a few differences, like if someone simply said hi to you, you can't help but say hi back for sake of politeness, but if they want to discuss a topic that you don't care for (lets say, sports), you have the right to not join in and if they repeatedly talk about boring topics, you learn they aren't interesting and that it's in your best interest to sit somewhere else as a chance to find someone more interesting. Sometimes hearing the same topics in the background over and over gets annoying so that might be another reason you sit away, and the reason the block feature online comes in. The difference is that there's a small chance for the IRL offender to redeem their qualities to the "offended" (for lack of better word) as there's less physical ways to wall off someone in your room. Does this happen often? Not in my experience. It may be worth it IRL to give certain people a chance, but online? Debatable. It hurts to say this but we are a lot more replaceable as strangers online than IRL. Not to say our online friends are replaceable, nooo not at all. But in an environment where everyone is new to you, whose faces cannot be seen or physically interacted with, and approach you in large large numbers than would be practical IRL, it's faster to focus friendship on more accepting people than to let yourself endure a problem person.