Loka - Harassment

[Sparky___]

The title of this post makes it a bit obvious what this is about, but to be more specific I’d like to highlight what I intend to address. Xovious’ response here to the thread Complaint - Kaphox Radar Report and Screenshare Avoidance is essentially a catalyst for what I hope will be a rather straightforward, but incredibly important discussion on how harassment is dealt with in Loka’s community. After the events that transpired as a result of the conclusion of that previous thread, I spoke with Kaphox, about this specific issue and I by no means intend to suggest that that means I know everything about the context of the situation. However, I believe I know enough to say that this was not handled the way it should have been. Moreover, that as someone who feels like they played a role in this behavior, that it should have been addressed.

A couple months ago, many of us may recall that Nationalistic was banned for: “his offensive, racist, and harassing comments to others.” I think a majority of the community agreed this was the right step for Loka to take. With that punishment came a (seemingly) new policy for the community:

If you wanna beef on your friends in private chats, go ahead, and if they're fine with it, then we don't care. If they become not fine with it and they feel like they need to come to us about it in private, then we'll get involved.

So, after taking the time to listen to what Kaphox was saying about how his situation had affected him (both prior to and after the issue mentioned in that thread), I quickly found myself wondering how, even after being involved and made aware of these claims, the administration seemingly forgot that they said they would get involved any time harassment claims were brought to them? If they didn’t forget, then why did nothing appear to come of the report?

There's no point in attempting to undo the wrongs that the Lokan administration has done, and there's nothing to prove to you people, all that remains is simply that puny sense of hope that somehow still remains that the server will change its blind ways. There's a reason a large portion of the past players don't play, and this is precisely why. I tried finding motivation to play but this garbage gives me nothing but a bad taste in my mouth. Why prove you wrong when all that will happen is more manipulation, lies, toxicity, and pure pointless bickering? The damage has been dealt, and even more good people are leaving Loka, leaving behind an even more toxic community.

There really is only one way I can respond to this, aside from saying that I completely agree with the reasoning behind deciding to leave:

Enforcement of rules and follow-through with punishments builds trust with the community and gives them faith in that server’s ability to be run successfully and in a healthy way. The lack of that disappoints players and leads them to believe that either the administration does not care or that they cannot be trusted, in some cases both. In either case, it ultimately causes players to move on to other servers.

Unrelated to this particular situation, other claims of harassment were brought up recently. While they were addressed in the thread, the important thing to note was a seemingly different policy was then announced:

If you have serious evidence and concerns of harassment, and you have talked to Nova personally and asked him to stop, then please contact us privately.

What then, caused this change or was this not a change at all? If it was a change, then Loka has a serious issue. The particulars of a conversation Kaph had with Cryptite about Loka’s handling of harassment arguably pose a problem and here’s why:

1 - Cryptite asserts that the responsibility is now on the player to tell people to stop. (Which is like throwing a rock at an incoming tornado, hoping it will go away).
2 - This seems to imply that the lack of doing that nullifies any responsibility for the administration to get involved.
3 - Then contradicts himself by saying: “we or you can ask them to stop.”
4 - This asserts that now players need to first tell people to stop before they can report it, something that was not previously mentioned, when it probably should have.

This thread doesn’t necessarily intend to be accusatory as much as it is speculative, because in the time I’ve spent thinking about this, I can’t get a grasp on what the hell Loka’s policy on harassment is. This is simply because it seems to change from month to month. Essentially the particulars of these incidents (Nationalistic, Kaph, the thread about Nova, etc) are largely irrelevant (though bear in mind that two of these discussions have occurred over the course of a single month). The burden of proof is - was harassment reported? If yes - was it investigated. If yes, then no argument - if no, then Loka needs to reconsider Cryptite’s statement or make a better effort in the future. They owe it to the community to do that.

 

[Pac_Man_]

1 - Cryptite asserts that the responsibility is now on the player to tell people to stop. (Which is like throwing a rock at an incoming tornado, hoping it will go away).
2 - This seems to imply that the lack of doing that nullifies any responsibility for the administration to get involved.
3 - Then contradicts himself by saying: “we or you can ask them to stop.”
4 - This asserts that now players need to first tell people to stop before they can report it, something that was not previously mentioned, when it probably should have.

While I'm personally not going to get involved in this too much atm, I'd like to point something out. In the Nationalistic thread, I had concerns about how harassment would be handled, and Crypt promptly responded with this:

These are fair points, but the biggest clarification I would make is that it's not likely to be simply one example of behavior that's going to lead to punishment. There will generally need to be evidence of harassment, us talking to said person issuing a warning (possibly also with a short tempban), then evidence of it happening again before it leads to longer or permanent bans.

Of course we'll also have to take in account where the harassment is taking place. We can't police the world, we don't want to; but we can strive to make the Loka environment cleaner as best we can.

We're also usually very aware of who is doing the harassment and why. We know who's likely to try to use past examples of things to get people they don't like to go away. This action on Nationalistic is an action that's moving forward, and we're not going to retroactively start hunting down people just because people have dirt on each other. We know you all do. But moving forward, we wanted to make sure we set the precedent, that somebody's harassing you, and you tell them to stop, and they continue, that you can then come to us, and that's when the process of investigation will happen.

The key is that you have to say "Stop" first. You can't put up with months of somebody being toxic and then one day decide "I don't like them anymore, admins pls ban". That's not how this can work. With Nationalistic, there was a large history of this behavior that he disregarded time and time again. That's why the punishment was severe.

-Crypt

The key factor being here, it's always been that you must say no first. It may seem trivial, and futile in the face of harassment, but it's required. It's been this way since Nationalistic was banned, and in my mind it helps prevent issues with people just digging up everything bad someone has done and the past and saying "This hurts me now pls ban". I'm not trying to accuse someone of doing this, and I'm not saying I disagree with Kaph's claims of harassment. Nor do I disagree with all of this post. I just feel it important that it be addressed that from where I sit, nothing seems to have changed.

 

[Steve5729]

There are several reasons that one might not say no and not be ok with it. Such as being scared of being called weak or pathetic for not just dealing with it. Or being scared of rejection in a group for being too soft skinned when you legitimately want to be their friends. I know it sounds childish but I see it time and time again with people I know in real life. I do think that saying no is a large part of it but I also think its safe to say that not saying yes is not the same thing as saying yes.

 

[OperaGhost2004]

I agree with Sparky in that Loka's staff need to handle harassment, but I agree with Pac_Man in that you need to say no first before reporting. if you don't make it clear to them that you want them to stop, then you have no grounds for going to the admins about it. you need to say no, and if the person still continues, then maybe report it.

 

[Sparky___]

Just as an update to this thread:

Kaph, Pear, and myself spoke with Cryptite and Magpie both this evening and had a pretty productive discussion about the specifics of this situation and some of the points and misconceptions this thread has. In addition, I believe they intend to address the overall concept of Loka's harassment policy very soon (though I do not want to speak for them on that). However, this thread does still serve an important purpose in encouraging players to discuss how to try to handle harassment within the community.

 

[ModernMozart1787]

So the question arises. If you ask someone to stop and they don't stop, then you talk to an admin, and the admin completely disregards your concerns, what do you do? I think a lot of you know what I'm talking about, and, honestly, this is a major problem. I harassment continues, and is not dealt with when a group of players with legitimate concerns comes to an admin, and nothing is done, then what? What should a player in that situation do?

 

[DeceitfulPear]

So the question arises. If you ask someone to stop and they don't stop, then you talk to an admin, and the admin completely disregards your concerns, what do you do? I think a lot of you know what I'm talking about, and, honestly, this is a major problem. I harassment continues, and is not dealt with when a group of players with legitimate concerns comes to an admin, and nothing is done, then what? What should a player in that situation do?

They don't completely disregard things. The fact of the matter is some of the issues people have reported falls under the politics of Loka and not personal harassment. The staff team does not ignore reports despite what many people like to believe.

If you feel that staff are ignoring it then you ask why it seems to be the case. No one gets payed for working with/for Loka so issues can't be expected to be resolved shortly. Sometimes others are questioned to get the full side of the story. Sometimes staff has to get schedules to align so they can meet and discuss the issue. There's no clear way to answer your question since each case is so different and varying in severity.

If you ever feel your case is being mistreated then say something to Crypt or Magpie. They're not some big bad scary administrators and I know for a fact that they want to be able to keep dialogue with the player base as much as they are physically able to. Honestly, in my experience as a Sentry so far, if things like harassment is reported it just gets sent up the chain of staff to Crypt or Mag most of the time anyway. Best to cut out the middle man so the story doesn't get too fudged up on the way

 

[FoxyBearGames]

This is something that I don't want to get involved it whatsoever, but you really don't know what is going through a persons head when they are doing it. You really don't, I have to agree that just say no first, don't give into peoples junk. They will eventually learn to stop, through the admins or through you telling then over and over.