When to forgive a bloody cheater?
in General
You have been caugh cheating! We all know Niantic cannot care less about you or what you do, but your community has other rules to apply. What should be your punishment?
Remember: what fits for you must fit for anyone else.
Somewhere between being given a badge and getting your head chopped off, a good, swift, ideal punishment could be...
-Getting expelled from your community.
-Deleting ALL accounts you own.
-Removing ALL accounts from your device that belong to someone else.
-Staying away from Ingress life for 3 to 6 months, depending on how much of a cheater you were.
-Writting a 500 word essay explaining why should you be accepted back in your community. (This one would just be magical *.*)
6
Comments
How about following the proper procedure as laid out in the ToS, and not resorting to peurile vigilante behavior? If Niantic is slow to respond, simply excluding the cheater from your ops and refusing to acknowledge them in any way will go a long way to discourage a cheater.
@MichaelSorens perhaps my example is just too peurile for you? :D
I like your answer, though, very Insightful. But I wonder how are you going to exclude the cheater from OPs without expelling him from the community...
About the discouragement, I must disagree: the only thing that will ever discourage a cheater is a punishment (like the one you said); any other action will both encourage him/her/it to keep on cheating and discourage non-cheaters from non-cheating (if that is a proper word, lol)
as a poc when a known multi accounter tried to register for a team said no. even asked all our team captains and none wanted this person on their team.
co-poc asked the other faction if said agent could play one of his accounts of that faction - and got the same response we gave.
"we cant stop you from playing at this open niantic event, but we arent including you as a known multi accounting cheater."
no one in either community wanted to interact with this agent.
cheaters have no faction, just teams of convenience they pretend to be a part of.
Can u teach him? Welcome. If he/she goes on with bad habits, bye.
I think everyone needs an oportunity.
I have to agree with @d3v1lkiss . Taking a holistic approach to dealing with a cheater always works out. If you catch a multi-accounter, you basically get them to cease the activity, and then observe. If they behave, it shouldn't be an issue.
Though the question then becomes - how often can you forgive?
Thanks for the feedback, guys, it is very helpful.
We all agree anyone deserves that second chance, but let's assume that mentioned player already took that second chance and threw it into the bin.
Would you forgive? Would you demand a punishment?
I don't know the time limit but if the agent owns to it and plays according the TOS, one can certainly forgive and eventually allowed back into the community. However, to forgive is not to forget and I for one would keep an eye out.
Hello! Just reposting this from the depths to confirm, thanks to recent XMA program, that getting a new account is enough for Niantic to forgive a bloody cheater :) (once banned).
So long as the lesson has been learned.
That doesn't happen when the people who know what flies only care that the 7/30 days enforced vacation is over and/or new handle is back to level 8 ASAP.
Yes it's dim, but there's enough rubbish to go around.
Serving penalty and changing play habits reflect that player has learned they can't be a RL or IG person that other agents go, "I don't like your attitude or game so attention/10000 watts of symbolic light is drawn to them.
“What fits for you must fit for anyone else” rule does not happen in reality. The reality out there are hypocrisy and double standards favoring veteran agents of a rival faction who are cheaters with multi-accounts with multi-users/bots or spoofers, and involved in wintrading and stealing VR items of an agent, but are still active despite reporting it to Niantic. Some communities (both factions) enable and tolerate those cheaters which makes them complicit with those cheaters. Then the communities expect newbies to follow TOS without leading good examples themselves? What a joke, for communities their leaders, and members; lead by example. Practice what you preach! To newbies out there, is this the type of community you like to associate with?
Our community basically has a 3 strikes policy similar to Niantic.
Caught with multiple accounts / unfriendly game play? You receive a quiet warning and a please stop, solo inclusion on ops would be questioned, you may be considered for pairing with a known good agent for a face to face chat.
Often step one is enough. Sometimes - new player, they don't realise the impact multi accounts can have especially if they are ex PoGo people.
Second offense - Much sterner warning - would not be included in ops.
Third strike - removed from community. Depending on how things are, other faction would be informed as well.
Spoofing would be instant removal - the problem is proving this.
You need to be flexible on all of this though - each case usually has it's own difficulties. And some cases can be very grey.
"Technically it's not cheating buuuuuut..."
Wouldn't be nice if the above information was included in a newbie orientation by the so-called community? Unfortunately, the said orientation does not happen out there and the newbies are thrown to the wolves. While the rival veteran agent cheaters who have the added advantage because of their faction are still active and free. Are we asking all newbies to trust toxic communities out there? It's like leading lambs to the slaughterhouse. Reality check here! Would rather be the lone agent than being associated with diabolical communities. Adieu and continue enabling the veteran agent cheaters and their communities! To the newbies, TRUST NO ONE!
Wouldn't be nice if the above information was included in a newbie orientation by the so-called community?
The good communities I've been in have all made this clear generally to everyone every so often. "We don't tolerate cheating". And most are quite willing to tell you exactly what that community considers cheating or too far.
For someone who said:
I found a warm and caring community that requires a bit of traveling, but it was all worth it. Interacted with some helpful agents who continue to encourage, guide, inspire, and teach me in the different aspects of the game such as fielding, completing missions, learning history associated with each portal, and most of all have fun.
You sure do have a negative view of other people's communities out there.
Why do you think an agent has to search for a good community? For an XM ambassador, I commend you for your comments " Because a declining community-base as well as toxic issues in some regions are still a problem that needs to be solved," and "Everyone's opinion adds information. Some may not be applicable in some situations, but everyone is welcome to voice them. " People will argue, and disagree, based on their own situation, or how they interpret others, and that's fine, but everyone old and new has input." Very helpful indeed! It only goes to prove that this whole process is beating the dead horse. There is a failure on the part of the communities and Niantic to listen and support the concerns of their new players.
Some communities are toxic, all have baggage, some are great.
Good and bad in all of them.
Toxic vets are hard to deal with, needs a really strong clean leader to deal with those cases and even then it can destroy the community. Influx of new players can help with that.
Inaction on toxic people can also ruin things though.