Blacklist feature?

[Kikumaru]

I've been having this idea float around for a little bit and wasn't really sure if I should make the suggestion until an incident occurred recently, so I guess it gave me the push I needed to throw this out on the table and see what you guys thought about it.

Well, like a couple of other games, some have a blacklist feature which allows you to not see anything at all that person is saying and he or she is not allowed to whisper you either, therefore..excluding their character avatar, they practically might as well not exist as far as you're concerned.

I've seen a lot of stuff lately about people bashing @main or saying we should get rid of it. Well, I believe a better proposal would be..how about we KEEP @main and just add a feature which allows us to block messages from a particular person.

For example (a conversation on @main):

Traci: Wut a nub
John2369: Look, just because I want to go with this build does NOT make me a nub -_-
Traci: ya rite. we all no agi is better for knight build nub

And if this Traci continued to annoy John2369 with this, he could type: "@blacklist Traci" and not have to see his or her messages anymore on main, in any town, or his whisper box.

We would have a list which keeps track of those you have blacklisted, much like a friends list, only this could be considered a "hate list". Now I understand this is a bit extreme and you wouldn't want the whole community to act this way towards each other, but I am just simply suggesting that it may help from conflict spreading further than necessary since one of the parties would have the ability to go, "Ya know what, no..I don't have to put up with this", then type "@blacklist *insert name here*" and that person would go about his or her business, instead of continuing to go back and forth with the person over main.

I understand either person could just turn main off, but 90% of the time, this doesn't happen. Once the conversation escalates into an argument about proving who is right and who is wrong, both people go into their, "I need the last word" mode, so neither party backs down and continues arguing until someone decides to play the middleman and say, "Look, take it to PM" whether it be a GM or a fellow hero.

Also, you CAN ignore whispering from the person already, but if the person is pestering you in town, you practically have to read it since it pop's up above their character's avatar, then you're going to just get into it with the person again. Eventually, if it's bad enough, a GM may need to get involved.

I believe everyone has a tolerance of how much they can ignore. If this wasn't the case, I wouldn't suggest this at all and instead, I would advise people, "Just ignore it". "Just ignore it" doesn't cut anymore after a certain point though. Much like how the GMs will jail someone who has crossed the line, we need a private jail feature which will cease all communication from them to me. I also believe this feature will keep less heat off the GMs for cases of harassment and whatnot. If we had the ability to blacklist someone and couldn't see what they were saying over main, in town, or in our whisper box all at once, we would just go about our way as if nothing was bothering us anymore, because we would have gotten rid of the problem.

I don't know how coding works or anything like that though, so I don't know how you could incorporate such a feature, but when I think of blacklist, I imagine the person having permanent mute above them without actually being muted. They are only muted to ME, but their messages remain visible to those who do not have him or her on their blacklisting.

I also think this feature would be good if another situation occurs which we had recently where there are people constantly spamming main with vulgar remarks. GM-Ayu wasn't capable of banning their I.P. addresses, so they just continued making new characters. We could just @blacklist *insert name here* and continue discussing whatever it was we were talking about over main and it wouldn't seem as if anything was wrong.

This would also help the people who are like, "ZOMG STOP SPAMMING PLOX!!111" about people posting, "B> *insert item name here*" every 15 to 20 minutes. They could just blacklist the person, then take him or her off their blacklisting an hour later to see if he's still doing it, instead of making a big deal about it, then a conflict occurring because this person thinks the other is "spamming".

So, with this, I'll leave with some pros and cons about this feature and anyone else can feel free to add to them or voice your opinions about this and we'll see what the GMs have to say about it as well

Pros
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- Don't have to watch someone spamming over main and still get to keep the good parts of the conversation
- Don't have to watch someone spamming in town begging for zeny or items constantly for 10 minutes. You can stop it in 10 seconds.
- You can instantly put an end to an argument (to calm yourself) whether it be in town or on main and still be able to talk with others and not have to turn main off
- If someone is talking about something you really don't care for hearing about (homosexuality, politics, religion, etc.) in town or on main, you can blacklist them and won't have to worry about being offended any further
- If there's someone you just don't like for their attitude or whatever reason, you have the choice to not have to listen to them on main or in town ever again

Cons
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- It separates our community into groups (since I'm sure some people will even take this feature to the extent of blacklisting those who speak a different language than they do)
- Could possibly lose your chance at a great buy in town or on main for blacklisting someone
- Could also become lost in a conversation since you have one person blacklisted, but the others still see what he or she is typing
- This could be misused and people would just blacklist everyone that isn't a guildmate or friend of sorts, then turn @main into their own personal chatroom, causing a separation within community (to continue the first con)

Much like any other feature involving a group of people, I believe this has the potential to be a great thing, but can be taken advantage of by those who would wish to abuse such a thing. Also, I would like to suggest..if a feature like this WOULD be possible, then to make the blacklisting limit up to 30 or 40. That way the person cannot separate him or herself from the community and just blacklist every single player. This is an MMO and I believe if you separate yourself from the community like that and seek isolation, then you might be better off playing an offline RPG.

So, there ya have it

I put a lot of thought into this and I hope everyone else does as well. Let me know what your thoughts are on this