3 ms·

The toxicity of random matchmaking has gotten out of hand. Whenever I decide to dive into a game of Overwatch, I'm rolling the dice on whether any of my five te

by madrox 4y ago

The toxicity of random matchmaking has gotten out of hand. Whenever I decide to dive into a game of Overwatch, I'm rolling the dice on whether any of my five teammates will be misanthropes, and the odds are quite high these days. I shouldn't be subjected to that to play a team based game. Your ability to play nice with others should be a data point. To make that a data point, bans need to have teeth. Bad behavior needs to have consequences. We have to disrupt the Internet Fuckward Theory [1]. People who don't like the idea of phone numbers maybe should propose alternatives, because things are not fine the way they are. 1: https://knowyourmeme.com/photos/325699-greater-internet-fuckwad-theory https://knowyourmeme.com/photos/325699-greater-internet-fuck...

Havoc 4y ago
> I'm rolling the dice on whether any of my five teammates will be misanthropes, and the odds are quite high these days Really? Out of a 100 players, 7 interact vaguely positively (gg, glhf etc), 3 are salty and the other 90 are silent.
- madrox 4y ago
  Your games are different from mine, it seems
ronsor 4y ago
> People who don't like the idea of phone numbers maybe should propose alternatives, because things are not fine the way they are "There is no alternative" is not an excuse to implement a bad decision, short of a need to physically save lives. Bad actors can get phone numbers for verification stupidly easily, meanwhile privacy continues to be eroded for the sake of stopping them.
- madrox 4y ago
  At one point, I was working at a company where attackers were spamming our service with ToS-violating content (moslty porn but many grotesque, violent stuff). The decision was made to require a phone number on the account to disable the attack. I argued that phone numbers were stupid easy to get and bypass this measure, but we did it anyway. To my complete surprise, the attackers didn't bother the obviously surmountable hurdle of getting burner numbers. Yes, phone numbers aren't perfect, but in practice they're surprisingly effective. I fail to see how privacy can both be eroded while also saying phone numbers are stupidly easy to get and bypass. If you're concerned about the privacy of your phone number, feel free to avail yourself of the same methods the bad actors could use. Burner is a legal app. I think calling this a bad decision is arguable. We hand over phone numbers for MFA all the time. I think this is a perfectly fine decision walking well away from the border of invasiveness, which is why I put the burden on critics to define an alternative.
- colinmhayes 4y ago
  > "There is no alternative" is not an excuse to implement a bad decision It is if the status quo is worse than the bad decision.
  - q-big 4y ago
    > It is if the status quo is worse than the bad decision. This is exactly the point where people's opinions differ.
    - colinmhayes 4y ago
      Enjoy being paralyzed by fear
moomin 4y ago
Except that there’s a fair bit of research that says anonymity isn’t actually the cause of toxic behaviour…
- madrox 4y ago
  I'd be very interested in reading that research
dbttdft 4y ago
everforward 4y ago
Things aren't fine, I just don't think this will help. Either accounts will still be buy-able, or the trolls will move on to some other annoying but not bannable strategy. It'll stop people from yelling slurs at each other in chat, but it's not going to solve people troll-picking Widow when they get salty. I see a lot more of the latter than the former, and it takes moderation changes more than real identities to fix.
- madrox 4y ago
  At my previous role at Twitch, attackers were spamming our service with ToS-violating content (mostly porn but also grotesque, violent stuff) to an insane degree. The decision was made to temporarily require a phone number on all accounts in order to stream. I argued that phone numbers were easy to get, making this measure unhelpful, but we did it anyway. To my complete surprise, the attackers didn't bother the obviously surmountable hurdle of getting burner numbers. Yes, phone numbers won't stop determined people, but in practice they're surprisingly effective. After my experiences, I believe that's because there's a difference between determined attackers trying to penetrate your system and people "just out for the lulz"
MrStonedOne 4y ago

by madrox 4y ago

Havoc 4y ago

> I'm rolling the dice on whether any of my five teammates will be misanthropes, and the odds are quite high these days Really? Out of a 100 players, 7 interact vaguely positively (gg, glhf etc), 3 are salty and the other 90 are silent.

madrox 4y ago
Your games are different from mine, it seems

ronsor 4y ago

> People who don't like the idea of phone numbers maybe should propose alternatives, because things are not fine the way they are "There is no alternative" is not an excuse to implement a bad decision, short of a need to physically save lives. Bad actors can get phone numbers for verification stupidly easily, meanwhile privacy continues to be eroded for the sake of stopping them.

madrox 4y ago
At one point, I was working at a company where attackers were spamming our service with ToS-violating content (moslty porn but many grotesque, violent stuff). The decision was made to require a phone number on the account to disable the attack. I argued that phone numbers were stupid easy to get and bypass this measure, but we did it anyway. To my complete surprise, the attackers didn't bother the obviously surmountable hurdle of getting burner numbers. Yes, phone numbers aren't perfect, but in practice they're surprisingly effective. I fail to see how privacy can both be eroded while also saying phone numbers are stupidly easy to get and bypass. If you're concerned about the privacy of your phone number, feel free to avail yourself of the same methods the bad actors could use. Burner is a legal app. I think calling this a bad decision is arguable. We hand over phone numbers for MFA all the time. I think this is a perfectly fine decision walking well away from the border of invasiveness, which is why I put the burden on critics to define an alternative.
colinmhayes 4y ago
> "There is no alternative" is not an excuse to implement a bad decision It is if the status quo is worse than the bad decision.
- q-big 4y ago
  > It is if the status quo is worse than the bad decision. This is exactly the point where people's opinions differ.
  - colinmhayes 4y ago
    Enjoy being paralyzed by fear

moomin 4y ago

Except that there’s a fair bit of research that says anonymity isn’t actually the cause of toxic behaviour…

madrox 4y ago
I'd be very interested in reading that research

dbttdft 4y ago

everforward 4y ago

Things aren't fine, I just don't think this will help. Either accounts will still be buy-able, or the trolls will move on to some other annoying but not bannable strategy. It'll stop people from yelling slurs at each other in chat, but it's not going to solve people troll-picking Widow when they get salty. I see a lot more of the latter than the former, and it takes moderation changes more than real identities to fix.

madrox 4y ago
At my previous role at Twitch, attackers were spamming our service with ToS-violating content (mostly porn but also grotesque, violent stuff) to an insane degree. The decision was made to temporarily require a phone number on all accounts in order to stream. I argued that phone numbers were easy to get, making this measure unhelpful, but we did it anyway. To my complete surprise, the attackers didn't bother the obviously surmountable hurdle of getting burner numbers. Yes, phone numbers won't stop determined people, but in practice they're surprisingly effective. After my experiences, I believe that's because there's a difference between determined attackers trying to penetrate your system and people "just out for the lulz"

MrStonedOne 4y ago