N4G and cyber-bullying/stalking

I notice an increasing trend on N4G of users seeking out to actively harass and bully other users that seems to be largely ignored.  Most of the incidents I've witnessed and been victim of myself relate to users targeting specific members of the community for harassment and then continually abusing them over a prolonged periods of time.

The N4G community seems unable to police itself in these matters as these incidents are largely ignored as it takes more than one user to complain about the bullying.  Simply ignoring the comments or blocking the users does not deter the harassment.  Often, users will simply open new accounts to continue the abuse unabated and ignoring the bullying doesn't lesson the impact when you can still see that the user is still targeting you, even if you don't know exactly how due to the "ignore" status. 

I think a zero tolerance policy would be the best course of action before some poor kid hurts themselves after suffering through depression regarding the rampant bullying I've witnessed on this site.  Ignoring is a good step, but when this doesn't deter the bully I feel a stronger moderation is in order for repeat offenders.  Perhaps an automatic review and banning for obvious instances of personal attack, or a three strikes policy before action is taken to clean up the comments section of the website.  Or perhaps when you ignore a user, have their comments completely removed so no trace of these comments exist for the person who's ignored them.  If someone is outside my house shouting insults at me every day, even though I might not be able to hear those insults inside, I can still see them out there continuing their harassment and that's no less troubling.  And you can be damn sure I'd call the authorities and have those people dealt with.  On N4G, the harassed have no option to remove those who would continue their harassment even when they're being ignored.  

I think it's a very real problem that should be addressed.  Clearly we're not going to end negativity and trolling, but other gaming sites such as IGN and Gamespot seem to be able to keep their comments sections free from direct, personal harassment of their members from cyber-bullies.  And that's what I'm talking about here.  Not the odd, one off comment or occasional or even frequent internet troll.  I'm talking about the systematic and prolonged harassment of one user by another particular user or a group of users.

  

I've seen a few instances recently, but I had no idea it was a recurring, deliberate thing. Bullying should not be tolerated anywhere, no matter what. It's a lot easier for some people to tell others being bullied to "grow a thick skin on the Internet" but that shouldn't have to be the case. Bullying should not be present, especially in a community so widely active and moderated as N4G.

A zero tolerance policy should be incorporated and in my opinion, if there is only one report for bullying, it should be investigated. We shouldn't have to rely on others to do what is right to stop something from happening that should not be allowed in the first place. Now that I know what's been going on, I'll make it an even bigger point to report every instance of bullying I come across. As someone who's been bullied throughout my middle school life, I refuse to stand idly by while others are victims of this abuse.

Good on you for bringing this to attention! :)

If you see bullying (aka harassing), report it as best as possible and even shoot me a PM.

While bullying is wrong, this community has grown to one where communication is typically harsh and the lines between disgruntled user and bully can get hazy at times.  Any help from the community to help find and properly handle people who bully others really helps us.  


I can't say that there is a zero tolerance policy, though.  We don't have a zero tolerance rule regarding harassing, though we will get rid of someone who goes way over the line on any of our rules or racks up enough restrictions that it's apparent they aren't going to change.

Thank you for sharing.  Please remember to share with us when you see something go unnoticed by the mods.  Sometimes our jobs disassociate us from the line of conversations as we focus on so many in a day.

~cgoodno

See it a lot also. Will also try and help out more when I see it. Most of the time I assume it will be dealt with without the need for me to report it but now will be more active on anti-bullying front.

I appreciate the feedback and encourage all who see bullying or experience it themselves to take Cgoodno's advice and report it to the mods.

It's unfortunate that the policy is to wait for someone to clearly step over the line to deal with the problem though.  The worst offenders, the users who poison the site and take more of a mental toll against their victims aren't the ones that simply insult a bunch of people until they're banned.  It's the users that remain calm, and hide their harassments in what looks like a legitimate comment but it's nothing more than personal attacks surrounded by outright lies made into character assassination, and it takes place over a long period of time.  Spreading unfounded rumors and lies about someone is the very definitely of cyber-bullying, yet it's not these behaviours that are being moderated because, in my experience, that isn't what constitutes "stepping over the line".  

I have a couple of users in particular who stalk my comments relentlessly.  They slander me personally at every opportunity while claiming "This user is hypocritical because he always says this..." when they're claims are a complete fabrication, or they'll post links to unrelated topics as a way to continue their harassment.  While that doesn't sound too extreme, now take that behaviour and have it happen every couple of days for years.  Which is worse harassment, the guy who throws around a couple of insults and then is heard from no more, or the user that calmly and continuously spreads lies about users on a regular basis for a period of years?  In my opinion, that's one of the worst forms of cyber-bullying and it happens on this site with amazing regularity.

If your interested, I see both those users are at it again launching unfounded, personal attacks I've filed a reports for both of them.  I'm certainly not the only one they've been regularly targeting.  

Subatomic Mutant Gamers www.smgamers.com

The second paragraph, where the users stalk and harass you by slandering your name by calling you out about your previous experience here at N4G are known as... ...wait for it. Trolls. Don't feed them, just report it and eventually a moderator will slap their hand so hard they won't do it again. If contacting a moderator doesn't do anything, just go to the administrator.