Posting Skypes in Chat: Allowed?..

[TheYellowCreepz]

Hey there!

I'm not a regular MCSG player, but this one (non-existent) rule has come to my attention that I am of the opinion should be changed.

This rule is that players are allowed to post their Skypes in the in-game chat.

Recently, myself and some of my friends were in a lobby and saw several people spamming in the chat/advertising/posting their Skypes. We asked a staff member in that lobby if they were punished for posting their Skypes. This staff member said it was not punishable.

A little bit of a background on myself: I am a moderator on another Minecraft server, I have been for several months, and this server passes 1k players online daily. Not going to name it, because I don't know what the rules are on micro-advertising here. But, we deal with our fair share of rude players, the rotten eggs of the community.

There are many people in the Minecraft community who know how to use DDoS machines, dedicated services, etc.. We punish people for posting Skypes, not because we don't want people socializing - but because we want to protect our players. There are many more players in the community, who have no idea just how easy it is to trace an IP address from a Skype name. We take it upon ourselves to protect our player base, and to alert them to the risks, to make them more conscious of the private information they're making public and the severity of doing so.

When we asked the moderator why it wasn't bannable, we were given this response:

I have hidden the moderator's name, because I'm not here to call out any staff. I'm not here to cause issues. I'm posting this to inform, not target.

Now, on the note of that screenshot, you must surely realise that not everyone knows the risks. But, by taking no action to protect the players, that's like letting a toddler go on a roller coaster with no seatbelt and saying, "It's not our fault they don't know how to use a seatbelt." As the server's staff members, people look up to you, and follow your instructions.

This is why it surprised my co-workers and I when we found that no action was taken to protect the players of MCSG. Being one of the biggest servers around, you must realise that there are some not-so-nice people in the community, who may DDoS people to win a clan battle, or as an act of revenge - the motives can differ. But, by wiping your hands of the issue and saying it's not our problem, you're not solving the very large issue in our modern society. You should take this opportunity to teach the less-knowledgeable players of the dangers.

I am of the opinion posting Skypes should result in a temporary mute or ban (once again, not to punish the player) simply to make them aware that posting Skypes is a safety risk. It's a very real issue, and you need to take the next step to protect your players from the threats of the modern internet.

I was also told by this staff member that there's apparently a thread made by an admin saying why posting Skypes is unsafe - however, you must realise, not everyone knows how to look at the forums. Not all of your players go on the forums, some only play on the server. This is why it is vital that you take action in-game, as that is your primary opportunity to protect your players.

It has also come to my attention, that MCSG does not have a private messaging system in-game. It would be wise to add a system where you can private message people on your friends' list, so that people who are friends and trust each other have an easy way to send their Skype names.

Thank you for reading, I hope you take this into account and consider what I have stated.

 

[Ceroria]

One of our ex-Administrators, Col_StaR, and a few members of the staff team, including myself, created a large PSA on the danger of publically posting your Skype. While I like this idea from a logical perspective in muting players to protect them, there are repercussions. If a player wants to unmaliciously share his Skype under his own responsibility with another user to communicate with them and ends up getting punished, this could harm his chances of receiving a staff or VIP rank in the future considering all punishments severely hinder your chances of doing so.

I understand and respect that you care, however there are other ways that we have committed to to protect these people

I'll edit in a link to that PSA once I dig it up.

Here is one PSA (http://www.mcgamer.net/threads/psa-ddos-and-ddos-prevention.183024/), but there's another that I'm looking for which explains more into sharing Skypes...

 

[Zeplohx]

People that publicly post their skype in chat are idiots; they deserve it.

 

[Pacador]

I understand where you're coming from, but it's their decision to post out their own information if they want, there may be consequences with it but that has nothing to do with us as a community as we do not control their own actions. Basically that's their responsibility if something does happen to them through Skype as it has nothing to do with this platform.

 

[Speech]

I respect your opinions and how you handled the thread and such, although despite the risks we can't stop people from posting their Skype as it is their choice and their decision in all honesty.

 

[TheYellowCreepz]

People that publicly post their skype in chat are idiots; they deserve it.

That's not the right way of looking at it. When you were first born, you couldn't talk (unless you're superhuman). However, just because you couldn't talk, didn't mean you were an idiot. You simply couldn't talk because you hadn't been taught how yet. Linking back to the post above, it's not fair to say that someone, who has no prior knowledge of the risks involved with what they're doing, is an idiot. They are simply yet to be informed of the risks.

 

[Speech]

That's not the right way of looking at it. When you were first born, you couldn't talk (unless you're superhuman). However, just because you couldn't talk, didn't mean you were an idiot. You simply couldn't talk because you hadn't been taught how yet. Linking back to the post above, it's not fair to say that someone, who has no prior knowledge of the risks involved with what they're doing, is an idiot. They are simply yet to be informed of the risks.

It's called internet slang .-. basically if someone is dumb enough (dumb meaning not thinking things through) to post their skype they should expect some recoil for their action.

 

[Zeplohx]

That's not the right way of looking at it. When you were first born, you couldn't talk (unless you're superhuman). However, just because you couldn't talk, didn't mean you were an idiot. You simply couldn't talk because you hadn't been taught how yet. Linking back to the post above, it's not fair to say that someone, who has no prior knowledge of the risks involved with what they're doing, is an idiot. They are simply yet to be informed of the risks.

There's a difference between being a baby who can't talk, and a 12 year old who, if you have a skype, should know the risks of it.

 

[whitekid]

its funny advertising someone you knows skype so they get the big fat doss xD

 

[AGFire2013]

I don't feel it should be punishable as it is a separate platform that they should be responsible for on their own. Another option for this could just be to warn them of the risks (ex: "Be careful of posting your Skype in chat as it could dangerous.") and/or implement a global /message feature for the hub so that they can do it privately.

 

[BAGHRB]

I agree above and monster

I dont have skype

 

[Jazza]

In regards to punishments for anything Skype related, currently the only viable offense we can do is if they spam and/or flood their Skype account names (or type it in full caps-lock etc. etc.)

But generally it's their responsibility to be quite aware of what they might be getting into if they decide to post their Skype name. Adding onto that, us staff members, from time to time, frequently remind users that we cannot be held liable/guilty for any of your personal accounts being hacked, DDoS'ed, tampered with, any compromisation of any sort with your accounts etc. and this all falls under common sense and responsibility.

Of course, someone may have a fixed mindset that "I'll post my Skype in chat, in hopes of Skype-teaming with someone in SG." and I'm not saying this is a false thing to do, but we want our players to communicate with one another at ease, although they should know what might come next prior to publicly saying your Skype account name and we try our best to remind users that we have three platforms on MCGamer and that we encourage them to attempt to use them once in a while to (a) know the community/people more better and (b) to understand what the ground rules are on all three platforms and could be aware of what DDoS'ers are capable of with the help of threads/PSA's regarding that specific topic.

Although this may or may not be the best reply to your thread, it's just reflecting on my personal opinion on this issue but as of now, posting your Skype isn't a punishable offense.