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Reward for catching hackers?

RobinHood5

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I'm sure this has been put up before but i'd like to put in my 2 cents.

Since resigning as a moderator I have really seen just how little motivation there is to record/report hackers. For many of us it a real inconvenience to record, export, upload, and report a hacker. Full time moderators are obviously at a shortage and not many people will go out of their way and use 10-15 minutes of their time to report a hacker themselves. Regardless of if someone is qualified to be a moderator (is old enough, has enough time, etc.) most everyone is capable of recording someone hacking and submit it. So here's my ideas:

Reward people for catching hackers:
Apparently this needs clarified. Successful report = An abuse report with adequate evidence that lead to the banning of a hacker.

The reward system would keep track of successful reports. At the end of a 1 month period if they had at least X amount of successful reports/bans they would get the donor rank for the next month.

At this time I think the only donor rank that should be given out is the single month iron donor. This will keep people catching hackers every month.
iron donor (1 month) = 15 successful reports

Considering that a moderator only has to have 50 bans to get a lifetime rank this seems more than reasonable.


Keeping track of how many successful reports a player has had would Not only would this allow players to get rewarded for reports but it also could be useful in picking staff members. If a non-staff player has 100+ successful reports they would be an obvious choice for staff.

No program or plugin will ever make a serious dent in the hackers on the MCGamer network, the only way to make a serious impact is to get the community excited about keeping gameplay fair.


My answer to a few common arguments against this in other posts:

No one should get rewarded for getting people banned:
Well, moderators already do. If they ban 50+ during their time they get a lifetime rank.

But then people will know if they got them banned:
Since the player would simply get the rank if they had at least X amount of bans during the month the only way they could know for sure who they got banned is if they submitted exactly X amount of ban reports and got the rank at the end of the month.
*With X being the final amount of bans to get the donor rank

But this will raise the amount of false reports:
The easiest thing to do as a moderator is go through ban reports. It's clear if someone is hacking or not and takes almost no time to deal with.

Also since the reporter would only get credit for successful bans there would be no reason to submit spam reports.
 
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Sheldor

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It is an interesting spin on a common topic, but I'd like to make one adjustment. Moderators only get a rank if they leave on good terms, and it is a gift for their time spent on the servers. It has nothing to do with the amount of bans you make.

Anyway, I like the idea of giving the points at the end of the month as it prevents the player from finding out who was banned, but if they got 20 credits from 20 bans, they'll figure it out. Pretty much, I think that, with discussion, this could work out.
 

RobinHood5

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It is an interesting spin on a common topic, but I'd like to make one adjustment. Moderators only get a rank if they leave on good terms, and it is a gift for their time spent on the servers. It has nothing to do with the amount of bans you make.

Anyway, I like the idea of giving the points at the end of the month as it prevents the player from finding out who was banned, but if they got 20 credits from 20 bans, they'll figure it out. Pretty much, I think that, with discussion, this could work out.
When I resigned (on good terms, time constraints due to working 50 hours a week over the summer) I did not receive a rank. I inquired and Sr. staff said it was because I had not had 50 bans during my time. I don't want the thread to become a debate on staff recignition though.
 

Sheldor

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When I resigned (on good terms, time constraints due to working 50 hours a week over the summer) I did not receive a rank. I inquired and Sr. staff said it was because I had not had 50 bans during my time. I don't want the thread to become a debate on staff recignition though.
I guess that was something I didn't know then :p
As I said, i do think the community needs some incentive to report players as it does take a fair amount of effort for a single player.
I guess it would need working on to make sure it didn't cause trouble or anything, but good idea nevertheless ;)
 

RobinHood5

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I guess that was something I didn't know then :p
As I said, i do think the community needs some incentive to report players as it does take a fair amount of effort for a single player.
I guess it would need working on to make sure it didn't cause trouble or anything, but good idea nevertheless ;)
Thanks for the input, let's see if this can gain any traction!
 

RobinHood5

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One thought I just had is how it could be implemented to Xime panel. There could be a feild for "reporter" that the mod doing the hacking reports could enter the name of the player that reported it.
 

BitoBain

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This thread actually had a lot of good points and was very well written. People get so caught up in trying to find ways to eliminate hackers for sure (such as by auto-detection and more moderators) that we never think about things that might eliminate hackers. Offering rewards for reporting them would certainly be a step in the right direction. After all, we still don't know exactly why EU has so many hackers, though we have some guesses. Another way we could reduce hackers would be to implement silent servers, etc... Many hackers probably feed of the reactions of others, whether the reaction be "nice stats" or simply a sign of frustration.
 

soggypickle

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Good idea, but I'd make ranks cost way more credits than what you suggested...
 

RobinHood5

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Good idea, but I'd make ranks cost way more credits than what you suggested...
Here's my thought. The time the average person with average Internet takes out of their free time to go through the process of reporting a hacker is quite long in reality. Between recording, exporting, uploading, and submitting it usually would take me at least 25 minutes to do a full report. 25 x 7 = 175 minutes of this players time devoted to the community, about 3 hours. So 3 hours of community service for a month of premium, you decide. Maybe it should be more, maybe not. That's just my reasoning.

EDIT:

I am changing where I stand on lifetime donor ranks, I do think the credits should only be good for 1 and 3 month donor ranks. This would keep the community helping instead of saving up for a lifetime rank and stopping.

This thread actually had a lot of good points and was very well written. People get so caught up in trying to find ways to eliminate hackers for sure (such as by auto-detection and more moderators) that we never think about things that might eliminate hackers. Offering rewards for reporting them would certainly be a step in the right direction. After all, we still don't know exactly why EU has so many hackers, though we have some guesses. Another way we could reduce hackers would be to implement silent servers, etc... Many hackers probably feed of the reactions of others, whether the reaction be "nice stats" or simply a sign of frustration.
Thanks for your reply! I put a lot of thought into this, glad to see people are liking it!
 
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soggypickle

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Here's my thought. The time the average person with average Internet takes out of their free time to go through the process of reporting a hacker is quite long in reality. Between recording, exporting, uploading, and submitting it usually would take me at least 25 minutes to do a full report. 25 x 7 = 175 minutes of this players time devoted to the community, about 3 hours. So 3 hours of community service for a month of premium, you decide. Maybe it should be more, maybe not. That's just my reasoning.
It would still be very quick for people with good internet connections. Plus, if any sane person had the choice between 7 reports and 10 dollars, they would probably choose the reports. Suggestions which make less money probably won't be implemented, which is why if a system like this were in place, the free option and the costly option would have to be well balanced.
 

RobinHood5

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It would still be very quick for people with good internet connections. Plus, if any sane person had the choice between 7 reports and 10 dollars, they would probably choose the reports. Suggestions which make less money probably won't be implemented, which is why if a system like this were in place, the free option and the costly option would have to be well balanced.
I can see that. Maybe double it or something. It also has to be achievable so people don't give up right away. You used the correct word, balanced.

It should also be noted that they would have to be "successful" reports. You will prob have to submit 20 reports to get 15 bans. And the fact that you wouldn't know how many were actually successful bans untill the end of the month would keep people reporting more.
 

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