Combatting anti-social behavior on the mp serv

[krotop]

I think we should make it possible to register user names. Registration wouldn't be mandatory, but guests wouldn't be able to use registered names. This would stop people from impersonating each other. Also there'd be a reasonable limit on the number of names that could be registered from the same IP address.

Nonononono!! I disagree! It's fun to change name often,
sometimes you got a bad past, and everyone can see your name,
so they will remind themself from who u are and stuff.
You'll feel more free if you can change ur name. It's also boring
if you get the same name everytime. Sometimes you got to relief yourself from all the people that hate you by changing your name.
And maybe getting a new start. I hope this will NOT be implented. PLEASE!

This sounds immature. You act bad, you assume the consequence. If you want a new start, just prove that you can change and you can be trust. Sorry if it seems rude, but unless you're practicing ironical humor, this is, as others said, really the sort of behavior the community wants to get rid of.

I know I just repeated pieces of evidence, but that one post really made me burst. Geez... I must have been playing Wesnoth for too long for getting that serious...

I fear that post really scored in favor of the implementation of some control system .

[Becephalus]

I would strongly prefer a registration process and inability to change nicknames. It would GREATLY facilitate good behavior.

Over half the behavior problems are because of the anonymity people have.

[Simons Mith]

Does the current MP server setup make users' IP addresses visible along with their names? Even though I'm on dialup, I find I still retain the same IP address for days at a time. IP address might be a better indicator of player identity than people think.

[Baufo]

Exactly. The problem is that we don't want those jerks to get rid of their bad past and people "hating" (I'd rather say disliking) them because of their annoying behavior. To make the mp server a nicer place it is a necessity that a person's bad behavior actually has consequences since the lack of them is currently too often exploited.

then make that happen! We don't need registered nicknames to do that... You'll never be able to stop them. As you can see, most of the poeple don't want registered nicknames. What are the benefits of registered nicknames? stoping the jerks. Disadvantages?People who are on only once in a while will not know what is happening.

Just because a single random person said so, it does by far not mean "people don't want a registration" system. And I really can't see why being little inconvenience for people who play seldom should be a stronger argument than stoping the jerks who offend the players who have been around for ages and are on the server regularly.

It might be true that a registration system can not entirely solve the problem entirely but it might be a good start.

[zookeeper]

Not to mention that a registration system wouldn't even inconvenience casual players, since they could play unregistered.

[Becephalus]

I know other free games have had success importing their forum registations en masse. You still have the problem of how to handle multiple accounts I suppose. Although having multiple emails woudl be a hurdle, if a tiny one.

[bert1]

Not to mention that a registration system wouldn't even inconvenience casual players, since they could play unregistered.

Becephalus wants to go a step further:

I would strongly prefer a registration process and inability to change nicknames. It would GREATLY facilitate good behavior.

Good behaviour in your eyes, maybe. There is some moral relativity here. Chaotic behaviour, for chaotic people, is perhaps desirable. It just depends on how far the devs want to go to cater for all tastes.

To clarify, would you also favour registration as a prerequisite for MP play, or would registration be optional, albeit unalterable once one has registered?

There seems to be four possible registration systems:

1) What we have now. No registration.

2) Optional registration of a particular nickname, so others can't use it. But one can still use other nicknames.

3) Optional registration of a nickname, but once a nickname is registered, one can never play under any other name.

4) Compulsory registration of a nickname and inability to change that nickname, all as a prerequisite for online play.

Does that cover it? For what it's worth, I would favour no. 2.

We need to be clear about exactly what proposal we are discussing, as some of the objectors seem to think that registration means either 3 or 4, whereas I was under the impression that most of the discussion was about 2.

[Becephalus]

I would propose 2, but keep in mind. You could just allow a check mark for games, people could play unregistered if they wanted, but when hosting a game if you want only registered players you check a box. Everyone gets exactly what they want.

People could of course still log on unregistered. I suppose this is more like 2. Anyway you get the idea. The idea would be to encourage stable identities and make changing your identity a hurdle (at least in the community fo regulars who cares about such things and is concerned about behavior).

[zookeeper]

3) is impossible, so we can drop that right away.

The way I'd like to see it work in practise: you get an optional password field when entering your name for MP. If you leave it empty, you'll log on to the server with your chosen name (unless it's registered, of course) but visibly flagged as non-registered. Fill in the correct password for that name/account, and you'll log on registered and everyone sees you as registered.

[bert1]

I would propose 3, but keep in mind. You could just allow a check mark for games, people could play unregistered if they wanted, but when hosting a game if you want only registered players you check a box. Everyone gets exactly what they want.

People could of course still log on unregistered. I suppose this is more like 2. Anyway you get the idea. The idea would be to encourage stable identities and make changing your identity a hurdle (at least in the community fo regulars who cares about such things and is concerned about behavior).

Yes, 2 with your checkbox idea sounds good to me.

[Becephalus]

3) is impossible, so we can drop that right away.

The way I'd like to see it work in practise: you get an optional password field when entering your name for MP. If you leave it empty, you'll log on to the server with your chosen name (unless it's registered, of course) but visibly flagged as non-registered. Fill in the correct password for that name/account, and you'll log on registered and everyone sees you as registered.

I think that sounds good, but I really think being able to prevent unregistered users from joining your game if so desired would be good.

[zookeeper]

3) is impossible, so we can drop that right away.

The way I'd like to see it work in practise: you get an optional password field when entering your name for MP. If you leave it empty, you'll log on to the server with your chosen name (unless it's registered, of course) but visibly flagged as non-registered. Fill in the correct password for that name/account, and you'll log on registered and everyone sees you as registered.

I think that sounds good, but I really think being able to prevent unregistered users from joining your game if so desired would be good.

Sure, that's a reasonable option to have.

[Becephalus]

Maybe a little "W" logo for players and games which are registered, rather than flagging the unregistered.

[Darth Fool]

Note that with a little effort, even #2 would allow consistantly identifying the more chaotic named bad behaving people. Much like how the forum keeps track of nicks and IPs, the server could keep track of all nicknames used from a given IP and all IPs used for a given nick. Thus upon request, without revealing IP information, the server could reveal all the nicks used by someone from IPs used by that nick. Most likely, you wouldn't care about using this feature unless someone is behaving badly.

[OzorMox]

I agree with number 2; that registration should be optional and allow people to stop their name from being taken.