Accusations of cheating - please clarify

[Dolph Shtoss]

Hello.

I've been accused of cheating (meta-gaming) in private messages in a game, between myself and my accuser, and my accuser and at least one other player.

The rules make very clear that public accusations are not allowed, but what's not clear is if a private accusation is a violation of the rules, or if it is in fact, allowed. I can't find anything that addresses that situation here:

viewtopic.php?f=660&t=48784#p817301

Thanks for any clarification.

[Malarky]

This is absent from the rules for a reason. The guidelines for private messages are found here: Rules for Fair Use under rule 7.

If the accuastion remains private, then there's no problem. However, it becomes a problem if Rules of Fair Play are broken - see Rule 17. If the player making the accusation threatens to report you for the purposes of blackmail.

What it boils down to is that, in private messages, the accusation is not being used to affect the game. If it is made public, without being reported, then that's an issue. Of course, I'm not a mod, so I couldn't say if it has been reported or not... and I probably wouldn't, anyway, while it was being investigated. What you receive in a private message it pretty much left for you to deal with, unless it's something extreme.

It might have been better to raise this privately with the Mods group via PM. There's a Cheater-hunters group and a SITE HELP! group you could have raised it with.

[NoPunIn10Did]

Hello.

I've been accused of cheating (meta-gaming) in private messages in a game, between myself and my accuser, and my accuser and at least one other player.

The rules make very clear that public accusations are not allowed, but what's not clear is if a private accusation is a violation of the rules, or if it is in fact, allowed. I can't find anything that addresses that situation here:

viewtopic.php?f=660&t=48784#p817301

Thanks for any clarification.

Mr. E is incorrect. Here is the pertinent section of the rules, emphasis added.

8. Messaging Rules
The following rules are on player-to-player or power-to-power messages in a game. Although the main focus will be Ranked and No Rank games, these rules also apply in principle to all game types. However, in Schools games the Teacher will moderate content, and Friends games will be given more leeway to reflect tacit agreement among the friends on what is acceptable between them.
- Members are not allowed to send direct (power-to-power) messages in games repeatedly, ie 'flood' another player's inbox (based on a Mod's assessment)
- Messages should follow the same guidelines as PP, although since they are 'private' Mods will grant more leeway when judging inappropriate content

In other words, because all rules that apply to Public Press also apply to private messages, private accusations of cheating can constitute a violation of the rules; Mods just have much more leeway in determining whether it's crossed a line. I would use this forum's private message system to contact the Mods group (which, when composing a message, you will see in a selection box at the top-right).

[WarSmith]

I’d be happy to look into this. PM me!