M8
That's a large number to keep you now
quote:
don't actually care what we do about smurfs |
I do, I agree we must ban them, but I don't shun them. Knorke is still a person.
One problem with smurfs Knorke loves to exploit is to walk around bans and whatnot, but there is no realistic way to stop smurfs besides making accounts email only, and a confirmation must be sent, which at the most will slow down smurfs, but a determined smurf can still get through. We must also be pretty vigilant, GabbaGandalf got banned because we thought he was Knorke, but it was found out he actually was not. This could be attributed to "smurf-rage", where anyone acting like a smurf can be banned, when they actually are not and thus result in them leaving. Smurfs might also bring a bad name to our community, if Knorke decides to spam "ZK DEAD" all over the place, the newbies will feel like it is dead whilst people who haved played longer will know it isn't, but newbies that are in Australia/New Zealand have a different timezone and could feel lonely since there are rarely any games past 8:00, and incorrectly attribute lower playerbase than their timezones, since lots of our players are on the opposite sides of the world, which makes playing with them pretty limited since they are only up at specific times.
Smurfs that can get through security will put a strain on people as well, if someone decides to go as smurf and play games, while shouting insults, then making a new account once their banned makes people think the security is pretty bad, and scathing insults can seriously stick to someone later on whilst they are still playing ZK, which defeatist smurfs could use to make people quit, since no one likes getting insulted repeatedly with no good reason. However these smurfs are always Harmful to community, since their intention is to make people leave and feel unwelcome to ZK, which is already having some low player rate and retention...
I think they should be banned if the smurfs are harmful, or are trying to exploit ELO/WHR, but smurfs that people made just for the sake of having smurfs should have a rule in which only their originals can post, so people can recognise who is speaking to them, and to make communication much easier. However I cannot think of a good use for a smurf, only the responses to them, and I also say people should not go crazy and think someone is something when they aren't, so we don't get "smurf-rage", and get an innocent person banned, so I say adopt a posture you would to an actual player, look first, judge later.
