Reporting Skunk Mercs

[Bj_Knows]

Subject
Reporting Skunk Mercs

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When you encounter a Skunk Merc, your Guild’s GM takes a screen caps of Raid Mail, and after 3 incidents send all evidence to Customer Service for Venan’s information and action.

MY PERSONAL OPINION

I do not work for Venan.

I would prefer some simple way of reporting Skunk Mercs (Note 1) similar to the "Report" button in Whisper/ Guild/ Officer/ PvP/ Language Chats.

Until then, Venan prefers that any problems with Raids be reported by the GM so they do not get 100 reports for the same Raid Mail. If the GM is absent, pick a single Officer to temporarily assume this task. You may also assign an Officer if your GM has a temper or prefers cursing. But the GM owns the Guild, and reporting Raid problems should go to them.

A single instance of skunking may be real life intruding. Any RPP below 1225 (20 Energy) may be a character with a 14 Energy Bar who does a single dump, or like sundance_T in the initial Pirate Invasion, a character who dies over and over and over. But a Merc who consistently does 0 RPP or 100 RPP should first get a Whisper and BoH Mail to both them and their GM (if they are in a Guild). You can find out who their GM is by going to the Guild Info page on the Power or Prestige Guild Leaderboards.

In the Whisper/ Mail, you should ask if they need help surviving the Raid, or scheduling Raid time. Politely, you may point out that 0 or 100 RPP seems to indicate the Raid is too tough for their character, or too time consuming for their schedule. You may mention to the Skunk Merc’s GM the character appears to need help with the particular Raid. Do not be abusive to them, they *can* report you for Abuse, and should do so, if you harass them. Save screen caps of the Raid Report and a copy of the Whisper/ Mail. After 3 instances, send all relevant screen caps, Whisper/ Mails to customer service. The GM can repeat this ever 3 Raids so as not to flood Customer Service with 300 separate reports of the same Skunk Merc.

By having a single Officer, or GM, report a Skunk Merc after 3 Raid Report, this lets Venan know if a Skunk Merc is abusing Raid Finder.

If you think this is too much trouble for the Skunk Merc, you may consider using a Merc Password for all but the last Phase of a Raid. You can even get fancy and have a three word password for Phase 1, Ex: Raison Nut Bread, then remove one word each Phase.

Merc Password Examples
Phase 1 Raison Nut Bread
Phase 2 Nut Bread
Phase 3 Bread

Group Websites, such as Google, Facebook, WordPress, and Livejournal are good ways to give Merc Passwords to trusted Mercs, without having your Merc Password passed from Skunk Merc to Skunk Merc.

Note 1)

This would allow Venan to check a character or Venan ID for history of Low RPP.
https://www.venan.com/boh_forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=6888

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[DreamingDæmon]

One question - if a merc does not speak, and nobody present knows him / her - how do you identify their guild? Raid report uses player name and toon name only, no guild tag / name is shown. It is not possible to contact their GM under these circumstances, which will often be the case with "genuine" skunks (most players who are struggling or who have to drop due to RL will respond to whispers/mails etc) - and it's these ones which need the action.

[Bj_Knows]

if a merc does not speak, and nobody present knows him / her - how do you identify their guild?

Good Point. Your first attempt at contact should be a Whisper. If they reply back, you can click on their Whisper to find their Guild (usually).

Regardless of Guild, after the first three Skunked Raids, it has become Venan's problem. While the Forum moderation tools are currently disabled (for many reasons), the Chat Admin level tools will allow Venan to track down all parties in the debate and resolve the issue.