The original guide on Cyber Stalking compiled by TheRing,
was removed by accident according to CuppaJo. The following is all the information he compiled, to be re-stickied by CuppaJo, and to be set to "keep" so it won't purge again.
Thank you Cuppa for fixing this, and for TheRing for compiling this outstanding guide.
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The following was compiled by TheRing.
What is this?
This is a collection of resources compiled by concerned players of City of Heroes with the intent of letting our fellow players know that we stand beside them in fighting off acts of harassment. This is a notice to would-be harassers that we as a server community, will help each other find justice through the appropriate channels, and that no player should feel that they are alone or unsupported as a victim of such activity. Though we are a community with much diversity, we are unified by one common guiding principal, that every person who plays this game has a right to enjoy themselves in an atmosphere free of harassment. We will not tolerate harassing behavior and will not allow our community to become a hostile environment for people who want to play a game and have a positive experience.
What is Harassment?
Harassment is unwelcome and generally hostile behavior or remarks about race, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, age, national origin, or disability that is often directed at a specific individual or group of individuals. It is a type of discrimination.
Here is a great discussion about video game harassment although there is some adult language, so if you are uncomfortable with that, please skip it.
http://www.misbehaving.net/2005/02/video_game_hara.html
What is CyberStalking?
Here is Wikipedia's definition of cyberstalking. (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberstalking)
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Cyberstalking is the use of the Internet or other electronic means to stalk someone. This term is used interchangeably with online harassment and online abuse.
Since a cyberstalker cannot present a direct physical threat to their victim, they instead follow their victim's previous trails to learn more about them, occasionally delivering verbal or emotional threats. Although they lack the immediate danger of real stalkers, the anonymity offered by the Internet also allows the stalker to put themselves in considerably less danger, making it a safer and so more common activity to engage in. Although cyberstalking seems relatively harmless, it often has psychological and emotional impact on the victim, and occasionally elevates to real-life stalking.
Cyberstalking is becoming a common tactic in racism, and other expressions of bigotry and hate.
Cyberstalkers target and harass their victims via websites, chat rooms, discussion forums and email. The availability of free email and website space, as well as the anonymity provided by these chatrooms and forums, have contributed to the increase of cyberstalking as a form of harassment.
The first cyberstalking law in the US went into effect in 1999 in the state of California. Other states include prohibition against cyberstalking in their harassment or stalking legislation. In Florida, HB 479 was introduced in 2003 to ban cyberstalking [1] (link). This was signed into law on October 2003. The crime of cyberstalking is defined in Florida Statutes 784.048(1)(d).
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I think that definition is as good a starting point as any. The point is that CyberStalking is a crime, and it's criminality is being recognized by an increasing number of law-making bodies.
Unfortunatley, most of the resources available online assume that CyberStalking (Or Online Harassment) occurs through traditional communication channels such as online chat, email, newsgroups, or web sites. Take, for example, these recommendations from
http://www.cyberangels.org/stalking.html about what you should do if you find yourself a victim of cyber-stalking.
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1.) Tell the person harassing you in straight forward terms, "Leave me alone, stop harassing me. Do not contact me again." If you are in a chat or on IM, logoff immediately and stay offline for at least 24 hours.
2.) Do not reply to anything else the harasser says. No replies to emails, taunts or lies said about you. Do NOT REPLY! Harassment is a form of power over you. If you take that power away from the harasser and refuse to "play their game" then you have become empowered instead. You are now in charge!
3.) If the problem only exists on chat or IM, go offline and completely change your online identity. This means changing your nickname and all the information you have listed in your profile. Everything must be changed!
4.) In the case of email harassment you need to contact the harasser's ISP (Internet Service Provider) and make a complaint.
5.) Stay out of problem chat rooms and forums.
6.) Don't give out your chat or IM nickname except to "very" trusted friends and tell them not to give it out to anyone else.
7.) Be certain all of your online profiles do not contain any personally identifying information about you, such as age, sex, address, phone number, school attended and teams you play on or where you work.
8.) In your IM and chat clients be sure logging is enabled, keep all log files that pertain to the stalker for evidence.
9.) Keep all e-mails that originate from the harasser or stalker and any replies you sent for evidence.
10.)If you feel you or your family is in physical danger from this stalker, or the stalker knows where you live or has made physical threats against you- call your local law enforcement agency or the FBI immediately!
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While this is clearly sound advice for keeping you and your loved-ones safe from stalkers, the big difference between random chat rooms or newsgroups and an persistent online virtual reality is one of virtual estate. In a game like City of Heroes, where you can make progress, and gain success, walking away is not the first reaction or most welcome solution. Luckily, City of Heroes is a pay service, and as a result they have some responsibility to provide you some protection against hostile behavior as you will see below.
What is Retaliation?
Retaliation is a term used to define negative behavior directed at the victim of harassment or stalking. It is usually more prevalent in friends or acquaintances of the accused, but can happen to a lesser degree throughout a community. An example would be...
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Don't team with [Hero], she's a total snitch that accused my SG leader of harassment.
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While this may seem a natural reaction to a conflict to some, it is very damaging to the supportive fabric of a community. It isolates victims, and sends a clear message that there is no support for people who step up and take action to better their situation.
A note about False-Accusation
Often times, retaliation results from the assumption that an accusation is false. Our responsibility as a community is to not make such assumptions, or if we find it unavoidable, not let those assumptions guide our actions or interactions. However, False-accusation does happen. Since it is vitally important that we maintain a supportive atmosphere, we will remain supportive of all victims, encourage them to report harassment, and allow the proper authorities to relsolve the validity of the accusation. False-accusation of harassment is a form of slander, and for this reason, we can not allow ourselves take matters into our own hands, and attempt to isolate or "black-list" the accused. Punishment is not our duty, and it is wrongful of us to attempt to fix things ourselves. To protect ourselves and our integrity, we can not allow ourselves to get caught up in a "witch-hunt" even if the accusations are plausible or seemingly legitimate. As a server community, we will do our part to remain vigilant on this point. We must allow NCSoft, and/or local authorities, to do their part in protecting the victims and punishing the harassers.
Member Conduct Rules under City of Heroes' User Agreement
Section 6(d) of the City of Heroes User Agreement Deals with Member Conduct. I will quote the items important to this discussion.
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You agree not to use the Service to:
(iii) take any action or upload, post, e-mail or otherwise transmit any content that violates any law or regulation;
(iv) upload, post, e-mail or otherwise transmit any content as determined by NC Interactive at its sole discretion that is harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortuous, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, libelous, invasive of another's privacy, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable; or contains any viruses, Trojan horses, worms, time bombs, cancel bots or other computer programming routines that are intended to damage, detrimentally interfere with, surreptitiously intercept or expropriate any system, data or personal information;
(viii) attempt to gain access to any other user’s Account or password;
(ix) "stalk" or otherwise harass another member.
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It is important to note that harassment and stalking are both clearly in violation of the user agreement, which means that we have the full support of NCSoft should we become victims of either behavior.
What can you do?
First and foremost, you should consider your personal information as the most important asset you have. Your real name, addresses (email and physical), phone numbers or any personal detail that could lead to assumptions about the afore mention pieces of information should be guarded with the utmost scrutiny. It is absolutely OKAY to deny people access to that information, and if anyone tells you otherwise they clearly don't care enough about you to respect your decisions about your personal safety. With a wide array of available free email and chat cervices, it is rather easy to set up new and temporary email addresses or chat handles for use by your anonymous online friends. Do this. This can be the one thing that prevents harassment or cyberstalking from turning into real world stalking, and prevent you from coming to physical harm.
I can't say this enough, real-world harm is a very real possibility. Protect yourself.
That said, the most important thing you can do after becoming a victim of online harassment is REPORT the behavior to NCSoft as it occurs. You can do this though the in-game petition tool, or by way of
http://support.plaync.com. In both cases, your submission is kept confidential, so absolutely NO ONE has to know that you are taking action. Though as stated above, we as a community will try to prevent retaliation from occurring, sometimes total confidentiality is what you need.
Reporting Harassing Behavior using the in game tool.
First click on "Menu" (image). From there select "Support" (image). The support window should appear on your screen (image). Since you are reporting a conduct violation, click the radio button next to "Harassment and Conduct" in the upper right portion of the window. Go ahead and fill in the "Summary" and "Full Description" and do not forget to include the character name of the offending person or persons. Within minutes you should receive confirmation of your petition through your regular email.
While reporting is the most important thing you can do, and hopefully the beginning of the end to your troubles, your action should not stop there. Though real-world authorities may not become involved in the majority of online harassment issues, and while NCSoft may not require it, recording offensive behavior will help you make your case should it come into question. A side benefit is the feeling restoring your control over your experience by taking positive action about your situation. Since habitual harassment, or cyberstalking is really about control, refusing to relinquish that is an important step to defeating it. Below you will find some instruction on how to use in-game functionality to help you accomplish this.
Logging Chat Activity
Logging your chat is a great way to keep a record of harassing behavior. While the resulting text file is easily modified, and some would argue that it isn't "proof" as a result, it has it's uses. For one, it can serve as an indicator to the customer service representatives that an investigation is warranted. The word is that they keep a master log for this sort of thing. They can compare your log against their own to make sure it is legitimate, plus the time stamping built into the log will help them investigate your problem in a more timely fashion. Secondly, courts favor documentation, especially if your records are accurate. If it comes to the point where you find yourself in court over this harassment, your preparedness will pay off.
Here is an excerpt of a chat log (with the names changed).
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06-24-2005 00:30:34 You traded Enrage, Keen Insight, for Luck, Luck, Respite, Dramatic Improvement
06-24-2005 00:30:48 [Team]RabbitEars: tu
06-24-2005 00:30:49 [Team]Homeless: I have acrobatics.. but these brief stuns keep turning it off
06-24-2005 00:30:59 [Team]Homeless: I get knocked down and presto, debt :-)
06-24-2005 00:31:02 [Team]Borealis: Crey Quantum Tank! Boo! Hiss!
06-24-2005 00:31:10 [Team]Cheesemaster: wait for ready, so you don't follow me to your deaths
06-24-2005 00:31:17 [NPC]Field Agent: We can't let Cheesemaster learn of Crey's plans!
06-24-2005 00:31:22 [Team]Cheesemaster: Ready!
06-24-2005 00:32:59 [Tell]NerfHerder: got room for me?
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As you can see, each entry carries a date and time stamp, the channel in which the dialog occurred, as well as the persons involved.
You can enable chat logging in one of two ways, either by way of menu, or with a simple typed command.
Enabling Chat Logging via the Menu.
First click on "Menu" (image). From there select "options" (image). This will take you to you game options screen. At the top there are three buttons, "General", "Controls", and "Graphics and Audio" (image). Your current page will be represented by a green button, the others will be blue. Although you should have come to the "General" page automatically, if the button isn't green, click on it. Once you are there, you will want to scroll down till you see "Log Chat" (image). If it says "Enabled" to right of it, you are already logging chat for this character. If it says "Disabled", click on the word "Disabled" to enable it. It should change to "Enabled". As a reminder, this setting is character specific, meaning that you will have to do this for each hero you play if you want your chats logged. However, the setting does stick, so you should only have to do it once per hero.
Enabling Chat Logging via Typed Command.
The other way to enable chat logging, is to type "/log_chat" in your chat window's text entry box. This will toggle on your Chat logging if it is currently disabled, or it will toggle chat logging off if it was already on. If you haven't messed with the setting of the "Top" tab in your chat window, a status message should be displayed to let you know whether or not logging is currently enabled.
Chat logs are kept as text files on your hard drive (i.e. C:\Program Files\City of Heroes\logs\game\). While they don't get too large, you may find that you don't want to leave chat logging on all the time. If you can't remember the text command, and don't feel like switching back and forth between your options screen, you can create a keybind or a macro that will allow you to turn it on or off at will.
Keybind are commands that have been assigned to a specific key. City of Heroes allows you to do this very easily, and you can "remap" any key on your keyboard (or button on your mouse for that matter) to a new command using this feature. Lets say I decided I wanted to use my "L" key to act as my toggle for Chat Logging. I could accomplish this by typing the following command in my chat window's text entry box:
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/bind l "log_chat"
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That's it. Now, every time I press the "L" key on my keyboard (unless I am typing in the chat window), chat logging will be enabled or disabled depending on it's current state. Keybinds, like the the Options screen, are also character specific. So if I wanted "L" to work the same way on all of my characters, I would have to log on as each of those heroes, and type that same command. Also like the Options screen, these keybinds, as well as the state of my Chat Logging, will be remain the same each time I log on as that character.
If you would rather click a button then a key, you can create a macro to do the same thing. A macro is essentially identical to a keybind except that instead of it being bound to a key on your keyboard, it appears as an icon in your "Power Tray". The syntax for creating a macro is basically identical to the one for creating a keybind. To create a macro named "LoG" that will eneable you to toggle chat logging on or off, type the following command in your chat window's text entry box.
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/macro LOG "log_chat"
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A grey icon with "LOG" (image) in white letters should appear in the next available power slot on your power tray. Clicking on this icon will act the same way as the "L" key in the keybind example illustrated above.
Remember, logs are good regardless of what some naysayers will claim. Not only does it keep a record of harassing behavior, but it allows you to be proactive about your situation, and puts a degree of control back in your hands. Remember, as a victim of harassment, the most important thing is the you do SOMETHING about your situation. Record keeping is is the very beginning of that something.
Taking Screenshots of Harassing Behavior or Dialog.
While a screenshot is almost as easily modified as a chat log, it can be a good quick way of documenting the offending behavior as you experience it. City of Heroes allows you to capture screenshots using the "Print Screen" key usually found at the upper right of your keyboard or by typing "/screenshot" in your chat window's text entry box. However, by default this will not capture the user interface, including the chat dialog. Luckily, you can overcome this limitation with a simple command.
Hit the "Enter" key as you would to begin chatting, or move your mouse cursor down to the chat box and click in the text entry area, and type the following command.
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/screenshotui 1
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Now, whenever you press the "Print Screen" key, it will include the user interface in the screenshot. To return to normal screenshot mode, simply type the following command.
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/screenshotui 0
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This setting will persist until you change it, even if you exit the game and log back in. However, like chat logging, this setting is character specific so you may want to do it on all of your heroes or heroines if you have cause to do so.
If you find that you don't always want to take screenshots with the user interface, but feel it is kind of a pain to keep typing that command over and over, you can set up key binds or even macros to do this work for you.
Key Bind Example
Lets say I decided that I wanted to use the "P" key to take screenshots without the user interface, but i wanted to use the "Shift" key on the right side of the keyboard (also called the Right Shift key) in conjunction with the "P" key to take screenshots WITH the user interface. I would enter the following two lines into the text entry box of my chat window.
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/bind p "screenshotui 0$$screenshot"
/bind rshift+p "screenshotui 1$$screenshot"
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Macro Example
As explained above, Macros are just like key binds except that they are represented by icons in your power tray. Here is an example of two macros to take care of the different type of screenshot (with and without user interface).
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/macro SSUI "screenshotui 1$$screenshot"
/macro PIC "screenshotui 0$$screenshot"
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That will give you a "SSUI" button for user interface screenshots, and "PIC" button (image) to press for the others.
Screenshots are saved to your hard-drive just like chat logs. However, they are significantly large in size, and can quickly use up a smaller drive. You can find them in the "screenshots" directory or folder inside your City of Heroes folder (i.e. C:\Program Files\City of Heroes\screenshots\)
Conclusion
Hopefully by this point, you have realized that we are all here to help you should you find yourself a victim of unwelcome and hostile behavior. Not only is NCSoft and the Legal Systems on your side, but so are your fellow players. By reporting harassment and stalking, you are doing your community a favor by removing unwanted trouble from the game, and potentially preventing it from happening to another community member. There is no more fitting act of heroism available to us in this game of heroes.
Where can you learn more?
http://www.cyberangels.org/stalking.html
http://www.sfwa.org/gateway/stalking.htm - an excellent introductory FAQ on the problem of cyberstalking, and going into awareness, possible solutions and the like. Although many of the links are broken, it is a very well written piece.
http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/cyberc...erstalking.htm - a somewhat outdated (1999) but still-relevant report on cyberstalking by the Department of Justice.
http://www.crimelibrary.com/criminology/cyberstalking/ - CourtTV’s breakdown of the crime including Legal Classifications, Stalking Typologies and Pathologies, Incidence and Prevalence, Cyberstalking - A Case Study, Risk Management and more.
http://www.wiredsafety.org/cyberstalking_harassment/ - another useful link of definitions and resources by the self-proclaimed “world’s largest online safety and health group”. They also have a self-help page that is pretty interesting -
http://www.wiredsafety.org/cyberstal...elp/index.html
http://www.ncvc.org/ncvc/main.aspx?d...cumentID=32458 - More resources from the National Center for Victims of Crime. Good links and contact information.
Thanks
First of all, I didn't do this. Sure, I typed it, but this is the culmination of discussions in chat and on these boards about how we as a community would like to handle this issue.
We would like to thank the various community leaders on the champion server for not only alerting us to the need for such a guide, but also for helping to compile this information, and for creating an environment where we can be comfortable that the help we need is only a teammate away.
The list of contributors is long, and I would do an injustice by way of omission if I tried to name them all here, so I wont. You know who you are, and Thank you all.
-TheRing
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