Stream Sniping

[Zain Khan]

I have had enough...

 

Recently these days for me personally there has been a dramatic increase in stream sniping on the VATSIM Network and I have fallen victim to a lot of people deciding to troll or har[Mod - Happy Thoughts] me on the VATSIM Network all knowingly due to the fact I am streaming on Twitch and they wanted to ruin the fun not only for myself but for other pilots too whenever I'm controlling especially.

 

Such conduct is a breach of VATSIM Code of Conduct, and many instances fall under these sections

 

Section A1: "Members should, at all times, be courteous and respectful to one another."

 

Section A11: "Members are prohibited from publishing, posting, distributing, disseminating or using any kind of defamatory, infringing, obscene, vulgar, profane, unlawful or other such types of communications materials or information through the use of online chat boxes, ATC text channels, voice ATC channels or the official internet forums, newsgroups and mailing lists utilized by VATSIM.net and its officially recognized regions, divisions, ARTCCs, ACCs and FIRs."

 

Section A12: "Members are prohibited from using online chat boxes, ATC text channels, voice ATC channels or the official internet forums, newsgroups and mailing lists utilized by VATSIM.net and its officially recognized regions, divisions, ARTCCs, ACCs and FIRs to threaten, har[Mod - Happy Thoughts], abuse, intimidate or stalk others or to otherwise violate the legal rights of others, including expectations to the rights of privacy and publicity."

 

Section B1: "Prior to logging on to VATSIM, a pilot on the ground should position his or her aircraft so that it is not located on a runway or a taxiway. This will prevent interference with operations that may be occurring at an airport when the actual log-on occurs."

 

Also such conduct is a breach of VATSIM Code of Regulations Section 6.03 (Prohibited Conduct):

 

"The use of the VATSIM.net network by any member or individual to threaten, har[Mod - Happy Thoughts],

abuse, intimidate, stalk or to otherwise violate the legal rights, including rights of

privacy and publicity, of other members or individuals logged on to the VATSIM.net

network;"

 

"The use of the VATSIM.net network by any member or individual to engage in any

action or conduct which blocks, interferes with or otherwise prevents any other

member(s) of VATSIM.net or individuals from logging on to and/or enjoying the

VATSIM.net network. This rule does not apply to Administrators, Supervisors or other

individuals specifically designated by the VATSIM.net Board of Governors or this

Code of Regulations who are acting within the scope of their authority"

 

Multiple wallops in short space of time, some of them unanswered due to Supervisors not online, when is all this gonna stop? I love to fly and control on VATSIM and simulate a friendly professional environment and have fun while doing so but don't want it all ruined by some people stream sniping because I stream and share my fun on Twitch.

[Reese Norris 1401247]

Yes, this needs to stop. Ruins the fun for everyone. But we are in luck, “Stream Sniping” is going to make its way into the TOS pretty soon, if I remember correctly.

[Kenneth Haught]

Zain,

While I know it's very frustrating to have to experience this, it is one of the hazards of doing anything in a multiplayer world while broadcasting. Believe me when I say it's not something unique to VATSIM, but that we do take it very seriously. "Sniping" is a top priority to address for the Supervisor team, and leads to serious consequences very quickly for the person who's doing it. That said, unfortunately while we do do our best to always have coverage there are times when nobody is available to provide supervision, we're working on it...and bringing in people as we can to try to cover the gaps in coverage.

 

When you say they are "troll"ing and "har[Mod - Happy Thoughts]ing" you, is it that they are not following instructions, or are they using inappropriate language, etc? If the latter docomeent the best you can the CID/callsign(s) that are doing it and email [email protected] for a Post Factum investigation into the incident. It's also very helpful to either have a screenshot of what's said, or if you're streaming provide a link to the video and the time stamps that are the concern.

 

Other than that if there are no supervisors online, your only option would be to ignore it, or stop streaming (or controlling...but we hope not!) for the time and hopefully they will move on for a bit. It's a terrible solution, but unfortunately as I said that's interacting with a multiplayer community when you're a streamer these days.

[Zain Khan]

I appreciate the replies. Kenneth, what I mean through trolling it's a combination of the following:

 

*Slewing on a active runway / spawning on a active runway while myself or another aircraft is on final where I'm involved and to cause a deliberate loss of separation,

 

* Logging on with rather inappropriate callsigns and revealing names / breaching privacy

 

* Obstructing radio traffic with obscene or inappropriate transmissions on frequency to cause chaos

 

* Operating / moving an aircraft in a controlled airport / controlled airspace without ATC clearance to deliberately cause conflicts or chaos.

 

* Teasing or abuse in general over frequency

 

As a measure to help stop all this I have halted all Twitch streaming activity of mine to let the situation cool down and take a rest myself.

[Kenneth Haught]

That's what I figured it was, but wanted to clarify. As you already seem to be aware all of those are against our rules...so when they do happen a .wallop is of course the preferred option, however barring that if you're able to docomeent the evidence I outlined and forward it to us we're happy to take a look at the incident after the fact when it's such a severe breach. As I said this is a serious concern for the entire Supervisor department, and those caught engaging in such activities are handled appropriately.