Boot message should be public

[Hullukko]

Is there some reason that the booting is hidden from everybody and even indistinguishable from leaving?

There are may hosts that are strangely rude and boot people needlessly and I do believe that the mask provided to them fuels that behaviour. I'm often faced with a suspicion that the host may have booted a player for a lousy reason and what I'd like to do there is vote with my feet and leave, too.

Transparency could bring some responsibilty for some hosts.

[Ellyidol]

Good suggestion.

I don't see a reason why the entire group shouldn't see why the player was booted.

Would also put in place the "sunshine" theory, would you still do it if other people see you do it?

+1.

[Redbridge]

Nice idea

+1

[Necrobane]

What if there was a drop down menu of say the usual 5 reasons why you'd boot someone and you could choose one of them and THAT was shown to the group. Then it wouldn't be personal.

[Arterra]

dude... this would RUIN noobs who just go around being idiots! +1 for peer pressure lol, but the good kind!

[Junside]

Prime example?

Okay, I had some fault in that, but meh.

[Lesrider]

+1
If you're doing it for a legit reason, you shouldn't have any problem with others seeing it.

[Arterra]

tbh i would rather see this come before even advanced friends list, ghost mode, or even guilds. THIS puts people under the spotlight.

[FluffNStuff]

Brilliantly simple suggestion. +1 hunny pot.

[Lesrider]

Brilliantly simple suggestion. +1 hunny pot.

Hope that's a full one! He deserves it

[FluffNStuff]

Well it ~was~ a full one. I take no responsibility for any hunny that may have been lost in transit.

[Major]

This is a real good idea and I really hope it's implemented. Some ppl are so rude with booting, I've been booted with pots tons of times and it's just like wth, and you wish everyone else in the party knew that you got booted and didn't just leave. Anyways great idea!!!!

[WhoIsThis]

Agreed. It would put an end to people booting for reason "lol" and ".".

[Ladylove]

+ 100 Charm, you deserve it.

[Necrobane]

I don't think it will work unless theres preset options, because it's likely to cause fights within your team. The problem however, if STS chooses preset reasons, is the reasons have to cover a wide range of reasons.

[choco]

there would be no fights if the boot reason was legitimate...

[Kalielle]

Hmm... maybe, although sometimes a good host might want to keep the boot reason private for the sake of the booted player. For instance, what if someone has to go because his gear is not good enough (not so much an issue these days, but it used to be in the harder AO3), or because the host knows that the player can't play? In such cases I might have a conversation with the player first but it would always be private, of course. Then if the person doesn't leave I'd boot with either "sorry" or "..." as the reason.

Now imagine that the group would only see the boot reason. It would lead to conversations like: "Why did you boot?" "He's not a good player." "why not?" "[lengthy rant about the other player's faults]".

Some issues are best handled behind the scenes. That's why when a group is full I usually PM the person to leave, and the group can't even tell if someone had to be booted and didn't leave willingly. Not everybody needs to be exposed to the whole "why can't I stay" discussion, or get annoyed along with me if a person refuses to leave. On the rare occasions when I do announce to the group that I booted someone, it's because the person did something so bad that I think everyone should know they were booted. But in most cases I find it better form not to bother everyone with group selection issues.

I'm not necessarily against the idea of public boot messages...just uncertain how I feel about it because I can see arguments on both sides.

[DawnInfinity]

Great idea. +1

[Otukura]

Personally, when I boot, I'll say the reason in public chat, explaining, then boot with "Reason in pub chat". This would just make my life easier!!

[Gluttony]

This is a good suggestion, but could cause major issues. I personally rarely ever host and sometimes I boot, but I hate typing a reason unless I have the time to do so. If the entire team is at the boss (say K&Q) and a player comes in and tries to sprint to the boss and get a drop I don't actually have the time to type out some lengthy reason for booting people (I usually just type Sorry). So, the simple fix to this is to have preset responses to booting like the 4 custom preset options players have now.

On the flipside, a host is allowed to boot people for whatever reason they want to. Players know who to avoid if they get booted multiple times by the same person for pointless reasons. I have been booted as a level 56 from a Keeper run because I was using level 50 equipment (Death set). Seems like a pointless reason to me, but it's up to the discression of the host. I just avoid that host.