Hello As you are likely aware, there has been much speculation about certain users and their accounts on previous websites. We want to make it clear that this website is NOT at all a safe space for groomers, pedophiles, and others with a sordid history in our communities. The mod team's goal is to free this website of the toxic culture the previous ones had. So many of us were victimized on those websites and communities in ways that is irreversible. Any amount of sexual predation is far, far too much. That being said, accusations without proof simply need to stop. If you believe someone is hiding under a new identity on Kovaze, gather your evidence and file a report or send it to a moderator. We can't operate off of assumptions and speculation. Users who have been proven to fall into this category have been banned already. If you have something tangible, we can act. If you have a coincidence or two and the fact that a user was a flirty, we can't act. In the past week, when I've reached out to users making these accusations, no proof was provided. Sometimes, messages even went fully ignored. All this has done is led to a witch hunt against certain users that appears to us as moderators as completely unfounded. We do NOT want to protect predators, but we can't punish people based on accusations that, as of right now, appear completely baseless. When we allow users to make these accusations without proof, they quickly become taken as fact and used against the accused. Users who were victimized in the past by those predators can be made to feel re-traumatized, legitimately triggered, or deeply uncomfortable. Even if the accusations were correct, the lack of proof and public nature of them is only going to cause mass hysteria. We ALL want this to be a safe community that is better than the ones before it. In order to create that, we all need to be mindful about the impact of what we say in serious situations. The blogs page is not the place to accuse someone of being a Tengaged/Zwooper pedophile under a new account. #mod-talk in discord is not the place. The only place to do this is a report, mails with a mod, or a similar forum. Continued behavior will result in some type of formal sanctions, ranging from a warning to a ban. It should go without saying that someone proven to be a predator hiding under a new identity will be permanently banned and barred from making any future accounts. Head Mod

Hello Kovaze! As most of you are aware, inactivity in race has become an offense that warrants warnings and bans. Due to the sheer volume and frequency of these reports, it has made it much more difficult to go through reports and manage other activity on the site. While we do not want to encourage inactivity in race, we can no longer treat it as a punishable action. In the future, we would like to set up some sort of system to better deal with it automatically, but until then, it will no longer be moderated behavior. If you have EVIDENCE that someone threw purposefully due to being paired with you, that is a different story. But again, there must be evidence of this. You believing it happened does not make it happened. Further, the race inactivity reports made me realize how many of you may be using our report system. Oftentimes, when someone is inactive in race, there are 3 or 4 reports from people who have issues with that person or friends of the person they're partnered with. Quantity of reports will not make us take something more seriously. If you need to report someone, report them, but having others due it as well isn't going to help your cause and just makes our jobs more difficult. We understand it is extremely frustrating to have an inactive race partner. We hope we can find a better solution to this problem than the flooding of our mails/reports. Until that happens, race inactivity will no longer be punished. Head Mod

Mailing me is not a report.

Hello I would just like to issue some further clarification on the warnings/bans related to Race. The moderation team has agreed upon a system where a certain amount of verifiable reports for inactivity within a short period of time will constitute a warning, followed by a ban. Whether the inactivity was intentional or not is irrelevant. You joined a game where you're randomly assigned a partner -- you're expected to play that game even if that partner is someone you do not like. We understand internet connection and real life can cause people to save zero unintentionally. That does not change the fact that it could ruin the game for other players. If you can't guarantee your availability, consider joining a game where the only person impacted by that is you. Do not take this as a sign to report every partner you don't like or to get your friends to spam report one user in an attempt to get them banned. Each report is investigated independently and false reports will be punishable. If you have any comments, concerns, or clarifying questions, please feel free to comment them, mail me, or DM me on Discord. Head Mod

Hello Kovaze! In light of recent events, I have decided to make a blog clarifying a few things, particularly what constitutes bannable behavior and what does NOT. Usage of Slurs: No one should use slurs. If you use a slur on this website or in the official Kovaze server, you will be banned. It does not matter if it is one that you can reclaim or if you are quoting someone. It is not our job to verify the gender/racial/sexual identity of every user to verify which slurs they are allowed to use. We can NOT punish users for sending slurs to you on Discord or for using a slur to refer to you outside of this website or the official Kovaze server. We simply can not police people's language when they are not on our platform. Harassment & Bullying: A single instance does not constitute harassment. Someone calling you racist or stupid does not constitute harassment. Harassment (almost always) needs to be REPEATED behavior. In most cases, there needs to be some attempt at stopping behavior from the person claiming to be harassment. A situation you can avoid by blocking the user on here or Discord might not be considered harassment depending on the severity. Continued, public accusations against someone, especially if that someone has blocked you and those accusations are unfounded, can be considered harassment. We understand no one likes to be called stupid or cursed at over a game. That does not make it bullying. Being called 'braindead' (which has been reported a surprising amount) is not bullying. If someone would get away with saying it on a competitive reality show without significant backlash or punishment from production, it probably would not meet the threshold for a ban or warning. This is not to say never report these situations -- just understand it may oftentimes not result in a ban or warning. When the attacks get deeply personal or start to involve things like family members, work, and aspects of identity, then we will be more likely to see it as severe enough to take action. Discretion: The reason so many of this is up to moderator discretion is because every situation is unique. Most of the moderation team has kept their identity completely secret as to mitigate bias. This is so there won't be pressure from friends to ban or not ban certain users. We are trying to be as fair and consistent as possible. Excessive/False Reporting: We understand every rule is not clear and you may think some things are bannable that actually aren't and vice versa. Reporting excessively will not increase your chance of getting the desired outcome and may result in a warning/ban for you depending on the severity and frequency. Knowingly reporting something false may be punishable with the same severity as the accused offense. The report button is a tool that should only be used seriously and wasting moderator's time and energy by having them investigate something you know didn't happen is not only disrespectful, but deeply inconsiderate to your fellow users who may need a moderator's attention. --- There may be some modifications or addendum to the rules in the coming days. Another mod or I will blog to announce that if it does happen. If you have any question regarding the rules, our decision making process, or anything else, do not hesitate to mail me on here. I will be creating a Discord later today or tomorrow so you can access me on there as well, but mail on Kovaze will remain my preferred method of communication. Head Mod

Hello everyone! @Sin asked me to lead the moderation team and I happily accepted. My job is to make sure rules are applied consistently, fairly, and without bias. Please do not hesitate to contact me via mail with any concerns or suggestions. It is my goal to make this website a better and healthier place for us all. Please understand we are still in the early stages of this website and are still in the process of determining exactly what does and does not constitute a ban, a warning, etc. As much as we want to be consistent, we also want to improve. That means something that may not have constituted a ban previously could result in one now and vice versa. Please be understanding, patient, and reasonable with us as we work to serve this community. Kovaze is great because of all of YOU. My job as the head moderator is to make sure that Kovaze continues to not only be great, but to become better than we imagined possible.