Thursday, July 27, 2006

Punished for PSA

I have fallen way behind; i wanted to write a post to wrap-up my trip to LA. I wanted to write a post to discuss my trip to Foxwoods. I wanted to write a post (or several posts) about the trip to Vegas. I got ummm distracted. I may still get back to those topics, but something happened last night that I just had post here.

Some of you may know about the Public Service Annoucement. It has become custom to issue a "public service announcement" at the end of the first break of a rebuy tournament. It consists of something like this: "ATTENTION DONKEYS: THE REBUY PERIOD IS OVER. This has been a public service announcement." It is useful in that some people as though they can rebuy. You know, donkeys.

So I did this last night at the DADI. Perhaps the PSA worked; I took 2nd! I got an e-mail from Stars about it:



Hello weak_player,

We have received a complaint regarding some things you said in chatvat our tables. I have reviewed the chat log and did find some of yourcomments to be inappropriate.

Our goal at PokerStars is to be a fun place to play, where everyone can feel comfortable. Foul language and abuse of other players takes away from everyone's enjoyment, and therefore cannot be permitted.

We must ask you to refrain from using this type of language in the future, or we will be forced to remove your chat privileges.

Please note that you may not be the only one receiving a message suchas this. When we receive a chat complaint, we review the entire chatof all players at the table. Any other offenders at the table were also warned or revoked as appropriate to our policies.

Regards,

PokerStars Support Team

---59782771 weak_player ATTENTION DONKEYS: THE REBUY PERIOD IS NOW OVER. Observer 7/26/2006 10:02:32 PM

Uh, WTF?

I respond:


You have got to be kidding me...this is the lightest possible language and it was meant playfully...was someone really offended by that? If so, wouldn't that be their problem? Come on now...seriously.

It is customary to joke about the rebuy period being over because some people keep playing like it isn't. Is "donkey" an offensive word? If so, maybe you should add it to your filter; it gets used a lot at your site, and it is usually is meant personally as in addressing a specific person, as opposed to a humorous greeting meant for a friend that is sitting at that table. This is the way in which I was using it. Especially in a private event that I am a part of. Someone was pulling your leg or it is remotely possible that another practcipant that is new to to these events took offense, but seriously, so what?

In short, I completely fail to see how the example you offered is in any way offensive to anyone, let alone something that you should be warning me about. If there is something about this that I am missing, please explain it to me. Otherwise, I will be forced to assume that you have gone off the deep end.

Since you chose to take this issues seriously, I am too. I would like a response from the management team explaining this. I demand that you either retract this warning and apologize, or at least justify why the language is offensive...it really is not obvious.

Or, I may be taking offense to the things that are said to me that are much more offensive; things that i typically just ignore. I will dutifully report them all, and expect you treat the other customer as you have treated me. It will be a lot of work. Or you can admit that you made an error in judgement, retract the warning and apologize to me. That would be easy. Or you could chose to escalate this further and risk losing all of my business. Have you looked at how much rake I contribute? It is a lot of money to lose over the word "donkey"

Thanks for your quick attention to this matter.

Aaron (weak_player)



They respond:

Hello Aaron,

I am sorry about this warning. It was sent to you in error.Good luck at the tables.

Best Regards,

Ellis

Shift SupervisorPokerStars Support Team







So, appearently, my PSA is still okay. Good to know.

15 Comments:

Blogger Derek McG said...

btw . . . great job last night!

damn those donkeys!

9:19 AM  
Blogger Iakaris aka I.A.K. said...

FIGHT THA POWAH!

I laughed all the way through this.

Awesome.

9:21 AM  
Blogger CC said...

Glad it worked out, and enjoyed it last night. Take care.

9:58 AM  
Blogger 23skidoo said...

Nice one Aaron! I'm glad you responded to them. Good job last night.

10:32 AM  
Blogger jjok said...

WHERE'S MY GODDAMN EMAIL?

Total horseshit. How do I not get one? Not fair at all. You get to have all the fun I guess.

10:51 AM  
Blogger DuggleBogey said...

I want to know, out of all the bloggers, who the hell reported you?

Seriously, this person needs a flogging.

10:54 AM  
Blogger Matt Silverthorn said...

Seriously, I've done this tons of times too. How come I don't get an email? No fair.

Congrats on your finish last night!

10:55 AM  
Blogger Matt Silverthorn said...

Also, I think your new job should be handling customer service reps for other people who don't like confrontation. You would kick ass at that job.

10:56 AM  
Blogger Alceste said...

Congrats on the finish.

Since they conceded there was an error, maybe someone reported another comment and then your comment was flagged in error when they reviewed the whole chat log (as they claim to do in any event).

(Also, does WeakWife ever play in any of these events? Sox once indicated she had abused me at a WWdN but the only other Atlanta entrant was 23_skidoo...)

12:41 PM  
Blogger Weak Player said...

Ross, that was one of my theories, also. But it is funny either way. Weak Wife plays as TransFish on Stars.

JJ, they are fargin iceholes; complete cork sucking bastages.

Thanks all for reading.

12:53 PM  
Blogger smokkee said...

nice finish last night. too bad neither one of us can win a coin flip. i was rooting for you after i got knocked out.

2:46 PM  
Blogger Ingoal said...

*lol*

Gotta say that the "ATTENTION DONKEYS: THE REBUY PERIOD IS OVER. This has been a public service announcement." announcement was damn funny and it really cheered me up as it came at the exact best time (two minutes before break one)...on another note: nice reply to the email, too...you should have included the line "I don't know if you missed it, but this was a private brogger tourney and we all know that broggers and brogs in general are ghey anyway, so the term 'donkey' should be the least of your worries..." *lol*

Congrats on the 2nd place finish, too. Nice job!

3:39 PM  
Blogger surflexus said...

Hey, HuntsVPoker let me know that there is a WSOP Circuit in Tunica coming up so I'm planning the trip around a few of these events. The schedule is on his blog which you can link to from my last entry. Let me know what dates look best....surf

11:33 AM  
Blogger mookie99 said...

Congrats on the finish in the tourney last night. Thanks for playing.

8:34 AM  
Blogger Dave said...

LOL - too funny. I suppose the offshore Stars support staff originally thought that Donkey was similar to dropping an F_bomb or something like that.

Way to stick up for yourself! Just goes to show that one disgruntled blogger's complaint can be contested!

Some people's mothers.....

1:45 PM  

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