[UPDATED 8 JUNE] Introducing the Community Discords Program!

its not about this being problemagic. its about stright breaking many EU laws.

1 Like

i didn’t want to say that directly because i don’t know what do eu laws say about these. my country is not in the eu so i’m a bit clueless.

You should be a politician. I literally wrote that the contract is confusing, it’s too much legalese, they should have written it in basic English. And still you’re trying to make out I said something else.

Unpopular attempt

Sure getting sued and banned for criticism is the way to go. Sure you can’t speak up against blizz because of your green status but at least you could just not join a conversation if nothing useful is added :smiley:

3 Likes

The fact of the situation is that when it comes to the class community discords its very unlikely that any of them would be willing to sign up to such a contract. They are able to understand the ramifications of signing such a contract and have decided its simply not in their interest to sign up to this program.

If other communities are willing to sign up then thats entirely up to them and I personally wish them the best of luck. But if the idea was to try and entice the class forum community to sign up to this program then simply it will not achieve its goal

1 Like

No where in the contract does it state they will sue you.

But no no it’s because I type in green that I could see that. Isn’t because I read the contract.

1 Like

Sometime I feel like blizzard is infecting community managers with the “out of touch” virus.

2 Likes

Good to see.

It would be better if you didn’t turn promising initiatives into colossal own goals before they’ve even left the starting blocks. It reeks of incompetency, arrogance, or both.

 shall not make any disparaging or negative statements or representations, written
or oral, about Blizzard (including any affiliate) or Blizzard (including any affiliate)’s products or services,
and/or the services rendered by the Program Member hereunder, except as otherwise permitted by law.
The foregoing shall not limit the Program Member’s ability to make truthful statements if compelled by
court order, legal proceeding, or otherwise required by applicable law. This provision shall survive the
expiration or termination of this Agreement

There is wide latitude for interpretation here. What is a negative statement? You may believe in your heart something is ‘valid criticism’, Blizzard may see it as a negative statement and then you have a billion dollar company threatening holy legal hellfire to some dude who just runs a discord. It’s not a wild claim at all, its something that relies on good judgement and proportionality from a corporation that has probably lost the benefit of the doubt in peoples minds. If they pounced, you’d have no choice but to comply or have deep pockets to contest it. Oh, and it carries on forever, even if you leave the program.

I’m not a lawyer, I’ve seen plenty of contracts in my life and this is pretty one sided. I’d have to have a gun to my head before I considered signing this one.

I’ve linked some other tidbits below. Sure they need interpretation and they are linked to different parts of the agreement but thats a lot of ‘stick’ being threatened.

PROGRAM MEMBER EXPRESSLY ACKNOWLEDGES AND
UNDERSTANDS THAT ANY BREACH OF THIS SECTION I WILL SUBJECT PROGRAM
MEMBER TO CIVIL AND CRIMINAL LIABILITY TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT ALLOWED BY
LAW, AND WILL ALSO RESULT IN CONSEQUENCES INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION,
TERMINATION OF THIS AGREEMENT.

Because of the unique and highly sensitive nature of the Confidential
Information, Program Member acknowledges that Blizzard and/or its licensors may suffer irreparable
harm if Program Member fails to comply with the provisions of this Section I and that monetary damages
will be inadequate to compensate Blizzard for such breach. Accordingly, Program Member agrees that
Blizzard may, in addition to any other remedies available to it at law or in equity, be entitled to seek
injunctive and other equitable relief to enforce the terms of this Section I and to prevent any actual,
potential or threatened violation of this Section I by Program Member and in seeking such relief, Blizzard
will not be required to post any security or to prove the inadequacy of available remedies at law. Program
Member expressly agrees that it shall bear all costs and expenses, including attorneys’ fees and costs,
incurred by Blizzard in an enforcement action resulting from Program Member’s breach
7 Likes

It simply comes down to the fact that any admin signing up to the contract in its current form would be doing a massive disservice to their entire community and thankfully it seems people are smart enough to see the contract for what it is and know to stay far away from the community discord program that Blizzard is proposing

As for it getting re-written I truly cannot see how Blizzard could re-write said contract to make all parties involved feel confident in participating ( including Blizzard themselves )

We fully understand Blizzard has to protect itself and we respect that but Blizzard also needs to accept that our communities have a duty to protect themselves as well and any impingement on freedom of speech and freedom to criticise both the decisions and design choices of Blizzard is simply out of the question and I do not personally see there is a possible middle ground here

This doesn’t mean that there is not a way for Blizzard to communicate to the various community discords in a productive and safe enviroment for all parties involved but this initiative clearly is not it

3 Likes

At no point have I defended the contract or it’s wording. Quite the opposite but that’s been ignored.

I personally am not attacking you Punyelf, I am just stating that the contract simply is not a good deal for our community discords at this time

Certainly there has to be a better way for Blizzard to commnuicate with the commnuity via discord in a way that doesn’t force the signing of such a one-sided contract

For example there could be a official blizzard discord where people well known and respected in the various discord communities we have including the class discords to speak directly to Blizzard where honest feedback can be given and bugs reported

The theorycrafters used to have one but back then Blizzard didn’t listen to them ever so it didn’t really serve any purpose.

:man_facepalming:

Nobody ever in any contract wrote “we will sue you”. Legal obligations, legal consequences, our discretion, those items translate into: possibility to be sued does exist.

Now, because program is voluntary as you pointed out, it stops being mere provider-customer relation, and that increases status between parties, aka it’s in different realm of legalities and not just in domain of customer rights.

3 Likes

Then that’s on Blizzard and not on the people who participated but this community discord program is not the solution to earlier communication problems

You have not attacked me, it’s all good. Others do but I’m used to it :slight_smile:

I think the idea is good, the way this has been presented has not worked out well. So lets hope they respond to the feedback and come up with something that’s easier to understand and yes a conversation with those discords who might be interested would probably help.

They should just create their own discords and everyone who is willing to sell their souls should join those

2 Likes

Let us hope that their intentions were indeed pure, that this was all just a muck-up by their legal team (or other) not understanding the goal or spirit of the project.

Very often in large companies you will have people with the drive to ‘get the most out of every situation’ (a good quality to have for sure). Yet scraping for every advantage they can take here in this situation was not the move. So please, for the community and what little of faith that is left in the WoW team, don’t try to do another fast one.

Open, simple and in the spirit. That is the goal.

1 Like

The fact that you believe that Blizzard would sue you over a comment on discord or a comment made on a discord you run, is astounding. That’s so far fetched.

Whilst I think the contract isn’t easy to interpret in it’s current format, some people are behaving as if it’s asking for your first born child.

2 Likes

It is not if they would do so, it is that they lay the groundwork that it could be done.

You don’t leave the wolf to watch over the sheep.

That kind of logic.

2 Likes