Couple of weeks ago I PMed one particular guy in-game after his show in NB. Warned him about the curse words and pvp and some other problems. That he'd better go read the rules pretty carefully or he would get himself in a trouble. We had a pretty lengthy conversation in PMs and I kinda got the feeling that, even though he came over as a reasonable guy, he would get into trouble.
And what you know, couple of days later I see this guy arguing about his sanction which he had gotten exactly for the same reasons I tried to warn him about. For the record I didn't burn him.
And of course I PMed him in forums and identified myself and said I told you so. But at the same time I tried to encourage him to get his act together and behave from now on.
Guess he didn't heed any of my advice since I saw couple days ago after he had done his time he had landed himself again in a kettle. This time for pvp re-engagement amongst other things.
I agree, grudges and issue between people are best kept to PM.
Early in my Disco career I did the trial by forum thing, and got shot down. It doesn't work and it makes you look like a jerk.
Best to avoid it. Only post things if you think its something the whole server needs to know about, and only then if you think it won't end up in loads of flames and nastyness.
Don't start a thread so you can duke it out with someone in public, take it to PM instead, most people just get bored of watching it, I know I do.
A few weeks ago a pile of OC caps and various unlawful indies ran down Manhattan. I was in my Arrow and kept picking down a Sabre, who kept engaging cruise every time he started getting the worse of it and fleeing back to the caps.
Eventually he remained under the protective umbrella of the Huntress and I thrusted to a safe distance for intel and observation.
Suddenly, the cruiser in question cruises over to me, engine kills, and wipes me off the map.
I talked to the Sabre pilot, he was ignorant of his constantly breaking ROE by cruising out so many times. A civil discussion and he was wiser. No admin involvement, no sanction.
I WOULD have reported the owner of the cruiser, though. I just wasn't aware it was happening till it was too late and couldn't gather screenshots. Cap ship pilots SHOULD know better.
There is nothing like the personal touch. People should use it more. Using the forum to solve problems is like sorting out relationship difficulties using grafitti.