If you feel harassed by another user, you can put him/her on your personal Ignore List. Then he/she can no longer address you in the Chat nor join a game where you are already present.

Should the harassment be so extreme that you want to submit a complaint about the user, you can send an official complaint to one of our moderators in the PlayCatan Forum, or you can also write to our contact address abuse@playcatan.de.

Users who harass or insult other users, or who in other ways violate the General Terms and Conditions, are in danger of being expulsed from PlayCatan. Therefore, an accusation of this kind is not a minor affair and will be thoroughly examined.

What should be included in a complaint so that it has a good chance of success and can be processed faster?

The subject line of a complaint should only contain the name of the player(s) you are complaining about. That way, complaint e-mails can be sorted by name, and it becomes easier for us to notice if various complaints about a certain player arrive. Often it is necessary to discuss a complaint within our team. Subject lines such as "Insults from opponent," "Not so nice," "User report," or "Harrassment on Catan" make it difficult for us to find the original complaint e-mail in order to inform you about the decision that was made on the subject. We also may have to ask you further questions, particularly if a screenshot provided together with the complaint does not clearly reveal what triggered the controversy.

Please attach a screenshot to your complaint so as to prove that your complaint is justified. Here you can learn how to make a screenshot: http://www.playcatan.com/cow-faq/39-technical-questions/967-how-can-i-make-a-screenshot.html

You should also use the name of the player(s) you are complaining about to name the screenshots, followed by a number if you attach various screenshots. This, too, makes it easier for us to notice if we already received a complaint about this player on an earlier occasion. Naming the screenshots "picture1.jpg," "image001.png," or "untitled1.jpg" isn't very suitable in this context.

The screenshot should show the complete chat so we can exclude the possibility that you provoked the opponent. For this purpose, please maximize the chat window before taking the screenshot. If you take various screenshots of small chat segments, downloading the files and piecing the segments together becomes unnecessarily time-consuming for us.

If your complaint also refers to the game situation, it should be visible in the screenshot too.

If you want to complain about forbidden team play - for example, when opponents give each other resources for free or make each other trade offers that are more favorable than the exchange rate of the bank - please be sure to document this. However, you should bear in mind that each player may place the robber wherever it seems adequate to him or her, and that it is permitted to temporarily team up on the player who has the highest chance to win the game.

If your complaint is about players who obstruct games by remaining inactive, the chat should reveal that you politely asked the player(s) to continue with the game. In such cases, it is also recommendable to make various shots of the entire screen (for this purpose, just press "PrtScr" (Print Screen), without holding down the "Alt" key) so that the time is also visible in the different screenshots. When you do this, please explicitly mention it in your e-mail - otherwise, we will crop everything in the screenshots that doesn't belong to the game/chat, so as to protect your privacy and save storage space in our database.

Please also indicate your own nickname and real name. This makes it easier to address you when we send you an answer, and we also can immediately identify who is the one that submitted the complaint when reviewing the chat window depicted in the attached screenshot.

Explanations and comments such as how long you have played Catan, how great the game is, and that you are an Active Citizen are unnecessary. All players are treated equally; it doesn't matter if you're on board for already 7 years or if it is your first game.

Will the player I'm complaining about know that I've complained about him?

Your name will not be revealed to the player(s) you have complained about, even if we have to ask them questions. In screenshots presented to the accused player(s), the nicknames of the other participants in the game are rendered anonymous. It is possible, of course, that an accused player thus remembers your nickname; however, we potentially have to give him a chance to take a stand on the accusations made against him. But he won't know more about you than he knew anyway - we will not tell him your name.

Do I get notice about what's happening with my complaint?

First, you receive an automated notice of arrival. As soon as our team of moderators has decided on the measures to be taken, you receive another message. Please be a little patient if you don't receive an answer right away. Complaints are discussed by our team of moderators; they are volunteers who do this in their free time.