Allow Groups to Block Specific Avatar IDs
「Jаy」
I would like to see a group level Avatar ID blocklist/deny list feature that would give VRChat groups additional tools to protect their instances from disruptive or malicious avatars.
Groups regularly encounter avatars specifically designed or used for raiding, harassment, trolling, excessive visual/audio disruption, or crashing other users. While individual safety settings are useful, group moderation teams currently have limited options for proactively preventing known problematic avatars from being used within their instances.
Proposed Feature
Allow authorized group roles to maintain a list of Avatar IDs that are not permitted within instances owned by that group.
When a user joins or switches into an avatar whose Avatar ID appears on the group's blocklist:
- The Avatar would not be loaded or displayed within that group instance
- The user(With the disallowed avatar) would be turned into a VRChat Fallback avatar for example, such as a robot, or those Triangles which get shown when having Avatar distance on, etc.
- The user would receive a notification, just like the current Avatar rating has a notification, explaining that their custom avatar is not allowed in that Group Instance
- Once the User leaves the group instance the restriction would be removed and would revert back to their original avatar they joined with.
- The restriction would only apply within instances operated by the group.
Many cmmunities already maintain records of Avatar IDs associated with known raid, crash, troll, or harassment avatars. However, moderators generally have to react after one of these avatars has already entered an instance and caused disruption, which by then, is too late.
This could be veryvaluable for large public and group/public instances where moderators may be responsible for dozens of users at once. Instead of repeatedly dealing with the same known disruptive avatars, groups could prevent them from being loaded in the first place.
Group side;
Group owner can add certain roles to have access to the block/deny list, in which a Moderator or admin or anyone who has the permission to add AvatarID's.
I think a system like this, could help all the communities out there and would be an very good addition to keep the platform safe and more comfortable for everyone. I personally do not see any downside to this addition to groups.
TLDR;
Group blocks avatarID -> user enters group instance wearing the blocked avatar -> User receives notification, their avatar gets turned into a fallback -> User leaves instance -> Original avatar is restored
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Orео
I'm against forcibly changing a user's avatar without their explicit permission.
VRChat protects personal expression, this is part of why it's against the Creator Guidelines to forcibly change a user's avatar in a world.
It's also inconsistent with how Avatar Performance Gating works for example, where the user wearing the disallowed avatar can still wear it locally, while everyone else will see their fallback.
I think this idea would work a lot better if it followed that same logic, staying consistent with how Avatar Performance Gating works.
「Jаy」
Orео I can stand behind this. Good suggestion!
Noobway
Orео so WANT more pringles morty raids, crashers, etc. People can just NOT join the group. Y'all added avatar minimum peformance, do this already.
Vince_Borzoi
Good idea but I worry that some groups could easily abuse the blacklist for discrimination purposes, blocking avatars simply because they don't like them.
「Jаy」
Vince_Borzoi
In my opinion groups should be allowed to run their instances and communities as they see fit within VRChat's existing rules and Tos. Groups can already decide who is allowed in their instances, remove or ban individual users, establish dress/avatar rules, and enforce their own community rules in their instances.
This wouldnt give groups the ability to remove an avatar from VRChat or prevent someone from using it elsewhere. It would simply allow them to decide which avatars they want displayed within their own group instances.
Could some groups use it foer reasons others disagree with? ofcourse. But the same can already be said for group bans and moderation decisions. ultimately, users are free to choose which communities and group instances they want to participate in.
Noobway
「Jаy」PREACH
Sariell
I feel this would encourage more uploads of the same malicious avatars which, in turn, will make them even easier to obtain.
「Jаy」
Sariell I agree there would inevitably be some reuploads. However, that already happens with malicious and raid avatars regardless. If a new Avatar ID appears, groups could simply add that ID to their blocklist as well.
Currently, there's a new 'Knuckles' trend going on as well, the avatar itself is not malicious, but it's used in malicious ways to disturb people. This would prevent this from happening as well.
The goal istn to make it impossible for someone to ever reupload a malicious avatar, but to give communities a proactive tool against known malicious avatars. Over time, groups could build up a database of IDs they've encountered instead of having to deal with the exact same avatars repeatedly.
Reuploading also adds another step for the person causing trouble, while blocking a newly discovered ID would take moderators only a few seconds and it would be applied to anyone using that in the future once more.
Noobway
Sariell this already happens, they just need a week cooldown on the same account to upload avatsrs.
Sariell
Noobway A week cooldown? There are some avatar tests for which the local test build is not sufficient. For example testing the quest version by having a friend help, or an alt on an android client. And what happens if I update something like Gogo Loco across all my avatars? Or make variants of the same avatar with different outfits and then change the base and have to reupload all of them?