The DISGUSTING state of general chat

[Sarova]

I know Europe is currently in the process of criminalizing anything vaguely offensive, and with that I wish them good *********** luck.

I laughed for about 5 mins at this! Never going to happen - well not in Britain anyway. You would not believe what you can get away with saying in here (though some of those totalitarians you mentioned are dealt with pretty quickly thank goodness)

 

Back on topic - I agree with everyone who has said if you don't like what's being said no-one told you that you have to read it. Preferences gives you the option to turn it all off for a reason - I have the whole lot turned off. MMO chat is basically anarchy everywhere so I avoid it like the plague (and DK chat is nothing compared to the old Barrens chat of WoW)!

[AlrikFassbauer]

I've seen Harbinger chat - and it IS disgusting at times. Why ? Because of The Anonymity On The Internet.

[Edyn]

I don't mind General Chat at all. If I don't like what someone has to say, I just choose to ignore it. No biggie. Edited November 5, 2016 by Edyn

[light_senshi]

If you're really that thin skinned, then I'd suggest a different hobby. While I was growing up, I hated the music my peers listened to. I would have LOVED for a way to NOT listen to it. Which you can easily due...either through ignore or simply turning chat off.

[Decidion]

It's unfortunate that some folks have replied here without reading more than the title of the post. Yes, there is an ignore function, yes you can turn general chat off, but I specifically stated why these are limited or don't work.

 

And being thin skinned? Just because I prefer not to have to read chat that is that disgusting? Perhaps you should re-evaluate the type of person you are and what you find acceptable in life. Like I said, it is bad and I cant begin to repeat it here or I wold get banned from the forums.

 

But seriously, from a business sense, allowing this doesn't make any sense. I am sure far more people are going to leave or not subscribe than people are going to say, "wow this chat is great, I'm going to sub right now!"

[americanaussie]

Trolls be everywhere. There will always be someone who slips past censors. Always. Best bet is to ignore anyone you don't like with the ignore feature. Yay. Problem solved. Or. Turn off gen chat. Or use the arrow and get rid of chat. You can set which channels you want to see. I'd routinely deselect channels.

 

Personally, I can't stand censorship. I was in a guild where there was strict rules on what you could say in any chat. It really sucked and I apparently broke the rule with an innocent joke. I lasted one night. You won't find me trolling any chat and I've found super amazing people in harbinger gen fleet chat. I just don't pay any attention to any trolls. I have a feeling I must miss them being on aus time as I've yet to see anything too terrible. I think once I was on odessen when something bad went down on gen fleet chat. Just ignore it

[Decidion]

It's unfortunate that some folks have replied here without reading more than the title of the post. Yes, there is an ignore function, yes you can turn general chat off, but I specifically stated why these are limited or don't work.

[americanaussie]

If you're really that thin skinned, then I'd suggest a different hobby. While I was growing up, I hated the music my peers listened to. I would have LOVED for a way to NOT listen to it. Which you can easily due...either through ignore or simply turning chat off.

 

I think it would be near impossible to monitor all gen chat in all areas on all servers. I'm not sure what OP is asking for but if you want all of those channels monitored 24/7 then you're asking for FAR too much. They made the ignore feature for a reason.

Edited November 6, 2016 by americanaussie

[Fistori]

Disgusting as it is it's like telling pigs not to wallow in mud. Someone could talk about sexual practices between goats and children but someone would defend their right to say it because people are stupid, they'd rather stand up for free speech then what is wrong in the world. My post may get banned just because of what I said, and while I have a thick skin and could care less what people say in general chat, the OP has every bloody right to call it disgusting.

[JLazarillo]

I feel like the state of chat and the playerbase loses the game far more new quality players than any new systems the Devs put into effect. I pretty frequently see insults, trolling and general vulgarity on both sides of chat, most commonly on the Fleet but it also has a tendency to spring up on worlds with Strongholds. It also tends to drown out the more friendly conversations, or people who are looking for help (or worse, turn its "ire" on them, with rude or trollish answers, rather than trying to assist). I try my best to sort of rise above it, because I can only imagine what such awful behavior makes the game look like to someone trying to get into it. I do have to just give up and turn off General from time to time, though (and pretty much always have PvP-general turned off, nobody ever has anything productive to say there), because my Ignore list can only go so long...

[americanaussie]

Disgusting as it is it's like telling pigs not to wallow in mud. Someone could talk about sexual practices between goats and children but someone would defend their right to say it because people are stupid, they'd rather stand up for free speech then what is wrong in the world. My post may get banned just because of what I said, and while I have a thick skin and could care less what people say in general chat, the OP has every bloody right to call it disgusting.

 

Report anyone discussing topics like that.

[Rolodome]

Disgusting as it is it's like telling pigs not to wallow in mud. Someone could talk about sexual practices between goats and children but someone would defend their right to say it because people are stupid, they'd rather stand up for free speech then what is wrong in the world. My post may get banned just because of what I said, and while I have a thick skin and could care less what people say in general chat, the OP has every bloody right to call it disgusting.

I don't much care for censorship, but the free speech argument is moot anyway. BW is a company, not an extension of the government. They set the rules for what we are allowed, or not allowed, to talk about and free speech has **** all to do with it.

 

The reason chat doesn't get censored much is because there's no profit margins to be made in hiring people to police it. That's the silliness of when business meets social dynamics. If it's profitable, it's almost guaranteed to happen. If it's not, good luck to you.

[Theeko]

I think the only things that can be really looked into are

Threats & Racism mostly I believe, other than that I doubt they take the time to bother

[Transcendent]

And being thin skinned? Just because I prefer not to have to read chat that is that disgusting? Perhaps you should re-evaluate the type of person you are and what you find acceptable in life.

 

Even if you disagree with the comments about being thin-skinned, they're still very valid. This is the internet, you have tools available to you to filter out anything you do not wish to read, those tools are there for a reason.

 

As for telling people they should re-evaluate the type of person they are? Again, this is the internet, it doesn't always reflect the type of person sat behind the keyboard (that's actually been proven elsewhere). If you can't accept things being different to your own viewpoint and what you find acceptable, then that's your own issue to deal with.

 

Perhaps take the advice given to you, use the tools at your disposal such as the ignore feature / profanity filter or make a custom chat channel for only the chat you are interested in (such as filtering down to guild chat only or trade chat only).

 

Life is too short to try to change things you have no control over (in this case other people).

Edited November 6, 2016 by Transcendent

[Eshvara]

I generally don't like the term get thicker skin, people often use it as a free pass to be a ****.

That said, it does sometimes apply.

 

It does suck sometimes people are able to say whatever they want without consequences in a game because nobody moderates it.

You have to take it upon yourself to block and ignore and report when possible.

There will always be people in game that say things you don't like and you have functions in place to deal with them.

 

Even if Bioware started moderating chat and suspending players for saying the naughty, it's still a minor offense and I don't think it's worth something permanent.

[WayOfTheWarriorx]

I don't much care for censorship, but the free speech argument is moot anyway. BW is a company, not an extension of the government. They set the rules for what we are allowed, or not allowed, to talk about and free speech has **** all to do with it.

 

The reason chat doesn't get censored much is because there's no profit margins to be made in hiring people to police it. That's the silliness of when business meets social dynamics. If it's profitable, it's almost guaranteed to happen. If it's not, good luck to you.

 

Quite right. The freedom of speech as is gauranteed in the Bill of Rights only applies to the government itself not being able to tell you what you can and cannot talk about. Any other body can censor anything they want within the parameters of their sphere of influence. Compamies, businesses, etc.

 

So with regard to the OP, the fact that they choose to make speech limited here in terms of what is acceptable,or better said,allowable but allow fleet chat to be free of such constraints [and as well they should, what is this Nazi Germany?] is a choice they made. It's not a question of 'policing', it was a conscious decision by BW to allow all speech free of constraints [providing it doesn't break any law - cyber stalking for example].

 

It's not a crime to cuss in the United States, and in absence of any limitation to speech on fleet by BW, people can say whatever they want.

 

Can it get raunchy and insulting, yeah, sure it can, but that's exactly like real life. It's not a crime to tell someone to go F themselves or to tell your friends while your at a Diner what you did to your girlfriend last night in graphic detail or what you'd like to do to the waitress.

 

Personally, far as I'm concerned, fleet's fine as is. It's just words. Some might not like some of what they hear, but I think we can hack it. LOTRO has that strict talk policy over there and it's like a puritanical dictatorship. It's ridiculous, what are we 4? It's part of being a grown up. You're not gonna like everything people say in life, but better that they CAN say them, than be told what we are and aren't allowed to say. F that. =p

[Celise]

I don't much care for censorship, but the free speech argument is moot anyway. BW is a company, not an extension of the government. They set the rules for what we are allowed, or not allowed, to talk about and free speech has **** all to do with it.

 

just to extend on your point anyway, freedom of speech does not give you the right to spread untruthful comments, or the type of comments that only lead to some sort of violent encounter on the forum with a war of words rather than out on a street kicking and punching each other, or set into motion a chain of events that can incite the whole community into a rebellious streak.

 

besides that, i think this freedom of speech nonsense was really meant for the media rather than the ordinary person anyway. If nothing else, Bioware have their own set of rules that the players must follow anyway, quite a few comments on here already merit a look into because kids also play the game and they are also exposed to the often disgusting comments on the forum. at least that is an area Bioware can control if they so wished.

 

on the game, the reason these MMO games are typically not given a rating on them is because they obviously don't plan to be in the game with a army of game moderators on every world, instance and server to make sure the chats are clean, it would cost a lot of money and i doubt the people in question would want to do the job forever. so really the only thing a person can do is send a ticket about the "disgusting" language and let them deal with it otherwise it would be better off to just close the chat screen rather than ignoring individual cases.

 

in my server TRE, a number of people have a soft spot for "DK chat", it isn't disrespectful really, but it is usually full of nonsense and it is legendary on the server. it is also a chat place a lot of people try to avoid .

[Eshvara]

 

in my server TRE, a number of people have a soft spot for "DK chat", it isn't disrespectful really, but it is usually full of nonsense and it is legendary on the server. it is also a chat place a lot of people try to avoid .

 

I'm in the red eclipse as well, it while it usually isn't necessarily disrespectful it certainly has and can be.

Especially after the whole Brexit thing, there was racism left and right.

Homophobia isn't uncommon either. But usually it's just random stupid chat abd often quite sexual. Whether that's a problem is up to the individual.

[Celise]

I'm in the red eclipse as well, it while it usually isn't necessarily disrespectful it certainly has and can be.

Especially after the whole Brexit thing, there was racism left and right.

Homophobia isn't uncommon either. But usually it's just random stupid chat abd often quite sexual. Whether that's a problem is up to the individual.

 

it isn't that bad typically. but sometimes some individuals can get in over their heads. doesn't mean the rest who are looking for help should be tarred with the same brush.

[Eshvara]

it isn't that bad typically. but sometimes some individuals can get in over their heads. doesn't mean the rest who are looking for help should be tarred with the same brush.

 

Of course not everyone acts the same way, that goes without saying.

But to say it doesn't get disrespectful is silly to say the least.

 

But I generally don't spend time there as it's moronic, but I've seen enough of DK chat to say its a crock of ****. That's just my opinion though.

[PetFish]

My problem with people claiming "free speech" is that they use it to defend saying inappropriate things and are the same people that will say "well, if you don't like it then it's your problem", which is equally lame.

 

Anyone with any morals or respect will make "dynamic adjustments" to their personalities depending on the context and situation they're in but these "free speech" people do not and just want to aggravate anyone who doesn't act the exact same way.

 

I like to counter the whole "free speech" cliche with:

 

Just because you *can* say whatever you want, doesn't mean you *should*.

 

It's all about context. Know your audience. Be respectful enough to understand what's appropriate for the situation and what isn't. You're not changing your personality to please others, it's a small (usually temporary) adjustment depending on context.

 

I doubt many of us speak to our spouse/family/etc the same way we talk to our buddies or how we talk at work/school, we adjust ourselves accordingly, and people that don't and hide behind "free speech" are the ones that will also say "if you don't like it then that's *your* problem", when it's 100% not. If you're the only one in the room acting like a fool then *you* are the problem.

[Eshvara]

People don't even know what free speech means, they took the term and ran with it. Then think it applies everywhere.

[Darkside]

I'm absolutely lol'ing at the sheer amount of emotionally immature people here in this thread. IT'S MEANINGLESS TEXT IN A GAME!

 

Real adults understand that something only has power over you if you let it. So for those people who can't handle inflamatory retarded trolling text in an game will certainly have bigger social issues in life than gen chat, since they are already displaying a stunted ability to cope. Stop with the stupid pc safe space culture that is leading us down a path destruction.

 

Grow up, use logic, not emotion, and take control of yourself and be a man/woman.

Edited November 6, 2016 by Darkside

[Edyn]

Real adults understand that something only has power over you if you let it. So for those people who can't handle inflamatory retarded trolling text in an game will certainly have bigger social issues in life than gen chat, since they are already displaying a stunted ability to cope. Stop with the stupid pc safe space culture that is leading us down a path destruction.

 

Grow up, use logic, not emotion, and take control of yourself and be a man/woman.

 

This.

[Bruticis]

Just turn off gen chat, that's what I do. There's nothing worth reading.