Unfair chat moderation

[Forumdawg]

Just under a week ago, I mentioned "covid" in the game chat while making a light-hearted joke about some in-game transportation delays. To my surprise, I was swiftly punished with a 10-minute mute and a warning placed against my account. Now, the server rules state that political discussions are prohibited, but my comment was nothing more than a harmless joke, devoid of any political intention.

Fast forward to yesterday, when another player wished death upon me in the game chat. Shocked by this behavior, I promptly submitted a ticket, hoping that the staff would take appropriate action against such a severe offense. To my dismay, the staff member who replied to my ticket suggested that I use the /ignore feature to ignore the player, effectively brushing off the issue. (GMS if you want specifics, look at "Dovahnir"s chat logs at about 15:47 UTC on 2023-04-02)

Additionally, I've noticed a concerning trend where vulgar and sexual discussions frequently occur in the chat without any apparent repercussions. It seems that the only way to report these players is by submitting a ticket, which, in my anecdotal experience, does not result in any action from staff. It's quite disheartening to see a big red warning that reiterates the rules every time I log in to my character, while simultaneously witnessing others break them without consequence.

So GMs, what's the deal with the chat moderation if it's going to be moderated like this? How can I remove this big red warning off my screen every time I log in?

[Sylveria]

I remember the post about your 10-Minute-Mute and back then i thought to myself. "10 Minutes is absolutely fine. Just brush it off."

But I too have gotten that reply at times, that I should just "ignore" players. (Problem is: The Ignore-List has a limit..) And I too have noticed that concerning trend, when people were talking sexual or other vulgar stuff at times, sometimes even in the middle of Goldshire.

I'd like to extend the problems that are currently present, especially regarding "trends" and the community.. but that would be too much.

[Paw]

It seems like I can write anything here. I'm cheater. Seriously tho:

It's like asking the police to maintain royal order during a festival. Pop is 6k. Thing is that the coin always have two sides u just gotta keep flipping and u'll see!

[Element19090]

I just wish bans and mutes would only really be given out under cases of actual harassment or vulgarity. saying something mean or saying an off colour joke or whatever shouldn't have the GM Stasi agents gulaging you. The ban rate is really out of control.

[Jarrick]

I've been hampering about this since forever. Mods are free to be as tyranical as they want, it's "rules for thee but not for me", and there are plenty of topics that never get banned despite the fact that they keep saying "oh yeah open a ticket", yeah sure, like that ever helped, that's just a lame political excuse you give to plebians knowing fully well that you won't implement anything - empty words.

This entire system needs to highlighted and it is the duty of turtlewow mods, devs and anyone responsible for this mess to explain the players what they're dealing with. The moderation is shizoid gestapo level that hammers anything that is okay on other servers - which is the 99% of the servers btw. If you want to be unique snowflake, it is your duty to show all players ON RELEVANT avenues what your moderation is about.

And be honest. Don't sugarcoat. Tell us the truth; that you are a literal moderation gestapo.

Oh you've been hampering alright, lol

[Xerilin]

So, in this thread alone, there are people complaining that there is no moderation and peiple calling mods gestapo. Kind of showing the problem in finding the right ballance.

That being said, I am team censor on this one. "Sexual discussions and vulgarity" should be moderated in public channels.

[Kwayver]

Every single private server has the same issue. Big reason for this is they're terrified of some woke virtuous victim creating a viral Reddit thread about a protected buzz word or class being attacked or the subject of a harmless joke that either derails their entire population, or simply doesn't align with the ideology of the server mods.
As long as most players remain addicted to free mmo's they won't oppose or boycott these double standards. They'll accept them or ignore them.

[Mac]

From what I’ve observed, they moderate world chat strictly to prevent off-topic derails. They don’t pick political sides from what I’ve seen.

But when it comes to interplayer conflict, they seem to be a lot more hands off. I think they just don’t want to take the time investigating it, and would rather have players resolve conflicts themselves using ignore so they can have time to address issues that players can’t resolve (like missing items and bugs).

Not speaking on behalf of the server or its GMs. Just an observation.

[Bloodline1x9]

A few months ago, there was an interesting situation. Russians, as always, started to write to World channel in russian, just to communicate there, regardless of anyone. Seeing that they are not punished for this, they continue. I know the Russians well and how they act. They think If they are not punished, then it means allowed.
And so I began to observe the story that I will tell you here.
When people started writing to them "Only English here, please", in response, the Russians began to speak insultingly about English speakers in russian.
- Чё они там хотят? (What do they need?)
- Да бурги вообще ох***ли (Foreigners are generally insolent!)
Then they started writing, "why only English?" "this is discrimination of the Russian language" and continued to insult even more the people who responded to them.

I was shocked by this situation and the impudence of the Russians. English-speaking people did not understand what those russians were writing. I understood. They mocked. And the moderator seems to have gone somewhere.
I felt sorry for people who are normal with them. Then I decided to troll those russians a little and wrote to them "Why do you come to "angry Europe" to play an American game? Why don't you go to a russian Stalin-WoW server or something like that? I wrote it in russian so that they could understand me.
And you know what? I got mute! The moderator is here! In replied to me, these russians began to write insults, but they did not receive a mute. The GM wrote "English only" and, frightened by his blue letters, those Russians quieted down, but I saw in the chat that they did not get mute.
Letter from the administration that I am punished for "Nazism".
W-what?!
Returning to the game half a year after the break, I see that the russians have their own chat. This is the right decision.

Someone may think in my post that I hate Russians. No, I described the situation that happened to me. Not all Russians are rude. But there are a lot of inadequate ones among them

[Elyssium]

As far as I am concerned if your account can get a warning over the smallest infraction, it's no different that WoWs moderation. So My advice just don't chat in general or public guild chat because there is no point chatting if you got to walk on eggshells and the people who actually deserve it can say the most egregious stuff. Ppl openly ERPing and sh@#$ and ppl get a 1 hour ban for speaking out lol.

[Mac]

Isn’t a warning the appropriate response to a minor infraction? You break the rules in a small way, but instead of getting really punished, you get a warning to tell you not to do that.