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Calicara

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Swearing in Chat: Thoughts?

So arguably the main reason the guardians were implemented was to get a better control on the issue of chat. Chat can be good to communicate with friends and have fun while building levels. Alternatively it can be used to spam, hack, and steal others accounts. It can also be used to say mean and hurtful things to others in an offense often referred to as cyber-bullying.
Jawapa, a guardian, has told me one of the main goals of guardians is to stop people from swearing. What is swearing? Swearing is when someone uses a word or phrase that is generally found as offensive by the majority of people, and being said to the the wrong person they can be very hurtful. Since the guardians were implemented, I've seen many users use swearing as a form of protest, to say that who cares what we say, why does it matter? This is what I want to discuss:
The Good: Limiting swearing by censoring and banning users effectively cuts down on cyber bullying. It also weeds out the general trolls who care less about playing EE and more about hurting others.
The Bad: Some people swear often, but don't mean what they say. For others, negative speech is a form of mutual communication. Also by censoring and banning users, we are being deprived of our freedom of speech.
My Thoughts: The problem with EE, as with most online forums which allow communication, is that it can often be hard to tell when one is being serious or sarcastic. Tone of voice is not inherent when posting online and this can lead to great miscommunication. One of the benefits of banning swearing, is that it cuts down this miscommunication in lieu of a clearer and friendly system.
That being said I am not entirely against swearing either. The other problem with EE is its diversification in the community. Worrying about every little thing people say is just a terrible form of micromanagement that isn't effective. However, being that EE is compromised of a variety of age groups, I think it's better to choose a target group and base it around them. I mean sure, more people might come to play outside of the group, but the focus of the game should remain with those who it was created for, and for EE that was children.
Assuming the majority of the userbase is 17 and under, it's probably for the best swearing is being cut down on. Why? Children tend to take things super personally, even if you don't mean it. You never know who you're hurting when you swear or be mean, even if you're just playing around. If you want to chat, and swear, and be rowdy, then I think the best solution would be to use a third party chat such as Chatzy, Tinychat, or Skype.
Lastly, to those who are hating on MrShoe and the guardians I say this. EE has never been a democracy. The moderators have always done what they felt best regardless of player opinion. I tend to side with the moderators, because I think they generally make good decisions(though not always.) Most hate which comes after many updates always spirals out of control due to rumors, paranoia, and uneducated opinions. It's fine if people disagree with a decision, but it would be good to see a legit reason why.
So what do you guys think about swearing. Good, bad, other?

Last edited by Calicara (Oct 20 2014 7:56:40 pm)

Awesomenessgood

Member

Joined: 2015-08-06

Posts: 1,666

Re: Swearing in Chat: Thoughts?

Swearing is a type of tone people use online.

Wait

I don't even know what I'm talking about

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lunchbox

Calicara

Guest

Re: Swearing in Chat: Thoughts?

Swearing is a type of tone people use online.

Wait

I don't even know what I'm talking about

Well it's like, sometimes I'll call my brother and we'll have a go at name calling, but it's all in good fun. We know we're just joking around. I wouldn't go up to a kid though and start swearing, he probably wouldn't understand it, and/or would get very upset not understanding it as a joke.

Awesomenessgood

Member

Joined: 2015-08-06

Posts: 1,666

Re: Swearing in Chat: Thoughts?

Yep, I've seen things like these on the internet especially in YouTube comments. And it would be awkward to put something like "[sarcastic tone]" at the end of a sentence. This is why people are trying to ask addicts to stay away from internet communication and converse in the real world I guess.

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lunchbox

ILoveBacon

Guest

Re: Swearing in Chat: Thoughts?

I say we bring back chat. I agree that EE should remain a kids game but in my opinion you only get cyber-bullied if you let people. There will all ways be haters and bullies on the internet and you will have to deal with that, unfortunately. The kids either have to learn to ignore it or leave.

XxAtillaxX

Member

Joined: 2015-11-28

Posts: 4,202

Re: Swearing in Chat: Thoughts?

There is an obvious and clear distinction between harassment and swearing.
I think it's immature for adults and children alike, to equate an expressive form of communication to an abusive cognitive reaction against someone.

There's a whole moronic supposition regarding whether swearing is an unethical expression. I argue it's not.
Have we not forgot about passive aggressiveness? Is it bold to proclaim indifference; I think yes, but not without the constitution being drawn for harassment itself.

In this case, I would suggest muting someone and demanding they never speak to you again.
If they happen to disregard that and continuing the harassment, then it would be reasonable for Guardians to become involved.

This is not what happens though. The Guardians will, and have, kicked players (from others' worlds, I should add) for merely swearing indirectly, regardless of the owners' explicit ethics/ideology.

That being said, I'm a fan of the notion that room owners should decide what they want in their room. The saying goes, "Don't like it? Then leave."

Lastly, to those who are hating on MrShoe and the guardians I say this. EE has never been a democracy. The moderators have always done what they felt best regardless of player opinion. I tend to side with the moderators, because I think they generally make good decisions(though not always.) Most hate which comes after many updates always spirals out of control due to rumors, paranoia, and uneducated opinions. It's fine if people disagree with a decision, but it would be good to see a legit reason why.

You're quite right when you say EE has never been a democracy, I've written about this in a post before MrShoe joined. EE used to be totalitarian, with an intelligent person as the leader. This is not so anymore, and MrShoe seems to be installing a democracy of sorts.

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*u stinky*

Zumza

Member

From: root

Joined: 2015-02-17

Posts: 4,656

Re: Swearing in Chat: Thoughts?

I believe swearing/harassment most time are not think they just flow from your mouth/keyboard.
Exemple: Take words as stupid, jerk, fool. It may not be the meaning   you believe.
from my leanguage dictionary:
"Stupid" = without sense.
"Jerk" = someone who ignore what's happening around
"Fool" = hard to influence
Edit: Calicara, nobody can steal an account by chat.

Last edited by The Doctor (Oct 21 2014 5:07:33 am)

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Calicara

Guest

Re: Swearing in Chat: Thoughts?

@TheDocter: Yes, people can steal accounts by chat. Some skeeves will go up to a user and say hey, want free gems? Then if they can convince the person they will buy them free gems in exchange for their account info, they can log onto that account (share the account), and/or delete all the world. And since EE doesn't have an e-mail verification system, this can be quite damaging especially to those who used fake e-mails.

I say we bring back chat. I agree that EE should remain a kids game but in my opinion you only get cyber-bullied if you let people. There will all ways be haters and bullies on the internet and you will have to deal with that, unfortunately. The kids either have to learn to ignore it or leave.

I agree with what you're saying, but you can't expect all players to be equipped with such mature defense mechanisms. I've met players before, don't know if they were being true or false, who tell me they play EE because they are depressed (IRL), and feel even more depressed when people hate on them in EE. I think it's fine to be rowdy with your friends, but on the speaking end I think it's also our job to make sure the receiver of the insult knows it isn't personal or we're just being friendly in an aggressive way. Otherwise you could unintentionally really hurt someone, and thought you might never know, it doesn't change the fact damage was done.

The Guardians will, and have, kicked players (from others' worlds, I should add) for merely swearing indirectly, regardless of the owners' explicit ethics/ideology.

That being said, I'm a fan of the notion that room owners should decide what they want in their room. The saying goes, "Don't like it? Then leave."

My main beef is against people who swear for no good reason like Bluexxxdude, and ZeldaXD. I haven't personally seen a guardian kick for mild swearing, (I've sworn in front of Jawapa a few times on accident without a kick.) but I'm sure it happens. I think you have a valid point for being able to control your own world though.

Last edited by Calicara (Oct 21 2014 7:40:54 am)

Benje00

Member

From: BenjeLand

Joined: 2015-02-17

Posts: 587

Re: Swearing in Chat: Thoughts?

The Bad: Some people swear often, but don't mean what they say. For others, negative speech is a form of mutual communication. Also by censoring and banning users, we are being deprived of our freedom of speech.

This is EE on the internet, not America
(there are plenty of other countries with free speech, I'm just using America as an example. pls dun start flame war about my thinking America is the only country with free speech).

Basically, don't curse towards someone. If cursing offends the world owner then you shouldn't curse. I think moderate cursing in general is OK (for EE, not my standards).

Fdoou

Banned

Re: Swearing in Chat: Thoughts?

america doesn't have free speech

Calicara

Guest

Re: Swearing in Chat: Thoughts?

@Benje00: I honestly wasn't sure what to write for bad. IRL I swear often, but I'm also on a college campus where know one gives a flip. I know EE has never really had freedom of speech (though it seemed like it when shoe was on vacation.), I was just putting it out there.
Also agreed with the picture. I think one of the main reasons Shoe is against swearing is so he and the guardians don't have to be deal with those morally ambiguous situations where they can't tell if people are being serious or not. Like, what if a person pretended to be your friend, just so they could catch you in a bad moment (maybe you said something mildly rude), then they started reporting you saying that you were harassing them? The issue is obvious, but without prior knowledge you might end up getting in trouble, but didn't even do anything wrong.

Last edited by Calicara (Oct 21 2014 8:10:28 am)

XxAtillaxX

Member

Joined: 2015-11-28

Posts: 4,202

Re: Swearing in Chat: Thoughts?

Some people shouldn't have speech, namely the many spammers that MrShoe and Brian did nothing about whilst they mass-spammed worlds for weeks, and still haven't banned.

You know, people like Jekamaster, Teleporthacker1, Mrfury/Red5pizza and Habbogame for creating spam bots, distributing them and phishing accounts to crash rooms with.

They all got to walk free in the eyes of Brian and Julian. They neglected to take any action, despite it being brought up to them several times, whilst it was ongoing.
And only did they stop after the tables were turned, releasing their personal information and hacking them instead.

However, Guardians are preventing this now, by making everyone want to leave. No worries however, the real problem is people saying bad words. That they can prevent! Oh.. wait, the people that do want to chat will use external means, which opens up a lot more possibilities for harassment, all of which Guardians have no power over.

My main beef is against people who swear for no good reason like Bluexxxdude, and ZeldaXD. I haven't personally seen a guardian kick for mild swearing, (I've sworn in front of Jawapa a few times on accident without a kick.) but I'm sure it happens. I think you have a valid point for being able to control your own world though.

If they are swearing 'for no good reason' that sort of implies that they weren't doing it towards another person. If that is the case, what's the harm? If the world owner doesn't like people swearing, they don't need a Guardian to come in and kick the person for them, let alone ban the user.

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Zumza

Member

From: root

Joined: 2015-02-17

Posts: 4,656

Re: Swearing in Chat: Thoughts?

Calicara people give your account because you are naïve.
"Give" it's different by "steel"

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Calicara

Guest

Re: Swearing in Chat: Thoughts?

If they are swearing 'for no good reason' that sort of implies that they weren't doing it towards another person. If that is the case, what's the harm? If the world owner doesn't like people swearing, they don't need a Guardian to come in and kick the person for them, let alone ban the user.

They were writing random strings of offensive language directly at guardians. Like wtf is the point, I think it's a waste of time. Also, since not all world owners have chat, they might not know when someone in their world is abusing chat...

Calicara people give your account because you are naïve.
"Give" it's different by "steel"

No, it's stealing. Even if the other person is being naïve. It's like telemarketers who convince people to send money to "Nigeria." People who fall for that scam are idiots, but it doesn't make it right to steal their money. People who use chat to try and steal account from naïve user (most likely children) are despicable and deserve to be banned.

Last edited by Calicara (Oct 21 2014 9:17:04 am)

Zumza

Member

From: root

Joined: 2015-02-17

Posts: 4,656

Re: Swearing in Chat: Thoughts?

"To steal" = to take an object without the consent of the owner/owners.

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N1KF

Wiki Mod

From: ဪဪဪဪဪ From: ဪဪဪဪဪ From: ဪဪဪဪဪ

Joined: 2015-02-15

Posts: 11,113

Website

Re: Swearing in Chat: Thoughts?

As you said, Everybody Edits seems to be somewhat targeted toward children, so I see no reason for profanity to be allowed in any way. If somebody gets banned for swearing in a public world, that should be allowed and the person probably deserves it. Swearing is pointless and can usually be taken out and replace by more appropriate words, so that kids (like me, you know) do not have to go through it.

Fdoou

Banned

Re: Swearing in Chat: Thoughts?

i want some concrete proof that ee is for kids
dont give me this "seems to be somewhat" gah-bage

ILoveBacon

Guest

Re: Swearing in Chat: Thoughts?

i want some concrete proof that ee is for kids
dont give me this "seems to be somewhat" gah-bage

Scroll down with a window that has EE open and you get this.

Ohh, and just so you don't say "kids of all ages" the definition of kid from google is "a child or young person." A child is defined as "A young human being below the age of puberty" and a young person is defined as "A person generally from 14 to 17 years of age."

Last edited by ILoveBacon (Oct 21 2014 11:40:56 am)

Fdoou

Banned

Re: Swearing in Chat: Thoughts?

"all ages"
"everyone"

Pyromaniac

Official Caroler

Joined: 2015-02-15

Posts: 4,868

Re: Swearing in Chat: Thoughts?

I say let MrShoe do what he wants. Your'e right, EE never has been a democracy (much like this forum :rolleyes: ) But unlike this forum, I think more power in the hands of the community would do more harm than good.
Regardless of his alleged "intelligence" he is in control and we just have to deal with it. So far he hasn't done anything that terrible.

Last edited by Pyromaniac (Oct 21 2014 3:46:11 pm)

Fdoou

Banned

Re: Swearing in Chat: Thoughts?

he hasn't?!

Calicara

Guest

Re: Swearing in Chat: Thoughts?

I think more power in the hands of the community would do more harm than good.

That's not true. Guardians wouldn't be half as bad if there was a player vote or consensus on who the guardians were going to be, like an election. For shoe to pick users though, without first consulting the community, definitely comes off as unfair and I can see why you would think having community moderators is a bad thing. It's only bad when the moderators are corrupt, bias, and/or generally disliked by the greater community.

Last edited by Calicara (Oct 21 2014 6:43:43 pm)

Fdoou

Banned

Re: Swearing in Chat: Thoughts?

^ a player vote would be bad though, because then blockzoid and zxis would be our guardians.

Calicara

Guest

Re: Swearing in Chat: Thoughts?

^ a player vote would be bad though, because then blockzoid and zxis would be our guardians.

What I meant was, players could send in suggestion for guardians. MrShoe could sort through the suggestions and pick 8 potential candidates. Of these we would vote and maybe the top four would be guardians. You can't please everyone, but ignoring the communities voices doesn't help either.

Arceus64

Guest

Re: Swearing in Chat: Thoughts?

If I said swearing was bad online and that we should eliminate it I'd be a hypocrite since I use it frequently (though not towards people). I am more in favor of an idea that allows for a "moderated" chat system that eliminates those words and one that has a "free" chat system. I'd be open for the idea to take place in rooms where people can choose what they want instead of Guardians having to do the job.