Announcement Moderation Procedures Overhaul (Work in Progress)

[Johnny Telltale]

Some words should definitely be removed from the blacklist, but by the nature of a blacklist, we should not really know what's on it until we trigger the system. A complaint I say on the forums recently was someone got a warning from the moderation system for saying "bang", problem is, the moderation system, as it is, cannot process context and is unaware that this person was using the word as an onomatopoeia.

This is the fundamental problem of censorship. It ultimately leads to a desire to know exactly what was a said and why it's so terrible it just had to be censored.

We do not ban for blocked words anymore, this should no longer be an issue . Please remember however, your intentions are still taken into consideration - harassing, threatening, or rude behavior as well as filter evasion are still bannable.

 

[Johnny Telltale]

The problem is something that has become known as the forbidden fruit effect, where the prohibition status may actually make it more desirable. Actual education may help keep people off of drugs, but this fear mongering of "If you do it only once, you'll die" is excessive.

Our job is not to educate you guys on drugs or anything of the sort - it is to enforce the TOS which explicitly forbids discussion or references of them.

 

[Mharr]

Yeah, TLOPO chat isn't the place where any of this is gonna get fixed. Filters are a symptom of our confused and broken society, not a cause.

And once again, this thread is about the human- and contextual-isation of the moderation system that's happening right now, which is much needed and greatly appreciated. Nothing worse than being sent to chat jail by a robot because typos.

Our job is not to educate you guys on drugs or anything of the sort - it is to enforce the TOS which explicitly forbids discussion or references of them.

Does it? All it says on the website is "Any form of rude, inappropriate, or profane language, is not permitted", which... Well, everything's inappropriate to the wrong listener. Something a little more explicit would be really useful, honestly. Like I said, I've been going with "Try to match the tone of the Disney movies".

 

[Mathias]

Our job is not to educate you guys on drugs or anything of the sort - it is to enforce the TOS which explicitly forbids discussion or references of them.

I am aware of that, and the "you" I was referring wasn't the TLOPO staff, but was instead addressed to Peter.

Yeah, TLOPO chat isn't the place where any of this is gonna get fixed. Filters are a symptom of our confused and broken society, not a cause.

And once again, this thread is about the human- and contextual-isation of the moderation system that's happening right now, which is much needed and greatly appreciated. Nothing worse than being sent to chat jail by a robot because typos.


Does it? All it says on the website is "Any form of rude, inappropriate, or profane language, is not permitted", which... Well, everything's inappropriate to the wrong listener. Something a little more explicit would be really useful, honestly. Like I said, I've been going with "Try to match the tone of the Disney movies".

Whenever I see "inappropriate behavior" in an MMO targeted towards kids and teens, it's almost exclusively referring to much more adult things. Birds and the Bees, drugs (legal or otherwise), and language like what you'd find in a PG movie.

 

[Johnny Telltale]

Yeah, TLOPO chat isn't the place where any of this is gonna get fixed. Filters are a symptom of our confused and broken society, not a cause.

And once again, this thread is about the human- and contextual-isation of the moderation system that's happening right now, which is much needed and greatly appreciated. Nothing worse than being sent to chat jail by a robot because typos.

We look at context/intent, and do not ban for usage of the word alone (unless you're evading the filter.)

Does it? All it says on the website is "Any form of rude, inappropriate, or profane language, is not permitted", which... Well, everything's inappropriate to the wrong listener. Something a little more explicit would be really useful, honestly. Like I said, I've been going with "Try to match the tone of the Disney movies".

Drugs is very inappropriate on a family friendly game. It's true that some people may find things more inappropriate than others, so it's a good thing we don't have just one moderator!

The tone should be pretty obvious from the moment you start the game - you can't even shoot human enemies, something the movies did, so it should tell you pretty quickly that not everything in the movies is appropriate for this game. Heck, the movies had some borderline R rated material at times! TLOPO is family friendly, more so than the movies, and so you should try to keep that in mind and abide by the Terms of Service.

If you feel like the TOS is lacking in some way, feel free to suggest some changes - we'd be happy to hear them

 

[Mharr]

The tone should be pretty obvious from the moment you start the game - you can't even shoot human enemies, something the movies did, so it should tell you pretty quickly that not everything in the movies is appropriate for this game.

I didn't read anything much into that, given that we can set human enemies ablaze, shred them with explosives and drown them in the terror and helplessness of a sinking wreck. Rusty sword wounds aren't much fun to receive either.

If you feel like the TOS is lacking in some way, feel free to suggest some changes - we'd be happy to hear them

'Rude' and 'Profane' are pretty clear (Be nice, avoid the standard list of George Carlin words), but some sort of expansion on the word 'inappropriate' would be very helpful to players from other cultures with different social norms. All that means without context is 'no subjects that upset the moderators'. I'm guessing the list is something like religion, politics, ***, ***uality, and references to any act or substance illegal in more that one state of the USA, but I've no idea if I'm forgetting one, or how rigorous each of those is. Can you role play drinking while playing poker in the bars? Is 'darn your eyes' an acceptable phrase to throw at a particularly troublesome undead captain?

See, that right there. The forum censors the plain word ***, which as a Brit just bemuses me, and globally we're considered one of the more prudish and uptight cultures! Likewise 'darn', which to me is one of the words you use instead of swearing around children and the frail and infirm.

 

[Remington]

...which if you read the first post (https://piratesforums.co/threads/mo...erhaul-work-in-progress.19626/)...........you will see that they have listened to player feedback and already decided to change to a more usable format.
I agree with you that some people have grown up since PotCO, but new, younger players are still joining and quite frankly a lot of people like that TLoPO is 'family friendly'.



....I didn't play PotCO so can't compare....but I know that TLoPO has to be very careful how they handle things like this. If Disney decided that TLoPO was doing something that reflected badly on them, they have the power to pull the plug on this project completely. I for one would rather mind my P's & Q's than lose the game.

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Not to mention, why would you want to deny the new young players what has given you so many happy memories! Everyone is happy the game has been rebooted. Lets share that happiness with everyone who would like it also.