Do you think that DB should leave game chat uncensored?

[STJ] Wendell

If you voted for other please state your opinion.

Dirk Gunderson

Other

I don’t bother with game chat outside of my fleet and don’t use it much inside either. Whatever happens, happens.

Magisse

No

Maybe fleet or squad chats could be left uncensored, at the discretion of their leaders. UC, if anything, needs more monitoring than it gets now.

Arrnox

No

I think they should give each player the option. turn language filter on or off. default on.
and fix the disappearing messages.
and give a message indicator when u havent read a message (ie not online then log on).

[STJ] Wendell

Yes

Personally I despise the sensor within fleet chat because if you’re inappropriate there, you get kicked problem solved. I feel it really makes colorful conversation impossible. Actually it makes a lot of conversation impossible. I’ve found it really hinders the community my fleetmates share together and made us less social. Overal a largely negative impact in my opinion. Loads of harmless words are also sensored that make conversation quite difficult. Even if the censor had been executed correctly I would still vote against it.

Captain Q

Other

Censorship is just one feature of chat. Maybe focus on making chat useable so we don't have to use another system first? I think usability for fleet activities and management would be a much higher priority.

[CAB595] Emrys Myrddin

No

Voted no, mainly on the fact that young user could be playing. I agree that perhaps the fleet and / or squad chat could be sensor free or adjustable by the admiral or squad leader.

Zombie Squirrel

Yes

Since you easily can block and mute players, i don t need censorship that works as horrible as the current one.

Travis S McClain

Other

Our fleet has the shared opinion that a filter for the universal chat makes perfect sense (even if the filter algorithm doesn't), and that it should be up to each fleet to set its own policy.

This Sisko1

Yes

Mainly because my name was sensored for months Im big on turning it off and uncensored.

Dralix

Other

No filter or leader controlled in fleet/squad chat. Remove universe chat.

Captain Harlock

Yes

Fleet chat censoring should be done by fleet admirals or officers. Any chat that is not in english is a complete clustterfuck at the moment. Signaling inoffensive words and their meaning to DB doesn't solve anything. We signaled a lot of basic french words months ago (words that don't look or sound like something in english either) and they are still being censored.

I would not have as much of an issue with the censorship if they tended to it. Right now it's full of problems they are aware of.... and they don't address them. If DB doesn't want to put in that effort, let us do it! We have said time and time again that we are willing to do that.

Just put an option to enable/disable the automatic censoring for fleet chat and players will take care of the rest. Fleets are intentional communities, they are not the public at large. They don't all need the same conditions as UC.

[RR] Redbeard

Other

Squad chat: Off with Squad Lead option to turn on
Fleet chat: Off with Admiral option to turn on
UC: On
PMs: On with option to toggle on and off in your personal settings.

Obviously the filter still needs work.

Etienne

Yes

I don't mind a few naughty words being censored (even though it cuts my vocabulary in half) but the current censor makes it extremely difficult to have a conversation or tell a joke. Even sweet little cadet Tilly said the "f" word.

Magisse

No

The real problem is that a censor isn't what's needed. You can go into UC anytime, and rarely see any discussion of the game whatsoever. It's always politics, sexual innuendo, and trolling each other, regardless of what the censor is blocking.

I can't imagine a less-inviting environment for a new player that's looking for help or advice. Not a great way to keep growing the player base. If I'm bored, I'll sometimes lurk in UC to watch for new players seeking help. At best they get ignored, and I'll pull them off into a PM to answer their questions.

What's really needed is separate chat channels, just like the various rooms here on the forum. If people want to go talk about whatever, then have a room for that. But have a channel actually dedicated to the game itself, moderated to keep it that way.

Travis S McClain

Other

Magisse wrote: »

The real problem is that a censor isn't what's needed. You can go into UC anytime, and rarely see any discussion of the game whatsoever. It's always politics, sexual innuendo, and trolling each other, regardless of what the censor is blocking.

I can't imagine a less-inviting environment for a new player that's looking for help or advice. Not a great way to keep growing the player base. If I'm bored, I'll sometimes lurk in UC to watch for new players seeking help. At best they get ignored, and I'll pull them off into a PM to answer their questions.

What's really needed is separate chat channels, just like the various rooms here on the forum. If people want to go talk about whatever, then have a room for that. But have a channel actually dedicated to the game itself, moderated to keep it that way.

I keep hoping to be given the choice to open my fleet chat by default and bypass universal chat entirely. Even just gleaning what little I can in the few seconds it takes to open chat and switch to the fleet exposes me to more than enough content at any given time of day to know I want no part of it. I'm not saying anyone should crack down on it or even do anything about it. Clearly plenty of other players like it that way, and I don't begrudge them their kicks. I'd just like to be able to skip right past it and go directly to chatting with my fleet mates, who are all housebroken and don't have any troll bones in their bodies.

[DC] Picard Loves Reds

No

My sons play and even though my wife uses language that would make a sailor blush. I like the protection. I would like to know how I managed to get "fully fused" so mangled when typing that it came out as "### ###." 😉

[TFA] Commodore Wizzlestix

Yes

Magisse wrote: »

The real problem is that a censor isn't what's needed. You can go into UC anytime, and rarely see any discussion of the game whatsoever. It's always politics, sexual innuendo, and trolling each other, regardless of what the censor is blocking.

I can't imagine a less-inviting environment for a new player that's looking for help or advice. Not a great way to keep growing the player base. If I'm bored, I'll sometimes lurk in UC to watch for new players seeking help. At best they get ignored, and I'll pull them off into a PM to answer their questions.

What's really needed is separate chat channels, just like the various rooms here on the forum. If people want to go talk about whatever, then have a room for that. But have a channel actually dedicated to the game itself, moderated to keep it that way.

What's really needed is improved notifications. They are simply not reliable. We can't get rid of them from the Galaxy Map tab but we can barely get them for the chat tab.

Notifications for fleet, (officer), squad and private channels should stay until read.

And no filter (except for UC). You can't even talk about building tequila, a commonly needed build, without it being censored.

Jhamel

Yes

Data: "Censors indicate an increased amount of censor activity in the system. We should purrge the database to prevent any further censoring."
Troi: "I can even cense this from far away! We should do what Data said, Captain."
Picard: "Make it so, Mr. Data!"

RaraRacing

Other

Fleet chat doesn't really need to be censored, a fleet can always toss an inappropriate person.

Universal chat ... why does it even exist? "Socialising"? Asking game-related questions? Just remove it, or at least that it is tucked away somewhere that when I open chat I have to go through loopholes to get there (as is the case with fleet chat now).

For Cardassia

Other

Fleet, squad and private chat shouldn't be censored, or at least in the case of fleet/squad chat, the Admiral or squad leader should have a toggle available to them to either enable or disable the censor

UC should have a censor though, especially because there's no way to mute it/turn it off/opt out and it insists on being the first thing you see.

(HGH)Apollo

Other

I think the players should decide on what is censored and what isnt as we are the ones that were using it. I think probably the censor got put in place to make the game more friendly for everyone and protect DB from lawsuits or complaints but often times the censor blocks words and phrases that should not be blocked. We were trying to do a fun trivia the other day and one of the questions kept being blocked. I think the censor doesnt have to be as severe as it is now since we always have the option of muting people that are offensive.

[BL] Q

No

There was a time when a certain player would come into chat and threaten to rape women and threaten to trace their IP address, bullying also went on in UC accusing people of pedophilia and beastiality. what we see as an annoying form of censorship eventually had to be introduced due to Pegi ratings when the game started it was Pegi 7 before changing to Pegi 12 would you like your 7-12yr old subjected to most of the content in UC?

I've personally spoken to people ingame and on line who were upset about threats against them and constant bullying who have since walked away from the game. The fact you can change your Captain name at will was intended for fun but got abused so bad DB had to implement something to protect some of their players. I myself have been asked if I was female and if I wanted to sext via ingame pm's. Not to mention 3 players who would pursue young girls under the age of 14 to sext and ask them for pictures.

One of these stt players was on line and when he sent someone an unsolicited pm she told him she was 15 to scare him away which didn't deter the person who proceeded to ask personal questions and then send pictures of his erect penis. So yeah the filter is annoying but there's a reason it's in place thank god you can't get pics in game🙈

For fleet chat's use external chat apps: Line, Discord, kik, Plexchat most group chats are moderated and most Fleets have an over 18 policy to join due to some memes and chat content being nsfw.

While you can block and mute it doesn't work when someone can create multiple accounts it's not an effective tool there's a spam filter on the forum to report players for content but not ingame if it was introduced and pulled up chat history when reported DB can issue warnings to those players or ban them out right if they feel the player has gone to far.

Just Plain Simple Garak

No

I voted No. Being censored can be annoying at times. However it's an acceptable trade off for me. I prefer for the chat to stay clean.

Shy Khan

No

Have you never MET the Internet...?!?!

Vaelerys Targaryen

Yes

In an ideal world (which no group of humans will ever achieve), the game's AI would be completely intuitive and be able to tell rape threats and paedo-chat from harmless swearing and totally innocuous words.

Until then, the best option would be an "I'm over 18" tick-box option to turn the censor off, for those of us who have no problem with colourful metaphors or with telling trolls and sex pests where to go or reporting them to the authorities.

This game's censor is so broken as to be a joke. My fleet's resident Andorian is being censored for calling us "pinkskins" now. Maybe the censor interprets that as a **male human reproductive organ** pic threat.

[SSR]Trollhammeren

Yes

It should be enforced in UC , and the rest be player optional. This is the reason my fleet has moved to Discord....

Pallidyne

Yes

Would that many people be upset if UC just suddenly disappeared and we just had fleet/Squad/PM chat?

[FSC] Adm: Gryphon

Other

i can see some of UC with how vulgar some can get, but fleets and PMs to each other, should have their own choice on the matter. someof us try to have inteligent conversation only to have it get interrupted by a pile of ####,
small example: "keep digging till your stuck in a hole" the censor ####s " hole " and " a " making the post seem dirty even thoe it was not. i am sure there are many other examples of discussions, medical students , engineers, etc...
even how i some times say good morning in fleet gets ##ed out GMoaning, Moaning & Groaning, Moaning all, etc.. yet nothing in them is dirty nor vulgar even in its inflection out side of those whose minds are all ready in the gutter any how.

{SST} Captain Magenta Borealis

Other

As it stands now, the majority of people whose native tongue is not English cannot communicate in their languages because the chat censors non-offensive words in those languages for no good reason at all. Most of the time, censored words in English are not swear words or other offensive content, and sometimes entire phrases can be censored because the system decides that the combination is somehow offensive when it is entirely the opposite deal.

If you are concerned about children in there, maybe they should not be allowed in UC to begin with. If they are at the age where you do not want them to see swear words or witness more mature conversations, then they are also at the age where you do not want them communicating with complete strangers online; that is usually more disturbing and dangerous than witnessing someone drop the "F" bomb every now and again.

There are many ways to "cheat" the censor, and enough people know them to trick the censor and allow their words to go through anyway. At that point, they can say whatever they want without having multiple #'s appear on screen. The censor then becomes entirely useless to those whose purpose in UC is to instigate others' responses directed at them.

Yes, there are sometimes really vulgar and nasty comments being made by individuals whose sole purpose in there is to reek much havoc, but then you have the opportunity to either mute and/or block them by clicking on their avatar and then clicking the corresponding buttons, or you can report them for going against DB's ToS.

The middle ground here is to create an option where you can turn the censor on and off if you want. That way, those of us that use UC and want to actually communicate with fellow players to pass the time have the ability to not see half of chat being #'s because the censor cannot discern between what is perfectly fine and what is offensive. Those that want a more "classy" chat can turn it on. That still does not address the issue of the censor preventing half of what is said to be shown when only a small percentage is even remotely questionable.

Vaelerys Targaryen

Yes

War Dragons has an "enable mature language" option in the settings. DB could learn a lot from that game.