I don't think I'll get a response here, but on Star Forge at least General chat on either Fleet is a mess of political arguing all day every day. And sure, whatever, it's the internet, but I've seen some pretty hateful stuff said that seems to just go unchecked.

 

Including some guy spamming a slur for like half an hour a few weeks ago, that was cool. It's at a level worse than what you see in other MMOs, and it's painfully clear that whatever action Bioware does take, it's not done in real time.

 

I know legacy ignore exists, and I make use of it, but that list has a limited number of slots and I really shouldn't have to be using it because chat isn't visibly moderated in any capacity.

 

Are the devs even aware of this problem? Is there a plan to address it? This includes the spam bot problem too, though the automated filters seem to be marginally better about catching that than they used to be.

Money.

A lot of resources they aren't willing to spend on it, they'd rather we did their work by reporting, and ignoring, and them ignoring our reporting....

 

 

Also, just to mention, you have new options for reporting general,) harassment, and real life threat). The spam one probably gets ignored, but if it's bad enough, use the ignore, then report the harassment, maybe enough warnings, or banning might sort out the troll (polite term)

Edited March 23, 2021 by DarkTergon

so you don't want freedom? do you want YOUR freedom also to be taken away because some child leaves spam on fleet chat?

 

Are you lost your mind?

so you don't want freedom? do you want YOUR freedom also to be taken away because some child leaves spam on fleet chat?

 

Are you lost your mind?

 

I would like for them to enforce the Terms of Service that I agreed to, yes. You agreed to it too; why would you be upset if they did?

so you don't want freedom?

So freedom to you is having to listen to homophobic, racist, genderist, bullying, sometime pedographic rants?

 

do you want YOUR freedom also to be taken away because some child leaves spam on fleet chat?

 

Their freedom won't be taken away, as they won't be the one doing all the above, why would BW silence them, why would they be in 'swtor' jail.......

Edited March 23, 2021 by DarkTergon

It's not going to happen, so not a case of what will it take, it's a case of not ever going to happen.

 

That is why for many the legacy ignore was one of the better QoL to come out. At present time that is all you proberbly going to get, maybe at some point BW will increase the amount you can put on such a list.

 

The cost of monderation for a game which is virtually online 24 hours a day, per week, it really would not be cost effective as you would need someone on every planet, every instance such a side quests that are set on space stations and every server, all of which needs to be there 24 hours every day.

 

EDIT

BTW please note OP I not disagreeing with your reasons for wanting this. Fleet and stater world/capital worlds really are bad. Lucky for me as a solo player I just turn chat of, still thats not really an option for everyone I know.

Edited March 24, 2021 by DreadtechSavant

OP as much as I wish that they would address this and have actual moderators within the game its unlikely to happen, the Imperial Fleet especially can be extremely toxic and as much as I wish that the trolls would get rightfully banned the best we as players can do is probably just putting those people in our ignore lists and reporting them if we have the patience to write a report.

The cost of monderation for a game which is virtually online 24 hours a day, per week, it really would not be cost effective as you would need someone on every planet, every instance such a side quests that are set on space stations and every server, all of which needs to be there 24 hours every day.

 

This assumes that there's no way for one person on the dev side of things to view more than one chat. I hope this is an incorrect assumption. There's no reason at all you couldn't have just one or two people watch an entire server.

This assumes that there's no way for one person on the dev side of things to view more than one chat. I hope this is an incorrect assumption. There's no reason at all you couldn't have just one or two people watch an entire server.

 

The question is not how many chats a person can view, but how many can (s)he actually follow?

 

Even if we assume that one person can watch an entire Server there still need to be at least 21 persons working 40hours/week to achieve a 24/7 coverage for all 5 Servers.

Edited March 24, 2021 by hof_th

This assumes that there's no way for one person on the dev side of things to view more than one chat. I hope this is an incorrect assumption. There's no reason at all you couldn't have just one or two people watch an entire server.

 

You need to get it into your head it's not going to happen.

 

 

This game is now in it's 9th year. This sort of toxic chat is not new. It's been there from day one. If it was ever going to happen, it would of been there from day one when they had the budget to do so. Not now nine years later.

 

You are by no means the first, second or third or the hundredth player to bring this to the forums over it's nine years, not happened at any time during those nine years, not going to happen now.

You need to get it into your head it's not going to happen.

 

 

This game is now in it's 9th year. This sort of toxic chat is not new. It's been there from day one. If it was ever going to happen, it would of been there from day one when they had the budget to do so. Not now nine years later.

 

You are by no means the first, second or third or the hundredth player to bring this to the forums over it's nine years, not happened at any time during those nine years, not going to happen now.

 

I've been here, on and off about 6 years or so, the chat was always bad, but lately it's gone really bad. I agree with you though, I do think they'll do anything about it, as people have said, they won't put the resources in to it. Most of the time I've chat off, except when loking for groups, even then it's only when i'm subbed, when i'm not, i don't need it at all.

One of the biggest problems here is what is defined as "toxic" chat. Some people, for example, would think that any mention of Trump is "toxic", others would think that mentioning Biden, or any discussion of politics is "toxic".

And of course, any joking around or teasing about 'ists' or 'isms' will get someone's panties in a bunch.

 

I never find the chat on the fleet "toxic" - mostly because I don't read it. I don't even turn it off - I just don' read it.

I realize that some people's chat box may be large and hard to ignore, but you can re-size the chat box, and the size of the text. You can also just turn off all chat with one simple click, and turn off any particular chat with two clicks.

 

If you're on fleet looking to join an OP, just read the posts about OPs and ignore (don't read) the rest. FOMO is not really a thing in SWTOR.

Edited January 13, 2022 by JediQuaker

I may not like what you say but I'll defend your right to say it.

 

BW provides in-game tools to handle this. Use them. What you don't like is subjective. It isn't BW's responsibility to police chat. You are more than capable of doing that yourself. If BW did police chat, what happens when something you want to talk about is prohibited? What then? If you want someone or something censored expect yourself to be censored at some point.

I may not like what you say but I'll defend your right to say it.

 

 

I do agree with this , to a point, and have defended people in here when they've been attacked for what they said (even when I didn't agree with it). But at the same time, some stuff is just way over, any normal and sane's persons line.

 

BW provides in-game tools to handle this. Use them. What you don't like is subjective. It isn't BW's responsibility to police chat. You are more than capable of doing that yourself. If BW did police chat, what happens when something you want to talk about is prohibited? What then? If you want someone or something censored expect yourself to be censored at some point.

 

I'm hoping that since they changed the reporting system, that us policing ourselves will have a more positive effect on chat, etc. I just hope, the reports are looked at, and the people dealt with.

Are the devs even aware of this problem? Is there a plan to address it?

 

I would also love to see an official remark on this. I had just made a separate thread on this, but from the search results and finding your post from last year, it seems this is not something new or unique to the fleet chat I typically see.

In order to do real time moderation, you would need a minimum of 5 people per language (assuming maximum 40 hour work week and 24 hour coverage and a single person could manage all chats for their language while they are working)

 

At US minimum wage, that means ~$15k * 15 = $225k year.

 

That does not count any other expenses related to having them employed (computer resources, space etc.)

 

For that bare minimum price, they could easily hire another 4-5 engineers to work on the game, fixing bugs, implementing new features etc.

 

Not hard to see what will give them a better ROI

In order to do real time moderation, you would need a minimum of 5 people per language (assuming maximum 40 hour work week and 24 hour coverage and a single person could manage all chats for their language while they are working)

 

At US minimum wage, that means ~$15k * 15 = $225k year.

 

That does not count any other expenses related to having them employed (computer resources, space etc.)

 

For that bare minimum price, they could easily hire another 4-5 engineers to work on the game, fixing bugs, implementing new features etc.

 

Not hard to see what will give them a better ROI

 

It just boils down to bothering to have GMs at all. A GM should be monitoring chats, banning bots and gold sellers, and helping players with technical issues when they have time. Yes it would be silly to hire a "chat monitor," but for a healthy game environment hiring a GM is great idea. The only MMO I can remember playing that bothered to have GMs is FFXIV. And hey, that game is doing great, and the player base is very happy. (I don't play it, and I'm sure there are some that get mad if it's even mentioned, but that's not the point) I would not expect EA/Bioware or Activision/Blizzard to have GMs (At least not any more) Once they got the sub, all bets are off. That seems to be the way with most MMOs these days.

 

As for "Freedom of Speech." It's part of the service agreement to play this game. Same as if when you work for a company. There are things that just have no place being said, anywhere. Grow up (Not directed at who I'm quoting here)

No one is making you to listen to rants as you described them. Trolls are better left alone and it's the first rule of the internet. Don't feed the troll. The more posts you make about it, the more often it will happen.

 

Find a guild, group of mates to play with and then you don't mind what trash people are spamming. Me and my boys often laugh from them kids that go on and on how some female character is hotter than the other and how they would smack her good with their 3 cm peckers.

 

Most of it is harmless, and if it triggers you, than well I don't know, find some other game that is more eyepleasing when it comes to chat. Maybe go to wow when 90 percent of the chat are content sellers, and you seldomly see a normal message in the chat.

 

It all depends on your approach really. Trust me, treat it like it should be treated. Some 10 year old garbage talk and you will be better of with it.

 

Most of it is harmless, and if it triggers you, than well I don't know, find some other game that is more eyepleasing when it comes to chat. Maybe go to wow when 90 percent of the chat are content sellers, and you seldomly see a normal message in the chat.

 

 

 

Endless anti-vaxxx conspiracy drivel is infectious rather than harmless. And, imo, serves as a great case in point when it comes to shades in this that are far darker than "just pile of edgelords trolling." Stuff like anti-vaxx propaganda at worst contributes to outcomes much worse than just some thin skinned dude getting triggered.

 

That said, I really don't have a solution to suggest either. Notion of EA/BW sacrificing paid work hours for moderation of chats is completely unrealistic.

Edited January 14, 2022 by Stradlin

If there was anyone I could trust to moderate with any reasonable fairness, I might approve of the idea of moderators. What's toxic to one is a harmless joke to another - and that's not even touching the extreme touchiness of touchy partisan politics. If you want to attract and keep a broad range of customers, you're going to get a broad range of people - and the bell curve of behavior has very long tails.

And, as others have already mentioned, paying people to moderate fleet chat (and capital-world chat, and endgame chat, and...) seems a misallocation of resources that are already too limited to maximize the game.

I just assume everyone bloviating on fleet is a troll. It's more comfortable than wrestling with the fact that there really are people who are so stupid/perverted/violent/delusional enough that they are serious when they talk like that. It's also worth keeping in mind that it only takes one t*rd floating in the swimming pool to mess up the experience for everyone.

They need to hire a chat moderator that can subjectively apply any chat on swtor to the TOS with the full understanding of political correctness.

 

Someone that would know and would not tolerate, for example, Neil Armstrong when he said,

"That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind", that mankind should be humankind.

It's also worth keeping in mind that it only takes one t*rd floating in the swimming pool to mess up the experience for everyone.

These days it only takes a piece of an O'Henry bar, for people to act like there's a t*rd in the pool. 😂

These days it only takes a piece of an O'Henry bar, for people to act like there's a t*rd in the pool. 😂

 

Technically it was a Baby Ruth, but we're both dating ourselves knowing that reference.

I really hate star wars being in disney's hands now, and attracting people like y'all.

Shut up and /ignore people. The game would be better off without any of you authoritarians.