General Chat Discussion

[FlyingGrass]

If General chat was put back, roleplaying would become difficult due to the sheer amount of posts that will push the roleplay posts away as I don't think that absolutely everyone knows how to disable General chat, and so frustration may arise; There could be help threads asking how to turn off General chat for roleplaying.

Some people are unable to download custom maps and therefor will be unable to get away from the chaos that is General Chat.

[VortexAlive]

@FlyingGrass
Spread the word!

"See that little arrow between the chat boxes? Click on it and now you know how to disable/enable the chats!"

Or if it is on the forum, we have Valhayes to thank for a wonderful chat features break-down that we can easily direct others to:
https://feral-heart.com/smf/index.php?topic=62221.0

It's that easy.

[FlyingGrass]

"See that little arrow between the chat boxes? Click on it and now you know how to disable/enable the chats!"

The FlavourText.cfg can include that tip, that'll spread the word.

[Bawfle]

Oh, I didn't claim that it would be no good. General chat was a great tool of communication and advertisement. There's no doubt.

However, I stated that it'd do FeralHeart no good. One of the reasons being the trolls who will likely abuse this chat once again for attention or just for the sake of looking for trouble. As well as the lack of interest a lot of staff had in the past to even moderate the chat in general as it was apparently too much to keep up with. However, I can strongly agree with is this point made and I honestly think it should be something staff should consider listening to:

My whole thought on the General Chat is that, yes it WAS a hassle. Trolls and all that. But...you have trolls in local just as much as General so can you really use that excuse? It's why we have moderators. To watch the chats and take action when needed, no matter WHICH chat. Seriously if General was taken out just because of rowdy people and trolls...then shouldn't have local been removed as well on that argument?

Even though the chat was irritable in many ways, I feel it'd just need either adjustments in Moderation, or to change the chat around in general, as shown in a possible General Chat to Advertisement modification as I shared above in my previous post.

In terms of change in moderation, perhaps using the Mod Speak/Red Text in order to drop reminders of General Chat's use. Such as "Reminder: The General Chat's use is for Advertisements and out-of-range Conversation, if user re-location in a map is not a possibility". Something along the lines of that I'd imagine. If necessary, "Mod Spammers will be kicked". This was an issue with General Chat whenever the Mod Speak/Red Text was used.

People may thing this isn't necessary, maybe just for a few weeks, but obviously new users will be expected to arrive, so constant/often reminders would be needed whenever the chat isn't being used the way it is expected to.

Hopefully I sound more clearer.

[VortexAlive]

@Bawfle
What you pointed out in Azura's post has been pointed out in various ways and is one of the main things in this dicussion:

As for the bit about rule-breakers simply returning... It's been pointed out several times that players can easily block or report them. Rules are rules; They exist for a reason. I'll recap this bit since it's very important "the community needs to play its part." by helping the staff help you, which helps them. =)

It's why we have moderators. To watch the chats and take action when needed, no matter WHICH chat.

as long as the community helps to keep it clean and to ignore/report trolls.

But yeah, if ya don't like something then yeah, you can change the settings and turn off certain chats, yada ...

So yes, I fully agree that the staff should be aware of this. =)

[Bawfle]

Of course. Users can block these trolls and misbehaving users, but this doesn't always solve the problem all round. When users come back every day or frequently to spam the chat and troll users or abuse the use of general chat overall, certainly more action is needed or more and more users will be encouraged to mimic the same behavior of others and we'd be back at square one where General Chat is given the good bye card.

I suppose I'm saying it needs a little more control or guidelines.

[Hakumi]

Yes, the community can do their part and all, but will the staff be able to keep up, that's the thing.
The staff has to be ready and check nearly every map possible in order to monitor general chat. We can send in reports after reports,
but the time they probably see it, the issue would've either been over or the trolls / spammers have moved on. Hopefully we'll have more staffers that will be on whenever the activity is at its highest, especially around the holidays to monitor the chats and the maps as well. If we can get an increase of that, we can probably prove that we as a community ( at least the good noodles ) are taking this matter seriously and want this feature to stay. I agree with Bawfle on the matter that a slight changing / reminder on what General is used for would be a great idea. I think it does seem necessary because with the announcement of General's return ( if possible ) will nej doubt spark old and new interests and it can be abused very easily, very quickly. For me, I rarely see MOD speak since a few times in the past because of how feral-heart is now and it's pretty tame / manageable where it's not needed.. But something like this, it would be a nice little thing / reminder.. Better clarification pretty much.
But that's just me. We as a community do need to work and function more together as a whole. We may have moderators to monitor and watch the chat as Azura stated above, but are they able to keep up, mentally and even physically with that sort of spike? Because nej doubt they're gonna have to probably get back into that sort of groove again because of this and they need to be prepared for sure. But we have a nice little community and eager members that would probably do whatever they can to keep this feature going ~ c:

[VortexAlive]

@Bawfle & @Hakumi
Oh, I don't mean to say that anything will be a sure-fire cure for anything... It would certainly take some getting used to... I am saying that the staff will surely need help (being a small team currently, especially if there are even more official maps) from anyone willing to help. As FlyingGrass pointed out earlier:

"See that little arrow between the chat boxes? Click on it and now you know how to disable/enable the chats!"

The FlavourText.cfg can include that tip, that'll spread the word.

This can also be used to say something like "General chat is not meant for spamming/trolling" and the signs thing in Lonely Cave (perhaps the signs could actually be in the cave (or really close to the spawn point), so there really would be no missing them?) could be used for it to. As well as a possible reminder not to abuse General chat.

About the staff being swarmed with reports... Yeah, that'd be an issue. Another issue is one staff member potentially getting all of them... There was something brought up before as a means of allowing the staff to receive the reports (and suggestions) in a way that allowed reports to be sent without picking any single staff member, perhaps this could be made in some way to allow any staff member to see the reports all in one place? Here's another thread by Valhayes: https://feral-heart.com/smf/index.php?topic=61971.0

It was also pointed out that that too could potentially be abused and used for the wrong purpose though...

[Bawfle]

I think it does seem necessary because with the announcement of General's return ( if possible ) will nej doubt spark old and new interests and it can be abused very easily, very quickly.

With this being said too, whether General chat is brought back or not, if General chat's return is announced in a thread of it's own or with other news, then it'd be good to share the update for a week or two via mod/god speak so users can actually get to the reason why it was brought back. Generally doing this for news updates for a week or two after they've been posted would have the community more informed in the goings on in FH. The mod/god speak doesn't have to just be for warnings in out of control situations, but could also be used for user announcements in-game too. Users would just have to get used to seeing the text, other than using it for rare occasions when it's needed to control an out of control chat.

But then again, I'm a tiny bit off topic at the end part there..

[Hakumi]

@ VortexAlive Ah, thanks for directing me to that board, haven't seen it yet since my return o:
I do agree and disagree with some of those points about a certain member getting swamped... but at the same time, maybe if there was more available staff members around than what there is now, that could be beneficial and also help with the whole general chat / reporting sort of thing.
Maybe a trial run might give them an idea on how well this goes.. And they'll be certain a bit whether or not it'll be a good idea for it to be officially implemented or not.

@ Bawfle My thoughts exactly, but I didn't know if that'll be a bit off - topic or not but thanks for the input, Lol. I think a nice little reminder for the first 2 weeks maybe or even after a few days after registration is opened ( since it still a rare occurrence give or take ) would be nice as well. Some don't always dive into the forums but a nice update on the thread too will also be nice and players can just be redirected there instead while still being informed in-game also.