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Forums > Home› Star Trek Online General Discussion

Star base zone chat Warning

reven000reven000 Member Posts: 6 Arc User
edited July 2013 in Star Trek Online General Discussion
Hello and thank you for reading this.

I just want to say that i am worried that people are abusing the zone chat in star bases.
It was originally designed for trade,fleets, and for players asking for help, sadly this is no longer the case as now it is cluttered with talk of unstar trek related things and pointless insulting banter. I know for a fact that many people that come to star bases simple minimize
there chat window so they do not have to read or see the zone chat and this is highly damaging to the game in general, as it makes it difficult to ask for help,or trade,or fleet recruiting. Please consider this because if you ignore or insult, bash, or shrug this warning off things will continue to get worse, and we will end up with another Barrens chat that got around 3500 people banned.

Thank you for your time
Post edited by reven000 on
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Comments

  • ashtakuashtaku Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited June 2013
    Unfortunately, this is a longstanding problem. I have my UI set up to disable zone chat entirely unless I manually turn it back on for some reason... its just not worth the frustration of seeing the nonstop spam.
    reven000 wrote: »
    Hello and thank you for reading this.

    I just want to say that i am worried that people are abusing the zone chat in star bases.
    It was originally designed for trade,fleets, and for players asking for help, sadly this is no longer the case as now it is cluttered with talk of unstar trek related things and pointless insulting banter. I know for a fact that many people that come to star bases simple minimize
    there chat window so they do not have to read or see the zone chat and this is highly damaging to the game in general, as it makes it difficult to ask for help,or trade,or fleet recruiting. Please consider this because if you ignore or insult, bash, or shrug this warning off things will continue to get worse, and we will end up with another Barrens chat that got around 3500 people banned.

    Thank you for your time
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • empireofsteveempireofsteve Member Posts: 665 Arc User
    edited June 2013
    Just so I understand correctly, is this about the movies Gorn with the Wind, Gorn to be wild, Gorn, in 60 seconds and the Wrath of Gorn?
    NERF CANNONS - THEY NEED A 50% NERF
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  • eulifdaviseulifdavis Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited June 2013
    Gorn Fishin'
    Gorn on the Cob
    Go watch a gorno ;)
    Gornucopia
    The Good, The Bad, and the Gorny
    etc.
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • zekeferrignozekeferrigno Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited June 2013
    empireofsteve wrote: »
    Just so I understand correctly, is this about the movies Gorn with the Wind, Gorn to be wild, Gorn, in 60 seconds and the Wrath of Gorn?

    You forgot The Gorn Identity, Fried Gorn Tomatoes, and the critically acclaimed television show Two Guys a Gorn and a Pizza Place.
    Anyway, like I was sayin', shrimp is the fruit of the sea. You can barbecue it, boil it, broil it, bake it, saute it. Dey's uh, shrimp-kabobs, shrimp creole, shrimp gumbo. Pan fried, deep fried, stir-fried. There's pineapple shrimp, lemon shrimp, coconut shrimp, pepper shrimp, shrimp soup, shrimp stew, shrimp salad, shrimp and potatoes, shrimp burger, shrimp sandwich. That- that's about it. - Bubba
  • clcmercyclcmercy Member, Banned Users Posts: 308 Arc User
    edited June 2013
    reven000 wrote: »
    Hello and thank you for reading this.

    I just want to say that i am worried that people are abusing the zone chat in star bases.
    It was originally designed for trade,fleets, and for players asking for help, sadly this is no longer the case as now it is cluttered with talk of unstar trek related things and pointless insulting banter. I know for a fact that many people that come to star bases simple minimize
    there chat window so they do not have to read or see the zone chat and this is highly damaging to the game in general, as it makes it difficult to ask for help,or trade,or fleet recruiting. Please consider this because if you ignore or insult, bash, or shrug this warning off things will continue to get worse, and we will end up with another Barrens chat that got around 3500 people banned.

    Thank you for your time

    Pff. You got it good. There's a part of the player base in Neverwinter that seems to think that zone chat IS NOT for advertising for groups, trades or guilds and use the report spam feature to chat ban those that do.
    Occam's Razor makes the cutting clean.
  • zekeferrignozekeferrigno Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited June 2013
    clcmercy wrote: »
    Pff. You got it good. There's a part of the player base in Neverwinter that seems to think that zone chat IS NOT for advertising for groups, trades or guilds and use the report spam feature to chat ban those that do.

    Those guys sound pretty awesome actually.
    Anyway, like I was sayin', shrimp is the fruit of the sea. You can barbecue it, boil it, broil it, bake it, saute it. Dey's uh, shrimp-kabobs, shrimp creole, shrimp gumbo. Pan fried, deep fried, stir-fried. There's pineapple shrimp, lemon shrimp, coconut shrimp, pepper shrimp, shrimp soup, shrimp stew, shrimp salad, shrimp and potatoes, shrimp burger, shrimp sandwich. That- that's about it. - Bubba
  • clcmercyclcmercy Member, Banned Users Posts: 308 Arc User
    edited June 2013
    zekeferrigno wrote: »
    Those guys sound pretty awesome actually.

    Except for the fact that a game admin on these very boards posted that, and I quote, "the report spam feature is intended for use on Real Money Traders only." Any other use of the feature isn't use, but abuse. Seriously. If I don't want to hear someone, that's what the ignore is for(but that also causes chat bans, thanks to Cryptic's broken chat) and report spam I use for what it is intended.
    Occam's Razor makes the cutting clean.
  • knuhteb5knuhteb5 Member Posts: 1,831 Arc User
    edited June 2013
    clcmercy wrote: »
    Pff. You got it good. There's a part of the player base in Neverwinter that seems to think that zone chat IS NOT for advertising for groups, trades or guilds and use the report spam feature to chat ban those that do.

    When fleet recruiters are spamming back to back walls of text while new players are trying to ask mission/equipment questions, you bet your ship they are abusing chat and I will report them for spam. The reason why advertising is more tame now is exactly for that reason-ESD used to have non-stop fleet spam until players got fed up with it. That beind said, I do believe fleet advertising is ok in public chat but in moderation. However if you're going to use it as your own personal fleet advertising platform, go play some other game because I'm not putting up with it and nobody else should have to either.
    reven000 wrote: »
    Hello and thank you for reading this.

    I just want to say that i am worried that people are abusing the zone chat in star bases.
    It was originally designed for trade,fleets, and for players asking for help, sadly this is no longer the case as now it is cluttered with talk of unstar trek related things and pointless insulting banter. I know for a fact that many people that come to star bases simple minimize
    there chat window so they do not have to read or see the zone chat and this is highly damaging to the game in general, as it makes it difficult to ask for help,or trade,or fleet recruiting. Please consider this because if you ignore or insult, bash, or shrug this warning off things will continue to get worse, and we will end up with another Barrens chat that got around 3500 people banned.

    Thank you for your time

    ESD chat is known for being bad, in general. There are about 40 different conversations simultaneously going on at the same time while about 5-10 different fleets advertise, and if you're really unlucky, there are gorn jokers popping lame gorn liners. Basically, the devs are going to have to do something (who knows what) to organize it better. Maybe the devs can have volunteer people help new players like the mods do on here.
    aGHGQIKr41KNi.gif
  • redshirtthefirstredshirtthefirst Member Posts: 415 Arc User
    edited June 2013
    Sad, but true, ESD zone chat is the typical broad MMO channel where all this miscellaneous chat comes and gathers. In WoW, it was the 'trade' channel that was like that since it spanned over all cities/social hubs of the same faction... Name another MMO and it will be similar.
    Server not responding (1701 s)
  • timezargtimezarg Member Posts: 1,268
    edited June 2013
    The problem ESD (and, by extension DS9) have is this: They are the main traffic hubs to be at. The entirety of the Federation faction has to use ESD or DS9 as a primary hub because the boff trainers are there, along with pretty much anything else you might need. As far as I am aware, there are no other boff trainers. Combine that with the fact that the Federation presumably consists of 70-80% of the player base, and you can begin to see the problem. What's worse is now we have a queue system that enables one to grind reputation marks while staying on ESD, and one can do a certain amount of doffing while on ESD as well.

    What would help reduce the sheer amount of traffic (and thus spam) would be to install more boff trainers at more locations, and hopefully doing the same for the KDF faction (having more options on Ganalda would be great). Having boff trainers and other essential services at more locations would disperse the population more, resulting in less spam and less loading/movement lag due to traffic.
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  • crypticarmsmancrypticarmsman Member Posts: 4,115 Arc User
    edited June 2013
    Zone Chat was designed so players in a given Zone could communicate in game across multiple instances. there's no specific purpose of "Only for players to ask questions, Fleet recruit, Trade", etc. It's just there for players to communicate in the game. Like most MMOs it's often banal and many players just decide to 'shoot the breeze' as it were; but I also dislike players who try to impose a 'vision/purpose' to something that's just there for players to talk in game, period.

    If you don't care for it, you can always create a private channel, invite like minded folks, and enforce whatever standards you like (and you can set your chat interface to never display Zone chat.)

    In the end, it's just a game, and as long as people don't get personally demeaning, or say something racist, etc, they can type whatever they want in Zone chat be it a intellectual dissertation, or a series of Gorn jokes.
    Formerly known as Armsman from June 2008 to June 20, 2012
    TOS_Connie_Sig_final9550Pop.jpg
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  • kyeto13kyeto13 Member Posts: 3 Arc User
    edited June 2013
    crypticarmsman wrote: »
    Zone Chat was designed so players in a given Zone could communicate in game across multiple instances. there's no specific purpose of "Only for players to ask questions, Fleet recruit, Trade", etc. It's just there for players to communicate in the game. Like most MMOs it's often banal and many players just decide to 'shoot the breeze' as it were; but I also dislike players who try to impose a 'vision/purpose' to something that's just there for players to talk in game, period.

    If you don't care for it, you can always create a private channel, invite like minded folks, and enforce whatever standards you like (and you can set your chat interface to never display Zone chat.)

    In the end, it's just a game, and as long as people don't get personally demeaning, or say something racist, etc, they can type whatever they want in Zone chat be it a intellectual dissertation, or a series of Gorn jokes.

    I agree here. Zone chat is there to allow any player to talk to each other just by virtue of being in the same game and the same within that game. It allows you to communicate with your fellow players. And, in actuality, ESD would probably have a social lounge where officers would swap war stories and Gorn Jokes. So it functions exactly as it should.

    Also, without a zone wide open chat, there would be little to no way to recruit new players into fleets, or for players to ask general questions. Otherwise, in order to find a fleet, a New player might have to go into a custom made player channel for Fleet Ads, So right out of the gate, they have to know and understand the chat system in order to find a fleet to join. This will lead to frustration and eventually players leaving the game, which is just bad for everyone involved.

    Instead, we instantly have a chat room that is open, useful, and populated. So the new player can walk onto ESD, look around, and then start asking questions to the crowd. They feel like this game HAS people in it, it is popular, and there are others to assist them (maybe).

    Unfortunately, Zone chat is an necessary evil, and in order to work, it needs to be open to be used as the community sees fit.
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  • sander233sander233 Member Posts: 3,992 Arc User
    edited June 2013
    My biggest problem with ESD Zone Chat is that its really intimidating to new players. Several recent recruits in my fleet have said they were absolutely appalled by all of the racist/homophobic/religious-vs-atheist TRIBBLE that was flying around as soon as they stepped onto the station. One of them considered quitting the game, but was relieved to discover that the racial slurs and anti-Semitism didn't follow him out into space.

    THAT IS NOT RIGHT.

    ESD is where new players have to spend a lot of their time. They need help, support, and encouragement from the playerbase, and they need to be assured that yes, this is the 25th Century and mankind has evolved beyond petty bigotry and lame jokes. They don't get that.

    The way I see it, there are two solutions that would be fairly easy to implement.

    Solution #1: Fumigate ESD.
    Post mods in ESD who ID anyone who talks politics/religion/sex or goes on for hours about why ATI is soooo much better than NVidia and slaps them with a 24-hour ban from zone chat.

    Solution #2: "Help" channel.
    All new players (new account) have the Help channel as their default. All other channels are disabled. When they click it, a tip window pops up that explains to them the different channels available, and how to add new ones. Then it encourages them to use the Help channel if they need help at any time. And helpful experienced players can monitor the Help channel and help them out as needed.
    16d89073-5444-45ad-9053-45434ac9498f.png~original

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  • dm19deltadm19delta Member Posts: 206 Arc User
    edited June 2013
    DS9 used to be the spot for all the TRIBBLE, but with the implementation of the rep system, most of it migrated back to ESD. Drozana is a wretched hive of scum and villiany, but I don't see as much of that with the renovations and the addition of the Nimbus adventure zone. I prefer to spend my time in K7. It is mostly devoid of fleet spammers, ERPers, political/religious conversations, etc. It's usually dead in zone chat, but from my experience, you can usually get help from someone if you ask for it. If I have to return to ESD for something, I just turn off zone chat so I don't have to see how educated someone thinks that they are.
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  • empireofsteveempireofsteve Member Posts: 665 Arc User
    edited June 2013
    dm19delta wrote: »
    DS9 used to be the spot for all the TRIBBLE, but with the implementation of the rep system, most of it migrated back to ESD. Drozana is a wretched hive of scum and villiany, but I don't see as much of that with the renovations and the addition of the Nimbus adventure zone. I prefer to spend my time in K7. It is mostly devoid of fleet spammers, ERPers, political/religious conversations, etc. It's usually dead in zone chat, but from my experience, you can usually get help from someone if you ask for it. If I have to return to ESD for something, I just turn off zone chat so I don't have to see how educated someone thinks that they are.

    The problem with turning off the zone chat is that you miss out on the great classics such as Where the Gorn things are, Gorn baby Gorn, Romeo and Gorn, Revenge of the Gorn and many many more.
    NERF CANNONS - THEY NEED A 50% NERF
    CRUISERS NEED A 206% HULL BUFF
  • misterde3misterde3 Member Posts: 4,195 Arc User
    edited June 2013
    empireofsteve wrote: »
    The problem with turning off the zone chat is that you miss out on the great classics such as Where the Gorn things are, Gorn baby Gorn, Romeo and Gorn, Revenge of the Gorn and many many more.

    Not worth it IMO.
    I was in ESD at the time the guest blog about diversity was published.
    Of course people jumped onto the topic and offered their own view on the matter.
    But the debate about diversity quickly took a turn for the worse when the topic shifted to whether homosexual people should be punished with death for being homosexuals...
    Gorn jokes can never be that good.
  • o1derfull1o1derfull1 Member Posts: 294
    edited June 2013
    Solution #1: Fumigate ESD.
    Post mods in ESD who ID anyone who talks politics/religion/sex or goes on for hours about why ATI is soooo much better than NVidia and slaps them with a 24-hour ban from zone chat.

    Wow no. You do realize it's possible to "talk politics/religion/sex" without it turning abusive, right? If not, I am sorry for you at Thanksgiving.

    I'm all for reporting and sanctioning people who use foul language unnecessarily, or engage in outright vitriol and insult spewing.

    But for just having a non-STO related discussion? No. Trade chat in wow, ESD chat in STO, it's supposed to be lively and full of people selling things, advertising fleets, asking questions, talking about hotpockets for dinner, and trolling for negative attention with gorn puns.

    You're supposed to go from the relative quiet and solitude of space travel and questing to a boisterous and populated chat when you get back to civilization. That makes sense, and I enjoy the diversion for the 5-10 minutes I'm there starting a few doff missions, listing stuff on the exchange and banking. After that I'm off, and I appreciate the silence even more :)

    Edit: Also, I lost my copy of Gorns Gone Wild, anyone have one I can borrow?
    _________________________________________________

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  • redsnake721redsnake721 Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited June 2013
    I use to play BGO and there are players from the community that were appointed chat mods and were given ban hammer rights. They did nothing but monitor the system chat. I know for some that would be extremely boring. It is unpaid and strictly voluntary. But if perhaps if STO had chat mod's some of the insanity could be curbed.
  • erei1erei1 Member Posts: 4,081 Arc User
    edited June 2013
    kyeto13 wrote: »
    And, in actuality, ESD would probably have a social lounge where officers would swap war stories and Gorn Jokes. So it functions exactly as it should.
    Call me a lore TRIBBLE if you want (that would be a first), but I honestly can't imagine Picard or Sisko making Gorn jokes all day in a lounge. Even drunk.

    Otherwise, you are correct, zone chat is you average MMO chat, IE cluttered with idiots, zealots, rascist/xenophobic, and random bar talk. There are no rules about speaking game/lore/trade things.

    But don't worry, the vast majority of those people are not worth reading. You can safely disable zone chat, and use your fleet channel, friend list, or custom channel.
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • skywolf73skywolf73 Member Posts: 57 Arc User
    edited June 2013
    asherions call had community moderators when it launched until they found instances of them giving people inside help, but then they had the power to teleport people and other stuff since they had the power of gods just about. they got some nice statues when they got removed tho, and the times i had to use they they were always nice and helpful.
  • remianenremianen Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited June 2013
    ashtaku wrote: »
    Unfortunately, this is a longstanding problem. I have my UI set up to disable zone chat entirely unless I manually turn it back on for some reason... its just not worth the frustration of seeing the nonstop spam.

    Yeah, this is the easiest remedy since the developers won't do anything (because there's no measurable benefit to doing so).
    erei1 wrote: »
    But don't worry, the vast majority of those people are not worth reading. You can safely disable zone chat, and use your fleet channel, friend list, or custom channel.

    True. This is probably the best solution in ALL MMOs. 95% of the spewage in the general/zone chat channel murders brain cells when read so isn't worth paying attention to.

    For the OP, nothing is going to change until a publisher or developer gets the notion that the situation has progressed to the point where it endangers the continuing viability of the game in question. Adding chat monitors, even on a volunteer basis, is cost-prohibitive (no, the volunteers don't cost in an upfront sense, but those volunteers must be monitored and rules must be drawn up to govern the volunteers and those things cost) so not likely to be considered unless it's the most cost-effective solution. Cryptic's auto-chat ban system is probably the easiest method available, even if it is exploitable and somewhat draconian.

    If it aint broke, spend the money elsewhere.
  • reven000reven000 Member Posts: 6 Arc User
    edited July 2013
    all of the troll posts are proof of the problem
  • bumblebushbumblebush Member Posts: 9 Arc User
    edited July 2013
    And you can go in yo options and un-tick system chat:)




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  • omegashinzonomegashinzon Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited July 2013
    reven000 wrote: »
    all of the troll posts are proof of the problem

    Don't worry, they've all relocated to Risa for a short time.
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
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    So realistically, you only need to have the exact number of doffs that you need. ~leadme2kirk
  • theanothernametheanothername Member Posts: 1,511 Arc User
    edited July 2013
    For me personally I experienced a 100% quality improvement of STO after turning off Zonechat about 2y ago.
  • aarons9aarons9 Member Posts: 961
    edited July 2013
    after getting 24 hour chat banned twice for saying hi in zone chat.. i disabled it about 2 weeks after i started playing and havent looked back yet.
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  • medtac124medtac124 Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited July 2013
    I'm sick of people going "Oh Zone chat is only for this and this."

    No. It's not. Zone chat is there so that large numbers of people can communicate with each other at one time. I have never seen any rules regarding what is and isn't allowed there, with the obvious exception being no real money trade spam. That means no cash for ec websites and the like, not fleet ads and discussions. If you don't like it, turn it off.
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  • crypticarmsmancrypticarmsman Member Posts: 4,115 Arc User
    edited July 2013
    reven000 wrote: »
    all of the troll posts are proof of the problem

    ^^^
    Pot, meet Kettle. (Referring to this thread in general):D
    Formerly known as Armsman from June 2008 to June 20, 2012
    TOS_Connie_Sig_final9550Pop.jpg
    PWE ARC Drone says: "Your STO forum community as you have known it is ended...Display names are irrelevant...Any further sense of community is irrelevant...Resistance is futile...You will be assimilated..."
  • logicalspocklogicalspock Member Posts: 836 Arc User
    edited July 2013
    medtac124 wrote: »
    I'm sick of people going "Oh Zone chat is only for this and this."

    No. It's not. Zone chat is there so that large numbers of people can communicate with each other at one time. I have never seen any rules regarding what is and isn't allowed there, with the obvious exception being no real money trade spam. That means no cash for ec websites and the like, not fleet ads and discussions. If you don't like it, turn it off.

    There are many rules regarding what is and is not allowed there, which applies not only to the zone chat specifically but all chat generally.


    You are not allowed to make comments degrading to someone's ethnicity, race, religious belief, sexual orientation, or generally harassing comments. You are not allowed, at the discretion of the GM, to do things which makes others uncomfortable, which could potentially cover a wide array of things such as proselytizing by naming your ship after a deity or promoting a religious belief, name your ship or otherwise promote your own partisan political beliefs or denigrate the political beliefs of others. . . et cetera.

    Theoretically, the GMs have pretty wide latitude to censure you, but I rarely see them do so except in the most egregious cases.
  • erraberrab Member Posts: 1,434 Arc User
    edited July 2013
    ashtaku wrote: »
    Unfortunately, this is a longstanding problem. I have my UI set up to disable zone chat entirely unless I manually turn it back on for some reason... its just not worth the frustration of seeing the nonstop spam.

    Agreed,

    I do the Same
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
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