Chat Filter

[Dumbmutt]

Chat Filter:
I've always wondered how different the bans and behavior could function if we had a filter for certain words. I know that swearing on the server is allowed in certain context, but this post is more related to different types of Slurs used on the server.
I believe having a filter for these types of words would be great because:
- It's a warning without actually having to warn/punish a player for saying these words, as if the word is filtered the player should come to the realization that the word is not condoned on the server. (It would also help to show players who didn't read the rules that this server does not allow this, too.)
- I do not believe that it is a very large thing to do? I'm unsure how different plugins work with each other but I do not believe it'd be very server impacting to have a system as such.
- Bans for finding loopholes in filtered words could consist of "Filter Bypass" punishments, which will show that the player knew what they were saying and had the intent of bypassing the filter. (Though this is not 100% foolproof as misspellings could happen)

I don't really see the reason this is not a good idea? I'm sure there's flaws with my reasoning somewhere but I think having something like this could really benefit how certain words are handled/said on the server.
Anyways this is just my opinion after all, I hope that this helps.
<3 Mutt

 

[_Trains_]

I’m a fan of this idea. Though yes they will attempt to find loopholes, they most likely will not be as bad as the actual slur used and regardless that player will be muted/banned for his actions.

I would like to extend this filter to include all map puzzle answers. This would allow puzzle speedrunning to not need mutes, allows new whities who have slipped up in some way get a bit of a safety net, and helps greens like djnysted when spilling answers for miscellaneous reasons. This keeps the server’s puzzles spoiler free and means we don’t have to continue to tell players not to tell puzzle answers in chat.
What do you think?

 

[thepookabear]

If I recall correctly the main reason we don’t have a filter is because people just bypass them with substituting letters with other characters. I don’t think it’s a bad idea, but people that are using slurs usually are banned anyways so I’m not sure how it would really help anything. I think using it for puzzle answers is a good idea for sure though.

 

[rickyboy320]

In theory, chat filters are great, but they're not easy to implement.... at all.
To give a sense of context, here's a good explanation by the great tom scott:

I'm very much a believer in that chat filters do not work to prevent anything, as even catching things like

Spoiler

"n1gga"

and all the weird different ways you can spell it, is simply impossible (and there are also these weird fonts people use that aren't matchable with normal characters). In other words, to have an even remotely usable filter, we're not in 'easy to implement' territory any more.

All map puzzle answers, again, sounds great in theory, but in practice this is difficult. Quite a number of our answers are natural language, e.g., if an answer was batman, we wouldn't want to censor this in default chat, and if we would, it would give away the answer by censoring it.

That there are possibilities to say things in chat that can be taken offensively is just a fact of life, even with chat filter, someone could be greatly offended by using synonyms or just normal language. I think what we can do is prevent them from doing any more damage by banning/muting them ASAP, but filtering out the 'bad words' is simply infeasible.

 

[Big]

In theory, chat filters are great, but they're not easy to implement.... at all.
To give a sense of context, here's a good explanation by the great tom scott:

I'm very much a believer in that chat filters do not work to prevent anything, as even catching things like

Spoiler

"n1gga"

and all the weird different ways you can spell it, is simply impossible (and there are also these weird fonts people use that aren't matchable with normal characters). In other words, to have an even remotely usable filter, we're not in 'easy to implement' territory any more.

All map puzzle answers, again, sounds great in theory, but in practice this is difficult. Quite a number of our answers are natural language, e.g., if an answer was batman, we wouldn't want to censor this in default chat, and if we would, it would give away the answer by censoring it.

That there are possibilities to say things in chat that can be taken offensively is just a fact of life, even with chat filter, someone could be greatly offended by using synonyms or just normal language. I think what we can do is prevent them from doing any more damage by banning/muting them ASAP, but filtering out the 'bad words' is simply infeasible.

Your points are completely valid. However, I do believe some whites use the slurs without realization that they’ll get banned for doing so. Sure, this isn’t the case for many, but if we can even lower the amount of slurs used in chat, I would consider that a good thing.

 

[BTJRedwing]

I disagree Big, any white joining and using these slurs are just saying them plainly in chat without context, clearly trying to just get themselves banned. It's common sense to assume spamming racial slurs isn't encouraged behavior.

Regarding the chat filter in general, I don't think it would accomplish much. These types of players will type a slur, receive a message that this kind of language isn't allowed, and then spend the next few minutes trying to bypass it by substituting numbers or spelling it slightly wrong. In the end, they'll be trying to bypass the filter and get banned anyway. Regarding puzzle answers, it would be wonderful to have some kind of safety net to avoid answers in chat, but I don't think a chat filter is a practical way to do so.

 

[maxoubar]

I don't think a chat filter would change anything as many have pointed out.
However I like the puzzle filter idea and would like to go further on that one. I don't know how hard (I'm guessing pretty hard) it would be to implement, but there could be a command (/silent maybe) that would make everything you say go in a separate chat only visible to you (as /msg Capry5 puzzleanswer is only visible to Capry5) but could still count as an input if you interact with a password script.

 

[ezzaezza]

Introducing a filter in theory would be brilliant. However, as mentioned above it is extremely hard to implement, as well as extremely hard to actually manage. Bypassing filters is easy, we all know this. Hence why this being integrated really wont work well as players will just bypass it.
Regarding the puzzle answers filter, yes this makes sense because I myself am guilty of posting answers in chat while speed running or just playing the map. However, as mentioned above, some generic words like this are used in answers - ‘yellow, annoyed, right, left’. Words that are used in a normal sentence. Half our sentences would be filtered and it’d make talking a pain. This is slightly unrelated however chat filters also censor some strange words. My name said as ‘ezza’ is blocked on a server, and I fear that implementing a filter will cause words to be blocked unnecessarily.
Overall, I do think this is a great idea in theory, but in practice it just does not work unfortunately.

 

[Dumbmutt]

You can set what words you want to be filtered, and the plan was not to prevent players from bypassing/using slurs completely, it was meant to try to reduce it. You will always have bad apples who try to break rules for attention but in my mind I felt this could be a helpful way in slightly reducing the large amounts of people that are just instantaneously banned without warning just for saying one slur.

 

[Alphaesia]

I'm actually very much in favour of this. A lot of people get banned for using a slur usally without warning. While of course some will circumvent, it adds a nice fence that people will need to overcome and should hopefully cut down on usage.