Moderate moderation

Recently, a fellow Avatar with the initials FF seems to have had his name forcibly changed to something with "apple" in it. Understandably, there is not much detail of the circumstances.

While I do understand the desire to have a safe place to play here, and have no desire to exclude anyone, I would like to voice my concern or how "offensive" can be interpreted. We have an awesome community here and want nothing to hurt that. However, I also would like to caution that judging the offensiveness of something can be a difficult thing to balance.

I have an alt that has my legal last name. A name that can be seen as offensive to at least a few people. It's not a joke name or a name generally seen as humorous. Most people do not see it as offensive. Some do. Which is correct?

Will I get a force rename when it is eventually reported?

Am I safe from a forced rename because it is my legal last name?

Will I be requested to prove it is my legal name?

No matter the answer to the above questions, ask yourself one question. Why?

I ask these quests not only to point out the interpretation and possible loophole issues. But, I also genuinely want to know if I will be able to use my legal name if I so choose and if so, why it makes sense that I get a loophole and others who choose names that are less directly offensive than my legal name don't.


Thank you

P.S. Mods, If you must take actions on this post, it would be much appreciate if you'd just lock this post instead of outright deleting it.

 

I can see both sides. though I have seen many questionable names that seem to have slipped through. I can't see having to do a name change unless the name is outright offensive. Though as stated above its how the name is interpreted. No one will ever be happy. So, I believe there should be further discussions to see how broad of boundary is needed.

 

Normally I don't care about this sort of thing but this time I agree that someone went overboard at Port. Fruck has been a member of the community longer than I can remember and in no way is his name "offensive". If I see someone named Elvis should I report because I don't like blue suede shoes?

 

Wait they made Fruck change his name? Seriously... especially after all this time and how involved he's been in the community? For frucks sake

 

This is not a game for children at clearly has a age 16+ or 18+ rating concept. if we have a storyline which leads to your character possibly mass killing children, then yeah, I think that naming convention that isn't racist, gender biased, homophobic or directly attacking a person, class, or race then there seems to be no reason to change the name. Even a name with full blown profanity should be allowed. Again, we can kill children in mass in this video game in a certain quest so... yeah... we're well beyond PG13. lol

But - terms of service & any additional agreements are set by the company. We can only voice our feelings. My opinions are my own and not specific to any group, guild, company, or other organization I may be related to. This is just my thoughts.

 

Now, as a dyslexic I often make my own jokes when ive misread something, however...

Ive seen situations (in other games) where a name was changed because of copyright or total lack of common sense.. Normally in this situation if the user wasnt on they are given a free pass to put in a name change to something more of their own choice.. or if on, they got to pick.

In this case the name wasnt wrong. I feel sorry for FF. I really do. I respect that port can change any of our names if they felt they should, or needed that name for something else or frankly any reason that suited them such as "its monday" but, I do hope a mail was sent to explain why and offering a free name change to something of choosing.


no one else from the UK remembers the ads for French Connection UK .. yeah all they did was post the 4 letters on billboards for ages..

 

I've seen a name moderated because it had 'dook' in it so nothing suprises me in this area anymore. Infact, I lie, I'm suprised fruck wasn't force changed earlier.

BTW, I'm one of those in the camp that says any game where you can crush children to death should not be name changing people with at worse , PG rated names.

 

Ive seen an avatar running around named Pen Isup. It ruins my day that some moron thinks that's a funny or clever name. I sure hope we are not a bunch of 12 year old boys on here laughing at rest room humor and misogyny. Its just so immature that I don't want to be around it. I sure hope they will make him change it.

 

If a name is found to be against our naming policy, we may have to remove it, though we always give the player the opportunity to have it changed to something more appropriate of course. This is usually through reaching out via our customer service team.

We would actually suggest you NOT use your real name for your character, as that can be a privacy issue for some. To note, this name case did not involve a real name.

Please have them contact us via support@portalarium.com, list what their name was, what it is now, three alternative suggestions they would like to have (should we not be able to change it back), and we'll be more than happy to help them resolve their concern.

If you have a concern about your own character name, please feel free to ask and we'll be happy to tell you if it's against our naming policy or not. Almost certainly it will not if you're taking the time to ask us in this way. We don't change names arbitrarily or if there's any doubt it's a concern, and will always be glad to hear out the person, should there be any sort of misunderstanding on our part.

Thanks,
Berek

 

So what if my neighbor wanted to play and at the same time use his real name, D*ck Dixon. Would that be moderated? I mean I get it if we're talking about a name like "Tits Mcgee" but in this case like @Deadly Habit said, What the "fruck?"

 

It probably would be fine if that's indeed your real name. We partly moderate names (which rarely happens btw, we've only changed two this past week) out of broad necessity to prevent spammers and trolls from abusing the system, and it can be difficult to confirm from an honest name without followup. This is why we ask you to contact us at support@portlarium.com if there's any concern.

 

Heh, in all fairness he does go by Richard but you get my point. At least folks could use their real names even if they might be considered "inappropriate". Thanks for clarifying Berek!

 

Quit complaining and choose a harmless name like Cunning Linguist.

 

His name got changed about 1 day after he arrived.

 

Or Master Debater!

 

Wait.... isn't Tits Mcgee the name of that pub owner in brittany estates cordy?

 

Yeah not after he'd had the same name since persistence and is just getting changed now... I swear it seems like this was done on a whim.
Also considering he's active on the discord, streams etc for ages, but NOW it's in violation?
I just don't get some decisions around here at times...

 

You and I are talking about different people.

 

If I understand you correctly, If my parents had named me ****, I would probably be safe. But, since that didn't happen, it would probably not be safe for me to use. This seems inconstant at best and leaves a very wide variation to enforcement.

Perhaps the naming policy could do with review.

Thanks

 

Fruck that!