Moderate moderation

One persons freedom of speech is mortally offensive to another player even sometimes in the same country though usually it's different meanings in different countries, fanny means something completely to our friends over the pond and I'm unsure if the name Fanny Craddock would pass muster for a 'roleplaying' brit but she was a real person much loved in the UK back in the 1960's for her cookery shows.

I do, and it was very clever marketing that got the PC brigade out in the streets and gave the brand even more exposure.

Alas though it's the world we live in today, and I won't be surprised when we get gender neutral starting characters in games, however be assured all the men will still make female avatars

 

@Fungus rest assured. Women also make male characters too!

 

You know this wouldnt be an issue if people werent notorious for trying to mad-gab thier way around the name policy.

The alternative would be that there be no naming policy

 

Here is the thing.

If you are involved in any heated forum topics, if you are involved in PvP, if you are involved in competitive sales, if you are a streamer, or if someone simply don't like you, then be prepared to have actions taken against you for:

• Your avatar name
• Your forum name
• Your vendor name(s)
• Your custom books
• Your posts
• Your language in chat/zone/nobles
• Your guild manifesto
• Your guild name
• Etc etc etc

This since you will get reported and when you get reported it is a roll of the dice.
We have seen this repeatedly over the years.

 

wait a minute. What kinda crazy policy is that? If my real name is something offensive I can use it but others can't? A name is either offensive and not allowed or it isn't in my opinion. Show me your drivers license is going toooo fart.

 

I must be missing something - what difference does a person's real name have to do with in-game name? If it is offensive/immature/rude I could care less if it is their real name - even if their fathers have passed on generations of it....there should be no 'free pass' because of having an offensive real name. #smh

 

The game is famed for that and sadly one of the main reasons people avoid it. :/

 

Man, my real name belongs to clothing designer. I am tempted to name one of my characters that just to be a troll but I am too lazy.

 

it's okay, "Berek" is a clothing designer as well.

The worst part of the name change, IMO, is the double standard about what your "replacement name" can be.

For instance: "a cat" or "Le Chat" (french for "the cat") was not allowed, because of undisclosed reasons... but no doubt those names would be fine for a freshly-rolled avatar.

 

Agreed.

Its all a POV without disclosure. Which isn't a good thing.

For instance lets play a small game.
"Spot the offense".
I will list six names and you tell me what is offensive about them.

Then after you have made up your mind about which is which click the spoilers below for some PoV on why and for the Game Twist.

OK? Let's start.

• Stinky Britches
• Sunny Fruit
• DebbieDoesSota
• Waldolanus Farfoot
• Menzies
• Nob the Stableboy

Spoiler: Spot the Offense - contains explicit references

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Please note that the auto-filter in use by the forum might censor some of the words below.

• Stinky Britches
  Remove the 'r' and you have Stinky Bitches.
  Also a diaper reference as in 'poopy pants'.
  Hence in combination s a coprophilia sexual reference.
  .
• Sunny Fruit
  Fruit is a pejorative word for a male homosexual, and also more specifically for a flamboyant male homosexual and/or a male homosexual prostitute.
  Sunny in context of the above is a synonym for gay, as in the old meaning of cheerful.
  .
• DebbieDoesSota
  "NNN does YYY" is travel/tourism program reference which then separately had porn versions in "Debbie does YYY". According to IMDB the most popular being Debbie does Hell.
  Where the implication of 'does' means they will have sex with members of the YYY location, in this case SotA.
  .
• Waldolanus Farfoot
  Waldo is a reference to "Where is Waldo".
  Where Waldo can be found is in the end of the word ie "-anus".
  Farfoot in context of the above is a foot far up in the behind. Usually a reference to violence as in;
  I'm going to kick Waldo so far up your *** you won't be able to find him.
  .

• Menzies
  Reference to menstruation.
  .
• Nob the Stableboy
  Nob is slang for penis.
  Stableboy in context is reference to hung like a horse.
  In combination it is a reference to Lady Chatterly and porn versions thereof, and having sex with servants.
  .

Now before clicking the Twist spoiler - think about if you were a moderator, which names do you think violates the rules for in game names/content?

.

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Spoiler: Game Twist

The twist is that two of those names were actual avatar names which were moderated, two were the names the moderator chose as the forced replacement, two are NPC names.

Yup that is right, the names the moderators replaced the moderated names with were also offensive from a different PoV and names given to NPCs are also offensive from some PoV.
Which is why decisions made based from PoV is a slippery slope of good intentions with bad results. This since the eye of the beholder is a dirty one indeed.

The names were all chosen because they have been reported and discussed in the forums as offensive.

Now to the second part of the game, try to guess which two of the four were the moderated names, and which two were the replacements given by the moderators, and which two are NPC names. (The last should be easy if you are a veteran SotA player).

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Spoiler: Game Twist - Two for Two for Two

"Stinky Britches" was moderated to "Sunny Fruit"
"DebbieDoesSota" was moderated to "Waldolanus Farfoot"
Menzies is an NPC pussycat no less welcoming you to Owl's Head.
Nob the Stableboy is also an NPC in Owl's Head next to the Town Crier and Public Vendor, Nob will also teach you emotes like /leanleft /leanright /leanback if you ask about his job and give you a gift if you talk about 'mount'.

.

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Please note that the above is for entertainment and to showcase how slippery the slope is when games decide to go such a route.
Also please note that my personal view on moderation decisions does not necessarily coincide with past decisions made.

 

In the UK the only thing that Menzies references is to a chain of shops in the high street but they went bust or got taken over pre 2001

In DaoC I had the name Smeghead, again in the UK this was a reference to a TV show called Red Dwarf and used constantly throughout each show and watched by anyone from age 10 and above, I was informed in America it had a totally different meaning but I was given the opportunity to change the name to something of my choosing.

My point is, sometimes a discussion may be needed with said 'offender' pre name change, it can be just a cultural difference opposed to outright abuse of naming convention, though it's enlightening to see the explanation to some of the above from @Spoon as I was clueless about some of those meanings and I'm no prude!

BTW before I get called out for a name change I can be seen currently run round playing a char called 'Killing Joke' - why? because 1. their the best band EVER (40th anniversary tour this year) 2. she will be entering into some PvP shenanigans soon and she will be a joke trying to kill folks and dying horribly no doubt.

Killing Joke - The Wait

 

Yea, almost anything can be construed as offensive if one has enough of an imaginative mind and know a lot about pop-culture.


Which is why moderation from user reports is such a dangerous thing to encourage. This since if I in the report write it from a specific PoV then the moderation when reading the report will more likely favor the interpretation as a given. While the opposite would be more prudent.

For instance, regarding the NPCs, I don't think that it is likely that Lum selected those names to make those innuendos that I pointed out, instead I think the intent was something else.
However the author's intent doesn't make the existing references any less real.

Which is the problem. It should be the common use and intent that should rule, not what an imaginative mind can find.
Where how it is now, then if one has a beef with someone - one can easily construe/construct a case vs them and report them, then hope that the moderation will act accordingly.
We have had multiple examples of such occasions of harassment during this game's history.

For instance if you and I had a beef and we were persons of no virtue then you could Report that the name Spoon is in reference to "Illegal activities" and I could Report that the name Fungus is a "Sexual reference". Both of which are rule violations.
https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...-and-cheating-exploiting-policy-update.58914/
Now mind you, both of those accusations would be true. But it would be totally unreasonable for the moderation to go along with those accusations since the common use of both words are benign without such connotation.

So just like the calls to change the NPC names was dismissed as unreasonable, the vast majority of reports should be equally dismissed for a healthy community environment. Anything else encourages harassment.

Especially when we take an international multicultural audience into account. Since then the possibilities for unintentional rule violations based on PoV is astronomical.

 

Actually Stinky Britches is valid as a problem in its own right as stinky = smell , britches are slag for jeans etc..

 

It is positive and encouraging to see what a fine job Barek and company are doing; I do not believe a finer, more competent moderation team has ever been assembled.

 

Just for fun i used the foreign offensive name checker with all participating in this discussion.
Please be aware it does also phonetic check. So how it sounds when you speak it out for other Countries


Source: Wordsafety.com

Fondvitae:

No results found for this search. There's a reasonable chance that it's safe...

But you can never be quite sure. There are over 6,000 languages spoken in the world. Somewhere deep in the Amazonian jungle, "Fonsvitae" could be an insult that gets you killed.



@liz_the_wiz:

“wee”English: urine (children's word, primarily American) - Phonetic problem

@Spoon:

• “poon”English: female genitalia
  Direct match at start or end, potentially serious!
  360 million native speakers, about 1.5 billion speakers in total.
• “poo”English: excrement
  Match inside word, may not be a problem.
  360 million native speakers, about 1.5 billion speakers in total.
• “po”German: butt
  Match inside word, may not be a problem.
  90 million native speakers.
• “spook”English: white person
  Possible phonetic match, worth checking.
  360 million native speakers, about 1.5 billion speakers in total.

@Fungus:

No results found for this search. There's a reasonable chance that it's safe...

But you can never be quite sure. There are over 6,000 languages spoken in the world. Somewhere deep in the Amazonian jungle, "Fungus" could be an insult that gets you killed.

@eli: save

@3devious: save


@Kpopgurl:

“po”German: butt
Match inside word, may not be a problem.
90 million native speakers.



@Cordelayne:

• “körd”Swedish: fucked up
  Direct match at start or end, potentially serious!
  8.7 million native speakers.
• “layno”Russian: **** (Belarus) s.h.i.t
  Possible phonetic match, worth checking.
  155 million native speakers.

@Vladamir Begemot : save

@Sylence: save


@Falcon Rainfeather:

• “her”Russian: d.i.c.k (more typically romanized as 'kher')
  Direct match at start or end, potentially serious!
  155 million native speakers.
• “con”French: idiot (or female genitalia in some contexts)
  Match inside word, may not be a problem.
  75 million native speakers in Europe, North America and Africa.
• “fea”Spanish: ugly
  Match inside word, may not be a problem.
  Over 400 million native speakers.

@Draugur2: save



@that_shawn_guy:

• “hat”English: idiot
  Match inside word, may not be a problem.
  360 million native speakers, about 1.5 billion speakers in total

@redfish:

“fis”Swedish: fart
Match inside word, may not be a problem.
8.7 million native speakers.

 

This type of wording is used in children's materials, though...



I would think that makes it safe.

 

Joking aside... I find this very, very interesting... for a child and a parent that are both embalmed in the arms of love... the smell of stinky pants is something funny. The diaper exploded, thats funny ! Right ?

Oh sure we get it, it stinks... but in truth, its only part of life, so we laugh it out and it helps us focus on prettier things. Right ?

We have an expression here when someone farts and it stinks, we say jokingly... oh man you're really healthy !

Its tongue in cheek of course... but everyone gets it, we're laughing it out.

When did the "other" kind of adult appear... the one that simply hates any natural stinky smell, the one that says you shouldn't cry, that you shouldn't look at people in the eyes ? I see parents around here now playing short straw over who will change the baby's diaper because it makes b0th of them puke. Like literally, they have that gag reflex... its your baby man chill out.

It's 100% psychological, this aversion... confabulated out of nowhere for that kind of adult. Oh and it has nothing to do with age... we had ample examples here... some very young adults get irritated and even bully roleplayers, in a roleplaying game.

Its the same gag reflex issue that they have. It's all fake, so beyond roleplaying make-believe that its ultra-ironic.

I cannot understand that PoV, ever.

It's beyond me. Land of the free, if you're not going to moderate names like you do for heraldry, then don't put arbitrary rules on them... its counterproductive, especially if said mod exacts revenge upon the offender as @Spoon has shown us. It looks very immature, the same kind of immature that this kind of bullying adult displays. Isn't it the same kind of culture that says burping at the table is completely unacceptable ? My grandmother was beaten at school because she was left handed and sometimes took breaks of writing with her wrong hand, same thing.

Lets be real...

 

This game is less frucking awesome now.