Looks at the forums Are you sure about that?
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Your experience has been vastly different than mine if that’s the case.
are you incapable of saying anything but the “wrong thing”?
can you start a simple conversation? as in maybe just toss out a “how’s your day going?” or make a “posture check” post or anything that would file under typical MMO chat.
if not, then just go to barrens and have at it.
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If you are so afraid of saying something offensive enough to get reported for, you might want to work on your social skills.
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You have just crossed a line!
I do 90% of my in game socializing on the forums.
Outside of: PvP, sporadic tells with friends, and the occasional heads up in chat about a rare spawn I almost never speak in game. Last week I made two jokes in /trade and I think that’s the first time I spoke in trade since November.
I’m not afraid of “getting in trouble” as much as I don’t have much reason to chat. plus, someone said it already, typing to chat is meh, especially if you don’t use a keyboard to play.
I don’t find any of the chats offensive, but it sometimes scrolls so fast I keep chat channels on a completely separate tab, especially when in city.
I do mostly M+ so I rarely say anything. The best M+ rule is if you want the key to complete, keep your mouth shut. Trying to offer feedback or criticism only results in somebody rage quitting and bricking the key. The only thing you should say is GG at the end of the run.
I have the same feeling with life in general. I’ve always prided myself on not being racist or a bigot, but nowadays so many stupid things will get you labeled, and the possible out come of that can be scary on the internet.
I’ve basically removed 95% of my online footprint. Killed Fartbook, Twitter, and others.
Aside from chatting with my guild, this is probably the only place I do participate, and even then I try to keep it light.
Are you trying to gaslight me?
Annoy enough people- even if it’s just your personality and they don’t like it- and you’ll find yourself getting temp banned because Blizzard’s reporting system is completely automated and runs on the, “Where there is smoke, there’s fire” principle.
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I don’t do public social media but not because I worry about people getting upset. I hate that Facebook, Twitter, and all the rest use it for data mining and sell my data.
We have had the same basic rules against profanity, masked profanity, slurs, hateful comments, trolling, spam, sexual innuendo, etc. in place since 2004 when the game released. I think people forget that. It is easier to report now than it was back then, but the rules have not changed.
Be nice in public channels and groups. It also helps to follow the really old fashioned advice to avoid discussing religion and politics among strangers. Heck, it is advice for a smooth holiday dinner too.
People can, and should, save the spicy for their friends groups who they know are good with it. That is why private social clubs and things have existed for thousands of years. Public behavior around strangers and private behavior are two different things.
Sometimes I feel like the internet blurred basic social manners and conventions.
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I’ll take this statement a bit further: I think the internet has taught an entire generation that there are no consequences to their actions. A bunch of sociopaths.
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i have not encountered this problem at all. if racial slurs, sexist/homophobic/etc. jokes are so ingrained in your personality that you worry they might slip out at any moment, i think your time would be better spent working on yourself vs playing a video game
it’s not just one generation, though. the most unhinged stuff i see on facebook is from people my parents’ age, not people my kids’ age.
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Honestly I’m not surprised people are fleeing chat in-game. I’ve noticed the massive drop myself. Especially over the last couple years. Discord is where everyone is at nowadays anyway since the in-game social tools are still mired in 2004 era programming.
I got hit with a social reminder agreement recently. I can only assume it was triggered by someone reporting me in a norm/heroic sofo mog run when I got frustrated because there was this one goober who picked up one of the 3 orbs and had no clue as to what to do with it. I mean, ok. I’ll tell them what to do with it (no one else was). Yet still they said nothing and gave no indication of following instructions. So I got annoyed and said (and I quote): “tf you doing?”.
I mean sure, its masked profanity, but reporting someone for what is a fairly innocuous statement after attempting to teach someone who ignores you, is quite frankly, ridiculous.
So I’ve learnt my lesson. Keep my mouth shut and let the noobs wipe the group. 
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That’s the best part of holiday dinners though?
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im tanking a 5 man maybe 5 years ago or so with prot warrior. Actually it was in Legion, I believe.
Anyway, Im chugging rage potions, my health bar isnt moving because Im mitigating and the healer is doing his job.
LMAO…some CLOWN crying DPS player starts screaming hes reporting me for cheating because HE didnt feel my health bar was going down enough lmao.
yeah…this is the “MMO” I WANT to get involved with other players in…lol…Not.
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Not likely triggered by anything. I get them too every once in a while and I don’t even do group activity. I also don’t break any rules. What you might get for being reported is an automated Warning in-game to the Bnet account. It can show up on any char or game version when it finally pops. It looks rather different than the Social Contract.
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There’s always a reason— whether it’s one we agree with or not is an entirely different story. And it’s just a warning. Which means just be careful. And if it didn’t get to a squelch, then nothing to be concerned with. And if there was a ticket and you weren’t sanctioned, nothing was worth sanctioning you for. So the system is working as intended.
Sarcasm isn’t toxic. But you do you. Keep in mind, there is always doubt on such things, because of how often the “I did nothing wrong” is proven untrue in the CS forums.
Yet I’ve never been sanctioned in game when I talk in chat channels. As someone else said:
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Why would I care if I offend some stranger on the internet? I’ll say what I want when I want and if I get a account action I’ll deal with it when it comes.
Secretly there’s a stealthed gnome repeatedly reporting you as it follows you around Azeroth. 
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Same same
Personally I haven’t chatted in the “major” chat channels such as /trade or /general for years at this point
Only places I still chat with strangers are small-scale 5 man groups (such as M+) and in a battleground setting (since communication/calling incs is essential). I feel like you’re generally safe in such settings because…
- in the worst case scenario, 4 other players doesn’t seem to be enough false reports to trigger an automated silence
- most of the banter is related to the immediate task at hand (either dungeon stuff or calling out battleground incs) - so the risk is low when compared to a “global” channel like /trade where there could possibly be hundreds of eyes (…including troll types) on the chatbox
- when the conversation randomly turns to controversial or political topics, I notice people just exchange words rather than filing false reports against the other party
Just too risky to chat with the broader “WoW general public” nowadays (such as in /trade), the community aspect of WoW is dead and has been dead for a while now. It’s only marginally better in the “classic” versions, but even there the majority of players don’t socialize/talk with strangers
Some of it happened naturally due to people becoming less social in general (…including in the real-life world), but there’s no doubt people becoming wary of false-reporting/trigger-happy troll types also played a role in the chat channels becoming mostly sterile/dead and mostly dominated by copy-pasted RMT/WTS advertisements
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