Well, yeah, this place is a PG13 kiddie forum - them’s the rules around here 
To be fair, I’ve caught flak/vacations on adult/free speech forums or discussion groups (cough reddit cough), because some folks (despite being OK with swear words and such) still have a thin skin or can’t handle someone simply disagreeing with them 
Over on MMO-C forums people catch “infractions” and vacations all the time, despite MMO-C being a free speech venue/allows adult language
I disagree and would suggest you’re unfamiliar with what mass-scale reporting over time with a vengeance can do to someone who doesn’t steadfastly contest every single one of them.
You should be more aware of what happened with mass reporting during legion in rated pvp. Some peoples accounts still bear marks of it because they didn’t know to open tickets to get it cleared at the time.
Well I believe this is more to the point of this marathon discussion. If you actually want to remain part of the discussion (have a voice, be recognized, grow as a person) it is recommended that you comply within the boundaries of accepted behavior.
As a reasonable person you understand that stuff happens, and when it does, you man-up and accept the consequence. I don’t believe this discussion was ever about free speech, or too many rules. I feel it was more about the OP being upset and embarrassed because he was busted.
Having a thick skin does not mean we have to like bad behavior. We can choose to tolerate it, which leads to more people looking the other way and eventually bad behavior becomes the norm. Honestly I would rather spend my time around people (players?) who show respect and act like they want to like each other…and me. Is this unreasonable?
Just happy to be just past Boomer and far before millenial 
Not that there is really anything wrong with either, but Gen X is my jam lol
Me too obviously. But everyone forgets we even exist. 
Guess that is not always bad though…
The only adults in this situation understand that these rules are being abused by the real trolls. Reporting people over the slightest thing to get the automated silences and kicks. An actual adult can handle a conversation no matter what kind of words get said and just move on. Put them on ignore and life goes on. Tell them off and life goes on. Whatever path you take is your choice but that should be the only options.
Now we just handed tools of abuse for trolls to damage other people’s accounts with. I’m willing to bet 99% of the reports being sent are from people who are more salty than the person they’re reporting. This is why they’re salty enough to do the reporting in the first place. Chill relaxed people don’t care either way.
Imagine just giving everyone an RPG to use on other cars when driving. And instead of honking their horn or flipping other people off they just blow up any car that ever so slightly ticks them off. That’s what the report button does. The rules are vague and basically anything can be construed as “toxic” behavior. You only need to go to FF14 to see examples of “toxicity” that people cry and complain about. To literally anyone outside of FF14 it seems like a neutral robotic discussion of two rational people being polite to each other but because of potentially implied tones I guess one person is more toxic than the other rofl what a joke.
They are a for profit corporation. It does not matter if their stocks are traded publicly. That wouldn’t magically render them into a governmental agency. The 1st & 14th amendments do not apply, nor would similar legislation apply in any nation grounded in the principles of democracy. Any US citizen would know this.
Question, if the game rules say no profanity then why is there a profanity filter? It’s turned on by default, which means if you can see profanity in game it’s because you literally turned it off by choice, which means people who turned it off intentionally did so just to suspend players out off spite.
Behavior is indicative of attitude. A word filter can mask the words, but they are ineffective against the motive.
But you haven’t moved on. It was important enough for you to make a lengthy, well articulated post expressing your position. Does this mean you need to grow a thicker skin? Or does it imply that you in fact are not an adult.
I don’t intend to be contrary, I am pointing out how this discussion (argument?) is basically going in circles.
Using a game that is known for being extremely welcoming to new players and having a highly regarded, friendly community probably isn’t the best angle to attack this from.
It means they don’t walk their own talk. And then they wonder why no one takes them seriously.
The only thing that applies is this:
Players agreed to abide by the rules. The rules are clearly defined. As long as the player acts like an adult, and keeps it PG-13, they have nothing to worry about. All this enforcement does is keep the good people good, and forces the not-so-good ones to either improve or move on.
In the end, every new account since launch clicked “Agree”. There is no excusing toxic and ignorant behavior.
I mean, duh?
Why are you even responding to me?
I already know why we all signed and agreed to a contract that merely reiterates the TOS and provides the elaboration that people who willfully violated it will face a suspension or a ban. Seems pretty darn clear… so clear I that I have to puzzle at the motivations of channish wonders that want to wail about "Muh free speechesuz! ".
Because the filter is easily gotten around.
edit:
Oh nononono you DIDN’t! You actually think by posting verbatim EVIDENCE that you will make any more sense???
I don’t know what you were thinking.
I am still on your lawn, selling lemonade.
Because despite agreeing to the rules that say no profanity, some people break those rules. It gives parents an option to add one more layer in place.
The filter, like most filters, is not perfect though and can mess with typing normal words. Many people turn it off for that reason. Not so they can hear things that the game already prohibits. This thread, like many for the past 17 years, explains that. Spotlight on: Harassment
Mature Language Filter (aka The Profanity Filter)
This can be activated within your Interface Options: Main menu (ESC key by default) Click Interface > Social and check - Mature Language Filter.
Once enabled, all inappropriate words in our profanity database will be filtered and masked to appear as jumbled characters, such as ‘*##@&’.
Note: The filter does not excuse the language used. The filter serves as a temporary shield, to help parents of minors and others who do not wish to see it, to block it. Our policies prohibit the use of both clear and masked inappropriate language.
You planning on sharing?
More importantly, did he get a permit for his lemonade selling permit?
Good point!
this is not a bad question at all. I used to wonder this type of thing, because one would think that the profanity filter would achieve the end result. But let me paint a scenario:
You queue for a random bg and everyone is popping off on each other. Someone on your team goes off at you specifically, maybe because they are having a bad day but you don’t know enough about the situation. You just joined, as far as you’re concerned.
Billy Bob calls you some kind of explicative. In the chat, that is replaced with growlixes, those little punctuation and other marked symbols like &, $, #, @, etc. put them together in a random order and you get the idea.
Now, for the sake of abiding by the forum rules, I won’t type growlixes in succession because I don’t want to seem like I am intentionally swearing to make a point. But in leu of growlixes, I’ll say beep instead.
If someone is, say, using a derogatory slur, and they say something along the lines of “nice try beep you play like a beep go beep bla bla insert a ur mom joke here” etc. it doesn’t really change the fact that the language used is intentionally inflammatory by design. It’s mean spirited and downright hurtful, not to mention that anyone with a functioning brain can simply fill in the gaps. That is to say we all know exactly what you mean to say in that context.
If this was an isolated incident and you are having a good day, you’d probably think the reaction was simply not proportional to the game at hand. So you might think it’s funny. Haha, you go about your day.
Other times, maybe you’re not quite there, and when people come into the game and spam you with that type of nonsense and maybe, just maybe, one of those incidents just rubs you the wrong way that one time. And it’s enough to lower your mood, which in turn means that you are not enjoying the game and are significantly more likely to pass off that negativity onto someone else.
This goes on for long enough, and you will end up with a game a lot like WoW. A game where people are genuinely upset and malding over a social contract which basically ammounts to little more than a friendly, friendly neighborly reminder that people should consider being nicer to their fellow community.
That was an overly cumbersome way of saying that people already knows what the growlixes mean so censoring them effectively doesn’t ammount to much, it’s just a way for the game to not have a bunch of slurs and other unnecessary language cluttering chat.
