Trade chat: Whats your take?

Community General Discussion
1

I’ve resorted to just removing trade on all my toons, cause it’s always people talking about political-propaganda (every direction), XXX-related stuff that should absolutely not be discussed in under-18 enviroments, hate or bullying; generally anything negative.

It’s very rare that I see “wholesome” talks, even if it’s nice when that happens.

We used to have GMs monitoring these chats live, at least 1 on each server as far as I am aware.
I remember seeing GMs answer in trade or general, especially on occassions where someone was being vulgar and claiming “GMs don’t care - continues to insert unfit language here -” - I remember a GM saying “Oh, don’t we? :)” and then the person got booted offline as far as we saw when we did /who or such.

Why is it that trade is allowed to be this way now?
It is very demoralizing and sad, most of the time, and I have to convince myself “There are good humans out there” after reading even a sentence in this chat space.

This is just my view, of course.
I’m just not in that mindset of “being offensive” or “Rude” as something “cool”, I guess.
Also not into the whole “Hate/Praise on X” idea, in any direction…
So for me, Trade chat is a no-go; and if I accidentally have it left on when on an alt; it makes me sad - or at least sigh, and then turn it off.

I’d also like to add that I main on EU - Argent Dawn. One of the biggest RP servers.
I’m not sure if it’s worse there than other places, but I know it’s “bad” (in my view) on servers I have been on sporadically too. (Including a server on US)

Thanks for reading my “Ted-Talk”. :cat2:

So - now to the questions;

  • What do YOU think of Trade chat now?
  • Do you see trading going on? (except WTS boost)
  • Do you have it enabled?
  • Do you enjoy it/ dislike it?
  • Do you think it should be monitored again?
  • What is your most common experience with trade chat?
1 Like
2

Trade chat on my server is dominated by a kindly senior citizen that updates us all on his daily goings on. If you dont like trade chat on your server transfer to mine!

4 Likes
3

No, they did not do that, ever. They don’t have enough humans to monitor every chat channel on every server. They rely on players to right click report chat that breaks the rules.

What you might be thinking of, was a trial they did on an RP server known for colorful chat. They had a GM there to watch and it made things worse. Instead of reporting, people assumed the GM would catch it all. People also went out of their way to antagonize the GMs and flood chat with “edgy” stuff.

So no, there were never GMs sitting around in chat channels and the one time they tried having someone in Elwynn it got worse.

If you have an issue. Right click and report. That captures the name, server, chat channel, time, and the chat logs so a GM can review them. It also mutes that person for the rest of your play session so you don’t have to see them again unless you log out.

3 Likes
4

I mean, you can tell me “this wasn’t a thing” all you want… but I - know - it was in vanilla.
We saw GM answer on our server, one of the examples was mentioned.

Maybe not for US? But for EU, it existed.

And telling me that “If YOU have an issue” thing is just not necessary. :confused:
This is about the overall attitude in trade that seems common, and I do report people; frequently. They just seem to continue doing their thing - or new ones replace them.

6 Likes
5

It was rare, but I absolutely recall GMs popping into trade back in vanilla. I remember a GM saying going into old ironforge was a bannable offense when I asked about it in trade.

6 Likes
6

That sounds really cozy! If I played mainly on US, I’d pop over.
Wonder if there’s such a place on EU… :frowning:

2 Likes
7

I have been playing since Vanilla too. It most certainly was not done in the US or by US staff. I know the staff and have been to the offices myself. The Forum Support Agents have discussed this before on teh CS forums. They never had GMs just sitting around monitoring chat. It was not a task they were ever assigned.

They did pop in game in various ways back then, certainly. They were not assigned to monitor chat channels though like the OP is saying. Does not mean they could not, but it was not an assigned task. They relied on people making tickets back then. Now they have the right click report system which creates the ticket for them.

Edit - something else I want to say. Trade is a suggested use for the channel, but chit chat is not prohibited.

8

What do YOU think of Trade chat now?

Well, it’s not really used much for trading, there are a few guild advertisements, some people looking to get together to raid. I lot of interesting talking. I am on RP servers though, the people like to have a lot of fun and talk on these servers.

Do you see trading going on? (except WTS boost

I do see a bit of it, quite a few ‘Cheaper then Auction House’ posts. People selling mounts, and a lot of trade for transmog items.

Do you have it enabled?

Yes, because I like seeing the chatter, and what the current topic of the hour happens to be when I go into a big city.

Do you enjoy it/ dislike it?

I kind of like it, I can ask random questions and am sure to get an answer and some help, if I decide to clean up the banks I just give free stuff away to people who want it, pets, toys, stuff like that.

Do you think it should be monitored again?

I honestly don’t remember when it was monitored. The trade chat on my servers doesn’t get that bad.

What is your most common experience with trade chat?

Usually someone having a discussion about life, the universe, everything. Jokes flying around, and people asking questions and for help.

9

I’ve had Trade Chat turned off for at least 10 years.

3 Likes
10

My post tells of them monitoring them - aka; it was checked.
Now it’s clearly running rampant, it’s daily filled with really vile talks.
They had it in EU, we had GM’s in our chats.
If you’re right and they were never “assigned” to do this, then whoever put up the team and effort to actually do it needs an extra gold star - cause we really needed that; and ever more so now it seems.

So, it happened back then - that’s just a thing that needs to return.

“Chit chat” is not the issue… If you’re sincerely oblivious to the issue here, I have nothing I can say to further this discussion between you and me.
Trade chat is … in a really bad state, at least on a vast amount of servers.

1 Like
11

It was kind of like the police patrolling a crime ridden neighborhood. They weren’t always there there, missed most stuff since so much was going on, and then bothered little old me when I asked about old ironforge rather than going after the actual bad players :stuck_out_tongue:

2 Likes
12

I am well aware of what you are talking about. It violates the rules. Right click and report that chat.

I was also making sure though, that you realized that Trade chat does not HAVE to only contain trade topics. People are allowed to have regular conversations as long as they don’t violate the rules. The rules do not allow profanity, sexual topics, hate speech, etc. Report those.

We had someone going off on the CS forum last night because he kept getting Silenced for his Trade chat comments. He felt it was mean. Blizz felt it was totally fair to Silence him.

13

I’d rather have the patroll happen and them actually being seen and doing -something- more officially experienced, so perhaps more people just “shaped up”.

Trade on EU has been running rampant ever since they seemingly stopped “patrolling” :frowning:
I miss the days of Thunderfury spam or people light trolling with “How do I mine for fish?” or “why can’t paladins use maces?”
now I log on, sadly have Trade on some alt, and see people talk explicit stuff every time.
Either politically or in the XXX genre, or actually just bullying.

I turned it off rather than sit around reporting in masse every day.

1 Like
14

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

2 Likes
15

Yeah, I have reported those - every time I ever accidentally have trade on.
It’s just so many, every time.
Harassment, bullying, XXX, Politics, propaganda, - anything that is just … making any sane person sad.

I had to report so many, all the time, and also get my mood killed, that it’s just better to turn it off completely.
Perhaps you could communicate to the EU staff to monitor AD-EU for a while, if you have that connection and meet GMs etc?
Cause the reports seem to do close to nothing here.

It’s similar on other servers, too, here.

Mass reporting just turns on oneself in the end - where my experience of the game is just “down the gutter” unless I turn it off.

16

I just ignore it. It seems like it’s mostly lonely attention seekers trying to stir up arguments or just get any sort of attention.

I mean if that’s what they need then I’m glad it’s there for them. But I don’t spend much time in cities so when I am I just ignore it.

17

100% xD
I’m serious, I have to have like a small therapy-session with myself, just saying in my head “There ARE good people…” hahaha

1 Like
18

Thanks for the throughput answers! I’m glad you experience it differently and seemingly in a positive way! ^^

1 Like
19

So back in the day (at least in the US) all customer service was based out of conservative Texas and the GMs were pretty harsh when they came across stuff that wasn’t “family friendly.” People even got banned for comments in guild chat.

Then (around Wrath I think) there was a major controversy where the GMs banned a LGTBQ guild for doing nothing other than being a LGTBQ guild. The guild lost appeal after appeal until they got the press involved and Blizz staff in more liberal California were horrified that such a thing had happened.

In the aftermath of that they announced they were going to rethink the way they did customer service in game and the result was that most of the GMs had their duties automated, we stopped interacting with them in game, and there was less concern about being “family friendly.”

20

I know they won’t be hiring hundreds of people to actively monitor chat 24/7, or even high volume times.

They DO recognize that players will push boundaries and break rules. That is not fun for anyone and the experience of having to report constantly can take away from the fun of a game. They have made report as easy as possible with right click. They are also working on AI solutions but those, as you might imagine, are not so easy.

I am US based and only have the ability to talk to the US folks, primarily the Forum Support Agents who handle the CS and TS forums.