Rule clarification

Calrid

Is it ok to use zone for chat, which by definition is not spam as it is solicited, someone says x you say y is not the same as I am great cut and pasted 400 times or ^ ad infinitum or gold seller spam. First of all look up the definition of spam before you accuse people of doing it. Just because you are not part of the conversation does not mean it becomes spam because it annoys you.

So can we use zone and other chats for chat or is it forbidden to socialize in zone because I think some people have got the odd idea that talking in a channel that is a general channel for trade or chat etc is somehow wrong and also simultaneously seem unable to use the ignore function instead preferring to moan incessantly at people for spamming.

Usually people will take any long conversation to whisper any way so I fail to see the issue people are having. Also some people like to generally socialise and by their nature are quite chatty. I don't think they should be abused by the channel Nazis for that.

So can we clarify the CoC on zone chat.

Valymer

Things that I have heard in ESO zone chat:

• racial slurs
• sexual dialogue (both light and heavy)
• all manner of homophobic comments
• profanity
• large amounts of repeated scroll spam (countless lines full of nothing but punctuation marks or gibberish text)

Seeing as how it is highly unlikely that any of these accounts were punished in any way, I find it highly dubious that benign social conversation would be against the ToS in any way.

arqe

Hate those kinda people. And no it is not forbidden. There are lots of options for those Nazis for to ignore. They should use those options instead of crying all day long about people talking in zone chat.

TheShadowScout

I usually turn zone chat off in the first place... anyone who's bothered by anything people say there can do the same.

But if you do use zone chat, expect someone to take offence sooner or later and fire off some comments about how you should take your conversation to say or whisper or group... and those people will often try to reinforce their position by calling anything and everything spam. -shrugs- It happens.

For me, just one more reason not to turn zone chat back on...

Hortator Mopa

If you want to have a DnM go into group or whisper each other. Zone should be for organisation and trade not "blah blah blah game is great for cyber sex"...




and yes I have seen people talk about that in zone.




In the end no one cares, go take it to a chat that does not stop the flow of trade and grouping.

Calrid

Zone should be what I want not what is allowed by the rules: who are you the thought police. Zone is for general chit chat, and trade, advice anything else that is in that social spectrum, as you well know if it wasn't the game would not be an MMO it would be a silent zone without any chance to form a community.

Seems to me you don't like people making friends in a social medium or socialising which is fine, just use the ignore function.

What you want to be and what is allowed by the rules are two different things, and if you want to create a fuss about it you can of course. But you're not exercising your mouse in the correct way and using ignore like any sensible prtson would when annoyed by a conversation they no more want to take part in or could.

Games are full of different people that are not you, thank god, or there'd be no point playing at all.

Rosveen

I rarely use zone chat, but when I do, I often chat with people. I don't care if others have a problem with it, it's a social game and zone chat is for everyone. In fact, I love those casual conversations, they make me feel like there's an actual community outside of my guilds and not just a faceless impersonal crowd. Trading and LFG are important, but it's not all there is to the game.

Samadhi

Zone chat is a chat channel designed to provide communication between players within a zone.

If you want to chat, chat on, that is what it is designed for. If you want to use it to organize a group or trades within a specific zone, go ahead and do that as well. It is a general channel available on a zone-specific basis, nothing more.

We have access to up to 5 guilds if we want to take part in a channel designed solely for trade or anything else.

As long as you are not breaking any other rules regarding chat content, do not think that ZOS will take any issue with you socializing with other players in an MMO.

Calrid

Just to add when you first joined the game what was the only way you could talk to other players, the first chat channel you found and the only means to ask questions, and then form a social bond with players? Perhaps get inducted into a guild by some nice talkative person who spared the time to bring you in to ESO.

You should think about the new players, you should think about how pragmatic the rules in zone are, and then you should think about all the ways you could have achieved everything you said above just by knowing how to use a team speak, a guild or any other friendly chat you could have used and do to find out information, that new players have no idea about.

What you are in fact condoning is being unhelpful, silencing help and advice, and having only regard for less than new payers, what you are in fact condoning is acting selfishly, so that all the things you want to hear are there and those you don't are not. The fact that you have no regard for socialising on a social medium, is the least, I think of your worries hence. Presumably you find the ignore feature a s big a mystery as all the other chat fascists?

starkerealm

Valymer wrote: »

Things that I have heard in ESO zone chat:

• racial slurs
• sexual dialogue (both light and heavy)
• all manner of homophobic comments
• profanity
• large amounts of repeated scroll spam (countless lines full of nothing but punctuation marks or gibberish text)

Seeing as how it is highly unlikely that any of these accounts were punished in any way, I find it highly dubious that benign social conversation would be against the ToS in any way.

Stonefalls, Glenumbra, and Auridon are such wastelands.

Soulshine

I'd say you have to acknowledge both sides of the issue not just one. The mere fact that there are hundreds of people around is exactly why it is good idea to not get excessively vulgar, lude, whatever, since you don't know who is reading. Yes people can turn on the ignore, but frankly some simple courtesy goes a long way in conversations.

That being said, if people really dislike everything they see in zone chat maybe they should limit its use rather than complaining about it in the channel since that just makes it worse. There needs to be some balance but if tolerance is too low for freeforall chit chat, then stay out of the channels that promote it and spare yourself the aggravation.

Calrid

QFT (Quoted For Truth)

^^^

Hortator Mopa

Want to have a conversation, hmm maybe use whisper.

Talking in zone about random **** is the equivalent of walking into a mall and shouting to your friends to chat so EVERYONE can hear you.

Stop being rude.

/threadend

firstdecan

Calrid wrote: »

Just to add when you first joined the game what was the only way you could talk to other players, the first chat channel you found and the only means to ask questions, and then form a social bond with players? Perhaps get inducted into a guild by some nice talkative person who spared the time to bring you in to ESO.

You should think about the new players, you should think about how pragmatic the rules in zone are, and then you should think about all the ways you could have achieved everything you said above just by knowing how to use a team speak, a guild or any other friendly chat you could have used and do to find out information, that new players have no idea about.

What you are in fact condoning is being unhelpful, silencing help and advice, and having only regard for less than new payers, what you are in fact condoning is acting selfishly, so that all the things you want to hear are there and those you don't are not. The fact that you have no regard for socialising on a social medium, is the least, I think of your worries hence. Presumably you find the ignore feature a s big a mystery as all the other chat fascists?

Exactly this. Zone chat is a public resource, use it for whatever you want (within the ToS). If other people don't like what you're saying, there's an ignore feature. If you don't like what someone else is saying, there's an ignore feature. It's no different than going to any public place where people are having a conversation. Some people will speak quietly, others will speak loudly, and not every conversation will be about something with which you agree.

I will admit that many zone chat conversations are the metaphoric equivalent of farting in public, but in most places there are no laws against that. Use the ignore feature the same way you would use nose plugs.

Tandor

I'm a great believer in two things where public chat channels are concerned.

First, if you feel the need to ask whether something is permissable for a public chat channel then the likelihood is that it is not.

Second, when typing in a public chat channel, imagine that someone you live with - your mother, spouse, significant other etc - is looking over your shoulder and reading what you are typing. If that makes you - or it would make them - uncomfortable then you can reasonably assume that someone else in the game is also going to feel uncomfortable reading it, so don't type it.

Rosveen

Tandor wrote: »

I'm a great believer in two things where public chat channels are concerned.

First, if you feel the need to ask whether something is permissable for a public chat channel then the likelihood is that it is not.

Second, when typing in a public chat channel, imagine that someone you live with - your mother, spouse, significant other etc - is looking over your shoulder and reading what you are typing. If that makes you - or it would make them - uncomfortable then you can reasonably assume that someone else in the game is also going to feel uncomfortable reading it, so don't type it.

This thread isn't about any specific kind of conversations, it's about socializing in general. Some posters above feel that zone chat should be reserved only for trading, LFG and similar utilitarian purposes - never for conversation, no matter how friendly and polite it is.

I strongly disagree.

Smaxx

Chat about whatever you want in zone chat, as long as it doesn't violate ZOS' Code of Conduct.

Others can't forbid you asking questions or talking about the weather outside. If they're offended by it or don't want it (or consider it spam), they can either ignore you directly or use one of the addons to block chatter temporarily.

If people think you're too spammy or flooding the channel, it's nice and polite to consider their complaint, but you don't have to follow "orders" from random gamer raging for you talking in German or French on the general zone chat for example (even though there are language specific channels as well).

Calrid

Imagine if in a chat channel you were allowed to chat. That would be magic. Imagine If someone chatted in a chat channel, imagine hence if someone asked if conversation was ok and not spam. Just imagine that...

Calrid

If someone told me I was not permitted to talk because they didn't like what I had to say, well I would probably end up kicking them in the proverbial nuts, for violating code of conduct by even suggesting such a thing.

Gilvoth

Calrid wrote: »

Zone should be what I want not what is allowed by the rules: who are you the thought police. Zone is for general chit chat, and trade, advice anything else that is in that social spectrum, as you well know if it wasn't the game would not be an MMO it would be a silent zone without any chance to form a community.

Seems to me you don't like people making friends in a social medium or socialising which is fine, just use the ignore function.

What you want to be and what is allowed by the rules are two different things, and if you want to create a fuss about it you can of course. But you're not exercising your mouse in the correct way and using ignore like any sensible prtson would when annoyed by a conversation they no more want to take part in or could.

Games are full of different people that are not you, thank god, or there'd be no point playing at all.

quoted for best answer
you are exactly correct Calrid, i love the way you worded your comment and i click awesome on your post.

Solanum

Hortator Mopa wrote: »

In the end no one cares, go take it to a chat that does not stop the flow of trade and grouping.

Use zone chat however you please, whether it's for selling/buying, organizing things, or just just social chatting about whatever topic.

The argument that people should join a guild for social chat, could also be used to claim that people should join a trade guild for selling stuff, a PVE guild for grouping to dungeon, and so forth.

[Moderator Note: Edited per our rules on Trolling & Baiting]

Sphinx2318

-LOL- to those of you that have to decide who to "drop" from your ignore list just so you can add someone else.

Turelus

I wish more people would be like the OP and start conversations in Zone Chat, I miss the opening weeks when I was meeting people talking about the game, other games, TES lore and even weather in peoples countries.

Now I find Zone Chat empty of any interactions past LFG and trade.

izenkim_ESO

Calrid wrote: »

I think some people have got the odd idea that talking in a channel that is a general channel for trade or chat etc is somehow wrong and also simultaneously seem unable to use the ignore function instead preferring to moan incessantly at people for spamming.

Socializing should be allowed in zone chat as should questioning those people using chat to socialize. That is where I have a problem with where this discussion is headed as it seems to focus only on what you want.

If you are free to use it to chat, others should be as well. That extends to those that use zone wide chat to question your use of it.

Xjcon

I'm going to go out on a limb and say someone trolled you in chat.

eventide03b14a_ESO

Valymer wrote: »

Things that I have heard in ESO zone chat:

• racial slurs
• sexual dialogue (both light and heavy)
• all manner of homophobic comments
• profanity
• large amounts of repeated scroll spam (countless lines full of nothing but punctuation marks or gibberish text)

Seeing as how it is highly unlikely that any of these accounts were punished in any way, I find it highly dubious that benign social conversation would be against the ToS in any way.

As far as I can tell there is absolutely no policing of the zone chats in any way. If find it sort of ironic since you can get a warning on the forums just for using the "T" word.

Calrid

Xjcon wrote: »

I'm going to go out on a limb and say someone trolled you in chat.

No they did not. Games relatively free of trolls, thank all that is unholy; I was referring to chat Nazis. Ie the people who seem to demand what any chat channel, be it in PVP or PVE or anywhere should be for them, so they don't get too annoyed, same people seem to be unable to use the ignore feature helpfully provided so you don't have an apoplexy if someone is saying something you don't like.

I guess in a way that is a form of trolling I suppose because they have absolutely no right to demand what they want over what others want, and are just selfish, but meh: semantics are boring. :P