JKorr wrote: »

When the forum was on Bethesda's site, someone posted an all caps rant about freedom of speech and threatened lawsuits everywhere because the moderators were censoring his posts.

Apparently, someone who doesn't understand how free speech works

Arato wrote: »

Taaltos wrote: »

Pretty sure the MMO standard stance on swearing is, "There's a profanity filter and ignore feature...quit wasting our time."

In every other MMO it doesn't matter the context in which you swore, if you swear or use a racial epithet or vulgar word and someone hates you enough to report you, you get banned.

Not EVE, objectively. Not true in my experiences playing DAoC either. Just saying, don't use "every" unless you mean "every".

otomodachi wrote: »

Arato wrote: »

Taaltos wrote: »

Pretty sure the MMO standard stance on swearing is, "There's a profanity filter and ignore feature...quit wasting our time."

In every other MMO it doesn't matter the context in which you swore, if you swear or use a racial epithet or vulgar word and someone hates you enough to report you, you get banned.

Not EVE, objectively. Not true in my experiences playing DAoC either. Just saying, don't use "every" unless you mean "every".

Anyhow, WTF do I care the OP is playing now so this thread should be closed or die a natural death.

Edit (Quoted):WOOT! I am so happy they are suspending guys like you. Thank you Zenimax! One day these kids will learn manners in group chat!

Please remember that the OP is stating they did not swear/use profanity. Though I agree that swearing/profanity is something I'd rather not hear/see in public.. whether games or real life, that doesn't mean this particular person did anything at all. On the internet alot of issues can become convoluted.

Mistakes from watchdog programs on the server, people sending false reports. Things happen. Innocent until proven guilty, not the other way around.

Socratic wrote: »

If there's any evidence to prove it wasn't malicious, even by having to spin a tangent they have no right to ban you

The TOS are pretty broad, and I don't see a requirement of malice in them.

I don't see what's wrong with using profanity so long as it isn't directed at someone, anyone can muster an insult without swearing that would be considered more offensive than a simple "*** you ***" for example.

So if op op was trashing people, even without the use profanity, he had it coming. In either case, dispute it.

As I said in my post above, this person may not have done anything at all. Programming is not perfect. Sometimes a "watchdog" ..a program that automatically places a flag or ban on an account for something they say/do.. makes a mistake or is too rigid.

For example, words in the american language that we don't believe are swear words, are considered really bad words in other languages. And vice versa. In some european countries "Bloody" would be on the line of "effing" and so on, but in america it wouldn't be a "swear word". That's a pretty bad example but, there you go. A program might not realize that it banned someone for using a word that's perfectly fine for americans.

Always show some consideration for others, and remember that programming is only as perfect as the humans it comes from.

Socratic wrote: »

So it's basically, don't swear in terms to swearing, and aren't subjective at all? If this is how the rules are constructed IRL in the US I'm glad I don't live there lol.

The TOS is an agreement. Since that's what it says on its face, that is how it would be construed. If someone uses profanity, they're in violation of the TOS. That's a no-brainer, since the TOS is clear on it. I'm not saying they should punish people for it (profanity doesn't bother me), but if you're playing a game that says that in the TOS, then it's hard to have much sympathy for people who get punished for it.

Endolith wrote: »

Socratic wrote: »

So it's basically, don't swear in terms to swearing, and aren't subjective at all? If this is how the rules are constructed IRL in the US I'm glad I don't live there lol.

The TOS is an agreement. Since that's what it says on its face, that is how it would be construed. If someone uses profanity, they're in violation of the TOS. That's a no-brainer, since the TOS is clear on it. I'm not saying they should punish people for it (profanity doesn't bother me), but if you're playing a game that says that in the TOS, then it's hard to have much sympathy for people who get punished for it.

It's NOT clear on it. Most profanity would fall under the "objectionable to a reasonable person" bit I guess if it fell in there at all. Most four letter words are neither sexually explicit (explicit means literally the thing, sexually explicit means literally describing parts of the act) or racially tied at all. Again, whatever, the OP got un-suspended.

Endolith wrote: »

Seems clear to me. In one section: "2.7 You may not disrupt the flow of chat in chat rooms, message forums or games with vulgar language..." Another section refers in general terms to vulgar language. I suppose you could argue what is vulgar, but I think we all know what they mean. There is nothing that requires language to be sexually explicit, racially tied, etc. In fact, since they reference those things in another section, it stands to reason that the prohibition on 'vulgar' language isn't required to included those things, because at least two provisions of the TOS would be redundant if interpreted your way.

Yeah but even vulgarity comes down to a matter of usage. It's not offensive, it's like... uncultured. Vulgarity comes from a lack of panache more than anything else. It's very easy to cuss in a refined way, like the famous line from Gone With the Wind.

EDIT: Good point, though, about the redundancy.