Should General Chat be removed?

[Fragmator]

No from me also

[Faarsider]

Without general chat I wouldn't have met a fraction of the great players I now know in-game, and they are the reason I login and will continue to do so hopefully for many years to come.
But on the other hand at times I feel like deleting general as I am ashamed and often disgusted by the way some people carry on like it's their own private fiefdom. But going forward the /addignore option will be getting more use.
As much as I would love to turn back time to the good old days of missioning out of player cities( great memories) that's just not how we play over a decade later, we are savvy smarter better equipped more organised players than we were back in 2003 so yes the game is smaller now but it's still a huge sandbox and if we haven't got tired of our much loved SWG we ain't gonna anytime soon.
So keep general I truely feel it's the corner stone of our awesome Awakening community.
NO to removing general at this time.

[Kaede]

I've actually be GREATLY surprised by general chat here on Awakening. I /love/ SWG, but I kept having to avoid the general chat tab on Basilisk, so the community felt non-existent. I would try to look back in on general chat and see nothing but trolls, flame wars and people putting down anyone who wasn't top of the trade. As a crafter, I realized I would /never/ speak up, with a community like that. As a crafter who /loves/ to be ATK and active in the community, I started to give up on finding SWG as I remembered it.

Coming to Awakening has been a reminder of what that old SWG is like. Yeah, the action isn't all over the player city, but at least general chat makes the entire game feel like one big community and gives me hope that I'll find a spot to fit in.

It would be better to deal with the trolls and trouble makers as they pop up, rather than to penalize the entire server by removing general chat.

Just my feelings, as a brand newcomer to the server.

[StaevGaWie]

As most have said, if they don't appreciate the conversation then just remove the chat window for a while.

If rude, crude, and obscene conversations are taking place, then the moderator isn't doing their job. If there is no moderator in place then that's a bit of an oversight, yeah?

Removing this feature could effectively break the EMU. Even though this playerbase is one of the largest of the EMU's I've seen, it still doesn't stack up to what retail was like back in the day. Had general been removed back then there may have been a lot of disgruntled people, but the cities and planets were so full that spatial would have just been fine. Less population here means you need greater forms of communication. While I'll miss spatial spams general is a bit of a necessity here.

Thanks for asking, though, and for the very democratic poll system (as always). It's nice to see you all care about even the little stuff that most might overlook.

[Ironbark]

The issue with General Chat isnt about trolls and troublemakers (for me). They can be banned... and I want CSRs to step up on muting those individuals.

My issue with General Chat is that it makes the game/world/galaxy smaller. It makes things too easy.

Maybe we should also give everyone the ability to instant port to locations on any planet at anytime from anywhere... oh and give instant Jedi as a starter class.

People are thinking short term, imo

Respectfully disagree.

I only started playing this game a month ago. I did not have the many years of experience that a lot of the other players did on how to get the ball rolling. General chat was invaluable to me and I am sure will be invaluable to every other new player that is a little late to the party.
Alienating new players seems very counterproductive. Let's let the game grow and become great again, like all the stories I keep hearing from all the old schoolers.

Cheers,

IB

[josef1977]

well you can put in a rebel chat and imp chat or a neul chat to fix it we so that guild can talk to each other to fix it but i vote no to take out general chat

[KritonS]

I voted no
Its a good feature to have for important info or emergency.

[SkeeSilentT]

well you can put in a rebel chat and imp chat or a neul chat to fix it we so that guild can talk to each other to fix it but i vote no to take out general chat

That would be a pretty sweet compromise: there are tons of knowledgeable people playing on both factions. 'Would be conducive to a real Faction v Faction climate. This poll should be re-done with this compromise being a selectable option!

When it's simply "Yes," or "No," the least radical option always gets selected in a heaping majority; I myself voted "No," to this as well. However, when there's a moderate, "middle of the road" type of selection -- that's typically what will please the most people! Something like this would really set Awakening apart from other SWGEMU servers as well.

I'm thinking this (purely hypothetical) new poll should be something like this:

1. Remove General Chat.

2. Remove General Chat, but add in Faction-specific general chat.

3. Keep General Chat as it is.

4. Keep General Chat, but add in Faction-specific general chat.

- - - - -

It'd really be a toss-up between selection 2 and 4. . . But I'd certainly lean toward #2.

[Athair]

General chat is very very useful to myself and others. When a resource spawns/despawns I let the community know and they let me know. If I have a question, I can ask here. It is that simple.

As for moderation, there is one major thing you people haven't considered. Freedom and Liberty are the basis of American Society, and the majority here are Americans. Yes, we have this odd notion that if your feelings get hurt or if you become annoyed, someone should be penalized by an authority. Quit whining like children and grow up. If you offend me, I will tell you. If I offend you, I hope you will do the same. And all in all there is an /ignore option if someone is to much of an ass to deal with. Understandably there is a limit for everyone when it comes down to obscenity or aggravation, but if we do not have the freedom to speak, we do not have freedom. If you do not understand, then you, my friend, are one of the reasons why real men are looked at like we are strange and why we are in trouble as a society.

There are a few people that get on my last nerve with their ignorance on Awakening, but that doesn't give me the right to shut them up or shut them down using rules that apply to all.

In the absence of Liberty, Tyranny grows like a fungus until all rights are gone...


Much Love,

Athair/S'age

[RickyL]

Do not remove general chat, remove the perverted deviants.

[Grumm]

Absolutely positively not. The game has filters, ignore, and the option to leave the channel. All this has already been said. Look we don't live in a perfect world, and we are subject to other people's stupidity, points of views, and sense 9f humour all the time. If it bothers you leave the channel, if it bothers the majority of people than by AL means escalate it, but if everyone ignores the few people who bothering you they will get very lonely. As far as kids go, maybe we should try parenting them and not let them on in the first place if there gonna get offended. Just like the TV. They don't have to view everything.

[UniformMarshall]

I'm a little confused about General Chat being an ISSUE. What kind of ISSUE? Is it game or community breaking? And if its not, then why are we attempting to fix something that doesn't need fixing?

If its about certain players running at the mouth, well, Ed and Cynar shouldn't have to ask twice. The problem isn't that they opened that useless hole in their faces. It's that they were told, quite politely, to shut it down, but kept going. To top it all off, they started giggling like teen age girls at having been scolded.

[Tanker1872]

I rarely use it.
It doesn't bother me either way.
Should have had indifferent option, so I choose no.

[ZuraLuna]

The issue with General Chat isnt about trolls and troublemakers (for me). They can be banned... and I want CSRs to step up on muting those individuals.

My issue with General Chat is that it makes the game/world/galaxy smaller. It makes things too easy.

Maybe we should also give everyone the ability to instant port to locations on any planet at anytime from anywhere... oh and give instant Jedi as a starter class.

People are thinking short term, imo

General chat does make things easier, but it only makes getting information quicker. Now if we are talking about making things a bit harder by comparing general chat to making Jedi a starter class, you're sort of comparing 1 extreme to the other. So rather saying let's give Jedi an instant starter class, lets compare apples to apples, and say How about remove ability for Imperials to speak to Rebels in any chat. That would force the community to stay in ROLE play of their factions. General chat can be use but Rebels only see rebels speaking and Imperials only see Imperials speaking.... That could be something interesting to consider =P

[Centurionforce]

The issue with General Chat isnt about trolls and troublemakers (for me). They can be banned... and I want CSRs to step up on muting those individuals.

My issue with General Chat is that it makes the game/world/galaxy smaller. It makes things too easy.

Maybe we should also give everyone the ability to instant port to locations on any planet at anytime from anywhere... oh and give instant Jedi as a starter class.

People are thinking short term, imo

General chat does make things easier, but it only makes getting information quicker. Now if we are talking about making things a bit harder by comparing general chat to making Jedi a starter class, you're sort of comparing 1 extreme to the other. So rather saying let's give Jedi an instant starter class, lets compare apples to apples, and say How about remove ability for Imperials to speak to Rebels in any chat. That would force the community to stay in ROLE play of their factions. General chat can be use but Rebels only see rebels speaking and Imperials only see Imperials speaking.... That could be something interesting to consider =P

With all due respect, that is a horrible idea. I dont know why so many people want to change this game from what it use to be. Leave well enough alone.

[carpathian]

Do not remove general chat, remove the perverted deviants.

I agree

[ZuraLuna]

With all due respect, that is a horrible idea. I dont know why so many people want to change this game from what it use to be. Leave well enough alone.

And all due respect back:

The point I was trying to make it that, it was a bad analogy to compare general chat as being the same as having a starter jedi. A more fair analogy would be to make factions communicate within their own faction only, opposed to removal of general chat, then neither have general chat at all.

[BigQEd]

My analog was that it makes it easier. Instant communication, instant travel, instant classes, instant everything... what's the point in leaving the Cantina? Just stand there staring at your saber all day, nothing required.

Hoops and inconvenience make the game more difficult. It makes the game last longer. i.e. remove general chat but give an interplanetary communicator to high ranking faction members (officers) and/or top level guilds that have more than so many players... instead of giving it away for free.

[Otedo]

No. Please do not remove general chat.

We're forced to start on Tatooine.
In almost every server on SWG Live and SWGEmu, the vast majority of people hang out in a handful of places (CNet, The M.O., etc.)--if you've never spent time on those servers, you need a way to learn this. If you have no convenient way (some sort of in-game feature; because, face it, a majority of people don't use the forums), the new folks here will be lost and lonely--like I was the very first week I was online: poor, lonely, and clueless in Kor Vella. It took me hooking up with a guild before I could even afford to travel to Coronet.

[Maldred]

My analog was that it makes it easier. Instant communication, instant travel, instant classes, instant everything... what's the point in leaving the Cantina? Just stand there staring at your saber all day, nothing required.

Hoops and inconvenience make the game more difficult. It makes the game last longer. i.e. remove general chat but give an interplanetary communicator to high ranking faction members (officers) and/or top level guilds that have more than so many players... instead of giving it away for free.

I have to admit that this is a great idea from a thinking outside the box perspective. I am a firm believer in risk/reward as you have all heard me harp on by now and this "earned" method of chat is, in my opinion, brilliant.

New players should be informed on how and who to contact for help. As is stands, every one of us are helpers and that's great. But it does take a certain element out of the game that I think all of us loved when we first started. That element is discovery. Learning for ourselves and forming collaborations with people we'd meet in our travels is what, to me, is a big part of what made this game amazing. This is why I also support the shuttle wait time increase that every likes to get on my case whenever I say I like them. It gives us a chance to interact IN GAME. Not in a chat room setting.

By incorporating an "in game communicator" of some sort allows us to yet again work for something which is the core concept of our server. I would, however, suggest that we have maybe a few people who would volunteer as helpers and be listed as such on the forums or an in game mechanism so new players who are truly stuck can contact someone for guidance. NOT THE ANSWER necessarily but a push in the right direction.

Just some more things to ponder.