Yeah, Here's a Recommended Improvement

[Eurastus]

Wishlist? 

Might I wish for moderators who can spell simple four-lettered words, know the difference between gibberish and profanity, and who practices fairness?

A while back I typed "SHLT" and was muted for ten-minutes by a "moderator."  Anyone with a grade school education knows that is not a profane word.  There is one acronym using those letters;  South Hero Land Trust (Vermont)?  I let it slide, although it was a bitter pill to swallow.

Tonight I get warned about my non-language by the mystery "moderator."muted 10-minutes again for the same nonsensical word. I tell the moderator I need to talk to him/her about several things, and my request got me another 10-minutes mute time.

After 10-minutes I mention that someone can't spell and for that simple and relevant truth I get 20-minutes mute time. It's certainly a relevant remark if your getting muted for an offense never committed. 

I have no idea who the "moderator" is, because he/she won't answer with anything but ever-increasing mute periods.

I've did nothing wrong either time, and at 64 years old I'm not going to be mistreated.  I'm calling HiTech tomorrow one way or the other and I'll either get an apology and I'm gladly cancelling mine and my son's account.  Too many games out there for one to suffer abuse like this.or even a known acronym.  I let it slide.

Tonight I get warned about my non-language by the mystery "moderator."muted 10-minutes again for the same nonsensical word. I tell the moderator I need to talk to him/her and my request got me 10-minutes mute time.

After 10-minutes I mention that someone can't spell and for that simple and relevant truth I get 20-minutes mute time. It's certainly a relevant remark if your getting muted for an offense never committed. 

I have no idea who the "moderator" is, because he/she won't answer with anything but ever-increasing mute periods.

I tried one last time to invite to moderator to talk to me; even explained that SHLT's only known use is as an acronym as mentioned above.  This time I got the response of "a moderator has muted you for 120 minutes."

I've did nothing wrong either time, and at 64 years old I'm not going to be mistreated.  I'm calling HiTech tomorrow one way or the other.  Show me the rule(s) I broke, or apologize, otherwise I'm gladly cancelling mine and my son's account (may do it anyway unless I cool off).  Too many games out there for one to suffer abuse like this.

Last, I recorded the entire transaction.

[guncrasher]

well after being muted the first time why did you keep using the same acronym.  you havent really said what the context you used the acronym.  were you talking politics and used it? and that's the reason you were muted?

as for cancelling your son's subscripton, why punish him for you getting muted?



semp

[Eurastus]

Well Semp, determining what's profane is apparently pretty arbitrary and capricious.  As such, any word real or gibberish can be so declared.  What if our mystery moderator decided that "semp" was profanity?  Would you change your name?  If SHLT is profanity, then so is semp.

No, no politics.  The issue was use of the single word itself.  I forget the exact context even though it's in the ALT-R saved file.  Something on the order of "things are going to SHLT."  Of course people can get the meaning of that phrase, UNLESS they are unfamiliar with it.  The unfamiliar have not had their tender ears offended, while the initiated know as much as I do.  And measures against profanity are not for the benefit of the initiated, but for the naive.  I did nothing to breach that trust.

I understand the importance of rules.  Also important is that both sides know and respect the rules.  If I've broken a rule, please point it out for me and I'll apologize and do better.  If on the other hand, then I'm owed an apology.

On my son's account I wouldn't dare punish him.  He hasn't been on in over a year, having long since moved on to other games.  I've just been paying his monthly fee in case he wanted to drop back in. 

 

[pembquist]

Well, the game documentation is lacking but the official line is something like "any attempt to confront the moderator will result in additional time outs"

It would be nice if it was easy to just google ah3 moderator policy or some such but you can't. The use of the word "confront" is also misleading. The moderator can't communicate with you. The real phrase should be: "any attempt to communicate with the moderator" I have no idea how it is to get moderated but it would be great if they just gave you a pm that explained the rules and that any attempts to communicate would get you more slaps.

[Eurastus]

I asked to speak to the moderator.  That is the only direct communication I had with him/her.  Where I come from a request is a courtesy; not an affront.  If the moderator can read my texts, then of course they can communicate with me.  I didn't ask for textbox communication; email, phone or any other method would have been fine.  If an offense is serious enough for enacting penalties, then it's certainly serious enough to talk to the offender about it, especially when the offender is claiming he's not in violation. 

Maybe I'm expecting too much from mystery moderator.  I don't mean to sound cute, but how sophisticated is a person who can't spell a most-common four-lettered word?

[pembquist]

Yes, I agree. The problem is that there is a strict policy but it is generally unknown. I never even knew the game was moderated until I read it on this bbs. If you knew the rules you wouldn't try to contact the moderator,(he is unable to respond anyway,) where a player is supposed to learn the rules in any kind of timely way is the mystery. I feel more generous about it, (probably because I've never been moderated,) and I see it as not wasting resources,(the companies time,) on an issue that doesn't really effect that many people who aren't being a tool. (I'm not saying you are a tool, let me be clear about that!)

[Eurastus]

If I had to gamble on the moderator issue, I'd bet that the problem is two-fold; moderators are not selected for any particular skillset, and there is no training outline.  Just guessing, but I get the feeling that the label "moderator" is assigned to someone without any guidelines about what they are supposed to do and how it's to be done.  Each one handles the job as they see fit.  It's like the "political talk" no-no; some nights it's a big sin while on other nights not a word is said about it.  Each moderator just makes it up as they go along based on how they are feeling that night.  I just might be dead wrong too.  But really, who puts an illiterate moderator in charge of written text content?

[100Coogn]

Maybe it was a BOT...
Do we have those?

Coogan

[Eurastus]

Don't expect my "moderator" is a bot.  Bot's can scan for "bad" words picked from a real time text stream, but no bot would ever create a word out of a non-word.  There's a human mind behind this moderator; he's too reactionary as well as flawed.  Silicon doesn't have those properties.   

[Eurastus]

Well, the game documentation is lacking but the official line is something like "any attempt to confront the moderator will result in additional time outs"

It would be nice if it was easy to just google ah3 moderator policy or some such but you can't. The use of the word "confront" is also misleading. The moderator can't communicate with you. The real phrase should be: "any attempt to communicate with the moderator" I have no idea how it is to get moderated but it would be great if they just gave you a pm that explained the rules and that any attempts to communicate would get you more slaps.

Just tell me what the rules are anywhere, and if I get caught in violation I can't complain.  It's just that I don't like being falsely accused and penalized repeatedly by some anonymous judge/jury/executioner without recourse.  Or maybe I just let myself get angry at the unfairness of it all --- after all, just what can anyone expect from a $14 a month game subscription?  It's one of those things that you feel embarrassed about a day later because you let it under your skin.  But, it's happened before and tonight's multiple mutes by Mr. Anonymous really iced the cake.   Bad enough he can't spell, but to penalize me because he flunked grade school?  Probably will wish I hadn't started the thread; but I was hot!  Who would not be?

[The Fugitive]

Just tell me what the rules are anywhere, and if I get caught in violation I can't complain.  It's just that I don't like being falsely accused and penalized repeatedly by some anonymous judge/jury/executioner without recourse.  Or maybe I just let myself get angry at the unfairness of it all --- after all, just what can anyone expect from a $14 a month game subscription?  It's one of those things that you feel embarrassed about a day later because you let it under your skin.  But, it's happened before and tonight's multiple mutes by Mr. Anonymous really iced the cake.   Bad enough he can't spell, but to penalize me because he flunked grade school?  Probably will wish I hadn't started the thread; but I was hot!  Who would not be?

A small "L" can look like a "I" in some text. It could easily been thought by anyone that you were trying to get around the swear filter.

Moderators are not ALWAYS on line. They are a group of volunteers the HTC has asked to moderate. They have training, and are told that anyone "talking" to them is to be considered an attack on the moderator and they are to administer punishment.

Search these boards and you will find all this info. You would also find that had you any questions or complaints with how things were handled you should contact HTC and talk to them about it privately. If a moderator, or auto mute caused by a number of ".report" claim was in error they would take care of it.

Airing it out here never gets anyone any where.

[Oldman731]

A small "L" can look like a "I" in some text. It could easily been thought by anyone that you were trying to get around the swear filter.

Oh, please, of course he was trying to get around the swear filter. Do you really think he meant things were going to the South Hero Land Trust?

Eurastus, as a person of identical age, allow me to say that you aren't acting yours.

- Oldman

[FLOOB]

PROFANITY FILTER CIRCUMVENTION FAIL!

It was the filter not a mod

[Eurastus]

A small "L" can look like a "I" in some text. It could easily been thought by anyone that you were trying to get around the swear filter.

Moderators are not ALWAYS on line. They are a group of volunteers the HTC has asked to moderate. They have training, and are told that anyone "talking" to them is to be considered an attack on the moderator and they are to administer punishment.

Search these boards and you will find all this info. You would also find that had you any questions or complaints with how things were handled you should contact HTC and talk to them about it privately. If a moderator, or auto mute caused by a number of ".report" claim was in error they would take care of it.

Airing it out here never gets anyone any where.

There is no swear filter because nothing is filtered.  And getting around such filters violates nothing.  You either swear or you don't.  As far as lookalike letters go, it is the job of the moderator to know the difference, and certainly not mute people out of his own ignorance.  Where did you hear that moderators are told that anyone who attempts to talk to them is to be construed at attack on that moderator?  At this point I'm not doubting it, but what kind of business issues those instructions and worse, leaves the membership ignorant of the policy?  Who could possibly guess that a "Good Morning" is actually an attack?

No, nothing will get done here. 

[Eurastus]

PROFANITY FILTER CIRCUMVENTION FAIL!

It was the filter not a mod

Can't be a bot.  He's too self-aware and reactionary.  The bots don't have emotions or an inflated sense of "always right" ego.  One day it might be when bots don't finish grade school and decide its someone else's fault. Bots also don't have to have the last say even when they are right; certainly not when dead wrong.