Dear Capsuleers and CCP
tl;dr: at the bottom.
As most people probably know, Mining chat does not exactly have the best reputation.
This is due to multiple reasons:
- It was unmoderated for years and therefore the go-to place for off topic chats and banter
- People who break the TOS/EULA would usually do it right there with no one trying to interfere (e.g. racism, sexism, violence)
This resulted in a toxic environment that got abused by people to spread ideologies and write other stuff that should not be written in this game. It derailed the channel, that is perfectly clear after all this time.
While I said what I just said, it is also noteworthy that people who break the TOS/EULA were NOT the majority of people. Most just wanted to talk about non-eve related stuff, we are all humans after all.
(I will also not paint myself as a Saint here, because I have been talking about drugs I did when I was younger for example.)
After all these years, ISDs finally showed up and started to clean this place, which is not a bad thing in itself. The problem is, that people who just want to talk have nowhere to go since the ISDs also wanted to enforce the general topic of this channel.
Now, we have tried creating discord servers and private channels. They all died out because of ingame politics between players or just sheer inconvenience (also, watching local as a miner and also writing on a discord server in another window can be dangerous, inviting everyone to a private channel has proven to be impossible. They all just died within the day.)
Why the current situation does not work out:
- ISDs are being forced to kill any discussion that isnt Mining related, resulting in anger that gets directed to said ISDs
- Mining inhabitants who have been using this chat for banter have nowhere to go, resulting in them just staying there and waiting for the ISDs to vanish so they can keep talking
What we need and want:
- An official chat room IN GAME
- Off-topic discussion must strictly be allowed
- It has to be moderated according to EULA/TOS
- Again, ordinary discussions about the cake I ate the other day must be allowed
How this would benefit the game:
- Mining chat should slowly but surely become a place for mining discussion again, without the disgusting 1%, off-topic and other things that might hurt the channel
- People that just want to write while sitting on rocks or in stations all day will have a place to go
- ISDs will hopefully have less work because we will want to keep our new channel and will report bad actors
So, tl;dr: We need a general moderated and official chat room for everything that isnt eve related and more. The only thing that should not be allowed there is anything in conflict with TOS/EULA.
Again: playermade channels won’t work, it needs to be official to curb what you are trying to curb.
Just ask yourself: Where do you go if you want to talk to strangers about whatever is on your mind?
It is clear that CCP is not happy with what was happening in Mining chat, which is 100% justified, the current “solution” is just not really solving anything. It’s putting a band aid on a flesh wound.
You are not keeping in mind that this chat has formed its own community (Ignore the 1% for once) and has been engaging with each other for almost 10 years probably.
The chat does not feel like it is being moderated, the chat feels like it is being killed and that is why nobody wants to behave and accept what is happening.
Fly safe and please forgive my bad English skills, Nagsor Liacz
