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Dear Ms. Netiquette,
While excessive talking may not be a violation of the TOS, it is at least inconsiderate toward the other players.
Gamers should not have to sift through endless conversations about which hussy someone’s dawg boyfriend has been seeing, or excruciating details about someone’s illnesses, or all about the weekend picnic, just to get to “gg billybob” or “tyvm marylou” or whatever other game related chat there is.
The onus should not be on all the other players to have to mute the excessive gabbers, but rather the verbose players should have enough consideration to go to a private chat to air their personal stories. Most of the rest of us don’t care about it and don’t want to hear it.
While the mute works fine, the responsibility should be on the offending jaw flappers, not all the rest of the players in the room.
Please Use Private Chat
| Dear Please Use Private Chat, Sure, you can rely on the thoughtfulness of others, or you can accept that some folks are not going to abide by what you believe is “excessive chatting” and just use the mute. Yes, some people probably do talk too much, and indeed it would be appreciated by the many if some of the few would take their extremely personal conversations into a private chat. But, guess what? You wanting it, and me suggesting it, isn’t going to make that happen. There’s an old saying that goes “it’s easier to put on a pair of slippers than it is to carpet the world.” On Pogo, you could say “it’s easier to use the mute than to change the players behavior”, although it’s not nearly as catchy. Regardless, while it would be nice if everyone who came on Pogo had exactly the type of chat experience that they’d wanted, the reality is that you’re going to run into conversations from time to time that rub you the wrong way. Unless the chatters are in violation of the Terms of Service, then your best bet is to make friends with the mute. Sure, you can roll your eyes in annoyance, but they’re just chatting and you have the tool to “turn them off” with a couple of clicks of a mouse. Wouldn’t that be nice in real life? |
Ms. Netiquette,
This letter is in response to your response to Unclear on Uncensored (Ms. Netiquette, 9/03/2010) who wrote you about the language and behavior exhibited in an uncensored room.
There are no censored or uncensored rooms any longer. People in any room will, and do, talk anyway they want because there are no repercussions to their actions.
Oh, the person who reports the offense gets an email from Pogo saying they are checking into it blah blah blah and to turn your mute button on. However, nothing ever actually gets done. And for the few who do get suspended just sign in under a fake name and continue to do the same thing.
There should be a way that Pogo can flag these people by their ISP. I know other sites do not allow you to sign on under two different names.
The nasty jokes in the lobby, the filthy language, the harassment, etc… it’s getting to the point that people are actually talking about leaving Pogo until they clean it back up again. I think if someone does something like what that man did to Unclear on Uncensored he shouldn’t ever be allowed back on the site again.
He’s a pervert! Please consider this.
No Such Thing
| Dear No Such Thing, I definitely hear your frustration. It can seem like the chat rooms are full of evil-doing, vulgarity-spewing, insult-chewing ne’er-do-wells. But they aren’t, really. Yes, there are rooms that are like that, but most of the time you’ll find quiet rooms, or rooms with people just chatting gently. On occasion we just happen to hit all the salty rooms. And, believe it or not, every abuse report is read. It can take a little while before they are attended to, as there are literally tens of thousands of game rooms on Pogo, and the reports stack up. Our Customer Support team reads every one, and if a Terms of Service violation is evident in the report, action is taken. That’s not to say that some folks don’t get away with proverbial murder. They do. Perhaps they’ve skated *just* under the TOS, or maybe the report just missed the most important piece of chat. And because our Customer Support staff is made up of humans, mistakes are occasionally made and people who should be kicked off the site don’t. And you are correct – a lot of people who do get kicked off of the site simply create new accounts and are up to their old tricks in no time. So, people do have to deal with returning abusers, and must repeat the process or use the mute. One of the unadvertised advantages to a Club Pogo account is the fact that you can play in Club Pogo Members Only rooms. Those who do lose their accounts are much less likely to create a new Club Pogo account, as it will cost them money. Furthermore, we can and do block players by e-mail address and by credit card. Also understand that this type of behavior is found on most popular sites that have an interactive element. Pogo (as well as many other sites) do offer you many tools that you can use to better shape your game experience, and I always recommend that people take advantage of them. |
Dear Ms. Netiquette,
I am writing in response to Unchained in Pogo’s question about chain mail (Ms. Netiquette, 9/03/2010).
OMG! I’m so glad to have this cleared up. I didn’t know that chain mail was a TOS violation either or I would have reported a few people ages ago. I despise most chain letters and have repeatedly had to ask various Pogo acquaintances over the years to please not send such materials. Especially after I got the chain again when one of the original recipients forwarded it BACK to everyone in the original list. GRRR!!! Of course, the chains didn’t stop and I ended up blocking email from these individuals.
However, now that I’m thinking about it, how exactly does Pogo define chain mail? Obviously, anything that says “Forward this to [x number of] people” would qualify. But I’m thinking about the myriad of jokes that folks like to forward (and I like to receive). Do those get chunked on the spam pile along with the virus hoaxes, solicitations, and myriad panics about other catastrophes which aren’t happening?
P.S. to your dear readers – next time you get a scary warning forwarded to you, verify it before you forward it to your entire address book. These “honor system viruses” are almost as bad as a real virus.
Thanks again Nettie!
Signed,
Hacksaw on Chains
| Dear Hacksaw on Chains, Good question! Chain mail is generally described as forwarded, impersonal e-mail sent to a large group of players. Many times chain senders will simply add people to their mailing or friends list and send whatever is on their mind to that list. So, this could include forwarded jokes. I strongly recommend to players who enjoy certain types of e-mails or messages to create a circle of friends who enjoy it too, and only send the e-mails to those folks. I also recommend players adding a quick personal note before they send any forwarded message to a group of players. Something like: “Hi friends, I saw this and thought you may enjoy it. If you’d rather not receive these types of messages, please let me know and I will happily respect your wishes and not include you in future messages” should do the trick. And thanks for the reminder. I do think with the advent of Facebook, Twitter and other social networks, the amount of forwarded e-mails has been reduced dramatically, which is a good thing. |
Have an etiquette question for Ms. Netiquette? Email msnetiquette@pogo.com
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