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Hi all,

This seems to be a topic which has been coming up more often recently and it's gotten worst on a few servers as well.
It's getting really bad in some servers and silencing people works, but with callsign changes it becomes impossible to block them all.

So my request to server owners is to add at least a chat filter to unregistered players since this is where the main amount of harassment is coming from.
Most registered players tend to be respectful and a chat filter for registered players would tend to block more words than needed, but in the case of unregistered players this does not seem to be the case and it seems the largest percentage of harassment comes from unregistered players.

-Zehra

While I do not run any publicly listed server (if I run a server at all)...

I agree / nods head in agreement / +1

It is possible to filter words on the client-side.

https://wiki.bzflag.org/Local_chat_filter
http://bzexcess.com/2009/02/bztips-1-cl ... filtering/

A local chat filter is a good idea for dealing with language issues, but isn't the ideal solution for dealing with harassment.

-Zehra

Well, you didn't say you wanted unregistered players be unable to speak at all. You said you wanted a chat filter, so I gave you a chat filter.

I was kind of hoping for a filter to deal with both language and harassment issues too.

-Zehra

Silence them, then. If they come back another day with a different callsign, silence them again.

So why can't the client badwords filter do that? You can add your own words.

@Constitution
Silencing works well, but it starts to wear down as it becomes a game of silencing and silencing.
(Kind of would be nice if there was a setting to silence all unregistered users when it gets really bad or a whitelist instead of having a silence list.)

@Blast
The client side chat filter works well and I'd recommend it to anyone who has issues with language.
The only reason why it doesn't seem to work is that most of the harassment isn't language based, but in the manner and way it's done.
Is there a way to set filter to work differently depending if a user is registered or not?

-Zehra

You say language based tactics don't work, yet your initial request was this.

Zehra wrote: So my request to server owners is to add at least a chat filter to unregistered players since this is where the main amount of harassment is coming from.
-Zehra

A client side filter provides the exact same solution as your requested server side solution... So what is it?

If you are saying you want more servers to be actively administrated, then only play on servers with active admin, that's your choice.

You can't expect server owners to be able to jump on and admin a server just because a few people started playing it. The vast majority of servers are empty 99% of the time......

Again, this all comes down to .. what problem are you trying to solve? Or are you posting just to post?

It's kind of difficult for me to pin-point exactly what would work, since I've seen different servers run with different plug-ins, filters... etc...
It seems that much of the harassment bypasses the filter and would block regular language if used.
So I'm not sure if this would work, but something like a chat/spam filter to filter words from unregistered players specifically.
It would be a bit overdone, but doesn't prevent them from chatting unless registered and doesn't affect registered users with filtering.

Most servers and well run and administrated, but this seems to change when admins are not around.
It would be impossible to add many admins or cops in a short time period as granting permissions requires a massive amount of trust from the server owner and not the best solution to things. So it's easy to understand why many servers aren't administrated most of the time.

So it's basically a request to server owners to add some form of a counter to harassment even if not an active counter to it, but it's something which could be done.
I'm not sure if even a filter/plug-in which only filters unregistered players chat only and not that of registered players even exists.
From personal experience it seems that most registered players are respectful and a chat filter seems to block most regular words.
Lots of the harassment comes from using mostly language which is mostly normal and it could be blocked by a regular filter, but it would affect normal conversations.
This could be avoided by only affecting unregistered players chat and avoiding affecting registered players chat.

-Zehra

Or just disable your chat completely. You can silence * to silence everyone.

Is there a way to do that only to unregistered players?
Since I'm thinking now it's probably simpler to silence all unregistered players.

-Zehra

Not without client modifications.

It would be nice to see this as a feature in future releases if possible.

-Zehra

There are a few servers that don't allow you to speak unless you are registered.

Also there are servers that don't allow you to speak unless you are approved.. (DUCATI I think)

When a player harasses me, I mute them and then when they leave I add the next unregistered player(s) that join knowing they are going to harass me again..

I understand your point very well, Zehra.

I have already seen this chat filter in effect on multiple servers. This includes allejo's Urban Jungle Map, and some of his other maps. Now, I myself have been through issues with my boarding school's network filter, where I can only play under an unregistered callsign, but many times, admins and operators like D-FENS, Green Manalishi, gerj, and a few others have been there to unmute me, because they know it's me, as I always keep my unregistered callsigns similar to what my registered one is. And I always keep my language clean except for Optic Delusion's server. Even then, I don't curse that often. This entire ordeal is here for the greater good, and yes, admins can unmute unregistered players if they feel the need to, but they have the right to mute registered players if they are abusing their chat privileges, but that is only to teach them a lesson. If that doesn't work, that's where kicking or banning may be necessary. Remember, chatting is a privilege. Don't misuse it, or it will be taken from you. Feel free to ask more questions if needed.

Respectfully,
Buzzy_Beetle.

A new release of BZFlag came out since this thread was originally posted. BZFlag 2.4.12 includes the ability to silence unregistered users by silencing - (the minus sign).

Nice. However, is there a way to whitelist certain unregistered players from the list if they are not harassing anyone? Just wanting to know.

Thanks,
- Buzzy_Beetle

No.

Oh ok. Just asking.

Buzzy_Beetle wrote: ↑Fri Mar 02, 2018 12:55 am Nice. However, is there a way to whitelist certain unregistered players from the list if they are not harassing anyone? Just wanting to know.

Thanks,
- Buzzy_Beetle

It wouldn't make sense to do this because as unregistered players, their names can easily be taken by anyone else by accident or for malicious reasons, so there's no way to verify that it's actually them. Encourage them to register their callsign instead

True, true.