You know, for a while I was conflicted, because a lot of the people who are part of the problem are only problems half of the time and mild contributions to the chat a lot of other times. I won't deny them that. And I won't deny that once or twice I've said something controversial on accident or on purpose, although I like to think at least I'm usually in the right and if not I apologize afterwards.
But it's not controversiality, it's blatant trolling and spamming that I find offensive. Usually I'd let it go if someone contributes something worthwhile when not doing it, but the past 3 days definitely have tipped my opinion over the edge towards disfavour:
For an example of the sorts of trolling problems CaptainMayday discusses, I have reregistered an account to deliver this:
To whit, a mostly-accurate record of the minutes of the past 2 hours of the #bay12games room.
00:48- people shouting 'cunt plug' and 'ANAL LIGHTNING' and so forth.
00:52- racial epithets being thrown as insults
00:55- also antisemitism. I think. Is saying that jews are able to shoot their arms as projectile weapons, even if intended as an insult, actually one? [Side note: Personally, as a part-jew, being able to shoot my fists at people would be cool. But I think it was meant as an insult.]
[time leap i stopped paying attention due to how irritating and stupid the chat has been when full of tons of trolls]
02:26- resume paying attention, am greeted with spam floods
02:34- also homophobia, mysnogeny, and racism all in one sentence! wow!
02:44- more racist trolling
02:45- Also, for the past hour or so someone has been saying "PENIS" over and over in what isn't quite a flood/drone of noise but rather a constant ping.
[after this, for the past 15 minutes, there has been more quiet]
If you copypaste this about 30 times, this is basically a summary of the past 3 days of the IRC room.
In conclusion, a small group of old hands who are on consistantly and able to moderate with a fair hand, balancing the problem of smothering the chat with it being full of idiots would be appreciated.
I'm not saying that people should be unable to discuss things- hell, we could discuss racism if we wanted, even though it's a touchy thing. But shouting "PENIS PENIS PENIS PENIS" and "THIS IS A SPAM MESSAGE MEANT TO ANNOY YOU" and telling people, as an insult, "You are a nigger" means that you have nothing to contribute to an IRC room. Kickban exists for a reason. [edit- I'm not even kidding. All three of these happened.]
Message concludes,
Doomduckie