Yes, I'm aware that this is controversial to post, and I'm sure it won't get any traction amongst Skial admins but here goes anyway!
I believe there is no reason for micspamming or using a soundboard to be punishable by muting and gagging, and here's a couple reasons why:
Number 1, TF2 has a built in mute function, and Skial Servers have the !ignore command. Players on the Skial servers already have ability to mute and gag people that they don't want to hear from without needing to report these players and add extra work onto the admins. This is something that is already being preached by the admins. This is an example that has been told to me , I wasn't here for these particular events, but recently there was a kid who was screaming and yelling and being generally obnoxious in the voice chat, and someone had started a votemute. The votemute failed and an admin had this to say:
What's the difference between the above situation and someone who micspams? Arguably there's nothing that separates the two aside from the content being played over the microphone, just use !ignore to mute the player playing music over the VC just like you would do so to mute an annoying kid screaming over VC. Alternatively you can even use the built in mute function in TF2 to mute these problem players yourself as well, though doing it this way prevents you from seeing their chat messages. This leads into my next point:
Number 2, users are able to votesilence. If it gets to a point where enough users are irritated, players have the ability to call a votesilence on a user for 30 minutes if the vote passes. Now ultimately doing this is pretty worthless when you have access to !ignore and the mute button, but it's still very much a valid option if a majority of players do not like what is being played, or if a particular user is crossing boundaries or being a nuisance.
Now I know what you might say next: "But Arcala, you only play on surf servers, you don't understand how that could affect servers like Payload or Casual where users need to be able to hear each other to coordinate pushes and call out spies!" That's a very valid point to bring up, but I would have to refer you back to my first paragraph: Ultimately you have your own power to mute these people, you don't have to listen to them if you don't want to. Skial and TF2 gives you the tools to curate your own playing experience. Let's talk about implementation for a moment, shall we? Despite everything I've talked about you may still be hesitant to allow micspamming on more serious servers like Casual and Payload, or even on something less serious like the Trade servers as micspamming can prevent people actively trying to set prices and advertise their wares. I also know that allowing exceptions to rules can be messy and a slippery slope if handled incorrectly, but I'd like to suggest making exceptions for servers where the feel of the game is already silly and fairly easy going. Servers that come to mind that are a great example of this are Zombie Escape, Death Run, Freak Fortress, Idle Trade, High Tower, 2Fort, and my favorite and home server: Surf.
In conclusion, I understand that micspamming isn't for everyone, but every user has the capability to curate their own player experience, whether that be through using !ignore, using the mute button that TF2 comes with natively, or votesilencing someone that the whole server disagrees with. Even if you don't allow micspamming on all servers, just a few, player retention should rise and the amount of reports admins need to respond to should fall, theoretically. I hope that I made a compelling argument for the inclusion of micspamming in Skial servers, and if not I hope that this was at least a decent read even if it may have been slightly rambly.
Regards,
Arcala
I believe there is no reason for micspamming or using a soundboard to be punishable by muting and gagging, and here's a couple reasons why:
Number 1, TF2 has a built in mute function, and Skial Servers have the !ignore command. Players on the Skial servers already have ability to mute and gag people that they don't want to hear from without needing to report these players and add extra work onto the admins. This is something that is already being preached by the admins. This is an example that has been told to me , I wasn't here for these particular events, but recently there was a kid who was screaming and yelling and being generally obnoxious in the voice chat, and someone had started a votemute. The votemute failed and an admin had this to say:
What's the difference between the above situation and someone who micspams? Arguably there's nothing that separates the two aside from the content being played over the microphone, just use !ignore to mute the player playing music over the VC just like you would do so to mute an annoying kid screaming over VC. Alternatively you can even use the built in mute function in TF2 to mute these problem players yourself as well, though doing it this way prevents you from seeing their chat messages. This leads into my next point:
Number 2, users are able to votesilence. If it gets to a point where enough users are irritated, players have the ability to call a votesilence on a user for 30 minutes if the vote passes. Now ultimately doing this is pretty worthless when you have access to !ignore and the mute button, but it's still very much a valid option if a majority of players do not like what is being played, or if a particular user is crossing boundaries or being a nuisance.
Now I know what you might say next: "But Arcala, you only play on surf servers, you don't understand how that could affect servers like Payload or Casual where users need to be able to hear each other to coordinate pushes and call out spies!" That's a very valid point to bring up, but I would have to refer you back to my first paragraph: Ultimately you have your own power to mute these people, you don't have to listen to them if you don't want to. Skial and TF2 gives you the tools to curate your own playing experience. Let's talk about implementation for a moment, shall we? Despite everything I've talked about you may still be hesitant to allow micspamming on more serious servers like Casual and Payload, or even on something less serious like the Trade servers as micspamming can prevent people actively trying to set prices and advertise their wares. I also know that allowing exceptions to rules can be messy and a slippery slope if handled incorrectly, but I'd like to suggest making exceptions for servers where the feel of the game is already silly and fairly easy going. Servers that come to mind that are a great example of this are Zombie Escape, Death Run, Freak Fortress, Idle Trade, High Tower, 2Fort, and my favorite and home server: Surf.
In conclusion, I understand that micspamming isn't for everyone, but every user has the capability to curate their own player experience, whether that be through using !ignore, using the mute button that TF2 comes with natively, or votesilencing someone that the whole server disagrees with. Even if you don't allow micspamming on all servers, just a few, player retention should rise and the amount of reports admins need to respond to should fall, theoretically. I hope that I made a compelling argument for the inclusion of micspamming in Skial servers, and if not I hope that this was at least a decent read even if it may have been slightly rambly.
Regards,
Arcala
