Player Opinions - Minecraft Java Chat Reporting

(Page managed by Corman#0001 on discord, or CormanVG on Youtube)
(Opinions used in the main Chat Reporting document)

This is a document of opinions collected from players (with their person) about Minecraft Java's chat reporting feature.

How do I add my take?

Send a direct message to Corman#0001 on discord with at least one paragraph describing your opinion regarding Minecraft: Java Edition's Chat Reporting system. Your take will be added here no matter what it is, and will be formatted to fix any typos or grammatical issues, as well as to enhance it with Markdown.

Table of Contents

NovaStorm93

NovaStorm93#9909 (406611553551515648) in the #saveminecraft discord, sent at 12:48 AM EST on July 15, 2022.

My main concerns with chat reporting is that it's a step towards a more family-friendly java, which goes completely against what Minecraft's origins on 4chan and it's current userbase of mostly teenagers and young adults. It feels like they want to turn it into Bedrock which, while it's reporting system and censorship is fairly trash, the majority of its players are younger than 16 or so, so it feels more reasonable. Plus, community managers and such have been doing a good job for a while of keeping Java family-friendly on huge and popular servers, even without chat reporting. This whole thing feels like a huge slap in the community's face, Mojang/Microsoft obviously think we aren't capable of moderating our own servers well enough and want to take a step further in making sure it's "family friendly", even when that's completely unnecessary.

ZephaniahNoah

ZephaniahNoah#9870 (258417761863204864) in DMs, sent at 12:42 AM EST on July 15, 2022.

Here's the issue. Minecraft Java Edition is not a game. It's a group of various versions of a platform. Each individual server is a different game with different communities governed by different rules. It is nonsense to think that each server can have the same rules applied to it. It is wrong to think you know how each server should be run. Some servers even have multiple games in them.

mrbooboostank

mrbooboostank#0243 (794380882785337345) in the #saveminecraft discord, sent at 1:07 AM EST on July 15, 2022.

  1. The chat reporting system is coming extremely late into Minecraft's lifespan, essentially a backstab from Mojang towards everyone who already bought the game and can't refund.
  2. Muddies the purpose of Mojang's auth servers from "prevent piracy and manage skins and usernames" to "steal back our product if the user says things we dislike".
  3. System's implemented very poorly with vague report categories and a shadow investigator council.
  4. Nobody requested anything close to a global banning system prior to 1.19.1, the player base was unanimously fine with self-moderation.
  5. The reporting system can't be disabled without mods.

Rivedoublar

Rivedoublar#8566 (995236303518040104) in the #saveminecraft discord, sent at 2:10 AM EST on July 15, 2022.

My views on chat reporting in minecraft:

  1. Free speech. Free speech is imperative for any good democratic society to function. And although Minecraft isn't a country, more than a hundred million people communicate on it, more than many countries have people. No matter who the mods are, what they moderate, how moderation works, how the appeal process is, censorship always ends in more toxicity in the given community and exponentially more hate towards the moderators (just look at Facebook, Discord, Reddit, and pretty much every country throughout history with censorship, Minecraft to some extent already, twitter, many more examples I cant think of atm, etc.)
  2. Unfixable Vulnerabilities. The chat reporting system is riddled with essentially unfixable vulnerabilities such as: Bad acting by malicious players, mass reporting using hacked clients, editing ones messages in game files to incriminate others, stealing others’ keys to use to fake their messages, mods misunderstanding messages (especially only being able to see a few messages back atm), moral biases in moderators, and many more were unaware of so far.
  3. Implementation and Effects. This feature was implemented as a ban system rather than a mute system to take control out of server owners hands (watch Aizistral's video). Which is obviously horrible, but on top of that they doubled down on the feature and attempted to stop circumvention of the system after the majority of players and content creators criticized it or heavily criticized it. This also takes most of content moderation out of server owners hands, even though they pay to run the servers, and have been doing a fine job of it up until now.

This chat reporting system, if not entirely removed or drastically toned down, will spell the end of Minecraft (especially 1.19.1+). And it makes me fucking angry to think that people will grow out of Minecraft, and remember it with a bitter taste in their mouth. So please remove this Mojang.

impmallet

impmallet#8256 (190302835609436160) in DMs, sent at 2:30 AM EST on July 15, 2022.

As a decade long Minecraft player and server operator, I feel both concern and dissatisfaction from the upcoming chat reporting feature. While the goal of the upcoming changes are sound, they lack consideration of the unique and nuanced structure of the Minecraft online platform, which is primarily comprised of 3rd party user owned/operated servers. Given this arrangement, servers have enjoyed a large degree of autonomy that has allowed an extremely diverse culture to be grown throughout the Minecraft online community, with each individual server crafting their own unique vision. Myself, and others, are concerned that the inclusion of this feature will do more harm than good, as it feels invasive and unnecessary. We are concerned that communities will contiguously be at a state of unease due to the looming possibility that a comment, or joke, could be taken out of context and result in a temporary or potentially permanent account suspension. No matter how unlikely this scenario may be, the feeling of distrust for the system will linger and in a place where users felt relaxed and comfortable will now become a place that they feel they are under constant threat of false punishment.

What I have learned over the past 10 years is that Minecraft is more than just a place to build art, it's a place to build your own world and share it with others. Minecraft chat may have originally been intended for simple communication, but it has tied creativity and communication together in a way that no other online experience has ever replicated. Minecraft is a place to share ideas, opinions, and jokes. We do not want toxicity or hate in our communities, and while chat reporting aims to remove those elements, I fear that it will unintentionally remove much more.

While no system is perfect, I'd like to suggestion the following changes that I believe are better suited for the unique and decentralized Minecraft online ecosystem.

  • Add a server toggle option to opt out of the chat reporting function. Servers with this disabled will require users to read and accept a disclaimer that they are not operated or approved by Mojang and do not have chat reporting enabled.
  • Mojang Official operated / endorsed servers with ACTIVE Mojang or endorsed moderation that are trained and will enforce EULA guidelines. Include these servers directly into the client going forward so that they are easy to access for everyone.
  • Per account parental control options - This will allow parents to control the level of online interaction their children are able to experience in Minecraft. Options could be to allow only access to Mojang managed or endorsed servers, or access to both Mojang servers and 3rd party servers WITH chat reporting, or ALL online servers, or no online play at all.

Given these additions, I believe the entire Minecraft community can be made safer without hindering the elements of Minecraft that have crafted it into the experience we love and enjoy. Thank you.

Zo0m

Zo0m#9633 (328013580198739969) in the MINECRAFT discord, sent at 11:04 AM EST on July 15, 2022.

I am worried about the appeal system and how it will work. Often times appeal systems leave more people in the deep dark than intended.

gadgetgolem

gadgetgolem#0539 (996468082774130738) in the MINECRAFT discord, sent at 11:15 AM EST on July 15, 2022.

(This user is addressing Mojang's Addressing Player Reporting Tool document.)

I'm a 49 year old gamer and teacher. I use Minecraft to teach kids how games work. My two cents below:

If you feel that you’ve been banned unjustly, you may submit an appeal at Case Review Request.

I thought Microsoft knew better. This never worked in other multiplayer games. Just join a random FPS game lobby and see this "chat moderation" in the works.

Most Minecraft servers are already handling this with mods packed with a lot of features. Spigot is a very popular Minecraft modding website and if you take a look at the most popular mods there, you'll see that moderation mods almost always have more downloads than minigame mods.

Is my online chat being monitored?
No, we do not monitor traffic or chat on private Java servers, but players can still use the reporting tool when they see actions that break our community standards and feel that Mojang Studios needs to step in.

This is not going to work, because the moderators cannot take action against small parts of text reported by a "victim". You'd need the chat logs AND some context for a justified ban.

Our investigators understand chat messages can have different meanings depending on the situation and consider that context when reviewing reports.

To understand the context, you'd need the chat logs. The reported messages will never be enough.

I'd suggest making this feature optional, sending the reports to the server admins to let them decide for their own players.

IMS

IMS#7902 (366702774403989504) in the #saveminecraft discord, sent at 11:16 AM EST on July 15, 2022.

I believe this report system has validity, however it needs major changes to work as intended. Today's pre5 changes are a huge step forward, but there needs to be transparency on how it works. I believe this system can be saved, but it needs to be thought out first.

CuppaTea

CuppaTea#2995 (462353459111264256) in DMs, sent at 1:25 PM EST on July 15, 2022.

Chat reporting I feel will ultimately be good for the longevity of the game. Too many people have slipped through the cracks of moderation teams, and can propagate their hate elsewhere. This system could very well help to mitigate that however I disagree with a lot of the arguments raised. While I understand Minecraft is this unique community of networked servers, and creative freedom, it should not in any circumstance allow specific behaviours to exist, especially when the platform can be used by impressionable people. I support Mojang's right to terminate access, but do understand how it can feel like a slap to server owners. The points I feel aren't talked about enough are what happens when those server owners are the problem. Without something like this there is no recourse for their actions, which is important to have. As much as this community is rosy and beautiful, there are some downright disgusting people that currently have no one able to stop them or punish them for their actions.

I do not feel this system will punish the creative freedoms the game has always stood for, to do so would be silly. I feel it serves as a means to hold any individual accountable for their actions, and works as a step to support the existing moderation teams that exist, which are also systems that need to exist, to ensure a community can keep it's community spirit, and not be dragged down by the acts of bad people. This only works if we have full transparency. In doing this Mojang has a duty of care to ensure their rules are explicit, their bans are nearly always fair, the ones that aren't can be easily appealed and that they acknowledge any wrongdoing on their behalf as well.

To help this I support the following changes:

  • Make punishments notified via email. If a child's account is punished with warns/bans then the parents should be notified to help take corrective action on their end. A ban doesn't teach a child why something is wrong, only that it is, so this could serve as a teachable moment
  • Show the offending message of bans. Since bans could be backlogged by days, a user could easily have forgotten what they said that was bannable, and thus, repeat the actions. The ban screen should show: The length of the ban, the case ID, the ban reason, and the offending content.
  • Send the context to that message via email. Since content could get long, it would not be viable to show on the ban screen, instead they could be notified via email, to know what actions in what context were not forgivable, as well as to serve a means for appeals, where they can explain context messages.
  • Increase the context. Server chats can flood very quickly. In a server such as Hypixel, on a gamemode such as Skyblock, your message could instantly be drowned via chat spam, this means any context to your offending message is lost, and you may suffer an unfair punishment with no recourse. Increasing the context to a higher number such as 20 before and after could prevent this, especially in scenarios where someone apologizes for their actions, or didn't know it wasn't ok
  • Warnings. Warnings would serve as a resettable barrier before a low level temp ban. These would obviously be skipped by serious acts, but for cases where a joke was taken poorly, or an argument got a bit too personal by mistake, it could help to correct actions easier than a tempban. I feel it's an important system to have when the consequence for being banned also involves losing access to paid services

Hmm

Hmm#4994 (479300112598958095) in DMs, sent at 1:34 PM EST on July 15, 2022.

  1. Mojang owns Minecraft Java Edition, but it doesn't own 3rd party servers. I do understand that we did agree to the EULA, no one is disputing that. However, Mojang itself admits in the pop-up warning screen that once we click on the Multiplayer button for the first time, "3rd party servers are not owned by Mojang or Microsoft".
  2. Being banned from the whole multiplayer is a harsh punishment (grooming and trying to exploit kids are the only punishments that justify a permanent global ban). In my opinion, being unable to join any server (even temporarily) for say bullying (or perhaps even worse, as false-bans are likely to occur) is very stupid
  3. The system have good intentions and goals, no one disputes that. However, it isn't effective for a number of reasons, including:
    • Java have been thriving throughout the years thanks to many factors. Whether you like it or not, 2b2t and other anarchy servers are one of them. It was a great example that Minecraft Java Edition was a game where you 're free to do whatever you want. Of course, this isn't an excuse to do bad things, but even so it still unbearable for the majority of players to have this freedom have been taken from us, especially as we could be banned from playing at all.
    • Servers owners have also made it perfectly clear that they don't want Mojang's "highly trained mods" to moderate their server. We've had the self-moderation system working perfectly fine. Players simply have two choices. Either they can hop on anarchy servers that are known to be dangerous, or play on any other server with a set of rules with a goal to achieve a safe play experience. If a player break the rules or act toxic in these servers, any other player is easily able to report them to a staff who can deal with the issue directly.
  4. We do not have direct contact to these moderators, which will make false-bans rate high enough to bypass the "ignorable amount" limits . As a result this new feature is going to cause more bad than good, and it's even worse considering we already have servers with their own moderation teams.

ChiefChippy2

ChiefChippy2#7983 (507547693233602591) in DMs, sent at 5:23 PM EST on July 15, 2022.

If you want my take on chat reporting:

I'll start off with a disclaimer. I'm not a Minecraft player that follows every update. I almost always play on 1.8.9 and probably will stay on that version for the foreseeable future. That being said, the reason I got involved with 1.19.1's controversial, ground-breaking (sorta) chat reporting feature is because I care about Minecraft as a whole, and I do not want to see Microsoft getting more and more out of touch with the java community.
There you have it, I am a 1.8.9 mc gamer, I mainly play multiplayer, and I've first bought mc in ~2016.

First of all, whether Microsoft was forced by DSA, convinced by a player's feedback, or did it voluntarily, it is nice seeing a feature that at least advertises itself as one that would protect the community. It shows some sort of involvement, a way to say "they care". And indeed if we look at all the pre-releases 1.19.1 has (at the moment of writing, July 15th, it has 5 pre-releases), Microsoft/Mojang (I'll refer to whoever is managing mc as Microsoft) is fixing all the bugs and clarifying the extend of this reporting feature with severe consequences. That being said, I don't see Chat Reporting as a feature that is either necessary or well thought out.

Let's start with the categories of chat report. Most, if not all of them are definitely for dealing with illegal activities on servers/realms. However, some such as Hate speech or Terrorism lack preciseness and can be very subjective. The issue isn't wanting to prevent people from spreading terrorist ideology or being racist, that is definitely something to be punished, but rather the issue is the context and how messages can be interpreted. Contexts are added to the evidence of the report. Sure. But is the activity on the server sent as well? Are the mods of the server communicated? Not at all. Minecraft is a game that can be heavily modded, and someone planning to "throw TNT"(nuke) a Minecraft copy of a real-life building is definitely not the same as the next Al-Qaeda meetings. Microsoft claims that their moderators know killing exists on Minecraft. Sure. But do they know mods of every kind imaginable also exist? Do they know if the player wasn't making a bad joke, or referring to something completely different? Appeals exist, but it takes time and stresses out players. Plus, it's just the player's words against the moderator's words. No way can Microsoft verify the authenticity of the appeal claims.

Second of all, this system is paradoxically useless. Here's why: the system is built to report bad actors. Bad actors being bad actors will definitely catch wind on this player reporting feature. If someone is using Minecraft to do illegal activities, they'll definitely watch out for updates. Therefore, they will evade the report system, rendering the report system useless. So at this point, what good is the report system for? A counter argument is claiming that servers in 1.19.1+ can force refuse players that don't follow chat signing, but that's just solving a part of the problem, rendering only the latest (and only latest) servers "clean".

Thirdly, Microsoft has no role in interfering with player activities on multiplayer server IMO. They don't provide server hardware, they don't provide a centralized chat system, they don't provide a server list. Sure they made the game, but similarly to the founder of HTTP, Tim Berners-Lee, Microsoft shouldn't be the one handling suspicious user activity, the web admin should. This sounds very unpleasant, especially to a big tech corporation, but it has to be said.

(This is more of a concern than an argument) Lastly, Minecraft doesn't have great security. In fact, downloading a "mod" that is actually a session token stealer can let to others impersonating you in servers. This means if someone accidentally downloaded a malicious mod, they might end up getting their whole account banned permanently, and "justified", despite them being innocent of what they are charged with. And the next part is where the cookie crumbles. Changing password doesn't seem to help reset the token, and there's no way to kick off someone that logged in a server except by logging in to that server as well. This is very concerning, and I think chat reports will only worsen this issue by increasing the consequences of getting your token leaked.

As a conclusion, I think it is pretty safe to say that chat reporting is a feature that seemingly feels positive, but actually has a lot of flaws that Microsoft, to my greatest regrets, refuse to shed light on or to admit. Underlying weakness of the game only worsen the potential penalty incurred by false reports, and will only lead to the innocents taking punishments for nothing. To whoever is still reading this wall of text, think about who is actually going to use the system, and who is going to punished. Will legitimate people use the system to get the barons of Internet's toxic cesspool banned? Perhaps. But will these ghastly knights of the dark side abuse the system to boot off their biggest foes? For sure. Flaws exist in software, and chat report will become a minefield, filled with maliciously crafted traps of account bans.

P.S to whoever is still reading here - This is a personal take, a quite pessimist one, if you don't agree, too bad for you.

Mr. Fluff

Mr.Fluff#4083 (801417053151428668) in DMs, sent at 6:42 PM EST on July 15, 2022.

Here are my two cents.

The chat reports are needed, be it due to the EU DSA laws or just to enforce Mojang's EULA/terms that have been there since 2013.
Yes, it needs some clarification.

  • False bans will happen, but that's just a fact of any system.
  • Bans range from 3-30 days and permanent, most being 3-30 days.
  • There should not be a toggle as that would allow bad actors to be unaffected.

People bring up the following issues a lot:

  • Anarchy Servers: They will mostly be unaffected as most are pre-1.19, however, you still must follow the rules you agreed to when you made your account every time you start your server, and have an anarchy server.
  • Free Speech: Mojang is a private entity, you don't have free speech.
  • "I Own The Game": You own a license to play/use the game not the game
  • "It's My Server I Should Be Able To Say Or Do Anything":
    1. You don't own the software, auth, skin or session servers Mojang does.
    2. You agreed to follow the EULA/Terms when you made your account and started your server
  • "But the 2011 trailer that says no rules": This trailer is outdated, and was 2 years before the EULA was made.
  • "My Privacy": The chat reported is public chat and or /messages. Again, in the terms/EULA you agreed to, Mojang may use any content you make available. That includes chat messages.

Finally, I'd like for you to do your homework and read the below links (more information may be available, as this was last updated on July 15, 2022):

guro

guro#0666 (71195665727750144) in DMs, sent at 4:10 PM EST on July 17, 2022.

My position on this feature really boils down to a couple of things:

  1. I agree with Mojang that the behaviours listed as reportable and bannable offenses are serious problems that should be removed from the Minecraft community at large
  2. I have yet to hear any convincing arguments against it or reasonable suggestions for a replacement.

It is true that I have heard many complaints, but none of them seem to make much sense to me.

  • But my free speech!: You are not being censored, your messages will still go through just fine. There is no chat filter to prevent you from saying anything. However, freedom of speech does not free you from the consequences of your actions, one such consequence being Mojang wanting you to take a little timeout from multiplayer.
  • Servers should have an opt-out!: They do have an opt-out, it's called enforce-secure-profile=false. Simply set that and your players will be able to choose whether or not they want to be reportable on your server. Maybe you'd prefer to install one of the dozen or so mods that will force all of your players to opt-out? It seems to me like there are plenty of opt-out options available for those who want their server to become a cesspit.
  • This takes away moderation from servers!: This feature removes neither /kick nor /ban (or /banip if you're fancy), nor does it prevent you from installing other moderation plugins. Your server's moderation will remain completely intact. Mojang is not moderating your server, they are moderating their session/auth servers. Everything you do on a third party server is only because Mojang allowed you to join that server. This is completely valid in much the same way that you can be arrested by the police if you commit a crime in a store.
  • The rules are too vague!: If exact specifications for the rules were published, it would be trivial for would-be rule breakers to simply walk right up to that line, but never cross it. Keeping it vague ensures that malicious players don't have a firm boundary to avoid, making it more likely to catch the people it's trying to.
  • What if I get false banned?: Submit an appeal or wait it out. I think you'll live.
  • What if someone reports an offensive joke I make to my friend?: Don't say it in a setting in which players who don't understand would see it. If you say it on your private server and nobody is offended, nobody will file a report, and nobody will get banned. Just like it was before.
  • Mojang isn't listening to us!: Of course they are. They have noticed people breaking their system (e.g. Gaslight) and are implementing fixes. They're just ignoring the useless "remove it now!!!1" messages.
  • Why don't they have a mute instead?: In order to implement that in a way that servers would have a much harder time bypassing, they would have to start routing all chat through Mojang's servers. That is a legitimate privacy concern. They are making the smart choice by not introducing any more centralized authority and just moderating what was already there.
  • Reports should go to the server owner instead!: Okay, and then what happens when the server owner is the one breaking the rules? That system falls apart under an extremely basic scenario. No thanks.
  • Mojang should have Trusted/Verified/Safe Servers that kids can join!: This not only puts legal burden on Mojang, something they would certainly like to avoid as much as possible, it could also very easily be modified out of the game, something kids will definitely find out how to do within about 5 minutes. Also, Chat Reporting is not only to protect children. Adults suffer from abuse and toxicity as well.
  • But I pay for the server!: And Mojang pays for the session servers, which are the only things they are restricting people from.
  • But what about 2b2t?: From the impression I get after seeing people complaining about how these changes are going to "ruin" their server, I would say that's a good thing. Not like they'll be affected anyway, they still have an ancient server running for some reason.
  • This is going to KILL Minecraft!: Oh nice, the latest doomsday cult has arrived.
  • I can't even say night in Minecraft anymore!: It's time to stop watching PhoenixSC.

So is this system perfect? No. There are still flaws with it, most notably the entire Chat Previewing system (as of pre5) appears to be terribly designed and very much exploitable. Nobody wants to talk about the real issues with it though.

goat_

goat_#0023 (603291004476456970) in DMs, sent at 8:44 PM EST on July 19, 2022.

In my opinion, chat reporting is unneeded. The game has been without the system for a whole 10+ years, and we've had server moderators who can set up their own rules, kick, ban, and etc. for anyone they wanted to deal with for breaking their certain rules. Server moderators have dealt with all the issues chat reporting is doing right now for 10+ years, not to mention, previous attempts at a global moderation system had failed before such as McAdmin.

Now, I wouldn't mind this system if it only covered illegal stuff, the non-illegal stuff can be dealt with by server moderators, almost like a hybrid system, and if that was implemented, I'd be completely ay-okay with this system and honestly would probably not use it, but some people will use it and I cant stop them from using it. One last thing is that if you do ever get moderated, I want an actual reason for the ban. From what I've seen on bedrock, they give no reasons and it appears the same in java. Maybe the sentence that was flagged and moderated? I'm not sure, I just don't like the system the way it is right now.

I hope Mojang and Microsoft make some actual improvements to the system to make everybody happy. The only reason why this system is getting the high amount of backlash is its track record from bedrock, false bans, no appeals for 2 years, shadow mutes, and etc. They completely lied to us about the "highly trained team of professionals", and I think that's why this system is incredibly disliked. That's just me though.

Green

G̴̓́r̵͊́ē̶̋e̸̛͑n̶̈͝#6343 (504317081421086730) in DMs, sent at 2:44 PM EST on July 20, 2022.

I feel Minecraft's reporting system is going against the original implementation of servers. I understand that yes, there might be parental stakes, but Bedrock edition is already advertised as a better alternative to Minecraft Java for children.

We also like to make edgy communities, for example 2B2T, which is basically "The pinnacle of liberty" in my opinion. Everyone can just screw around. Another example is DrugsMC, a server based around starting a fictional drug cartel, that will inevitably be perceived as "encouraging drugs" in Mojang's eyes.

Chat reporting threatens the player of the communities for just playing as intended. Just mentioning "cocaine" in DrugsMC could get me banned! Like many people say, if needed, chat reporting should only contain horrible things, like child abuse.

On those "edgy" communities, maybe a toggle switch would be nice.

Nebulon-B_FrigateFTW

u/Nebulon-B_FrigateFTW from a public reddit comment.
Allowed for the comment to be added to the document at 7:40 PM EST on July 20, 2022.

It's very obvious if you look at Microsoft's history why they are doing this, and why they are doing it now. Their core strategy when they see a big platform/market that they don't control is Embrace, Extend, Extinguish.

In the case of Minecraft, which acts as both a game itself and a weird platform for education or planning or multiplayer minigames, the Embrace portion was easy as they could just buy Mojang. The problem then was that as long as it was Java-based, even while they owned it, it was still an open book for modification, instead of being all proprietary and monetizable. So they made Bedrock, with new features, to Extend.

Bedrock recently has come very close to feature parity, close enough that many people will say the differences only lie in Bedrock's restrictive chat filtering and rules. So now comes the Extinguish, where they make Java Edition lose its extra freedom, to drive players to their better Bedrock Edition, so they can eventually pull the plug.

fortnite shield potion

fortnite shield potion#8604 (788899402798202891) in DMs, sent at 8:55 PM EST on July 20, 2022.

What Mojang is doing now, is completely unnecessary and even harmful towards the community.

Mojang has used the guise of "safety" to introduce global chat reporting and multiplayer bans. In reality, this is just another attempt by Mojang to screw over the player base again. As the saying goes, if it's not broken then don't fix it.

But hate speech! We can't have that online!

Servers have been banning instances of hate speech for a decade now. If an owner wants to censor this they can use the moderation tools provided by Mojang or third-party developers. Anything can be considered as hate speech, even disagreeing with certain political narratives can be considered as such. Mojang has offered zero transparency as to what constitutes as "hate speech" and what does not, so I believe this is just a way to censor things that they don't like people saying and shown by how they moderate the bedrock edition I would not trust them to moderate hate speech properly because they will selectively enforce things. If you care this much about hate speech you can just play on another server that will protect you.

But I trust what Mojang is doing!

Just look at what happened with Bedrock edition. People were getting shadowbanned in chat for no specific reason. People were getting banned from the entire game for no specific reason. We have no idea how good the appeal system even is for false bans, but I clearly do not trust a corporation to run one. Historically, Mojang has been particularly terrible at moderating things. They cannot even enforce the EULA properly because there are so many blatantly pay to win servers but they do not get shut down. In competitive environments like hypixel, off platform behaviour is also extremely toxic because there were instances of accounts being hacked into and people getting malware sent by other players on discord and this is arguably more harmful than someone spamming slurs. While it is obvious Mojang is trying to fix methods to get people false banned I do not trust them to implement a proper solution. It is playing a game of catch-22 where people will develop more advanced plugins for false banning- when gaslight is patched someone will make a gaslight v2.

But you don't actually own the game! You only own the license so Mojang should be able to do anything!

Alright then, don't go crying to Mojang when they false ban you. You said you don't actually own the game, right?
This is also a poor business practice. I would prefer if people owned the game, so stop defending corporations who pull this tactic.

Mojang, you are not a parent. You are a game development studio. Make better updates.

Zanctarian

Zanctarian#3737 (140619718712098826) in DMs, sent at 1:00 AM EST on July 22, 2022.

I'm for a centralized "abuse punishment" system of some kind, but definitely not in the way it is currently planned.

Minecraft: Java Edition has existed for a very long time and is the starting point of Minecraft itself. While I could give my two cents into various issues like the infamous MC-162253, I intend to stay on subject. I will only be focusing on Multiplayer and my view regarding the reporting system. To address the elephant in the room, Minecraft: Java Edition has gotten very old compared to other versions. It has had a decentralized structure for as long as I can remember. You host a server, be it self-host or a server renting from a provider, you design you world, add functionality -- and just like magic, your own Minecraft server. Even if the authentication servers shut down, the modding community has been so strong that the game will still live on. This presents an issue, however. Minecraft Multiplayer for Java, at its core, has always been decentralized.

How would this be an issue, you may wonder? Well, Minecraft has always been very flexible regarding mods -- so much so that anytime people think of a "modded game," Minecraft would typically appear as one of the responses. Freedom has always existed in the game -- freedom to make what you want, when you want, how you want -- under arguably very simple rules (EULA). What does this have to do with reporting, you may wonder? It removes some of these freedoms. Take 2b2t for example, a notorious server known for its players using every tiny little issue with the game to their profitable advantage. It's anarchy. It has no rules. If it did, the rules would simply state "There are none." While there are very good things the reporting helps protect against, I believe it's too vast in the areas it targets -- limiting the freedom with many kinds of chats, even on private whitelisted servers where only friends log on to. If the target was making Minecraft as family friendly as possible, they should've just kept it to bedrock. After all, not only does it already have a centralized punishment system in place, but it IS the most cross-compatible of all of the Minecrafts. Only PC users can play the official Java edition, while many different devices/consoles can access Bedrock.

To make matters worse, some report options contradicts what Mojang replies. For example, there's an option to ban someone over threatening self harm and suicide. In the FAQ, Mojang states that they will not ban players for discussing self-harm and suicide, saying: "No. We care deeply about our players and if we are informed about a threat of imminent harm, we attempt to provide players in crisis with support resources in times of need." What constitutes threatening and discussing? If a player says they're thinking about it, wouldn't that qualify as both? They haven't exactly made a threat, but they aren't in a discussion about it either. Further, how would a discussion about the topic even be started without some sentence that could be seen as a threat? More transparency among these rules would be greatly needed, otherwise it'd leave too much room for assumptions.

Now, with various concerns addressed, there's something that Mojang COULD address in the form of centralized banning. Server crashers, specifically organized bot raids. But last I checked, server owners just has to deal with it. Worth a shot at least :P.

Black KnightYT

Black KnightYT#4040 (863939474915721247) from a public discord post in the MINECRAFT discord.
Black KnightYT#4040 (863939474915721247) in DMs, consented at 10:11 PM EST on July 22, 2022.

The greatest thing of the chat reporting feature is that it's not creating a safe environment, it's doing the complete opposite. And the continuous, elaborated criticism should be more than enough to understand it, but here we are.

Minecraft was released more than 10 years ago. Kids, a lot, that were 10,12, 9, even 7 back then, and everyone else that got picked along the way, me at 1.5.2, are now adults. They know what they do and they still enjoy this blocky game. A good chunk of the player base is like this, and I'm no exception, being now a software developer that enjoys modding the game.

And the argument of "making it safe for everyone"? It's the greatest lie you're all telling yourself. This is empowering not the peaceful people, but the disgusting people that want to inflict harm by removing the game from other people. This empowers abusers more than enjoyers, creates more danger than safety.

You can't decide who is a good player and who isn't. There is no way to do so. Even best, I already know I'm an edge case/someone who will get wrongly banned... Actually I wont, I refuse to use this system under any circumstance, but back to the point... Im an adult, I play with mature friends/people on modded servers, that I am part of the hosters/moderators. Mainly the group of friends plays on it, knowing well each other and respecting as well. Including things, such as my dark humor, which I can pull a laugh out of anything, and even if I mess up, its okay cause its a friend group, and understandable what are my intentions.
Now...these servers are also open for modded enjoyers.
Do a bunch of 13 year old kids pop up in my server and see me pulling a joke ? they inmediatly have absolute power to take away this game from me. To take away years of playing, tens of modpacks, endless time with my friends, hundreds of hours of mod development just because they wanted to troll around
These are the guys really being empowered, this is the result, this is what is happening in bedrock, but...oh well, errors happen, you're not getting unbanned though.

This is the "safe" environment being created. Congratulations everyone on your compliance of "doing it for the kids". It's not as if the real kids who love this game ever grow up, right? They're disposable. Honestly, the least I expect from this feature, is for every single server instance, Paper, Bukkit, Spigot, Forge, Fabric...whatever. To fully block and remove chat reporting by default, as they always kept doing some little improvements on the base. For me, I'm not touching anything that remotely allows this

Congratulations on the Wildly Infuriating update. Had to one-up the previous outrage huh?

Edit
Pub: 15 Jul 2022 05:02 UTC
Edit: 23 Jul 2022 02:16 UTC
Views: 831