Does anybody actually use the economy chat? I really see no point for it, seeing as how town chat works just as well, if not better. I'm just getting kinda tired of being "yelled" at for trying to buy/sell something in town chat when there's the economy chat that nobody I know even uses. It's about as useful as a spoon with holes in it.
It's not about its usefulness to its users, but it is about the people that want that channel muted because they don't enjoy seeing chat spammed with 'buying ESCD for 20k rupees' or 'who wants to buy a horse?' It has same permissions as town chat, but allows a filtering to occur.
Not trying to derail but this goes sorta with Kira's post, I honestly rarely see people use the E chat. They come to the server, advertise their thing in T chat and leave. On a side note, I had no idea what it is for and it's not in the wiki :/
A slotted spoon is actually an extremely useful tool to have around whilst cooking, but yes it certainly doesn't get the soup to your mouth. In that same manner, the economy channel has a specific purpose as stated above by krysyyjane9191. The REAL issue is that the specific purpose is rarely if ever used. I wonder what would be some good ways to try and enforce the usage of the economy channel in relation to economy-related chatting? I can think of some relatively standard negative reinforcement methods such as reporting someone using town channel for economy chatting, with a small ban from town channel being a possible punishment. Such measures rarely work as they require constant input from the staff, which is a losing battle in almost all cases. Maybe having economy channel be cross server enabled? Often times, you'll have people pop onto your server, spam a message, and then disconnect. If, instead, you could send a message to all servers via the economy channel, that'd solve this issue for sure. And if someone doesn't want to get a bunch of economic messages, you're able to filter out the economy channel. If there was a good self-reinforcing method to make people want to use the economy channel instead of town channel, that would rightly solve the issue that you're having with it, as well as a few other issues that haven't been mentioned. Here's to hoping that a solution is in the works!
This idea of cross server has been suggested before and always shot down with "Well people will then just use it to talk to each other instead of it's intended purpose" sadly.
We are looking at possible alternatives for server hopping that will help with the events, but we are hesitant about allowing buy/sell convos and price discussion in it.
Allowing supporters to use e chat would be a nice perk and helpful to those of us living in the wild on several servers.
Which is where the stick instead of the carrot comes into play through a negative reinforcement solution. Perhaps a decent cost associated with it so each "advertisement" (which it is, as you're broadcasting economic details in an attempt to sell/buy/trade/promote/etc a product/service/event/etc) is something that you can properly appreciate? This then rupee-locks the economy channel, though, which is an unintended side effect and one that I'm not entirely sure is a good thing at all as this is a relatively subjective element. I'm new, so I'm hording my rupees similar to my childhood candy habits during Halloween. If it cost me 1000r to send a global economic message, I'd certainly think through that message in great length, and consider if there are better alternatives. That might be a drop in the bucket for some people, and thus worth the cost associated with it for any incidental messaging they might want to make. And as an additional point on this: A global channel solution is something that happens one way or the other. This would remove the disconnect/join spam, and make it a more controllable element to the chatroom. Bothersome, but entirely understandable given the multi-server elements to Empire. Alternatively, a strict reinforcement of the "no using economy channel for non-economic reasons" would work, but that's another headache for the staff (be it a slightly less painful one as a global/all server economic channel would mean they'd be able to see such abuse without needing to be notified). The idea of making the economic channel also would end up making the economies between the servers (disregarding utopia, because of the requirements to access it as such) a good bit more unified. Again: Not sure if this is good or bad, as it's relatively subjective. I think a more unified economy between all of the servers would be a good thing, as it would remove a great deal of the hot and cold spots in the economy, allowing for a good deal of better economic balance. Of course this change wouldn't be anywhere near enough to get rid of middlemanning, which is, as you'd expect, a subjective thing and thus not good nor bad. Can you think of any other way to fix this issue besides giving up on the economic channel entirely? Maybe a better set of awareness-enabling exercises and resources during the tutorial? Perhaps an angry drop bear that glares at you when you don't use the economy channel for economic reasons? ~~~ I'm glad to see that it's something in the works for being considered. There are certainly some excellent middle grounds between "all your rupees to globally broadcast please" and "global spamfest 2015", so hopefully something acceptable will be found.
Last night on smp7 I saw people using both Economy and Town Chat for trading. Most of it seemed to be in E: Chat though. If we want it to be used, we need to consistently promote it and educate people about it just as we do when people use Town chat improperly for other things like Residence events. Also, I use serving spoons almost daily. I find them quite useful.
Yeah i rarely see it used but even when it is used its usually when someone forgets they are in it maybe send a out notices about it for a month?
Disclaimer: weekend and then I tend to speak my mouth (sometimes too much for my own good). On smp2 the E(conomy) chat is also used (relatively often too) just like the town chat is. As to the OP: the big (and important) question here is: who was yelling at you? Some people may not going to like this but: if only staff yelled at you then I can understand where you're coming from. Thing is: I can't believe that to be true. I think the players yelled at you. Now ask yourself this: did they really yell at you because they're so bend on following the rules or could there have been another reason? My (controversial) take? The main issue here is that the rules aren't enforced all the time. And personally I think that's a great thing, perhaps even one of the main things which makes the Empire. On the down side it may also create situations like yours; where you get yelled at by (what I assume to be): players and then wonder about the server rules (also an assumption on my part obviously). My take? If x+4 players 'yell' at you for whatever it is you're doing, then trust the majority on their "ruling". No need for staff (sorry guys ). Remember: the main idea of the Empire is to allow everyone to have a good time. So if several people are wondering about you... No offense here but then I think you should "go with the flow". For the record: I am not very active on economics yet, but I more than often tend to ignore stuff on town chat and pay more attention to E chat. Just "because". I'd personally go with E for starters and if that really doesn't get you anywhere you could try town chat for a quick poke. Then you'll get the best of both without bothering anyone. Esp. if you take the next back to E(conomy) again. Just my 2 cents obviously. (rupee cents? do those even exist? )
Honestly I still think E-Chat is pointless, town chat works just as well. In a game like Minecraft where the player base is predominantly aged below 16, you're going to have spam and annoying people no matter what kind of new chat ideas are implemented.
Be that as it may, we run into the same issue that you have with any sort of defense-against-the-inevitable: Just because a new system will be abused/misused/ignored does not mean it isn't worthwhile to implement it. The key is to factor in the exact cost between enforcement of the new system (both initial and upkeep after the end of the initial training period, disregarding extreme outliers) as that tells you if something is worth doing.
Then I stand corrected. And as said above; I can also understand where you're coming from. On smp2 I get the feel its pretty much a free for all, but I also noticed that some players tend to warn / inform others too at times. But as always with these things; they will only work best if people actually start using 'm. Another take on this (can't blame me for trying ): If everyone is using town chat then wouldn't it be fair to say that not using town but economy would most likely get you a little bit of extra attention? On smp2 town chat is more than often pretty busy. And economy stuff can easily get lost in there... PS: Although I don't agree with E chat being useless I do like people speaking their mind, that's what its all about IMO.
