Language

I've seen many cases of swearing on the forums... not the small swear words, but bigger ones. Not mentioning names here.

question: is the word piss like in" are you trying to piss me off"? and pissed and curse word?

Wondering, can shut up be punishable by mod?

depending on the context. If you are saying it to a person then yes. If you are saying 'I am going to shut up now' then that is not punishable. If you are saying it to cows for example then probably not.

Well someone just told me to shut up they can do what they want... so I was just wondering

i'm sorry ma'am, but this is false. You are not judges, you are moderators. It is not your job to interpret the rules, but to enforce them. If a rule is not clear enough, it needs to be clarified. Otherwise punishing anybody for a rule that is not clear and leaving judgment up to people who interpret it differently is not law at all. The law needs to apply the same to everybody. Situation should not effect a judgment, nor should it cause leniency in a rule. If there is a situation where leniency may be warranted, that is what an appeal process is for.

Jeeze I guess I should have maybe had this closed? Or pm'd a Mod? Maybe I didn't explain myself too well? Maybe the situation wasn't explained to me that well?

I was trying to figure out why my sister was upset and threatening to leave for being warned for wtf? Yet I have seen others use it and not get in trouble. I use it, several use it but nobody else ever gets in trouble that I've seen. It's now been explained to me why she got a warning and I understand. I tend to overlook wtf and wth, if a word is used once then I don't tend to report it unless it's the F-bomb, something sexual in nature or G-D'it, or if it's being repeated like I have seen before. "WHO THE HELL CARES" repeated about 10 times is something I would report due to spam, I logged into SMP8 one day to see "damn damn damn damn damn" repeated over and over because someone was losing badly at a casino game.

The rule does need to be clarified as to what is excessive and what is not. Trying to maintain a family friendly atmosphere is fine. I personally do not swear on the server or forums regardless. I have always advocated that this particular rule was too vague though.

If we set specific rules somewhere that included a list of swearwords not to say, people would just get around it and say the words not on that list. That's why it's done in context, a word can still become a "swearword" (or just offensive) if used in a certain context.

I suggest you take it up with ICC then. From the last thread about this exact issue:

Additionally, with regards to chat violations, sometimes situation is everything. A minor curse word, if used in a direct attack on an individual, can be just as offensive as a more serious one, depending on the context.

Any word or set of words can be offensive if used the correct way. Also, different words are more offensive to some people than others. "Excessively foul Language" leaves the rule open to too much interpretation, whereas a rule against swearing leaves little to no interpretation. "Getting around" the rule is a different beast than not knowing what the rule covers to begin with. Most people know what an offensive word is without having to be told. But the rule is not "No offensive language", which in itself is even perhaps clearer than the current rule.

A moderator using their judgment to decide which word falls within the "no swearing" rule would be a lot simpler and fairer than a moderator trying to decide what counts as an offensive word or as excessive.

Crap... Poop... I see nothing wrong here.

Pretty much what I said anyway, but please carry on.

Moderating a situation and enforcing a rule are two different things as well. Some, if not most situations can be resolved without lasting punishment. Some cannot. One requires your judgment, the other requires a rule to be enforced.

I wasn't sure what point if any you were trying to make.

You use your judgement to decide whether or not to enforce the rule, and then follow through with punishment.
Its called being a moderator.

Except under the current rule it leaves too much room for errors in judgment. Not all offensive words are judged equal, and while this may be a good thing sometimes, too often it has proven to be a bad thing, as certain moderators are more stickly with the rule than others. some get punished, and some don't. Not everybody is treated to the same process of judgment, so it is no longer a fair process.

I have full faith in the Moderators to make the best decisions possible for the situation.
If you have any problems with the way EMC is moderated, you know who to PM.

Hmm... Last time I checked ( like you said) we are moderators, not enforcers. So Im glad you cleared up the definition for us.

But you are moderators given the power to enforce the rules as well, which is what I was trying to say. Enforcing rules is never a bad thign when the rules ar clear cut. When they are vague, it leaves too much to misinterpretation or false judgments. Trying to control how people talk or what they say is hard enough without a clear rule to abide by.