Remove OOC

[Elsker]

For years I have been advocating for the removal of OOC from impulse. The time has come— let’s support its removal. OOC chat is almost used exclusively for random babble and rarely adds anything to the gameplay. We have a great website and discord server our users can use if they have any questions, so there isn’t any need to have OOC chat enabled just because people have questions. LOOC should still be kept around, but OOC shouldn’t. Let’s prevent stuff like this from happening again:

 

[Elsker]

To some, I know the suggestion might be a radical take however there are millions of examples where OOC chat has been used inappropriately- we cannot let this behavior move onto our server. Users should log onto the server to play the game and not just talk for 45 minutes or make copypastas in chat.

I wanted to hear what the community thought about this before I suggest its implementation to Imperial Knight.

 

[Elsker]

OOC chat brings many downsides and few positives to the server.

- It’s one more thing moderators have to manage. I’m trying to create systems where staff have to get involved with users as little as possible

- People metagame in OOC chat and start arguments

- People spew garbage in the chat

 

[cabby]

i kinda agree kinda dont my favorite rp server had no ooc up until it got taken down so i feel like i sorta have some say in this especially since that server also gone for very serious rp. yes it can be abused, yes it can just be used for useless or mingy chatter, however it also has some upsides like being able to communicate and learn about a bunch of members of the community i would not know several players as well as i do now without it, along with for events stuff like not needing to report just for teleports or whatnot a good example is how in most outlands events people say they need ammo boxes and the event maker does provide a good 80 percent the time. i feel like if you really want to limit ooc a little more so you do not have walls of ooc text is making the message limit smaller or replenish slower. on the topic of copypastas and straight up dumb stuff like the image you linked yes that is of concern but i feel as of currently at least there is enough moderation on at a time or even if there was 40 or so normal players at a time to moderate it well enough so people get punished for that and if that does not work maybe make it so people need a fair amount of xp to use ooc.

sorry if this didnt have very good grammar i just wanted to reason for keeping it in some sort of way

 

[Matters]

I'm a bit on the fence about this, however it could just be toggled off instead of removing it completely as a trial?

 

[TheSilverDude]

toggled off instead of removing it completely as a trial

I agree with Matters,

I'm a bit neutral on this as I like OOC but it's also a very mingy thing, so toggling it off entirely before removing it as a trial could be the way to go.

 

[Elsker]

I understand why you guys would suggest for me to simply toggle OOC off. I also respect people who see some good in the OOC feature. However, as I’ve said before, regardless if users can enable/disable the feature or not, OOC chat will almost always be used for random discussion that still would require moderation. I’ve gathered numerous screenshots during my time on Impulse, Landis, and Astronet that demonstrate bad usage of the tool— I really am convinced that OOC is generally bad, from what I’ve seen, and yet we’re so attached to it still. If we just let people toggle the feature on and off it would only collectivize the rowdy uses to use OOC chat. I’m not sure how toggling OOC would stop the years of meta gaming, spam, slurs usage, doxxing, shittalking and hateful arguing that have plagued OOC chat. I’m willing to compromise on something that promotes more RP more, but toggling the chat off would do nothing

 

[TheSilverDude]

I understand why you guys would suggest for me to simply toggle OOC off. I also respect people who see some good in the OOC feature. However, as I’ve said before, regardless if users can enable/disable the feature or not, OOC chat will almost always be used for random discussion that still would require moderation. I’ve gathered numerous screenshots during my time on Impulse, Landis, and Astronet that demonstrate bad usage of the tool— I really am convinced that OOC is generally bad, from what I’ve seen, and yet we’re so attached to it still. If we just let people toggle the feature on and off it would only collectivize the rowdy uses to use OOC chat. I’m not sure how toggling OOC would stop the years of meta gaming, spam, slurs usage, doxxing, shittalking and hateful arguing that have plagued OOC chat. I’m willing to compromise on something that promotes more RP more, but toggling the chat off would do nothing

Not sure what Matters meant but I meant like, disabling OOC for everyone for a bit to see how things go (Like we do during events)

 

[Elsker]

Not sure what Matters meant but I meant like, disabling OOC for everyone for a bit to see how things go (Like we do during events)

 

[medic.jpg]

mixed feelings about this, it is true that OOC has caused alot of issues but at the same time, i feel like it should only be implemented if the server takes a more serious RP approach because it's still pretty much an impulse copy (at the moment)

not to mention this server has a relatively small community and i haven't seen anyone use OOC negatively in this server, i'd really only consider it if the server gets more average pop which therefore makes the OOC chat harder to control for staff, only then would i really support this suggestion

 

[SkullOG]

+Support

I fully support the removal of OOC chat. Having roleplayed for years on both serious and casual servers, I’ve seen how OOC often leads to immersion-breaking behaviour, with players blending out-of-character chat into VOIP and gameplay. While I understand that OOC can be useful during events, perhaps a solution is to implement a restricted chat system where only Event staff and moderators have access. This way, we can maintain immersion while still allowing for necessary event communication.

 

[Elsker]

mixed feelings about this, it is true that OOC has caused alot of issues but at the same time, i feel like it should only be implemented if the server takes a more serious RP approach because it's still pretty much an impulse copy (at the moment)

not to mention this server has a relatively small community and i haven't seen anyone use OOC negatively in this server, i'd really only consider it if the server gets more average pop which therefore makes the OOC chat harder to control for staff, only then would i really support this suggestion

I appreciate this response- thanks Medic

 

[Neo D'Winter]

Not a Gmod player, but an experienced role-player in other videogames. As for my not-requested opinion, I think that a change of this sort will definitely bring a different level of immersion to the roleplay experience, bringing nothing but a way thicker gap between OOC and IC stuff. Given all the benefic details of this change that Elsker already mentioned; I support this idea.

 

[Tryki999]

I support this

 

[Sheriff]

I see both the positives and benefits, I agree with silver and matters in that we should do a trial to test it's effectiveness and feedback. I think rebel radios could circumvent the gap and make groups more effective.

OOC does allow communication as cabby said and interconnectedness, but we could expand other methods of IC communication to cover this gap like radios. This would entice people to group to talk more as LOOC would remain.

 

[sprite cran]

I've given this one a lot of thought throughout the years that I've been playing. OOC has, 4 times out of 5, been a complete detriment to the server, whether it be for metagaming, chat spam, racist bullshit, or a multitude of nonsensical stupidity, ranging from metabaiting to slander and anywhere in-between. But it's never been hard to moderate, nor has it been time consuming. It's just been something I've never given much thought, because it's never affected me that much.

However, OOC does have its (albeit limited) uses, whether it be for staff members to address specific issues, or release general statements, or to ask questions (that wouldn't otherwise be metagaming/metabaiting), and general discussion (within the constraints of the rules).

Truth be told, I am entirely neutral in this topic, with no preference to keeping nor removing OOC, however I believe if we were to remove OOC, staff should still be able to use OOC to speak general statements and such, as necessary. But if I recall correctly, we tried to do this on Landis, and received a LOT of backlash for it. I don't necessarily mind not having OOC, but I feel we're going to see an increase in the same issues as faced with OOC, in channels like PMs and LOOC.

 

[Elsker]

Thank you for your response. I agree that staff should be able to use OOC to get general information out to the player base. I also understand that OOC isn't entirely bad and that, in some instances, it can be good. I wanted to address one specific point of yours that I have heard repeated many times before-- a point I wish to address and clarify:

but I feel we're going to see an increase in the same issues as faced with OOC, in channels like PMs and LOOC.

This wouldn't be the case, per se. OOC chat broadcasts to the entire server so every user sees it at the same time unless the feature is disabled. When people act stupid and minge in the chat, it signals to users that it's OK to act that way. It tells everyone that it's OK to complain constantly, to make hateful comments, and to break the server rules by metagaming or harassing others. I don't want to be a little dictator in chat, having to mute people over the stuff they say constantly. LOOC localizes the conversation to only a small handful of people, which means that users aren't able to influence everyone's opinions on the server by what they say. Yes, we will still get people who will act stupid in LOOC, but at least the user causing the issue can't propel it upon the entire playerbase.

Also, regarding how hard OOC would be to moderate, I never claimed moderating OOC is difficult. I only want its removal because it would remove one extra thing staff have to deal with **and** help to set the tone for the server for users. I always want to eliminate things that our staff, who are all volunteers, have to do.

But if I recall correctly, we tried to do this on Landis, and received a LOT of backlash for it.

Here are some of the beautiful messages that would be posted in OOC at a near daily on Landis. You can see why I want to shut down OOC now instead of waiting for it to get this bad. Again, I am totally willing to compromise by limiting OOC chat instead of removing it outright.

 

[notandy78]

What if instead of removing OOC completely, what if we do the following:

• OOC message cooldown
  • at least 60 seconds
  • one player doesn't spam the chat like it's Discord or Twitch
• XP requirement to use OOC
  • should be something small so new players get themselves accommodated with the server and the rules
  • limits freshly joined players from spamming the OOC with questions.
• Add a character limit to OOC
  • as Sprite attached to his post, we can notice a message that's more than 2 lines long
  • adding a character limit to OOC will reduce the spam created by OOC

Removing OOC completely will possibly result in a community backlash, where "the mods are taking away people's rights", "freedom of speech" doesn't exist, "1984".
The changes I presented are feasible and easy to do.