Chat is -not- the new Barrens.

[MoonlightBlossom]

Then maybe further enforcement needs to be utilized; for those that have the attention span of a housefly.
If those are too shortsighted with their memes and 4chan nonsense, to take others into consideration - then further steps will be taken to rectify it.

[waffenbaum]

In some ways, the only thing more annoying than all the 4chan spam is the constant cries of ”barrens please”, ”take it to barrens”, ”move it to barrens, you're disturbing my RP” – Why? Because often, people aren't in a position to judge what should and should not be moved. I've seen quiet, non-intrusive lore discussion be barked at and told to move to the barrens. People seem to expect that if something they don't personally like appears in the chat, they can tell others to move it to the barrenschat regardless of whether or not it's a serious discussion. I suppose people try to use common sense, but when they can't differentiate between regular chat and silliness, that creates a problem.

Take this scenario: There's a huge spamming discussion about lolcats and cheezburgr in the /barrenschat, making people leave the channel to keep up with the talk in /chat. Meanwhile in chat, it's all quiet except for two people who are discussing an RP scenario they have planned. Suddenly, someone tells these two people to “take it to barrens”. Should they comply, just because this person deems their otherwise reasonable conversation “disruptive” to his RP? What gives him the right to say that it's fit or one chat and not the other? Telling someone to go to the barrens is the same as calling their conversation stupid or silly, and that can be hurtful to the people having a serious talk. Of course, the person who told them to go in the first place was probably just getting overly defensive after all the previous spam, to a point where he could no longer tell a serious discussion from a silly one. It's a sort of vigilantism which can be sometimes beneficial, but often detrimental to the overall gamut of the server.

[Mikain]

Meanwhile in chat, it's all quiet except for two people who are discussing an RP scenario they have planned. Suddenly, someone tells these two people to “take it to barrens”.

In these cases it should be "Take it to party," a discussion on rp plans is between the people involved, not the whole of the server.

This is also on the wiki.

Chattering. Take a look at who's talking, versus who is online. If it's only you and your friend (or two) going back and forth in chat, and there's other people on, there's a good chance you are annoying them. Take your conversation to party chat or whispers.

[waffenbaum]

Let's make it three people then, or four. For the sake of the argument, someone will still tell them to move if he somehow feels their discussion ruins his RP. The point is, if some people can't RP without sending everyone outside the door so the chat can be completely empty, then why not disable the chat instead, while RP'ing?

Addendum: Personally, both sides can be equally bothersome. Both people who can't respect one another and keep a serious air about the chat (we're all here to have fun, but come on now), and the people who act as if they sit by like a predator, ready to jump out and scream "OFF TO THE BARRENS WITH YE!". I try to avoid both sides now, and not get involved in either. I don't particularly like being growled at, nor do I like dirge-spam, Chuck Norris, "Bruuuce" or whatever else falls out of /b/ and makes its way here. You end up not daring to talk in either barrens or chat, because either you get flooded with memes, or you get torn a new one by the chat police.

[MoonlightBlossom]

We try and make it perfectly clear, the separation of our channels, and the utility of them.
If chatter seems questionable, it most likely belongs in Barrens. I would rather keep chat clear, for legitimate RP concerns, or firmer issues that others may have. Hawk pointed those out quite nicely. None of this is difficult to comprehend.

[rentreality]

The issue is, it's not perfectly clear. And that's what causes problems: people bark at others to take it to the barrens, when the rules we agreed to state that the conversation that was going on was in the correct channel -- chat -- already.

Chat

/join Chat

If you just wanna talk, this is the place. Off topic bits, laugh about something that happened IC, whatever, you can do it here. This is not BarrensChat. Talk about your life, your family, but NOT Chuck Norris. Spamming this channel will likely get you reported and possibly banned. Don't do it. ( 1 )

At this point, people are told to take so many topics to barrens that it seems the chat channel should simply cease to exist -- nobody is allowed to discuss anything in it for more than 2 minutes, regardless of whether it's two people having a chat, or three quarters of the server. As was said before, it seems to be a matter of personal interest: if someone isn't interested in the topic, it doesn't matter how many other people are -- you'll be told to take it to the barrens. And due to the respect rule, no matter how unreasonable the request or how disrespectful it is, you can't turn it down.

[Sheppard]

The issue is, it's not perfectly clear. And that's what causes problems: people bark at others to take it to the barrens, when the rules we agreed to state that the conversation that was going on was in the correct channel -- chat -- already.

Chat

/join Chat

If you just wanna talk, this is the place. Off topic bits, laugh about something that happened IC, whatever, you can do it here. This is not BarrensChat. Talk about your life, your family, but NOT Chuck Norris. Spamming this channel will likely get you reported and possibly banned. Don't do it. ( 1 )

At this point, people are told to take so many topics to barrens that it seems the chat channel should simply cease to exist -- nobody is allowed to discuss anything in it for more than 2 minutes, regardless of whether it's two people having a chat, or three quarters of the server. As was said before, it seems to be a matter of personal interest: if someone isn't interested in the topic, it doesn't matter how many other people are -- you'll be told to take it to the barrens. And due to the respect rule, no matter how unreasonable the request or how disrespectful it is, you can't turn it down.

This seems like one hell of a contradiction if you'd ask me. It is clearly stated that we can talk about pretty much anything - as long as it's not spam of any kind - within the 'Chat' channel, regardless of what others say. I think to those who are not in the mood, or in the given situation to read about someone's daily life or something that happened IC'ly, they shouldn't be in the chat channel to begin with. It is your own choice that you either joined or did not join that channel, and thus people should be able to talk about stuff that is appropriate for that channel to begin with.

Personally, I'd leave the channel whenever I'm in a RP session and/or it starts to bug me. I never asked anyone to take whatever someone was chatting about from chat channel to the BarrensChat - not even once. And you know why? Because I know what is allowed within the chat channel, and I respect the rules as much as I respect my fellow member of this community.

I think people should see the 'Chat' channel for what it is, and not the other way around by forcing their ideas onto others.

[Cressy]

Welp... I think the whole issue is that...Chat channel is supposed to be used for the whole.."How goes?" "Anything going down on the server?" "Why would a druid try and attack some random human being?" and that it sometimes goes further than it was intended too. Believe me, I have had to ask people to stop arguing about the most retarded shit in chat and they pull at the.."READ THE CHAT RULES"-bullshit. Welp, chat isn't for arguing about lore or two people talking in-depth about Titans and Worgen or even things that are in-depth pertaining to their RP. If I have to go in-depth with people, I move it to party; that way I am respecting everyone who isn't involved with the RP. If it is involving lore, I usually move it to the forums because if someone brought it up, it is likely that someone else will eventually. I mean, really. I get angered a lot of the time when people constantly spam chat, mind you I have it in a separate box, but it still gets quite fucking annoying when people don't quit; especially when it is just two people.

Yeah...I dunno, I think if someone says, "Can you please move this elsewhere?" instead of throwing a b***h-fit and saying, "READ THE EFFIN' CHAT RULES," just move it somewhere else. I mean, if they are asking respectfully then why the f**k is it so hard to just do it without crying about it?

Just my opinion.

[Dilly]

I'll just say something weird and pointless, like I always do...

Meh, the way I see it, Chat is for chat. Lore, server stuff, et cetera. You don't like it? You feel like it's spamming and/or spoiling your RP? Don't BUTTYELL at people to STFU and get the eff out of there. Just leave the channel. That is what I always do, seriously. As long as people are not breaking chat rules, let them be and move away yourself.

But when people start talkin' insane stuff, clearly /b/ material, you should tell 'em to move it to Barrens. Because that -is- breaking rules. However, what I mentioned above isn't.

Just my silly and worthless opinion. Sorry if I sounded like an a-hole.

. . .

[Azheron]

Take this channel to the barrens channel. (What?!) It's disturbing my recent-post stalking. By spamming on it.

( /ignore [this post] )

[Rubykuby]

I'll just say something weird and pointless, like I always do...

Meh, the way I see it, Chat is for chat. Lore, server stuff, et cetera. You don't like it? You feel like it's spamming and/or spoiling your RP? Don't BUTTYELL at people to STFU and get the eff out of there. Just leave the channel. That is what I always do, seriously. As long as people are not breaking chat rules, let them be and move away yourself.

But when people start talkin' insane stuff, clearly /b/ material, you should tell 'em to move it to Barrens. Because that -is- breaking rules. However, what I mentioned above isn't.

Just my silly and worthless opinion. Sorry if I sounded like an a-hole.

. . .

Oooh, silly Angus Beef, I completely agree with you!

[Hawk]

I've seen "TAKE IT TO BARRENS" in Chat more than I ever wanted to... heh.

But seriously, if your conversation in Chat is filling up the chat window too quickly, or it's just going on for a while, or it's just silly and in the foreign tongue known as leetspeak (lolwut), it'd honestly be better taken to Barrenschat or even just make a party to talk amongst yourselves. But that said, people shouldn't be having a go at them for spamming in chat. A simple polite request is good enough, and I've seen much more drama as a result of people ordering others to move their conversation.

Another reason why -long- discussions of lore are asked to go to the Barrens is because of the spam, but in truth, it's probably much better suited for the forums if it's gone on for more than 10 minutes. Atleast this way more people get a say and less people are grumpy because of spam.

[MoonlightBlossom]

It's more than that. The past two days, I've been getting whispers from people complaining about the consistency of it; because they dislike rousing ire if they ask themselves. I can understand that, and I fully respect the notion. I want our server patrons to be happy, but respect is also something that flows both ways. I'm not meaning to bark at people for the tiniest, miniscule things; truly, I'm not - but please keep our other players in mind. It's painful to see dainty, polite requests become steamrolled by the impetus of lolcats, as cute as they may be.

[Grakor456]

I actually joke, frequently, that it's a good thing I'm an admin, or I would have gotten in trouble and Moonlight would have banned me from Chat by now.

Funny thing is...it's probably true.

I'm not sure when people got so uptight about what appears on Chat. I know some of our past GMs have been pretty strict on it too, but that never really stuck with me. My point of view, if it's not Barrens-level of intelligence (lolcats, Chuck Norris, whatever) then it's fine. What a lot of people miss, is that they have the power to *leave Chat.* Yes, LFG should be kept clear of spam because of its purpose, but Chat is there solely for chatting. Discouraging chatting on the Chat channel seems rather...counterproductive.

[Piken]

I have to agree with Grakor with.. everything he said. Minus the admin part, of course. >.> I see alot of people get really pissy with Chat because a conversation goes on for more than three lines, then people jump all over the people talking. It's -Chat-. And yes, you can leave. But sometimes I find myself telling people to take it to barrens just because I know if I don't say it nicely, someone's gonna say it all snotty and something may get started. I've seen it happen many times. People need to chillax I think. Yes, it's a RP server, but let people talk a bit in the designated chat channel. It's there so we can talk amongst each other. If it gets to lolcats, etc. has dragged on for a truly long time, or is one of those long lore discussions.. then yeah, ask them to take it to barrens/party/forums. But otherwise, if it truly bothers you, you can leave the channel for a bit. It's not -necessary- for you to be in there, and then issues arise whenever someone asks to have the conversation moved.

I done.