Are Habbo Mutes Justified?

Geoffrey38 · 15-01-2014, 12:02 PM

I personally find it silly that i'm muted almost everyday for a day for the same old stuff "Sexual Foreplay" "Bullying" "Not Reading The Habbo Way". I don't think mutes are handed out properly. They hand it out to the average Joe and not the troll. I'm starting to think Habbo is turned into a policing site rather then a fun community chat room.

Ever since Habbo has been more strict I think they have been too strict and enforced bulldust rules that are not true. Sure its hard tell if someone is bullying or not for an example saying this "Shut up" They could be meaning it like "Shut up no way" Sort of thing you know. But we still get muted for it even though we could be joking, and it is still the same 3 excuses we get.

The mute system is rather unfair. Because when you get muted for say "Sexual Foreplay" and you just wrote like 1 bad word doesn't mean you mean it in a bad way does it?

Also the fact that Guardians can mute you is rather unfair. When it gets in to the wrong hands its basically screwed. You may have a political debate with a Guardian but they dont agree with you. So they will try mute you for something like "Bullying".

I also dislike the bobba filter. I remember it used to be a toggle feature now it is forced upon me. I believe the bobba filter is good for younger audiences but what about old time users who could actually talk and not have every word filtered into bobba. For an example say "Who Remembers" and it turns into bobba. I think the bobba feature also needs to be turned back on to a toggle feature.

Ways to solve these problems currently:
When your muted have a list of words you can choose from like club penguin instead of free chat so your not i
ntirly muted.

To have the option to appeal to mute cases that are 2+ hours long.

Too maybe re-add the bobba filter as a toggle feature. But if the list chat gets implemented it should be bobba by default and not changed unless free chat is selected.

These are just a few of my opinions.
How do you feel about mutes?
Why do you feel this way?
How could you resolve this?

Kardan · 15-01-2014, 12:49 PM

"Because when you get muted for say "Sexual Foreplay" and you just wrote like 1 bad word"

How about not writing the bad word?

Most mutes are justified, the amount of people I see being inappropriate, or talking about Skype etc. - I'm surprised more mutes aren't handed out.

Moderation at the moment though is poor, and I don't see that changing anytime soon. Also making mutes appealable will just increase the workload of customer support, and they don't have enough time as it is.

lRhyss · 15-01-2014, 02:02 PM

Originally Posted by Kardan

"Because when you get muted for say "Sexual Foreplay" and you just wrote like 1 bad word"

How about not writing the bad word?

Most mutes are justified, the amount of people I see being inappropriate, or talking about Skype etc. - I'm surprised more mutes aren't handed out.

Moderation at the moment though is poor, and I don't see that changing anytime soon. Also making mutes appealable will just increase the workload of customer support, and they don't have enough time as it is.

This.. Plus

Habbo has changed from a "HANGOUT FOR TEENS" to just a hangout for... Well anyone as long as they have parental consent if they're young. With more of a younger audience running around the hotel, more mutes and stuff need to be handed out to stop the whole Channel 4 thing happening again. What if someone who's 20 asks for someone who's 13's Skype? That's a little weird, I'd want them muting? Plus if I wanted my child to play the game I'd like to think they were in a safe environment, so Personally mutes are justified. If you're saying bad things, then don;t get angry when you get muted.

Also it's not just one Guardian that can mute you, it has to be a collective decision made form a help request or having about 10 people ignore one Habbo. Also they've done a lot of helping in the community to get to where they are as a Guardian, so they deserve to be a little help to the moderation.

Rixion · 15-01-2014, 02:43 PM

The pointless mutes are one of the reasons I left, used a swear word now and again and ended up muted for like an hour, it's pathetic. The direction of aiming Habbo to 13-14 year olds instead of older audiences too is what has made it too childlike. Obviously the Skype/cam people deserve them though.

The bobba filter is totally flawed and I'm shocked they've not allowed the option for it to be turned off any more, for example saying "wash it" or words of similar set out ends up with it being filtered which is totally stupid. They should resolve all these problems by stop being so PC and allowing Habbos their freedom of speech (within reason). More lenience is definitely needed regarding the mutes, it seems to me the mods appear to get trigger happy from doing it sometimes.

Charz777 · 15-01-2014, 05:06 PM

How about not talking about foreplay in a chat room that is accessible by underage teenagers...?

I don't understand why anyone would have a conversation about sex publicly anyway...

I do agree with the point made above that the whole "wash it" thing is ridiculous. I once had a room name "Char's Empire" changed to a bobba which I thought was stupid as you have to really look for something like that to not see it as it's obvious given name and I myself hadn't noticed until it got changed (which wasn't for like 2 years!)

But aside from those pathetic instances, I think the mutes are justified. There is no reason to swear publicly, and I'm not being stuck-up here, I swear, but swear around other adults, in private conversations, not around young people or people who are offended by swearing. It's like when I walk up the high street and people are just shouting their mouths off with vulgar language and I think, 'great way to publicly disgrace yourself,' because no one wants to hear that, especially if they have children or young teens with them. It's the same online, just don't use inappropriate language, it's that simple. And if you do want to, then do it on Skype or something with those people.

And vulgar language aside, I think it's important to have some sort of safety barrier so that young people can't be asked for their Skype account or something.

At the end of the day, it might all be annoying, but at least young people are somewhat protected from predators and obscene language/ideas.

**despect** · 21-01-2014, 05:29 PM

Some are justified. However, if you're going to be talking about sexual actions you should expect a mute like others have said Habbo is used by a lot of underage teenagers.

I do know that sometimes people get muted for the smallest little thing which i've seen in many cases I think sometimes Habbo is becoming too moderated and less enjoyable. (Just my opinion anyway).

Daltron · 22-01-2014, 01:15 AM

Most mutes are warranted but it does get a little excessive when you get muted for posting a link or saying the same thing twice.

As for your argument about the sexual words just don't say them. Habbo is not a platform for sexual engagement, end of story.

Matt · 22-01-2014, 09:39 AM

Justified as in for a legitimate reason, I'd say no lol. I think they're just handed out depending on the category it's been reported as. So sexual roleplay would be maybe more than bullying (just an example, it may be the other way round). That's the impression I get anyway.