My Thoughts on the Chat Reporting Feature for Minecraft: Java Edition

Funny how the two most controversial updates for Minecraft: Java Edition end in 9. Anyone fancy a 1.29 update?

Author: SmokeyStack

Published: 1st July 2022

Background

On 15/06/2022, Snapshot 22W24A was released bringing a welcoming change that is allay duping. However, in the same snapshot, the ability to report chat was introduced. It allows users to select individual chat messages that contain objectionable content, as well as the category of the report, and send it to the moderation team to take action. This has stirred quite the controversy among the Java community.

My Thoughts on this Feature

Finally! Parity wooo! Jokes aside(or is it), I am finally glad that Mojang is taking action to enforce their Community Guidelines and the Xbox Community Standards. Far too long have Java servers gotten off scott-free and I am down for anything to make multiplayer less toxic. However, after discussing with some people regarding this feature, I still support it, however, it should be an optional thing that can be configured via a server config file. Do note however there are mods that can disabled chat signing which in turn disables the report feature. Bedrock has had moderation for two years now and the game is still the same. I believe nothing will change about Java as well.

My Thoughts on Mojang

Mojang lately has not been on their A-game when it comes to communication. In my opinion, it started when they announced that fireflies and updated birch forest were not coming to the The Wild Update, 28 days before it was released. This lack of communication led to so many dissapointments as the features they were hyped for months were cancelled. When it came to the chat report feature they just mentioned it in a changelog rather a whole in depth article like they did with the account migration.

On the day that 1.19.1 was originally set to release, I was informed that the update would be delayed not by an article, or a tweet, but rather a private conversation with a Community Manager. As the day progressed, players asked where the update was and I told them it was delayed. One player asked where my source was to which I responded it was a message from the aforementioned Community Manager. Understandably they were angry that Mojang didn't officially announce the delay. It wasn't until 21 hours later, since I was informed about the delay, that Mojang officially tweeted that 1.19.1 would be delayed.

Fortunately, Mojang has posted a FAQ page and a blog post addressing this feature. Better late than never I suppose.

The serious lack of communication in advance is creating more distrust between Mojang and the community. All I ask for is better communication so something like this won't happen again.

My Reaction to the Community

If you didn't know, I am a Community Ambassador for the Official Minecraft Discord server. We assist the moderators with task and in no way affiliated with Mojang/Microsoft nor are we paid. We are all volunteers. When the feature came out, a new channel was created to compile feedback the community had about the report system.

Looks through notes Do I have to talk about this? Ok, story time! WHAT. A. WEEK. IT. HAS. BEEN. When the channel first opened I lurked in there to make sure the members were being civil, they were doing the opposite of that. There was arguing, rudeness, and disrespect amongst each other. When I and other Community Ambassadors intervened to keep chat civil, people started harassing us. They called us shills, bootlickers, and spammed clown and nerd emojis. It was so bad that I had to close my DMs for the server in a long time because I was afraid people would harass me in DMs. Anytime someone asked me for my opinion and I told them I support this feature, they would ask, "How much is Microsoft paying you?" even though we told them time and time again that we are not affiliated with Mojang/Microsoft.

That wasn't even the worst part. I have never seen the community stoop to such low levels since Caves and Cliffs was announced to be split. You had people who started defending slurs and that it's ok to be racist because it's their server and they can do whatever they want. Then you had people who started supporting piracy in the official Discord server where the developers of the game could see their messages mind you. Their reasoning? Because it's Microsoft's property so it's ok to pirate things.

They also proceeded to spam the following:

• 1.19.84
• 1984
• #saveminecraft
• #removereportfeature

None of this is constructive feedback, it's just spam. The channel was created for constructive feedback for the developers. So when I started deleting these messages they harassed us even more, accusing us of censorship and violating their freedom of speech. Oh boy, freedom of speech is a whole can of worms that I will not be diving into. Regardless of what they called us, we still went ahead and helped compile a list of feedback and concerns the community had and relayed it to the aforementioned Community Manager who relayed it to the appropriate teams. We were doing beyond what we were expected to. We didn't need to compile feedback, yet we did anyways and they were ungrateful. However, to those who did provide constructive feedback, you have my respect, and we need more of you in the world.

Conclusion

This is just a block game. There is no need to be rude or upset at each other over it. Both the community and Mojang is to blame. The community for the harassment to each other, and Mojang for the lack of communication. Hopefully this will all blow over and both the community and Mojang can learn from their mistakes and improve from them.