Chat ban
 

So here is what happened to me recently on stars. Was playing a sng and was chatting with drewjax(railing). So we are bs'n back and forth and all of a sudden this other player named Lysa20 jumps in our conversation and says "What are guys talking about smoking?", to which I JOKINGLY replied "CRACK NIGGA." So next thing you know she says "I'm black and the mod is coming".
Within seconds, a message popped up stating I was in violation of chat policy blah, blah, check email. Go to the email, it says for that one single comment not even directed really at her, (and I had no idea she was black?) they suspend my chat for an entire MONTH. So i email them, pleading my case (sorry didn't save draft of the I sent them first) and they responded with this letter.

:donkey:confused::thumbsup:


Hello Tim,

Thank you for your email.

I appreciate your situation, however the other 7 or 8 players at the tables
simply have no clue whether it is a joke or not. Another player called the
Chat Moderator because they found your comments to be offensive. I must
agree that your comments were offensive. In reality, your last chat
suspension for 3 hours should have been a 1 month chat suspension as well,
but due to a Chat Moderator error, you benefitted from this error.

You have had numerous other chat violations, therefore we feel you are
aware of our chat policies. After a first chat violation all subsequent
chat suspensions become gradually longer until eventually a chat revocation
may be issued. The Chat Moderator acted accordingly in this matter.

I wish you the best of luck in your future poker gaming, wherever it may be.

Regards,
Rob
PokerStars Chat Supervisor

I guess I have had "numerous other chat violatons" (HATE it when the cat walks across the keyboard):confused:!;)

I don't think that one comment should result in a banned chat for that long. I mean I could see if I was degrading her, but I thought I was joking with the person. Even if she didn't like something I said couldn't she just mute me? No, I think she was mad because I won a few pots off of here. She even had a railbird in our $3.40 razz game! So I don't know get why people are so thin skinned. Even drewjax recieved a 3 hour chat ban (LOL) and he never said anything wrong??? Weird. So no more donkey play cuss outs for awhile for me.:(

I agree with them.

Yep.

when RD and I agree on sometime it means Yep, you are the asshole.


The notion that you submit the OP to a public forum, expressing the ideas and beliefs contained within the original post in an earnest manner, is an indication of why this country is going to hell. Grow the fuck up, take responsibility for yourself and start using your head for more than just shit-storage.

oh lighten up people its said in a joking manner, unbutton your top button

You don't agree that Stars should ban his chat for that?

I side with Stars on this one. Offensive language is offensive language regardless of intent; offense is a function of perception

I meet a lot of people who think "just joking" allows them to say anything.

I would love to hear from our resident lawyer on this issue.

given the context no.

What if justdonk was black (in fact how do u he's not) where the term nigga is used frequently... in new york its actually used by people of all races white asian indian black spanish...jus as another word for homie... but i understand in other states its generally not cool if a non black (or for some reason non spanish) person uses it.

Note how this is different from the word ending in er, which is a racial slur, or if it was used in a derogatory way i.e shut up you stupid .... ,

should someone who sees a friend of theirs in chat and says 'what up nigga' be banned as well? Does it matter if their black or spanish or white when determining this?

Pretty sure you have to be over 18 to play online poker. People should be allowed to say whatever the fuck they want. You guys are crybabies.

just to clarify, what pisses me off is not whatever was said to get his chat banned, but that justdonkme would come offer the OP as his defense.


As far as I am concerned offensive language>>>>>>>>>>>displaying your stupidity proudly.

And Mayhem, you are thinking of it all wrong. It is a business decision, pure and simple. If Stars thinks your chat will negatively affect their bottom line, it is in their best interest to ban your chat and well within their right to do so.

and Zy, I tried to + rep you for this, but I have to spread it around but I can hit you up again. So instead I will just post this. Well done, I literally LOL

Not attacking, but out of curiousity what about his language was offensive? Does it matter if he is black or white? Does it matter if the other person wasn't black? Could a white person report two black people/be offended by two black people saying what up nigga to each other?

Haha... thanks

What is offensive or not is besides the point, Stars alone determines what is offensive in Stars chat. Don't say anything in chat that Stars can construe as possibly fucking with their ability to collect as much rake as possible. They felt that some dipshit using nigga affects their bottom line and acted.


this whole thing reminds me of how Dave Chappelle said part of the reason he quit was because no matter how obvious he made it, the people he was making fun of (upper/middle class white suburban kids) couldn't figure out that he was laughing at them, not with them.

While your defense is valid, justdonkme reveals several times throughout the OP that he was not using the term as you suggest. Justdonkme could have come here and posted something demonstrating that this is not a racial issue but an issue of evolving language, but instead writes this?

What he said (The quoted passage of his that u had at the end of last post) is extremely ignorant and stupid, i agree 100% with you

It's obvious the OP was written "tongue-in-cheek."

Oh brother. Call a lawyer and tell them you were playing an online poker based off of US soil and that you typed "nigga" in chat and got your chat privileges revoked.

WTF?

Not.

Let's say you own a diner, and your clientele is a bunch of senior citizens who like to come in and drink their coffee and talk about how Obama is a terrorist. They're doing their merry little thing and a couple of 20 year olds come in and start verball assaulting them. Is that acceptable?

Of course not, you donkey ass motherfucker.;):donkey

So many levels my head is spinning. Well done.

I agree with stars decision, however its terms of using that word......


Go and listen to 5 rap songs and you'll hear that language (and specifically that word) in at least 4 songs. Whats that trying to say for society, especially for the young and easily influenced. Considering the music industry is not regulated in terms of language released and the strong precautions in using that "word" makes one wonder why it is considered "okay" in music and wrong in terms of a pokerstars chat.

Still doesn't make what you sound right, and pokerstars did do the correct thing in your case.

Very simple. You can release that song and sell it. If you choose to purchase that CD, great, enjoy it. If you come into my place of business (use the diner from above for ease of understanding) and you've got a radio playing the song, I've got every right to tell you to turn that shit off.

"Freedom of Speech" doesn't mean you can say whatever you want, where ever you want. Some people can't grasp that concept.

what
 

what is wrong here is everyone on crack here

whata first post:)

{Insert Ice-T's "Freedom of Speech" lyrics here to agree with Shabi}

I meant to hear his take on the idea of offending someone with this sort of language and then saying it was just a joke.

I see kids every day that are openly insulting, abusive and harrassing of each other, and they say "I'm just joking" like it's aget out of jail free card.

The word in this chase is interesting on it's own. We have, at this time in our society a word that people of one race can use with impunity, but when used another race is racist. Granted it was interesting to hear of it's cross racial application in Zyb's neck of the woods.

Gotta love the English language.

p.s. on that note, thanks to Mayhem for the Buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo link. :thumbsup:

:thumbsup:+ve Rep:thumbsup:

You'd be surprised at the number of idiots in law school who didn't get that. :rolleyes:

rememember white people cant use that word.

but only another white person can call me a cracker:thumbsup:

Man man man,

donk and I were chatting, and this other person inserted themselves in the conversation by asking what we were talking about. So he responded. Simple. He didnt attack that person, he wasnt trying to offend that person, he was simply 'speaking' as he normally would. JOKING. He wasnt infering the person was black, white or purple. His posting "I didnt know the person was black" was simply meant to say....'if I had known (which he obv. couldnt) they were black and would throw a hissy fit, I would have chosen another witty slang word etc.'

IT WAS A JOKE...........we werent talking about smoking crack, he was joking about smoking crack. He didnt call the person a racial slur, not even close. To take an example used here further, what if we were talking about music, and the player asked something like "What line does he sing there?" and he types in "xxxxxxxxxxxx my nigga" from some rap song. Is that offensive to everyone? Should he have his chat banned? Should he be called immature and have his character questioned? Think about it in that context. He simply wasnt calling anyone anything. He was using a slang word that is widely used today. If you arent allowed a little slack to type/say things like this ON THE FRIGGIN INTERNET, where can you? The pc crowd has gone way too far.

To show you how silly this all was, I had my chat banned for a whopping 3 hours because when I was leaving I typed "later biatch". So, technically this can be construed as offensive in a certain context. If I had been speaking directly to another player and called them a 'bitch', maybe MAYBE I should be punished and/or reprimanded. But I was again JOKINGLY typing a word.

Donk posted this thread because he was asked to. RD asked for the details.
Again, the person could have ignored our chat. THEY ASKED US WHAT WE WERE TALKING ABOUT. The person at the tables had a stick up her ass, as do many of you here. Uninsert please.

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!

Here's why I agree with Stars. First and foremost, it is their site and they set the rules. They can ban your chat for using the word "shoe" if they want. Their site, their rules. If they have a customer that is offended by something that violates the terms of service, then they should (a) enforce their rules, and (b) try to appease the customer that didn't violate the rules, which makes perfectly good business sense.

I fail to see why they should have to enter into a determination of whether or not someone was joking or just using a widely accepted slang word (which I question); that would be a complete and utter waste of their time and money. You know which words violate their terms of service, so either don't use them or use them at the risk of having them ban your chat privileges. Should they just arbitrarily enforce their rules? I’m quite certain that most users would be rightfully upset if they saw a violation of the terms of service, pointed it out to Stars and then watched them to nothing.

I don't give a fuck what word was said, so this has nothing to do with being PC, at least for me. It has to do with the fact that it's their site, their rules and if you don't like it, don't play there. But complaining that they enforced a rule that you agreed to when you signed up to their site is naive, to put it kindly.

I had my chat banned for calling someone an idiot on stars and you complaining about this?

Also who cares if your chat is banned. Do you feel the need to type while playing poker? If you do get on aim or something and practice your jokes and quips there.

Simply put..... When with strangers (who you don't know their ethnicity), probably would be best to watch the offensive, rude & vulgar words you use.

That being said, I think PokerStars has somewhat exaggerated their chat policy rules.

This is an adult poker site. Although we should all act more like adults and be respectful of others at all times, we do on occasion have our moments, what I refer to as, "SNAP" time. I'm positive we all at one point have, "SNAPPED!" (whether you've been tilting or simply had a bad day).... and if you dare sit here and say you've never, then you're either dishonest or a saint.

In all honesty, even I have cursed at times on Stars and have lost chat for it.
Stars has also revoked my chat for months at a time for speaking a language other than English and for flooding. I believe the longest duration was 3 months.

I strongly believe Poker Stars should change their chat policy bans to a couple of hours to a max of 24 hours.

Longer periods of time is rather silly & a little retarded, given the fact they have the chat block option implemented, which no one uses since they'd rather abuse the moderator button instead.

I understand and agree with all of this. It makes sense, and I cant refute it. However, I think the punishment should fit the crime. It doesn't here.

If we were dealing with a governmental agency, sure the punishment should fit the crime. But we're not, and imo a private party should be able to decide upon whatever punishment they'd like without regard to whether it may fit or not.

Of course, stars can do whatever the F they want as far as chat bans. That is obvious. Maybe he deserved to get his chat banned, maybe not.
But the personal attacks here are completely unwarranted imho. Cut him some slack gang.


Mel, you REALLY need a toke!!

Stars can do whatever they want. I'm not suggesting that they can't.

But seriously RD... think of when you're at the casino. People curse and say "bad things" all the time without punishment. Just like the floorperson at a casino can make a judgment call (if any!), I think Pokerstars should review the chat and administer the ban as necessary.

Examples: (Not politically correct, so don't be offended...)

NIGGERS SHOULD DIE <-- ban chat for awhile plz

CRACK NIGGA! <-- few days for being an idiot

I dunno, whatever. :)

That can't be further from the truth, Blacks freely use this word and they use it much more often than whites