THE PROBLEM WITH DENSELY POPULATED VOICE SERVERS

For a very long time, a common gripe among our members would be that our primary Fleet channels and largest squads would be littered with unnecessary noise. This often irritated others or even prevented them from hearing the fleet commander’s orders, resulting in a mass migration to the “No Chatter” channels. These are channels where pilots can only hear the people speaking in the command channels.

Until recently, only upper-level FCs and members of ‘The Illuminati’, Goonswarm Federation’s Directorate, could assist FCs with moderating comms channels. The problem, however, is these people tend to need to be in the “Command” channels, where Fleet VIPs can discuss among themselves or even with leaders of other active fleets, and as such, cannot hear a lot of the chatter that occurs in the primary fleet channels. To remedy this, and alleviate the burgeoning issues with Imperium comms, our leader The Mittani ordered the creation of a mumble moderation team – MiniCom.

WHAT IS MINICOM?

The Ministry of Communication, also known as Mumble Moderators or simply as MiniCom, is a new group of people who are tasked with helping keep Mumble tolerable and enjoyable for all who use it. It was created after the launch of the second ‘Cultural Revolution’ to assist with reducing the toxicity of voice comms.

MiniCom is tasked with curtailing any of a laundry list of cancerous communication habits which, until now have run rampant in our comms channels:

• Emotional/Angry/Heated conversations
• Political and religious conversations
• Hate speech / hostile behaviour
• Arguments/Bullshit spats
• Monologuing
• Dominating comms
• Hotmicing
• Echoing speakers (please use headphones)
• Voice activation
• Burping/sneezing/coughing on comms
• Speaking over others, especially fleet commanders and other essential people on a fleet.

WHO IS MINICOM?

The MiniCom team was formed from experienced moderators of the 7G Standing Fleet channel and Theta comms, bringing together a disciplined and professional team to moderate both the standing fleet channels and fleet ops under a unified set of guidelines. As all the moderators are now on one team, we have been able to establish systems to coordinate coverage of op channels, keep checks on one another’s actions, and a reporting system in which we keep detailed records of our moderator interactions, so that we can see patterns and keep an eye out for repeat offenders.

For many months, both 7G and Theta comms had been subjected to increased moderation, with each finding and empowering a pool of trustworthy individuals to keep the peace. In particular, 7G comms had established a set of guidelines that would evolve into what you see above – these two testbeds proved that active moderation could solve the problem of unbearable comms, and also provided a set of well-trained individuals who could perform the task.

Unlike the previous 7G and Theta moderation systems, MiniCom has global authority on Mumble to not only mute but also to kick and ban, regardless of where cancerous comms takes place. This means we don’t have to wait for an admin if someone’s reconnecting to clear mutes, and we don’t have to resort to the clunky solution of locking out people through channel ACLs any longer.

CAUSE AND EFFECT

These new measures have already made a dramatic impact on the quality of our comms channels, and in the overall quality of life for those using the standing fleet channels. The number of people hiding out in “No Chatter” channels to save their eardrums from bleeding has dramatically decreased in recent days, and the most encouraging sign is that line members are starting to feel empowered to confront those abusing comms, knowing that someone will have their back.

As promising as the initial signs are, MiniCom is not a quick fix, it is a long term commitment to maintain voice comms such that interactions are enjoyable for the vast majority of line members, and to bring overall participation up by maintaining comms that are tolerable by all.