Introduction
Friends of MCME, today, I would like to expose the significant impediments and issues produced by the server’s new chat censorship plugin. This addition to the server’s moderation toolkit has only brought harm to the beloved community of MCME. Indubitably, the interactions between server members and the first impressions of new players are negatively influenced by the censor, despite its attempts to turn the server into a safe, family-friendly environment.
Section 1: Downsides of Chat Censorship
Article I - Freedom of expression
The power and impact of certain words are often determined by the circumstances of their use and the ferocity of the words themselves. When people are restricted from exploring different, yet more engaging, ways of generating conversation, their words become boring, repetitive, and unenthusiastic. For this reason, people often utilize expletives to accentuate language that might otherwise inadequately convey their intended intensity of emotion. The ability to express emotion is much more limited in a text chat than it is in a face-to-face conversation, due to the absence of body language and voice volume. The censorship of swear words in chat further regulates one’s articulation, which results in repetitious and monotonous interactions. This issue has unequivocally damaged the dialogue between players on MCME. Furthermore, when veteran members return for a nostalgic taste of the polychromatic and luscious community that they poured their heart into years ago, they are completely flabbergasted by this major change in accepted chat protocol. Additionally, players who have remained dedicated to the server over the past several years find such a sudden and disruptive change to be absolutely repulsive.
Article II - Hindrance of server progress
The negative effects of the chat censor range beyond connections between players. Server progress is diminished to a great extent. Firstly, the obstruction of expression, as described in Article I, harms the quality of enjoyment that builders can experience whilst collaborating on various projects. Reduced levity for designers, foremen, and artists gives precedence to a lack of motivation. Thus, server progress suffers. Secondly, designers often employ vulgar tactics as a means of encouraging their workers. Without this extra push from project leads, plots remain unfinished, jobs remain unplanned, and the player count dwindles. Additionally, the lack of freedom in chat pushes players to type in discord text chats rather than on the actual Minecraft server, which leads to a growth in the discord community rather than an increase in players who are actually interested in playing on the server. Is this really what Management would like to encourage? Often, new players are drawn into the MCME community through discussions that occur in serverchat, but, when fewer people talk in this chat, these adventurers are oblivious to an integral component of MCME’s success, the community. The plethora of diverse perspectives, experiences, and opinions of the people who actively peruse the builds and events that the server has to offer are what ultimately attract and retain players. Many new players, empowered by the effervescent people of MCME, proceed to become builders or, seldom, guides, and continue to contribute towards the server’s main goal. However, without proper server activity and sociability within chat, the number of new artist applicants will decline, and the project will die before reaching completion.
Section 2: Rebuttal of Pro-Censor Arguments
Article I - Insufficient moderation capability
While the censor blocks most curse words, one can avoid the censor with astonishing ease. A player wanting to bypass the censor can do so by adding a space, period, underscore, or any other character between the letters of an outlawed word. Moreover, players who wish to use a blocked word will do so whether there’s a censor or not, especially when the censor is lacking in effectiveness. This eliminates the argument that the censor reduces Moderator responsibility, because they have to stay diligent in punishing those who purposefully bypass the censor. Surprisingly, there have been zero instances in which moderators have dissuaded players from circumventing the censor. If there’s going to be a censor, shouldn’t the blockage of certain words be enforced such that players can’t type them in any way, shape, or form? If that’s not the case, there is no logical reason to have such a low quality censor in the first place. Another problem with the chat censor is that its selection of banned words has been deemed unorthodox by several players. For example, it blocks the word “racist”, but not “homophobic”. It prevents players from typing the word “kill”, but it couldn’t care less if “slaughter”, “massacre”, “eliminate”, or “terminate” were uttered in chat. These discrepancies transform the censor from a somewhat reasonable addition into a complete laughingstock. The players of MCME find it ridiculous that the word “kill” should be blocked on a server that has PvP and that aims to recreate a world in which wars routinely take the lives of thousands. Furthermore, profanity is only blocked when it’s in English, so curse words in other languages are not detected. Shockingly, some English words aren’t blocked in specific circumstances, as shown by the example below. 
The failures of the current chat censor are apparent. In fact, unpalatable speculations may emanate from the censoring of the word “kill”, and people can be easily misunderstood. For example, if someone says “Come try to kill me in the arena”, their sentence will be transformed into “Come try to **** me in the arena”, which could be interpreted to mean something completely different. Similarly, when someone types, “Wow! You’re great at PvP! A natural born killer.” The censor turns their sentence into “Wow! You’re great at PvP! A natural born ****er,” which can lead to numerous incorrect assumptions about what that person is trying to say.
Article II - Moderators not benefited by censor
Due to several of the censorship errors that were described in Article I, the amount of chat perusal required from the server moderators has not reduced with the addition of this chat expurgation. The innumerable methods by which players can outwit the sanitation of server confabulation makes it necessary for moderators to scrupulously survey interactions between players as a means of ensuring that the precious censor remains adhered to. Such effort greatly contradicts the supposed primary benefit of the censor: reduced demand for moderator attention. That being said, moderator activity has not changed in lieu of this addition, which leads one to presume that a circumnavigation of the censor is neither reprimandable nor discouraged. Why is a censor necessary if there are no repercussions for evading it? Even if punishments were inflicted for such transgressions, the censor’s substandard abilities would give rise to greater responsibility for the moderators of MCME.
Article III - Age of Tolkien fans
While there would be many benefits from censoring foul language in a server designed for children, the downsides of the censor are much more potent than the benefits of said censor in a setting where the vast majority of people are old enough to handle a few bad words. MCME falls within this particularization, because one can easily deduce that a minuscule number of juveniles join the network. Tolkien’s works are constructed at a high level of comprehension, and the movie adaptations of his novels portray a multitude of violent events unbefitting of younger audiences. MCME should not pander towards the needs of an audience that purportedly composes less than 1% of the Tolkien fandom, especially when such actions resultantly wound a majority of MCME associates.Article IV - Problem with censor improvement
Hypothetically, the censor could be optional, turned on and off with a command. However, the amount of work required to implement such a feature would be staggering, and it would pull from much more important developmental needs. Since any work done to the censor would only benefit an insignificant portion of the player base, it is likely that other projects should be prioritized. Thus, the foremost option at this moment is to undergo a complete removal of the censor from the server.
Section 3: The Lack of Transparency From Management
Article I - Notifying the community
This post has covered a series of concerns relating to the MCME chat censor. However, it is prudent that the fundamental issue with the censor receives proper divulgence. For undisclosed reasons, MCME Management failed to inform the community about the possibility of a new component of the server that would suppress the words of its members and limit their ability to communicate. Such a sizable update to the server deserves adequate contemplation from the entire active player base. These players are the ones who endure the ramifications of any change within MCME. Thus, the implementation of the chat censor, without regard for the opinion of the community, portrays an image of MCME Management that is disrespectful, cynical, and tyrannical. Management would do well to share future ideas with the people of MCME before imposing such ludicrous incorporations as the chat censor.Conclusion
The MCME chat censor effectuates a series of issues that deface the pulchritudinous world of Minecraft Middle Earth. It forcefully limits creative expression and damages project advancement, ultimately mistreating the precious members of MCME. A myriad of complications plague the efficacy of the censor, so more problems come from it than solutions. This, consequently, supports the claim that the censor does not strengthen the server. Accordingly, the community will be most displeased if Management fails to recognize and act upon the undeniable truths presented within this post. I encourage everyone to respond to this post with your opinion on the chat censor.
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