Improving Moderation in Splatoon Discord Servers

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#splatoon3 #moderation #discord

[@ChrisTalusVT]

"its like a church confessional booth with a megaphone that blasts whatever you're saying in the front of the church" that honestly sounds like the plot of a south park episode that i'd watch

[@SaltyToad00]

Some people online are way too comfortable just spreading hate because they're basically anonymous. It's sad.

[@StarmenRock]

The community is 80% Twitter rotted teenagers too. Having a server at all seems like a horrible idea

[@rbarua3368]

@@StarmenRock It isn’t so bad. With enough capable moderators, the terms of disciplined behavior can be defined, and people conform. You could have reasonable conversations with many of the people on Twitter if you sat down with them face to face, despite how it may seem from the outside.

[@wilderbeast9368]

Likewise, many others are far to used to playing crybully.

[@SaltyToad00]

​​@wilderbeast9368 Because we think it isn't funny to spread hate speech online? The fact that people like you exist in this community is why Nintendo doesn't support the Splatoon community that much besides a few tournaments and updates every now and then.

[@StarmenRock]

@@rbarua3368 that really doesnt matter much when its a GROUP of teenagers, they're always gonna go off on their little tangents plus mixing them with adults is never a good idea. ive been a splatoon fan for almost 10 years now and with splat 3 the community became such a hellhole for controversy instead of the decent exchanges you're talking about because we live in a different era. people tend to be inflammatory especially if its to fit in or to feel cool about themselves

[@floofykxtty]

the venting channel discussion is the realest thing I’ve ever heard, unfortunately those text channels are just a wall of negativity and it’s very mentally draining to try and deal with everyone, it got so toxic to the point where I felt guilty not looking at it, but eventually I learned its horrible for my mental health and started muting all the text channels I see in a server, it drives me insane

[@ctom42]

As a discord mod of a sizable community myself, I approve of pretty much everything said here. I do think that venting channels can work in some servers, but they need to be heavily moderated and are honestly more work than any other channel. They need to be essentially safe places for people to talk about shitty things happening in their lives, not trash dumps for toxicity. And yeah in many cases a public server is a bad place for those interactions to be taking place, but for some people those online communities are the only places they feel they can safely talk about such things. One way to handle it is to have a role required to access the channel that is only given to regulars who can be trusted to behave appropriately. But it's also a hard ask for moderators to have to be exposed to all that negativity, and I would never require it of mods who didn't actively volunteer, which turns back around to needing to have enough, not just willing but eager mods for such a channel to be even considered. And yeah I've seen the bad side of modding as well. A reddit community I was a regular of had a many years innactive mod who was most senior reappear, remove the entire current mod team, and replace them with a group that contained neo-nazis and pedophiles.

[@ZenoEditz.]

Me personally I’m in a server (not a splatoon sv) that has a really good venting channel where the other people are actually understanding of the situation and trying to help you instead of spreading toxicity

[@undefinederror40404]

Darn that was a big twist at the end, jikes.

[@dewroot5176]

Oh. Ohh. That really sucks AND stings.

[@Ajia_No_Envy]

Venting channels is only necessary if people don't have any actual friends to vent to. Venting to strangers is just not the best

[@superiornas8883]

THANK YOU for calling out venting channels and how ineffective they are. Most of the time people say whatever is on their mind and instead of getting actual help they either get no response or they get a "I'm sorry to hear that" and nothing actually gets done. Talking to a close friend is always better in those scenarios.

[@snowparody]

And what if we don't have friends? I'd much rather have total strangers to ignore me talk about my problems instead of someone I'm supposed to trust. At least with the unresponsive stranger, I can cope with the idea that I finally got something off my chest and neither of us would have to remember what I said

[@pishagerudo]

i think it just depends on the type of community u have honestly. in 2016-2017 or so i was active in public vent chats a lot (bc my close friends often would not respond to me!) and lots of people there Were willing to listen and help, they genuinely cared, i think its just a matter of like... theres no real need to have them in a splatoon competitive server or a server dedicated to a certain content creator. time and place yaknow

[@barutie-patooty6253]

@@snowparodymaybe write down your thoughts and feelings. Like on a notebook. It’s proven to help a lot

[@snowparody]

@barutie-patooty6253 thanks but I've tried that already. A book isn't a person, so it doesn't help for me

[@DevilCat19]

@@barutie-patooty6253that doesn’t always help. Sometime people need advice or guidance. I’ve seen it done well and it’s extremely helpful but I can agree if it’s done badly it hurts more than it helps.

[@RheaSinghal]

this is a really interesting video but i started laughing really hard because the ledge made you waste all 3 of your trizooka shots at ~ 2:10

[@MAN-MILK]

_Bad_ faith? You must be mistaken, Sir! This is a devout Methodist household! In all seriousness though, I mostly agree with this video. I would just like to stress the importance of teaching how to make a judgement call with your moderation staff. A lot of situations aren't as black-and-white as the kid in that class who stood up on his desk. There are times when people try to be silly and mistakenly cross some line they didn't know was there, or are malicious actors intelligent enough to make their intentuons ambiguous when they're actually trying to sow chaos. Heavy-handedness can quickly destroy a community, if the order is made to issue a ban or long-term mute for anyone who even slightly shows any bit of disrespect (imagined or otherwise), the atmosphere of the server will quickly become less jovial and potentially less approachable for the more innocent, yet still silly individuals who populate a lot of communities in the Splatoon space. In order to avoid these sorts of situations, it is best to settle things privately, as a public warning could potentially make said person lose self-esteem or trust for the administration. That said, you should not just sit down and take rude, abrasive and overtly propagandistic or political content. I have a lot of respect for online moderators, but I also understand they are people, too.

[@saltwyn]

The venting channel was insanely timely for me, very helpful in dealing with something similar

[@sunayama4650]

The only difference between a moderator and a professional community manager is a paycheck

[@takobakogames]

I moderate one of those "close friends only" discords you mentioned and we do have a vent channel, but like you said, we're a close friend group who are open to supporting each other emotionally. The larger discords I'm a part of thankfully don't have vent channels. Also, I can't be the only one who is very invested in the gameplay you show 😂 I was on the edge of my seat during the final minute of the Lemuria match

[@Pikatwig16]

Something of a dumb question I thought of as I was listening to the last point. What if what's being talked about is just short and stupid? Not like a serious topic or anything, but just a small annoyance that someone wants to get off their chest and then move on. Like, "Someone cut in front of me in a line and I didn't get a chance to say anything"? Just something mundane that you just wanna say that's short and not a really big deal.

[@Ryansheep]

If it's short and mundane, I think you could bring up in regular conversation, or something to text a friend about. But even in the smallest situations, it is worth considering that doing so does ask the listener to sympathize, even in a smaller way, and can still forge that kind of negative pathway. So I think it's fine, just as long as you would also share something like, "oh this person let me go ahead of them in line because I only had two items and that was kind."

[@Alphine_Agnitio]

I think stuff like that is usually fine, but only in moderation - if its the only thing you're talking about it gets stale and ranty/venty very quickly

[@ShadowSkyX]

Not every short and stupid thing needs conversation. Self note and bring it up only if it becomes a bigger deal. Handle with descepency and quietly. Intentional rule breakers get the boot. End of story. You must put your foot down if they're stupid enough to challenge you. Throw the rulebook at them until they get too frustrated with not getting their way. There are those who will try break rules that are not clearly stated (but understood to be part of and under said rules) and try to pretend they're allowed just because the rule wasn't specifically stated. I should know people like that exist, because my nephew is one. You'd tell him not to take anything from somewhere and he'd still try to be sneaky and take flowers or rocks. Yeah its nothing valuable but its still understood to be part of that rule to not take anything from that property. Heloo, not take anything ecapsulates _everything,_ that includes the rocks and flowers, we shouldn't have to elaborate those are obviously included. he always pushed and try to bend rules like that since he was 2. Problem is he was smart enough to know better.

[@loool72]

That would be a healthy vent, but unfortunately that's not how people use these channels. A majority of rants/confessions are very deep-rooted issues that need to be handled with very delicate conversation and empathetic listening (something a public Discord server is IMPOSSIBLE of providing)

[@Teri_Merii_]

This aint squid school anymore, its SCHOOLLLLL

[@freuner-merris]

We've been tricked! (And backstabbed, and quite possibly, bamboozled.)

[@edwheezer6231]

@@freuner-merris Bamboozled? So, Gem is a Bamboozler? 🤔

[@Axe-fs9eb]

I am honestly really glad you made this because I only recently got discord (literally yesterday) and joined the server thanks to a friend inviting me. This helps me know what to do and what not to do. Thank you Gem :)

[@Spectrobits]

I moderate a medium-large subreddit for theme parks. Banning venting was probably one of the better decisions we made. It allowed the honest questions to breathe and led to more helpful trip-planning discussions compared to "this service I had this one time was bad" or "this line was so long and we were lied to" posts stretched to a 2-page prose. We wanted to not outright ban fair criticism of the parks, though, so the shorthand we came up with is "Thoughtful criticism is okay. Venting is not. Please don't treat this subreddit like a complaint desk."

[@nintendogameworld123]

I think this is all good advice. I own a Splatoon community with 1400 members but it got totally inactive because we were banning bad words and also removing image permissions in the general chat and to be honest at the moment I don't have time to organize events to make it a bit more active. Before the most active people were thouse who caused drama and were bringing negative atmosphere to the server and since we got more strict they went away but so at the end it was inactive. It seems there aren't a lot of good people online who keep a server active with good conversations and not with toxic. The best moderators are for sure people like you who have experience with kids at school and also studied psychology. But nowadays teenagers and kids are becoming always more difficult because they overuse social media and this makes moderation of a server even more difficult

[@Ryansheep]

Thanks for the video Gem. I'm wanting to make a discord somewhere in the future, and picking up on the bad faith stuff isn't something I know how to do. And, thanks for calling out venting channels too

[@eeveemaster243]

This genuinely helps me so much as I had recently made *the* recycled brella server a while back and it's been slowly picking up in member count (as expected with an unpopular weapon), and knowing how to properly moderate and nip out bad situations helps out a lot

[@stevieie2837]

Saltposting, yes. Because losing is to be expected of any competitive online game, "salt" is to be purged as a concept. But venting is usually fine, so long as toxic politically oriented venting, and all vents relating to the server itself, are banned. A vent channel should be "I had a bad day at work, what did I do wrong?" And NOT "ugh, some people here are so awful, not naming names", or "Man, why does everybody get so obnoxious around Pride Month" Some people benefit from having a space to bounce their IRL problems off of, because some people will be willing to offer advice at least some of the time. But anything "personal" to the server members must be excised.

[@lordbleck9015]

You know, I’ve spent dozens of hours researching the online propagation of radicalism for projects. And then you drop this. My immediate reaction: “Holy shit he gets it- WAIT IVE WASTED SO MUCH IF MY LIFE FUCK”

[@lorettabes4553]

You can also see it as extra/validaring your research from someone with experience: d

[@cristycrenshaw9109]

I appreciate learning more about the structure of a discord that is activity-focused vs the structure of one that is focused on an existing community. All of the discords I have enjoyed my time in so far do have vent channels, but on reflection they are all community focused and not particularly public. In those cases, a space for someone to complain about losing their job is a nice way to keep things from stepping on birthday wishes happening in the main channel. I can see how a vent channel in an activity focused space would end up being a problem, they probably have salty opinions about the activity that escalate.

[@rubberchickensfoot8912]

This is just my view, but i think that servers should stay away from making mod intervention public when possible. Using bots in public channels to warn, timeout, kick and ban users opens the door for a lot of public conflict between mods and users, and makes it harder for the user to change bc now whatever they did is more a part of their public image. It also is inherently less confidential, and i believe even when users have done smth wrong it shouldnt be told to the world when it can be avoided. Handle things privately when possible. It also i think encourages bad mindsets for moderators, bc mod intervention becomes a demonstration of authority and power over others, which can get to the mods head.

[@SquidSchool]

I'm probably gonna steal one of these points for a future video because hashing out conflicts privately is a life cheat code

[@rubberchickensfoot8912]

@@SquidSchool fr, it can be tempting to do things publicly but you avoid so many problems by not

[@trickygamer555]

Hmm will try to keep that in mind (even tho my discord server is one of the most dead things on the planet right now)

[@rainsparks29]

I typed out a huge comment about some tips I had as a server mod for 5+ years but accidentally refreshed the page before I could send >.< so I'll summarise -State that rules are not all-inclusive and/or have a rule against finding loopholes. Make people know they have to follow the spirit of the law, not just the letter. It's easy to tell if people are genuine or not when they break this. Basically a 'common sense' rule. -Allow members to give feedback about the server and mods and normalise this. Allows good faith actors to positively contribute to the community without mini-modding. Your mod team should be able to determine whether feedback is reasonable or not, and accept constructive criticism. Humans make mistakes, especially volunteers! Showing a commitment to improvement and the ability to change if something isn't working for the community is important for server health imo -It is entirely justified to ban someone for being a negative presence. Obviously not if they're just having a bad day - I mean those people who actively make people feel worse by existing in that community, maybe not even intentionally. If all you do is complain about the topic of the server or endlessly critique without anything positive to say, if you can only ever bring people's mood down, you're not a good fit for the community. -Server reputation doesn't matter. It's either true or easy to disprove. Don't give the time of day to people who threaten to bad mouth you. If your mod team is acting in good faith and making reasonable and justified decisions, one disgruntled troll isn't going to matter unless they happen to have a big platform, which if they're not a nice person, they probably don't I still rambled on a bit, but you get the idea. We used to have a big issue with negativity and arguments but over the years we've figured this stuff out and now the server is incredibly relaxed and conflict free, the worst that happens is personal disagreement on a harmless opinion that gets too heated (and that is very rare anyway)

[@Beckett.]

omg something oddly similar to that "bless you" thing happened to me a few months ago. the science final was that day but i ended up getting sick and i had to leave early, but my parents made me take the final before i left, so i went to my science class to take it and while i was taking it, i sneezed and THE WHOLE CLASS would not stop saying "bless you" over and over again and the teacher had to yell at them and they still wouldn't stop.

[@Hario338]

I have a small server of pretty much just my friends and a couple dozen inactive people, its been around since late 2017 and when i was younger I was really worried about it getting "too big" or something and asked everyone to not post links anywhere too public. I was definitely way more scared and protective about this then I needed to be, but thank god it never happened, because I still notice a few of these issues and I would NOT want to deal with it on that kinda scale with complete strangers lmao

[@agentblackbird9435]

For those curious, Lolcows are people like Chris Chan and Cyrax I unfortunately need vent/salt channels for specific things, mainly because I need to blow off steam over Splatoon things that shouldn’t matter very much yet make me upset, and other times I vent in them if I just want to state a general thing going on in my life rn that’s bothering me and make it apparent I’m looking for advice or to just get it off my mind, as I have a really bad problem with holding onto negative thoughts for too long I definitely prefer them not existing but they’ve helped me out sometimes

[@snowparody]

Because of people like them are the reason why we can't have nice things :( I don't have many people I can trust, and the things I need to vent about don't have solutions nor advice. So my only outlet is to vent aimlessly regardless if someone replies or not, it helps me cope that it's at least off my chest. What a shame that these channels are now a problem

[@joefromfamilyguy3952]

i used to be similae, but over the years i’ve come to find that sometimes venting isnt the best option. Finding an outlet for emotions like journaling or other creative things helps you sit with the emotions for long and better learn how to deal with them when they inevitably reappear. Venting can be helpful for things you have no control over, but sometimes those negative emotions can act as fuel that facilitates change. a good support system works wonders as well, but much easier said than done lol

[@ianzamudio411]

Bro beefs with splatoon 3 so hard he needs a vent channel

[@dewroot5176]

Maybe you have some nice friends you can talk about that to in DMs?

[@agentblackbird9435]

@@ianzamudio411 Not a vent channel but a salt channel. If you're going to make fun of me for that, I hope you realize I'm not the only person who complains about their matches

[@muntintin]

I'm sorry but that story about the kid standing up to say bless you is lowkey hilarious.

[@This-Was-Sparta]

It made me roll my eyes tbh. If someone's _that_ desperate for attention they should start acting classes or smth, funnel that energy into something productive instead.

[@rbarua3368]

In a certain sense, there is some humor in the outrageousness of that student, though it is quite dampened by the negative effects of what they were doing. If one of my classmates did that during a test in middle school I would not be pleased by the disruption.

[@muntintin]

@@This-Was-Sparta In my mind it has nothing to do with attention. It's a clever loophole to exert clearly pent up energy against the powers that be. That energy can't be funneled into something productive when they're constantly being told it's something they're not allowed to express.

[@FledDread]

@@This-Was-Spartabro it was a misbehaving kid it happens all the time, ain’t need to get all serious 😂

[@PokeRedstone]

The only venting channel I’ve ever seen work was for my real life friend group’s small local discord server where it exists purely so we don’t inundate our normal general chat with long discussions of how bad our day was. It’s a place to try and find comfort from friends who are in a headspace to provide that comfort.

[@rbarua3368]

These rules can help produce a vibe that is something good for most communities. And, I think the vibe is pretty important, because people like the student who acted up during the test could only do so because they seemed to have the backs of their fellows. When the norm doesn’t tolerate it, not only does an attempted bad actor have less power, the bad actors will be disincentivized from trying to do the bad things in the first place. I reside in some servers comparable in size to Squid School’s, and I think the effectiveness of the rules in the “good” servers is such that the norm of acceptable behaviors within these servers encourage the good behavior, rather than having to consciously think all the time about the rules (not that people shouldn’t understand them!)

[@Negative_Light]

Dude the venting this is *very* true. So much abuse on my discord so much pain I could have avoided

[@michaeljayne6731]

Great video idea and I like the attempt to spread better practices. I have a different YT account that makes game videos as well, but I shut the discord down months ago because of toxicity. I wanted to share my thoughts and experiences: I tried to make the server as specific to the game as possible, but as a community grows it’s harder to wrangle. I didn’t allow “salt” channels, didn’t allow self-promotion, and banned anyone who did anything toxic/bigoted. It still didn’t last. As an example - I banned someone who had threatened and racially attacked a minor in the community. That person then turned to another community I had overlap with, threatened to take their own life, and then threatened me and doxxed me. They had given money to me in the past and assumed that they had “bought me”. However, the issue was not every community will hold up these values. That other community this guy eventually ran to certainly didn’t, and they eventually also started crap with my community, and eventually stooped to the level of spreading NSFW images in my server that had minors in it. So, I shut it down. The sad truth is that the people running communities aren’t necessarily any more mature or less bigoted on average than those perusing them. There are adults out there who (sadly) are the bad guys and they run communities. They give refuge to the other toxic individuals, and they get to keep being toxic people in the gaming community. As content creators with a community, it’s vital to try to uphold the highest standard. I wish YT/discord did something to try to prevent toxic bigots from running a community, but they only want the money, and since a lot of people are toxic like that the big companies get more money by allowing it.

[@M4K082]

NOW WAY IM IN A GEM VIDEO IM M4KO⭐️

[@ExperiencersInternational]

Good idea, although our space is very quiet and I've never needed to take any significant moderation action since our community is incredibly well behaved. I think I'm probably the person who vents the most lol

[@Breeze926]

I have expressed worry about people that post stuff on the venting channels of medium or large servers. My friends and I have a small server with a venting channel that is useful because as you say we deeply care about each other so we put effort into listening. Really in practice it's more of a "serious" channel, the equivalent of starting a conversation with "I have something important to tell you." Medium and large sized Discord channels don't really have that same intimacy so when people post stuff about how they are declining in school, feel unwelcome, or just something that personal on what is a somewhat public server I worry about their lack of support group irl if they consider a server of mostly strangers will help.

[@mysryuza]

I can see the importance of having and not having vent channels, and while I would support the use of them for the sake of reaching out for support, vent channels need moderation to make sure the negativity doesn’t go to far.

[@ArmourdreamOrNot]

Great video. Can you do Reddit’s mod bot problem where almost every single post gets deleted because “It’s low quality or hastily created”?

[@wilderbeast9368]

Is this sarcastic? Please be sarcastic. (I can't tell because Redditors are actually this stupid.)

[@Animegirl_2001]

From the Splatoon3 subreddit?

[@skyjumper4097]

if im in a chat and someone randomly asks whos down for splatoon, and i reply no unless we get a full team, of course i will explain why i dont like playing open otherwise. but i just dont randomly dump all my negative thoughts

[@H4rpyW1tch]

great video!

[@ThestralZVGC]

This is very creepily timed; I just made my Splatoon team's Discord server public and am one of two mods lol

[@lauralharris]

Why am I watching this? I don't even have discord.

[@CJ_Hyperfresh]

I 1000% agree. We all struggle from time to time, but public vent channels are a HORRIBLE idea, and I've never understood why it's a commonplace in some communities.

[@This-Was-Sparta]

I'd argue they're more commonly a well intentioned, if misguided, reaction to a bad situation rather than something included from the start. It doesn't solve much and might only be exarcerbating problems, but at least it _feels_ like something's been done.

[@rbarua3368]

@@This-Was-SpartaAgree with this. People will talk about what they want to talk about if they have no inhibitions, and unless a “no venting” rule is strictly enforced, people will feel fine to discuss that stuff.

[@PokeRedstone]

Love the bad faith bit. Leave it to a school teacher to know how to accurately manage childish behavior.

[@pidginplace]

I feel extremely vindicated here because I've had experience moderating a relatively large discord server and being very against the idea of a vent channel for the reasons you've described. Regardless, they continued falling back on the notion that they wanted to keep negative emotions out of the general spaces, and while I understand it, I always felt like people misused the vent channel and that it caused more negativity in general than otherwise would've been the case. Eventually the entire moderation team had a falling out for completely separate reasons, but I definitely feel like it wasn't a net positive. I'm not a perfect mod, but there was definitely a lot of mob mentality and fear of questioning systems in that server that made it hard to do. If I ever moderate again, these are very helpful tools to think about. Thanks a bunch Gem :)

[@RoseofBattle]

Several years ago, some members of my community asked why I don't have a venting channel in my discord server. My mods and I are happy to listen to people in my streams or my server talking about a rough day they had--whether it be from school/work or a bad series of games in Splatoon--and while we've felt that a vent channel would be a way for people to opt out of hearing anyone talk about negative experiences, we're also wary of a channel ONLY about posting when you are at your most heated in a space where not everyone is necessarily close buddies or have the context of what someone is ranting about. I encourage people to talk privately with their friends when they need a vent sesh. (I mean, I certainly appreciate my friends holding private space for me in confidence when I just need to angrily ramble in order to sort my thoughts.) And neither I nor my mods have the energy or time to be on hand at all times for a venting channel. I have a politics channel and have taken it upon myself to moderate that personally with heavy expectations that people talk respectfully even when disagreeing, but a vent channel to me is *by design* negative. Some people used to post in it to rant, and I had to clamp down on that and tell them it wasn't a place for salt. I've seen other places have a space where people are allowed to vent, but the purpose is mostly for people to ask for advice on what to do going forward, and I think that can be more helpful (so long as the moderation is there), because it has a different goal. Side note: I was a young games journalist in summer of 2014, and I watched the place I worked for completely lack the moderation needed to keep myself and other women safe, and it absolutely became a bed for hate speech and harassment. Thank you for talking about the early warning signs of bad actors in communities.

[@LiEnby]

people can't just compartmentalize like that me:is that a challenge?

[@PalPlays]

In the melee community, we have several trans top players. It is not uncommon to see this comment on one of their matches: "Wow, X player is such a great player. Keep it goin man!" You find this template on many of their sets, misgendering them as many times as they can in thinly veiled encouraging comments.

[@wilderbeast9368]

lol. just... lol

[@SaltyToad00]

I'm not surprised the Smash community is transphobic.

[@wilderbeast9368]

@@SaltyToad00 Soy hominem.

[@maple_cyder]

someone shared this video in a server that i'm a moderator in. this video gave me and our team some very helpful insight. i appreciate it greatly!!

[@fernavliz1]

Weirdly enough I haven't seen a salt channel yet. I was assuming those would be for people trashing out weapons, gameplay styles and such. I can imagine how that could create problems eventually. However, for venting channels.... I am guilty of using those a lot. I don't use it to call out other people; that sounds like a really bad thing to do. What I do is that I complain about a certain situation or an irl problem that is affecting me heavily. Vent channels works better on small server that only a few people are active in, and it can really be helpful for those amount of people. A level of trust is implied and it requires certain amount of maturity to handle those channel correctly; and its mostly good if people understands the purpose of that channel. As other comments around here says, it is better if the focus of the vent channel is about expressing a concerning issue about one-self and looking for an advice or maybe just look for some validation, or even just to be there, to listen and feel you are supported, and cared about. Maybe thats why I have seen some servers renaming those to help, advices or other many names, so its understood that its not about the negativity, but rather about lifting up when people are falling down, or at least trying to do that lol. Probably all of this won't work on big servers, with tons of people messaging all the time; but thats ok, I think there are places for everything and should stay where they fits and helps the most. I have seen some venting channels really helping people out; maybe thats why I'm bias in favor of them but on certain servers (with more mature people around, with a certain level of trust, etc).

[@wdwellyeah6370]

I really enjoyed watching this video. It felt very valuable learning about the meanings and uses of venting, and I feel encouraged to apply the knowledge you spoke of in my own life

[@lowpolyzoe]

I think you're right about vent channels being a bad idea, and banning people who can't self-regulate is a good idea. I want to "well actually" though because I _am_ on a public server with a vent channel, but it's like, maybe you'll get 1 post every second day. The server isn't especially big, maybe 50 active members? The etiquette is "go in, type a long paragraph either just to talk or ask for advice", and the average age of the user is old enough to self-regulate and understand when things are/aren't helpful, so it isn't a spiral of negativity, nor are people often looking for more than "I'm sorry for your loss, keeping you in my thoughts" or "Here's my advice". It's also only one channel on the server and it's moderated closer than the other channels I'm aware this is the exception rather than the rule, to be clear. Just wanted to throw it out there. I don't think this would work for anything Splatoon, though, because the aforementioned server is for a PS2 game speedrunner (older, smaller demographic?) and Splatoon's playerbase is mostly teens who aren't old enough to self-regulate. Public discords should not have vent channels

[@sunnyblossom_711]

it would be great if people would stop interacting with bad faith trolls in this comment section and in other online platforms. report, block, notify mods, etc and move on. you're not making any of the rest of us feel safe by continually interacting with them after they should their true colors in one or two replies. 20+ reply threads are wild and a waste.

[@wilderbeast9368]

Hate that. Good thing I'm an Elf.

[@EvilSquidSchool]

Evil Squid School thinks you should work on improving yourself in real life

[@blotrux421]

The thing is: it is totally valid to voice your opinions on the game you are playing, like how you feel certain balance decicions are handled or not. But it is and never will be acceptable to blindly put on hate for anyone. It doesn't matter how frustrated you are with something. That is your issue to resolve and no one is responsible for that. In the end, even if you have valid critizism on a game... never let it out on others... instead welcome others into the scene so they can also see and voice conerns about the game and imorove it.

[@marietrans8950]

Sendou could sure use a whole lot of #3, the sendou server is horrendously toxic

[@RoseofBattle]

I'd also like better quality moderators in the Sendou server. I had to leave it due to mods behaving inappropriately.

[@wilderbeast9368]

Then adapt.

[@marietrans8950]

Screw off lmao??

[@wilderbeast9368]

@@marietrans8950 As an engineer, I keep my screws on.

[@TMS-Oddbot]

"I know this was a long one" Me: *looks at the length* "Only 15 minutes? What?"

[@kayo6689]

Every time I listen to you talk about some community aspect of Splatoon and video games as a whole, I tend to start off thinking the advice doesn't really apply to me, but man you speak truths out of nowhere! I had never really thought of how much the recipient plays into venting. Love what you're saying

[@faunaflower]

Waiting for the dating advice comment somewhere... Also hey it's a video about us woohoo!!!

[@Alphine_Agnitio]

I make it a point in all my team servers to remain as professional as possible and keep some more niche interests of mine(which I won't disclose here for obvious reasons) to dms only - its part of creating a welcoming atmosphere for both my teammates, scrim partners in my server, and other people I drag into my team server that a big rule I hold myself to more then others is "no nsfw" - following the rule of thumb of "If I wouldn't want to see it in their shoes, I shouldn't say/do it" does wonders for creating positive enviroments

[@DarkWizardFoxo]

I can definitely say that discord moderators are definitely underappreciated especially on bigger servers and like they definitely do deserve to get paid but it is very hard to pay a discord moderator but I mean small things you can do to make them feel appreciated is like you know $50 every now and then or like buying them dinner like a lot of them are just volunteers as you said so just you know a little bit of cash every now and then some food every now and then especially if they're like a friend who's doing that to help you out like if discord was profitable for having moderation it would be so much easier to like give them a consistent work schedule and genuinely pay them for what they deserve but discord isn't like that unfortunately at least I don't think so

[@biscuitygudness]

i'm just doing a drive-by comment to say that VENT CHANNELS ARE ALWAYS A BAD IDEA AND YOU SHOULD NEVER HAVE ONE ok bye

[@HokutoDokuro]

The best implementation I've seen of the venting channel in a Discord server is a themed server with a bot that deletes messages after a few seconds. Once you "voice" (type out) your frustration, the "ocean" (the bot) "washes" it away. In the event that another user sees the message before it disappears, they are expressly not allowed to react or respond in any way.

[@Eliza-rg4vw]

This rule is called "DBAD" - dont be a doorknob. its just establishing common sense as a rule so that moderators have an easy time saying "yeah ik its not technically against the rules but like it is" without having to get into like a whole essay about it.

[@wilderbeast9368]

Common sense doesn't exist. If it did. I could just as easily argue that Mods shouldn't exist.

[@Eliza-rg4vw]

@@wilderbeast9368 "don't act in bad faith" is the same thing tho. Both are assuming an unwritten sociological standard that one needs to abide by.

[@wilderbeast9368]

@@Eliza-rg4vw That doesn't exist. Already covered that.

[@Eliza-rg4vw]

@@wilderbeast9368 Sorry, I didnt take it seriously. If common sense doesnt exist, how does langauge, rules, etc. exist?

[@wilderbeast9368]

@@Eliza-rg4vw Logical deduction, which is conflated though I assure nothing to do with the mythical, ever-fluidic common sense.

[@dylswerb7492]

Surely this can't be dating advice, right?

[@cosmy]

loud ass sashimori song I can even hear it in the background at low volume lol

[@Joycndrift]

I feel like im being bestowed with knowledge and wisdom when I watch your videos, THANK YOU

[@Potatoinatree]

Potato 🥔

[@ursamajo.r]

I just want to say, I never would have imagined I'd find so much helpful insight to life in general from a Splatoon channel. Thank you, Gem ❤️

[@SnoFitzroy]

I was hoping for this video to mention how weirdly common casual bigotry is on Splatoon discord servers (I've left at least 3 specifically due to this, however you did get pretty close by mentioning gamergate) but honestly you brought up several things I hadn't even considered. Here's hoping this has an impact :)

[@SquidSchool]

I will say that, compared to other gaming communities, the Splatoon community has made faster progress. I stand by the assertion that it's the most gender-inclusive esport, which says a lot about the environment we've been able to create, but obviously we're still nowhere near where we want to be on that.

[@wilderbeast9368]

Is it now? Is it in the room with us?

[@timcrnkovich4326]

there were at least 2 catholic/christian references in this video and thats nice

[@theghostcreator776]

Taking a look at the comments even mentioning the shitstorm that was gamergate is a great way to root out a lot of bigots (who still somehow haven't realized this isn't a safe space for them???)

[@wilderbeast9368]

Soy hominem.

[@GameShark9000]

Must be nice not being seen as a monster over a hashtag

[@theghostcreator776]

@@GameShark9000 bro it was a misogynistic witch hunt of prominent women in the gaming industry masked behind the cover of "professionalism" You were misled by literal Nazis Or who knows, maybe you are one yourself, these kinds of comments are awfully conducive to that conclusion.

[@wilderbeast9368]

@@theghostcreator776 Soy hominem. Crying about Nazis that 'literally' don't exist. Grow up.

[@skunkooo]

shout-out to the squid school mods they're cool 🎉

[@jamieohjamie]

I would literally uninstall my internet than ever ever ever be a discord mod.

[@ursamajo.r]

It's a ton of hard work for sure!

[@Flares_splatoon]

It’s sad some people can’t behave

[@GrimmRiot]

Vent channels are never a good idea for any discord server ever lol

[@rbarua3368]

Many Discord servers have rules against discussing politics too much, but that kind of rule would be terrible for a Discord server centered on political discussion. There can be a time and place for venting, and it is just that most popular servers will not be great places to have such a channel.

[@strawwpurry]

not so hot take: discord needs message filtering like tiktok comments has for larger servers!!! the ability to block certain keywords is good for moderating

[@wilderbeast9368]

And horrible for everyone else. No thank you!

[@AkimboWasTaken]

Gem treats his userbase like children who can't act mature enough without him policing them. Thank goodness my 2000 member Splatoon server is nothing like how Gem is proposing to treat its members.

[@wilderbeast9368]

Really glad I'm not alone in seeing that.

[@SaltyToad00]

Seeing how this community has acted in the past, I don't blame him.

[@wilderbeast9368]

@@SaltyToad00 Byeeeeee

[@lowpolyzoe]

Idk, a lot of the Splatoon playerbase _are_ teens who are just genuinely not old enough to self-regulate. When 75% of the general chat of a server are high schoolers you do need to moderate a bit more

[@AkimboWasTaken]

@@SaltyToad00 The community should be worried about people potentially preying upon children, not the supposed racist or sexist boogeyman that really doesn't exist in any meaningful capacity. Gem's political bias is so blatant at this point that he mentions Gamergate in the video of all things. Let it go, dude. That was almost a decade ago.

[@wilderbeast9368]

Okay well my sub to this channel didn't last long lol

[@SaltyToad00]

This isn't an airport. There's no need to announce your departure.

[@wilderbeast9368]

@@SaltyToad00 I want to, and can do. No one will stop me, so you'll just have to cry about it.

[@hippoqueen6840]

wow, 2 separate comments, you're real mad huh

[@wilderbeast9368]

@@hippoqueen6840 Reading emotion from emotionless text? Curious! Surely this can't be projection... right? And surely not as a coping mechanism, no? What a shwifty little predicament.

[@hippoqueen6840]

@@wilderbeast9368 my bad, i didnt know you were mentally ill, i'll stop replying now

[@wilderbeast9368]

Here's a bright idea. Leave people alone.

[@SaltyToad00]

And just let them spread hate online with no consequences?

[@wilderbeast9368]

@@SaltyToad00 Yes.

[@StarmenRock]

@@wilderbeast9368 why? Genuinely curious.

[@wilderbeast9368]

@@StarmenRock I'll gladly answer, though will need elaboration on the question.

[@StarmenRock]

@@wilderbeast9368 you didnt get that? i mean to know whats the point of your whole tirade plus liking your own comments. feels like you're just angry at people for some reason and i want to understand why

[@misterwheatley1386]

Y'all wouldnt have survived on the early internet lmao