I think as long as there is at least one person active and online at any given time slot, who have the ability to silence a problem chatter should the need arise, that would go a long way.
Blocking new players from chat is not a good way to tackle this problem, in my opinion of course.
For simplicity, I propose
My thoughts:
This community does tend to be lenient. But I DONâT want to see someone getting away with swearing, for example. IMO, Once or twice, youâre done. That does not belong in a family chat.
The code of conduct really needs to be updated. It does not include a lot of what I feel should be blocked.
We tend to joke around a lot, but I do think it is important to treat one another with respect anyways-just like in real life. Even though the other person may say âlolâ or âI donât careâ, that may not be true.
A :community ban" feature that was mentioned would definitely need a good solid amount of points, but no player should be made an OP by point total alone. They could still love swearing. In fact, in Foldit that happened with one of the top players.
I would love to see a chat filter that stars out black-listed words.
The auto-kick for x lines in x time should be able to be disabled after x global points, x time, or OP approval. The OP could also re-instate it. I know when players, including me, are in a technical conversation, it could go much higher.
Amendments based on community feedback via PM & forum:
1) Chat Guidelines / Code of Conduct
( Comment ) To clarify, whatever the code of conduct ends up being, it should get a full re-write, as players feel the pre-existing code to be a good start, but not comprehensive.
D. ( Comment ) Boundaries are particularly important, as EteRNA exists for the purpose of scientific research. Describing our limitations clearly will define the scope of what we can and cannot accomplish here.
4) Chat Moderators
B. & C. ( Amendment ) x # points / years should not be the only criteria.
I. ( New point ) The auto-kick for x lines in x time, or other minor infractions, could be disabled after x global points, x time, or dev approval. Devs can also re-instate restrictions if necessary. To allow for technical convos, etcâŚ
5) Chat Bot Moderator
C. ( Amendment ) Instead of warning / penalty / ban in reply to blacklist keywords, we could simply star them out.
7) Unlock Chat After X
( Comment ) There is a lot of community support for unlocking chat, but it has also been pointed out that blocking new users is not our goal either. Perhaps try implementing some of the other solutions first, and only resort to this if absolutely necessary?
I like the idea that there is a list of words that are useless in chat and should just be â****â. Or just be invisible in chat. Actually I prefer invisible as the star would just be another annoyance the spammer could do.
Active moderators is probably the next best line of spam control.
The rule to 10 lines is good but perhaps limited to newbies. After, say, 20 k points the rule should be lifted. First a warning then a ban if continued.
Overall, Machinelves has done a spectacular job and I am impressed with all of the various levels of spam control he has listed. Thanks !!!
youâre welcome, and thank you for contributing! 
thank you for sharing your voice!
thank you for the counter-point, I made an amendment requesting to try other solutions before resorting to pre-ban of new users. there is a lot of community support for 7), but I think you make a good point too.
What do you think about implementing 7) in a more limited capacity?
i.e. unlocking x # lines, x # blacklist keywords, x # accounts from same IP, other minor issues after x # points⌠), as opposed to a full newbie ban? These rules would need to be clearly spelled out for devs to implement the intricacies.
Thank you very much for your contribution!
I really appreciate you sharing your opinion, thank you very much!
If you notice anything specific to add to the 1) Code of Conduct, please let us know! I think it is a good point to note that we should treat each other with respect and remember that real people are behind the avatars. I have made an amendment requesting a full re-write of the Code.
I also made an amendment to 4) Chat Moderators requesting that B. & C. # of points / years not be the only criteria. Thanks!
I also made an amendment for 5. Chat Bot Moderator - C. auto-star out black-listed words. Great point! The devs need to know these specifics.
I also made a new point I. for 4) Chat Moderators, that minor issues like # of lines can be disabled once a user reaches x # points etc⌠Good idea! May also go hand-in-hand with a more mild version of 7) Unlock Chat After X, in that there could be incrementally approved leniency based on community credit, as opposed to necessarily banning newbies outright.
A lot of great feedback, many thanks!
[Edit: previous commentâs contents in this comment]
1) Chat Guidelines & 3) Report Channel / Log
A. For example, Devs could make a user account where players could PM issues using 1) Chat Guidelines as a reference which contains a link to this user profile, and potentially reporting templates, instead of building & maintaining a full report feature / page.
4) Chat Moderators / 7) Unlock Chat
4) I. is similar to 7) in that an alternative to blocking newbies from chat is an incrementally staged access to Chat permissions, whereby x # lines, x # accounts from same IP, & / or x # use of blacklist words is unlocked at certain stages of x # points, years, etcâŚ
5) Chat Bot Moderator
C. ( Amendment ) Instead of starring out blacklist words, we could make them invisible so as to prevent the *** from being used as spam itself.
Making *** invisible instead is a great idea!! I agree the *** could be used to spam.
I have made amendments to reflect the invisible idea for 5. Chat Bot Moderator - C., and also to recommend a staged level of chat permissions as it affects both 4) Chat Moderators & 7) Unlock Chat.
Thank you for your support! It was a bit of footwork to put it together, but I got most of these ideas from the community, and I couldnât have done it without all of everybodyâs help & support!
Many thanks!
Thank you for all your help & feedback! I created 3) Report Channel to address this issue, and added an amendment to recommend matâs idea to use an account profile to PM under 1) Chat Guidelines & 3) Report Channel / Log.
Many thanks!
Thank you! This is now reflected in the request for 1) Chat Guidelines.
Thank you for sharing your voice! The request for user blocking is reflected in 5) Chat Bot Moderators, and the request for live regulation is reflected in 4) Chat Moderators.
Thank you!
Thank you, this is now reflected in 7) Unlock Chat; it is really helpful to link to existing ideas, I really appreciate you pulling these threads together!
Thank you!
Thank you for stating that it is a continued problem, good to know it has not yet been resolved!
I agree, it is important to not feed the trolls, thank you for this sage reminder. I think the âpenalty boxâ timeout described under Tolerance will help them get bored faster.
Iâve requested moderation under 4) Chat Moderators & 5) Chat Bot Moderators.
Thank you for contributing!
Thank you, I have described the ban-by-IP issue under 3) Report Channel - B.
Thank you for contributing!
Thank you for bringing a voice to this issue, good to know it is not yet resolved!
Everyone is very grateful to the dev team for all their hard work, and players have commented that we donât give enough thanks, since there is always something to complain about. So I just want to also say THANK YOU!
Thank you for the idea & screen cap, and also for the GitHub ticket. I have integrated this into the summary under 2) Mute Button - D.
Also wanted to say thanks to LFP6âs comment below, I have made an amendment to recommend your idea to use an account profile to PM issues to under 1) Chat Guidelines & 3) Report Channel / Log.
Many thanks for all your contributions!