The chat filter was first introduced in Penguin Chat. It was created to block certain words from the Standard Safe Chat, such as inappropriate words, and words that have rude meanings. If a user says a word that isn’t allowed, they would be banned, if they say a word that isn’t really bad, but it is still in the list of blocked words, the word/speech wouldn’t show up to other users. The chat filter often updated, however, it become stricter each time it did. This caused the community to often talk about this issue in blog-posts, videos, and social-media posts. Popular Club Penguin blogger, Riyita, told the Club Penguin Team to improve the chat filter by making it less strict, when he went to the Club Penguin Headquarters. Riyita said that they all laughed, since they knew how bad the current chat filter was. In this discussion, I will be discussing why the chat filter should be improved, so let’s begin! 🙂
Parties/Events Held By The Community
There are often parties that are held by members of the community. I enjoy attending parties, since I get to meet TONS of penguins, and have fun by playing mini-games, dancing, and chatting. When I held parties on Club Penguin, I told penguins on Twitter to join my party, and I told penguins that were partying with me to tweet about my party on Twitter, so more people could join the fun, however, I did not know that my speech didn’t go through, since the word “Twitter” is blocked. Yes, the word “Twitter” is blocked. I’m not really sure why it is blocked, since kids nowadays know all about social-media, and specifically, Twitter.
In 2014, there was a gigantic craze over a challenge called the Ice Bucket Challenge that was for a disease called, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosi (ALS). There was an event for ALS awareness on Club Penguin that Spike Hike (moderator) attended. Spike Hike tweeted a screenshot of the community-based event, and something interesting was in the screenshot. Loki Terry’s speech bubble was a red-ish/brown-ish colour. If you don’t know who Loki Terry is, he is a popular Club Penguin blogger. Like I said, this was a very interesting screenshot. Penguins wondered why the bubble was in a different colour than usual, surprisingly, we soon found out that this was because Loki Terry’s speech did not go through the filter. We also found out that moderators see blocked phrases that didn’t go through the filter in a red-ish/brown-ish colour. However, what Loki Terry said wasn’t inappropriate at all, so that’s another reason why the chat filter is ridiculously strict.
So, when penguins are dancing at special events, they would like to say things, but the majority of the words that get blocked aren’t actually inappropriate, which isn’t a good thing, since it limits the right to speak, even when it isn’t something inappropriate.
Waddle Around And Meet New Friends/Social-Interaction
Club Penguin is a virtual world, an environment for penguins to waddle around and meet new friends, as the slogan suggests. However, how can penguins meet new friends, when the chat filter is really strict? Penguins shouldn’t be allowed to say inappropriate words, however, most of the words that are in the list of blocked words for the chat filter aren’t actually inappropriate, so how could penguins communicate properly with each other, when words that are blocked aren’t even inappropriate words?
So, the chat filter disables the feature of “chatting” on Club Penguin, since players cannot have freely conversations. Club Penguin is based around social-interaction, so it is quite disappointing to see that social-interaction in Club Penguin has descented over the past few years.
Overall, I think that the chat filter should improve, since it does get in the way of the game’s biggest features.
What’s your thoughts, do you agree or disagree with me? If you comment your thoughts below, that would be great, since I would love to read your impression of the current chat filter. I’m looking forward for Project: Super Secret, since it may come with a new, improved chat filter!
-Aurinum
Club Penguin Network 