Let's discuss the - "Speak only English Rule" - (Jump Academy EU)

[HeavenlyDagger]

I'll try to make this as brief as possible. I have been told to make this post by others, as nobody else could be bothered to.

If you play on JA EU, I'm sure you're aware that a large number of people who play on the Jump Academy EU server are not English. Frequently I see people speaking foreign languages (mostly from European origins), and they are often told to remain quiet or are simply muted by a member of staff. As this is a European server, not solely British, I suppose it is questionable as to why we all have to speak English. I understand that by speaking English most people will be able to understand each other, but it makes it very difficult for "foreigners" and I don't see the problem with a multi-linguistic server.

[General Pro]

Hello all.

I also agree with this. In my opinion, the English only rule is not very helpful at all, causes no problems if one does not speak English, and almost racist. I have a few points to back these up and I will explain why it should not exist.

First of all, it creates no problems. If someone enters the server and speaks Spanish, I don't think to myself, "I don't understand this" as it does not affect me at all. Even if I don't understand it, it creates no problems for me whatsoever and just doesn't make sense. Majority of the people I asked argued that it's problematic as some people don't understand it but if someone can explain the problems associated with not understanding it then please let me know because I simply cannot think of one reason.

Along with this, majority of the people said English is the most common language. I agree, it probably is within one of the top most common languages. But that does not mean that everyone will understand it. When I said this, they argued they should listen in school so they can learn English to which I said maybe not all schools teach English and furthermore, people that don't go to school won't have the opportunity to learn English but they are not "lazy [asses] that don't listen in class" as someone said to me. In the European server, this is where the rule is but not all Europeans will understand English and I don't see any servers for Spanish people only or French people only so deciding the language on a continential scale is absurd as many languages will be spoken within 1 continent and it cannot be simplified to 1 language nor will everyone understand just this 1 language.

Also, a lot of the people said that if they don't understand English then they should not speak. Imagine going to one of the jumpacademy servers and needing help. What if you can't speak English and can't ask for help? Well then the jumpacademy is not doing a lot to help you and hence it's not fitting its purpose which is to help people to learn to rocket jump or sticky jump, whatever it may be. I hope I don't have to explain the implications of this, you should be able to infer why this is just downright stupid. Now imagine this: you only speak Spanish and you need help. Imagine there is another person in the server who speaks both English and Spanish. If you are not permitted to speak in a language that is not English then you won't be able to get help from the person who speaks both English and Spanish and hence, again, not fitting for purpose which is to help. I don't know how well I explained that last part but hopefully if you can argue why the English only rule applies then you can infer and deduce what I'm talking about.

I may have had more points but I cannot remember them off the top of my head right now. These were my main points and hopefully this gets read properly and considered because the English only rule is just not helpful at all and in fact, the opposite to helpful. It can also be considered racist as people who don't understand English may feel left out. I am fluent in English so it does not create a problem for me but I speak up for the people who can't speak out for themselves as they can't speak English and are not permitted to speak any other language! Do something about this. Thank you for reading.

[Melon]

I thought that rule was only for teachers or moderators

[HeavenlyDagger]

I thought that rule was only for teachers or moderators

No, it applies to everyone on the server. If you are caught speaking a language other than English in chat or by voice then you'll be asked to be quiet or be muted.

[AI]

The problem with this is we have to prioritize the preferences of the majority over the minority.  With the majority being English speakers who cannot understand all other languages, players who talk on the mic using another language equates to spam and thus perceived as an annoyance.  This is a natural response and is not an attitude that we have any authority to enforce on people whatsoever.  It's a societal problem in general, not ours.

To make matters worse, if said players cannot understand English, it's very well possible they cannot understand the request other ask of them to stop and thus continue speaking (and thus perceived as continue to spam).  This was such a problem on the JA Asia servers that we disabled voice communication there entirely.

That being said, this issue only happens because there is only one channel for voice communications where everyone hears from every other person's mic.  It appears technically feasible to create different voice channels using the sdktools_voice API by selectively allowing players to hear other players, so we can create language-specific channels like #english, #french, #german, #thai etc.

I am not aware of a plugin that currently does this, but we can make one if it's deemed necessary.  Feel free to hash out the interface and design issues here in this thread and I'll see if I can put something together.

[AI]

Looks like there is a general voice channel manager plugin.  Though we may have to edit it to add players into channels by default based on IP geolocation, add a way to save channel preferences, and add translated instructions on how to switch channels.

[catfoosh]

^that is a really smart approach to this problem

[Exile]

stop the oppression

[Washed up hack]

Is there any problem that AI can't solve with plugins?

I think Europe and Asia would really benefit from this due to the large set of languages. US should probably be English only though since that's what 99.9% of people from CA and US will speak. Most MX players should be able to speak it too. If they only speak Spanish though, you know what to do

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[AI]

If they only speak Spanish though, you know what to do

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

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[General Pro]

AI this does sound like a good way to approach it. But there is always the option on TF2 for people to mute voice chatters so they could always use that and I just thought muting them completely or punishing them in any way was harsh so I thought the rule should not exist as if it's an annoyance, people can choose whether to hear it or not. Your idea of this plugin does sound plausible. Thank you for taking the time to think how to address this problem.