Regarding Mute Parties and their Implications

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Hey, I am probably the last member of this community that is known for being serious, but I wanted to get this off my chest. Thus, please dont shitpost ITT.

Recently, by that I mean kinda the last 6 months, it has been a reoccuring scheme that a great deal of people join discord VC mute. This mute is a lot different from its previous use as a temporary measure to shield from your dad walking in, his TV, or hearing whatever one might be disposing of on his favourite ceramic throne.

Rather, people are joining VC because they very much want to listen to it, but do not wish or want to speak for themselves. Their interaction ranges from partaking in chat, or not talking at all.
I have previously, sometimes quite agressively spoken up against this, and was greeted with silence. Ironic, I know. Also I am shockingly bad at being polite so I thought this might be a better way of adressing it, in a carefully written, but verbose af post on ORE’s “I-can’t-believe-its-not-Discord” - MyBB Successor.

So, whats my problem with Mute Parties? Why cant I let everyone do whatever they want how they want it? Free love!

The thing is, its a Voice-Chat. It is meant to be used for talking. Despite it being abused for it, its not like
Twitch where you sit back and look at what somebody else has to do or say.
Lets adress the two behaviours seperately:

First, the ones that interact with chat. This kinda works. But! It is kinda difficult to notice what one writes, as It needs me to have a window open. Bad when u only got one screen. And it doesnt help that some do it in MC where there message just gets lost in server chat.

But what if im shy? Dont be. We dont bite. And this is all anonymous. Dont get scared coz some tend to show their faces. You will never have to. You are doing yourself a disfavor. because people have to read chat to interact with you, they will either dislike it or just straight out not do it. It is more work to follow chat, for no reason. You COULD just talk.
Please realise that using chat to talk is inconvenient for everyone involved.

But what if my Mic sucks? Most mics do. Its fine.
But what if I don’t have a mic? A) Use ur Smartphone B) Why does your computer not have a mic? Honestly, I call Bullshit.

Secondly, the people that just hang in VC but don’t say anything. You should not be in VC if you do not wish to take part in the conversation. Competitions are exceptions of course, but in general ORE is not your podcast. It feels very weird talking in VC with someone just sitting there muted listening to you. It feels like your being spied upon. If anything, this practice must stop. Do not sit in a VC u do not want to have a say in it. Its a chat, not a podcast, not a lecture.

I guess this is mainly a problem with being too shy. ORE is a mature community. That also means older members are sometimes there for very long times and sometimes much older than you are. But you know what. It doesnt matter. This is the internet. And if aynthing ORE is the pure side of it. The one disconnected from our real name, your instagram, twitter, whatever. Somebody ignored you? Speak louder. Ping them. Throw a tantrum. Whats the worst that could happen. Nobodys gonna judge from how u sound in VC, and if they do, well, fuck em.

You should have the courage to speak in a VC. And ORE is a great way to try, because its community is very friendly and forgiving. It can also be harsh, because it doesnt sugarcoat. If your mics trash someone migth call it that. It doesnt mean they dont wanna listen to you.

Lets end this on a happy note. When I joined ORE in late 2016, I was still in school. In March 2017, final exams came about. Around that time I was on ORE alot and also in VC. I had one exam taken spoken, in english class. I was never that amazing in english class. But I aced that final, and in great parts I owe that to how I could practice speaking while Gaming here. I was quiet as shit in school so this rly helped.
After the exam the teacher actually came to me and wanted to know how i got so fluent. Bless the internet eh.

So, to conclude, mass mute VC is soemthing that can and should be avoided. But I’d really like to know what other people think. Maybe Im already a Gen Whatever Boomer and being mute is totally accepteble to 2000s ppl. To me it isnt, and I find it highly uncomfortable.

Now roast me!

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If people being muted in the voice channels is something uncomfortable enough to you that you’ve made an entire post about it, couldn’t you imagine that someone doesn’t want to talk because it’s just as uncomfortable?

New players
Most people are never going to be instantly comfortable with everything they do or every community they join. I figure at least some of the newer members are muted to get to know what the VC is like without having to take active part in it. For all they know it’s 5 people screaming horrible shit or those same people quietly discussing some high level redstone topic.

Shy people
I don’t think I have to explain that being scared of a situation isn’t something people just have the ability to perfectly control. “Just don’t be shy” isn’t how it works for everyone. I like that we have an environment where no one feels like they’re doing something wrong just because they don’t want to actively participate in the conversation.

Don’t have a Microphone
Ever consider that maybe they gain little to no advantage by lying about this? Felt like you were being a bit paranoid but maybe that’s just me.

Closing comments
I like that ORE doesn’t have a strict guidelines for the VC outside of the normal rules. People can have whatever conversations and decide whether or not they want to participate in those conversations or just listen in. If people don’t want to talk then that’s not something we should force them to do if they just want to listen in.

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Nonono your getting it wrong

I am trying to encourage people to talk in VC, and I totally do know that it takes quite the step to do it. I have been at this point myself a lot, and believe me, I am a rly shy person, if not on ore, then def irl. The thing is, almost all the time when I overcame myself it led to good things.
I did not adress that on purpose. I don’t think reassuring people how understandable being shy to the point of being to scared to talk is a good thing. It just leads to you being ignored and forced to do things aginst your will (Not really on ore, but sure irl).
I know that this is not something “easily controlled”. But that doesnt mean its a good thing to do.

Additionally, at least in my experience the people hanging around mute are not new members at all. I do not want to call names here, but there are definitely some repeated offenders. If anything, I made this post because chiming in mute is totally normal for new members but I have noticed that some have not broken the habit after being here for months and started defending it instead.

So to repeat here, I am not calling for any VC-Guidelines. I just want to encourage people of the community to participate in VC, because I think everybody would benefit from it. Not only in a relationship way, but also teaching redstone is infinitely easier in VC then thru chat.

But I dont wanna force anything down somebodys throat here.

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Being completely honest here, you sound incredibly paranoid. So what if somebody is sitting there just listening, they don’t bite either. Now I don’t do this very often (and not in the ORE discord), but I do sometimes just sit in VCs listening because I don’t have the mental energy to speak, but I want to be there with people I know. It feels nice to be in the chat with people I know. If you’re so worried about someone listening in on a conversation then why are you in the voice chat in the first place? There’s no difference between someone there quiet (or in text chat) compared to someone actively participating, in fact I’d be less worried about someone who is quiet because they’d be more suspicious if they were actually trying to spy on you.

And about the comment about people without mics. Yes, there are people without microphones, if you don’t want to read the text chat then that’s fine, but don’t get mad at them, you’re the one causing the issue at that point.

signed,
someone who’s not really active here much anymore but cares about this topic for whatever reason

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Maybe I just worded everything terribly

But idk how trying to convince people to speak in vc makes paranoid

And i’m not mad at text chat I just wanted to point out that it is inconvenient

I really just want to encourage people to go voice more sorry if i hurt anyones feelings
I really didnt expect such agressive negative responses, I wouldve put more thought into thepost if i had known that

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There’s nothing wrong with preferring people to talk in VC, but it’s important to respect if people want to be muted, people all feel different about it. Even if it’s not some hellish anxiety or whatever keeping you from talking comfortably, it’s still better to be able to be as active of a participant as you want in a conversation.

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tldr;

Be mute if you want, but ur missing out

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That’s fair

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I get what Trecar is saying and I feel quite the same. I don’t mind those who join voice muted and participate in the #voice-chat/#mr-mutes channel. I understand that there are many valid reasons people do not or cannot talk. What I am annoyed by is people joining voice muted and not talking in #voice-chat/#mr-mutes.

Imagine having a conversation with a few people and there are others in the same room, staring, listening, but not participating.

It is just awkward sometimes.

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