PROHIBITING SPECTATOR CHAT

[ChameleonBG]

Certainly prohibiting for all games for spectator chat is nonsense. Friends come and say hi, or ask for if can join next game. This kind of thing should be optional feature, not like all time on feature.

[ppsantos]

I like prohibiting spectator chat. Those chats are distracting, especially from a spectator whose not even part of the game. When someone types something, there is a popping sound and I tend to look at it, to see if it's important, and momentarily breaks my concentration. So, if it's just someone saying hi, I can't help but be annoyed by that spectator.

Of course, there are minor advantages but there are major disadvantags as well in allowing spectators to chat, like the spectator giving tips/helping another player, which I think is not only distracting but could be a little unfair as well.

I'm glad that spectators are not allowed to chat.

[ojomojojojo]

I like prohibiting spectator chat. Those chats are distracting, especially from a spectator whose not even part of the game. When someone types something, there is a popping sound and I tend to look at it, to see if it's important, and momentarily breaks my concentration. So, if it's just someone saying hi, I can't help but be annoyed by that spectator.

Of course, there are minor advantages but there are major disadvantags as well in allowing spectators to chat, like the spectator giving tips/helping another player, which I think is not only distracting but could be a little unfair as well.

So don't you think if you particularly have this issue, YOU particularly should have that option to turn it off. I get your concerns but not every player on here has this issue and should be restricted to it. Best to make that optional

[ppsantos]

Many small improvements today (May 8th 2020).

Spectator chat

We decided to forbid spectators to chat during the games.

We know that in specific situations, it may be useful. But there are more situations where this is causing problems than the opposite. And in real life, you would not want to let anyone come and start discussing around your game table while you are focused on your game.

Many small things and fixes

That's from sourisdudesert's update post. I'm guessing there are more complaints about disruptive spectators.

There could be an option to enable spectator chat, I suppose, though I recommend that the default be spectators cannot chat (at least during the game).

[nmego]

During the 3 years I've been on this site, I've never come upon a scenario of 'disruptive spectators', so I'm not really sure if this was ever an issue..

[N_Faker]

The number of such cases is also rare, and of those, the majority are far more expansive than random spectator mischief.

Far more is lost by blanket banning spectator chat than what may be gained by removing some instances of unwelcome spectators.

[DrClick]

Hi,
Thanks for your remarks.
That's an issue we're working on and we will come up with a solution in the next few weeks about it after we finish some improvements.
We would like to encourage people to be able to spectate and participate in a good way, butt as you all know, BGA has been impacted heavily by a lot of newcomers and people that don't get what itt's about.
Many improvements are coming this way, and improving privacy by hiding everything everywhere is also not an option we would like to go to. But there is lessons we learned.
To be clear about messaging while ingame by spectators, we had like 5 reports in 2 months about this and banned the accounts.
People are also bored and many just came to mess around.
Please be patient : things are gettting better, and we are reading about the pros and cons of having buttons to activate privacy of games, or chat.
Also, please note that we are working on limiting some functionnalities forr the newcomers, that would be unlocked once we can make sure they're not there to have their own riot.
Thx for the topic.

PS : a nice touch would be to have the title of this topic to fit our standards, cause ALL CAPS isn't a way to be heard louder

[Otithes]

Thanks for your input, DocteurClick. I feel like 5 reports in 2 months is a blip on the radar. So now 30,000 people can't talk just because 5 people misbehaved? hmmm... by that logic you could shut down the entire site because some people quit games or cheat.

[N_Faker]

I like prohibiting spectator chat. Those chats are distracting, especially from a spectator whose not even part of the game. When someone types something, there is a popping sound and I tend to look at it, to see if it's important, and momentarily breaks my concentration. So, if it's just someone saying hi, I can't help but be annoyed by that spectator.

https://boardgamearena.com/preferences?section=sound
You can set chat message sounds to 'No sound'.

[Caninski_Jen]

I like prohibiting spectator chat. Those chats are distracting, especially from a spectator whose not even part of the game. When someone types something, there is a popping sound and I tend to look at it, to see if it's important, and momentarily breaks my concentration. So, if it's just someone saying hi, I can't help but be annoyed by that spectator.

Of course, there are minor advantages but there are major disadvantags as well in allowing spectators to chat, like the spectator giving tips/helping another player, which I think is not only distracting but could be a little unfair as well.

So don't you think if you particularly have this issue, YOU particularly should have that option to turn it off. I get your concerns but not every player on here has this issue and should be restricted to it. Best to make that optional

This I totally agree with having the option