You can't insult in English, but you can in other languages.. Why?

NightDemonLight·Sep 22, 2018·4 votes·2,798 views

Seriously, I don't understand why I can't get insulted with English words, but I can get insulted with other languages words.

This is beyond being careless, I think Riot already knows that its community isn't only made from English people, then why didn't this get fixed? Why can't people tell me to fuck off in English but they can in any other languages?

Is this what Riot wants? I mean, English is used a lot and I understand why they filtered English, but what about other languages?

You can basically evade the system by just using your native language since the words won't be censored, but what's worst is that I've noticed that some words aren't censored in-game but, in the post-game chat these words are censored.

17 Comments

EvilDustManSep 22, 20185 votes

You can still report them and they will get punished.

SaezioSep 22, 20181 votes

{quoted}

You can still report them and they will get punished.

Nah they won't. You think riot has people debunking what way I type greek in the Roman alphabet?

EvilDustManSep 22, 20182 votes

{quoted}

Nah they won't. You think riot has people debunking what way I type greek in the Roman alphabet?

It has come to the boards several times, where people type something in another language and people just press google translate.

SaezioSep 22, 20181 votes

{quoted}

It has come to the boards several times, where people type something in another language and people just press google translate.

You cannot use google translate because my language uses another alphabet normally. But there is a romanized way to "type" Greek which is of course not a real language but just a way for Greeks to speak with the roman alphabet online google translate wouldn't catch 20% of what someone typed. Imagine if someone typed the "sound" of Chinese (Mandarin?) words with roman characters . would that be translatable by google? (maybe because Mandarin is way more used globally than Greek but you get the point) Example : μαλάκας = malakas (wanker)

EvilDustManSep 23, 20181 votes

{quoted}

You cannot use google translate because my language uses another alphabet normally. But there is a romanized way to "type" Greek which is of course not a real language but just a way for Greeks to speak with the roman alphabet online google translate wouldn't catch 20% of what someone typed. Imagine if someone typed the "sound" of Chinese (Mandarin?) words with roman characters . would that be translatable by google? (maybe because Mandarin is way more used globally than Greek but you get the point) Example : μαλάκας = malakas (wanker)

https://www.google.com/search?q=malakas&oq=malakas&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l3.1307j0j4&client=ms-android-verizon&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8

Remember they adjust to every language.

SaezioSep 23, 20181 votes

{quoted}

https://www.google.com/search?q=malakas&oq=malakas&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l3.1307j0j4&client=ms-android-verizon&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8

Remember they adjust to every language.

Yeah that was the most common and known word in the greek language though ;) And frankly, I don't see riot employees running that procedure for every report xD

AJStarhikerSep 22, 20185 votes

The system uses a machine learning system. If you use an insult from a minority language for a region, there's a good chance the other players won't recognize the insult and therefore don't report it. And without reports the system used in that region won't learn to trigger on it.

To complicate things further, some words used to insult may have completely innocent uses--sometimes even within the same language.

TyaisurmSep 22, 20183 votes

Creating an "omni-filter" for all possible variations would need too much work, and removing chat would just be easier alternative. It would also be problematic, since many things would be evaded by using creative alternatives, which in turn would need to be censored as well. And if the previous would happen, multiple completely normal words would possibly get censored as well, since many words have different meanings.

Anyway. Problems with creating multilingual filters imo:

language is not binary, and meanings of words would clash with each other
work hours used to develop solution to this is too valuable
different characters and combinations (like Ä or Å) cause more variation and problems
variations created by mixing two or more languages creates even more problems (like talking in weird english-spanish mixture)

Jo0oSep 22, 20183 votes

I haven't seen this to be true. Had a few folks complaining about their restrictions/bans for stuff in other language last week, if memory serves.

Silent GravitySep 22, 20182 votes

The chat filters have no bearing at all on if chat is punishable or not. The chat filters are only there for the people who want to have it enabled. If the chat filters were on, and applied to all the different ways to phoneticize every language, then an extreme amount of regular typing in any language would be difficult to understand because of excessive %%%%% blocking everything.

For example, you would be unable to type any word that used　"ぐ" because it sounds like racist slang in another language. That would severely hamper communicating in Japanese.

If there is a specific insult that you would appreciate being added to the in-game filter, I would suggest creating a support ticket to ask for that to be added.

The IFS functions all over the world. It can read, understand, and punish toxic communication in any language. The IFS is informed by reports, and curated by humans.

I've specifically seen it punish racist slang expressed in Vietnamese (it surprised me that it was detected), and regular insults in Polish, Chinese, French, and Russian.

breakordoom444Sep 22, 20181 votes

An insult is only an insult if one chooses it to be.

If I'm on the Chinese servers, and someone calls me a retard in polish, I'm not gonna understand it, so I won't take offence.

but since English is the main language in this region of the world, English is the only language regarded. and even if riot was to look into these cases, the chances of someone telling someone to fuck off in English is A LOT more likely then in Chinese, so it would be a waste of time for a pointless goal.

and plus, if you were.... from a remote region in Iceland and I call you a dumbass in Italian, you wouldn't understand it, and thus you wouldn't care.

R107 GamesSep 22, 20182 votes

^^ also anything is offensive if one chooses it to be

SonicAFSep 22, 20181 votes

An insult is only an insult if one chooses it to be.

Which is one of the reasons there should be no chat moderation.

SaezioSep 22, 20181 votes

{quoted}

An insult is only an insult if one chooses it to be.

If I'm on the Chinese servers, and someone calls me a retard in polish, I'm not gonna understand it, so I won't take offence.

but since English is the main language in this region of the world, English is the only language regarded. and even if riot was to look into these cases, the chances of someone telling someone to fuck off in English is A LOT more likely then in Chinese, so it would be a waste of time for a pointless goal.

and plus, if you were.... from a remote region in Iceland and I call you a dumbass in Italian, you wouldn't understand it, and thus you wouldn't care.

Well us that live in Europe are familiar with swear words in English French Italian German POLISH because if we are gamers for 10 years(let's say) playing different games you get to learn all kind of sexy ass insults. So we understand a great deal of it and although it is nice to know what they are saying I am always pretty sceptical when I report with the description "Check this guys chat, if you can't get it translate from croatian (or whatever language)" because I am fucking 100% sure none sees it.

DrCyanideSep 22, 20181 votes

EU problems.

DearPearSep 22, 20182 votes

{quoted}

EU problems.

Not really. Every language is detected by the IFS so really OP don't know shit.

DrugothSep 22, 20181 votes

Who cares, just report them.

I believe it's good enough that the profanity filter for NA censors english words, after all, >90% of the population speaks english on the NA server...