SPOILER So you can now get banned from all online servers…

https://www.sportskeeda.com/amp/min...banning-minecraft-1-19-1-update-all-need-know

I just don’t understand this decision… moderation has been left to servers for over a decade now without a hitch. This is just so easily abusable and goes way too far in that you can get banned from literally every single Minecraft server, including private ones. It doesn’t help that the rules are broad and relies on player reporting.

 

I've been hearing people saying that it's just an excuse for them to start chatlogging, and frankly it makes a lot of sense if that's the case.

 

Why would Mojang want chat logs now? Couldn't they just request them from servers since servers keep chat logs anyway without imposing their own moderation?

 

It could be Microsoft pushing this sort of thing. Getting that sort of data is probably not insignificant for a tech giant, though it does strike me as a rather inefficient way to harvest data.

This doesn't require asking permission from the hosts, so it can be used to get even the conversations from private servers. Plus it'd strike people as very odd if they just put it in the patchnotes that "we now chatlog, see our privacy policy" I think, and would probably get a pretty bad response (not unlike the response I've been seeing it getting). It's a bit of a cynical theory, but the only other alternative I can think of is them pushing a "child-friendly space" reputation onto minecraft, so I really don't have any better guesses.

 

I mean, for a system like this one to work, Mojang having access to chat logs is necessary to keep things from being taken out of context. I'm still potentially worried about false bans, but them accesses to chatlogs probably lowers the risk of that.

 

I could definitely see them be so swamped with ban requests that they never properly get to them or handle them properly. And chat logs can be misleading too; for example if someone accused you of griefing or stealing, they’d have no way to verify that you did or not on the actual server. Or at least they wouldn’t bother to log into the server to check every time for every single player. They’d just go off on the chat log, see the accusation, and ban you.

 

It's a terrible change, for so many reasons. One being that it's not even feasible to properly moderate all of Minecraft's servers. If they're actually going to go through with this, they will have no choice but to automate it, which means your account is entirely at the mercy of some garbage AI. It won't be able to tell the difference between, for example, a seriously harmful accusation and a completely innocent conversation about your friend who's a therapist.
Another reason that I haven't heard anyone speak about is: server staff can be banned just as easily as anyone else. Imagine Grian going to play something on Hypixel in his off time and getting banned from all servers - including Wynncraft and Hermitcraft - because he beat some salty kid in Build Battle. I can only see three realistic outcomes for such a scenario: either he stays banned and there's a massive outrage, or he appeals and gets unbanned, which is a bandaid solution as he could get banned again, or Microsoft implements some kind of "special protection program" so certain people can't get banned, which then gets exploited by actual bad actors.
This new system won't make Minecraft any "safer" or "more peaceful" in the slightest. Leaving moderation to the servers themselves has worked very well since forever. Honestly, I woudln't be surprised or mad if this leads to a lawsuit.