For the first time—at least to my knowledge—I was temporarily banned online. The circumstances were innocent enough. I had begun toying with the MSFS model of the Boom XB-1 supersonic testbed. While reading a little about it on the Flightsimulator website, I learned that it just so happened that later in the day there was to be a community fly-in event flying the XB-1 or any other model capable of supersonic flight from Mojave to Boeing Field. To participate, it was strongly encouraged to join comms through the MSFS24 Discord. I had joined that Discord channel last year when the sim came out but had never until now the need to join a voice channel. But when I tried to join any voice channel, I would immediately get booted. The Discord channel has a BUNCH of FAQ and community support subs. All covered things like how to use VR, how the 737 autopilot works and so on. But nothing on how to use the Discord channel itself.
So I went to the sub called “General” and asked the question “Why am I unable to join comms?” The channel was very active with typical Discord/reddit nonsense, mostly whining about Asobo, Nvidia, PMDG and so on. My question was immediately answered with what amounted to RTFM. However a mod later came on to say that users must achieve Lvl 3 in order to join on comms. I asked how does one get to level three. More RTFM comments. One user went so far as to say that they were grateful for the IQ test because it kept idiots at bay. I think bots were more the intended target than old fools like Smokin’ Hole but the point was taken. The mod (ignoring the slur) said that to get level 3 I needed to chat 28 times, each time separated by at least one minute. “But I have nothing to say.” I said (with some irony). “Just participate. But don’t spam!”, he/she said.
There was another part of the channel called something like “bot-commands” where you could check your level. Every time I typed a message in “general” my level would rise barely perceptively. The event was an hour or two away so I decided I needed to hurry things along. I typed a stupid haiku, waiting one minute before each line:
(Your name changes from white to amber when you achieve level 3)
Just seconds after the “Time for another…” post, a screen came up to say that I was put on a 3-day “mute” (ban). I know jack about discord other than it is bloated and unfriendly. So it was only days later when I discovered that I had been PM’d.
That single haiku was the only thing I had written to that point that could remotely be called spam so I have no idea what the “1 day” mute was responding to. Anyway, I replied, “So how on earth does one level up? I have zilch to say on that channel. I have no questions. I have nothing to discuss. I only want access to voice channels to enjoy comms with other players. And frankly, a cute haiku is hardly spam. I truly have nothing sim-related to say. ANYTHING I write is going to be equivalent nonsense.”
There was no reply because the scolding was not from a human mod but rather from an AI bot that Discord allows hosts to use based on their needs.
So I have seen the future. It is one where robots stop being sycophants (“Wow Eric, chocolate covered salmon is a GREAT idea!”) into being the absolute worst sort of cops. They will scold us, limit our healthcare, skim our paychecks, dox us, and survey us. My little event was harmless and maybe a little funny. Being banned away from a sim-nerd circle-jerk takes nothing away from my QOL. But this is just the beginning.
? That’s why I asked to chat with a human!
) are gone all that stuff will be ‘normal’.
