Taking the fun out of cycling, when censorship goes too far.
As Zwift continues to go down the woke rabbit hole, I ask myself, “when will it end?” Will it end with me quitting Zwift at some point, Zwift kicking me to the curb, or do I just fall silent? At what point as paid subscribers of Zwift do we say enough is enough? I for one refuse to just fall silent and go down without a fight or at least a minor scuffle. I object to Zwift taking offense on behalf of an unknown party over something said in jest. When did we lose our sense of humor? Every ride I have ever been on included someone taking the piss out of someone else and all parties having a good laugh, all in good fun, right? This is what cycling is about, you build a community, you find your tribe and you go out and have fun. I have never been on a ride where anyone has said anything so outrageous it warranted a 30-day ban and yet this has now happened to several riders. I have organized private, yes PRIVATE meetups and have had riders get banned. When does private no longer mean private? Well, Zwift’s little AI Spy goes where it wants invited or not. I’ve yet to meet anyone on Zwift that is offended by a little off-color humor and occasional foul language. These are issues that can be sorted out between riders or by ride leaders. If another rider is offended or does not like something that is said, then speak up or send a direct message to that rider or the rider leader. Often words are misinterpreted due to the single dimension of the written word. Without inflection, emotion, or spirit of statement one cannot fully analyze the intent. How dare Zwift presume to know my intentions when I am conversing with another rider? If two riders are taking the piss out of each other but someone else perceives it as aggression, here is a suggestion, butt out! There is a neat little feature in Zwift where you can turn off the chat. Are you easily offended, overly woke, feel the need to complain on behalf of someone or some group, or fear your child will be subjected to bad influences? My suggestion to you is turn off the chat, it is easy, no harm, no foul and everyone can carry on and have a good time. Let us make Zwift great again or at least fun!
Are you talking about Zwift jail time? Or censoring?
As there is a generic censoring setting in the options, you can check if that somehow got reenabled, but that’s been around… since before I’ve been a subscriber.
Jail time wise; you can try to appeal to Support?
They still have to have some system in place for their ToS due to sub 18 year old users; one of which for sure is automated and gets things wrongs some times (though usually I think you’re given… a multitude of warnings [granted, I’ve never received one, but I’ve seen pictures of the email and it seemed to have dates listed with previous warnings])
I’m not sure what’s going on but I’m sure those two people could have DM’ed each other to sort out their differences than resort to a public chat. xoxo.
These are instances of riders being banned and Zwift presenting word for word comments from rides. Jail time due to censorship. My group often does private meetups and have had riders (myself included) getting banned 7 days for saying something Zwift doesn’t like. This 30 day ban is absurd.
As you can probably imagine, “suggestive” and “inflammatory” can be taken any way they please. The ToS doesn’t care if it’s “private” or not. What’s private about it is you’re on their private property and they set the house rules. Personally I just follow the rules and I do have a filter in Zwift chat (and here on the forum) that I don’t have IRL. I would not mind if they let you say whatever you want in private meetups, but under the current regime that is not an option.
And yet I’ve been on Zwift for 10 years and have led numerous rides where some things were said in jest and have not seen them get any sort of punishment. I even had chat logs and more from an individual that was verbally harassing ladies and it took a LONG time for him to be banned.
So, which is it. Minor innuendo, sexual harassment? What clearly constitutes a breach?
We were celebrating my birthday with a private club ride, and my best friend said a word that wouldn’t offend anyone at an English pub, but BOOM ! - he got “awarded’ a 30 day ban
Any attempt to communicate with Zwift support to explain that we were a very small private group just got ignored… Great way to treat sub 7 digit Zwift ID Zwifters that has been on the platform for many years…
Agreed if you are with adults in a private meetup or club ride then regardless of TOS, recognize your customers want the ability to chat and connect and that often means through humor. The best way to lose customers Zwift is to make their experience unpleasant. We come here for a lot of reasons not the least of which is camaraderie and as adults, camaraderie may include swearing and lewd jokes. You want this app to be a no fun training hate zone say goodbye to your profits
Don’t like Zwift’s rules on what you can say in their in-game chat? Then don’t use their in-game chat and use Discord, WhatsApp, etc
4 Likes
Graham_Hill_BMCC
(Graham Hill (BMCC / HERD / PACK / SZR / ITA / DBR))
13
Sorry Van but Zwift aren’t “woke” at all in my humble opinion. We’ve all signed up to using their products but aren’t under any obligation to do so and can choose to leave whenever we want. As someone who spent 40+ years working in IT I’m fairly sure that I’d be on safe ground in saying that they’ll more likely than not want their developers working on new features as a priority. They’ll also be looking to protect minors from exposure to adult humour. To do this specifically for a subset of Zwift users would cost them money for very little benefit. As a commercial organisation they’ll be looking to protect and grow their customer base. I don’t like censorship but I can’t see droves of customers leaving Zwift because of the issue you’ve highlighted.
Parents can protect their minors from adult humor by turning off the chat. I have never found anyone to be overly aggressive but people are getting banned for comments said in jest. I’m sorry but if Zwift is providing the option of private meetups then private they should be.
We live intimes of hypersensitive that lead to overreactions, where minor comments are blown out of proportion because everyone feels ofended. In one second someone will throw the gender or race card right on your face. This focus on political correctness often stifles open conversation, creating fear of criticism or cancellation, so I muted the Zwift chat many years ago.
1 Like
Graham_Hill_BMCC
(Graham Hill (BMCC / HERD / PACK / SZR / ITA / DBR))
17
Best that we agree to disagree.
You’re not wrong but the fact of the matter is that Zwift are in it to make money first and foremost.
The view that I put forward was to try and give some perspective.
Still can’t see hoardes of Zwift users leaving.
Their view will be that a private meetup will be peivate in terms of who can and cannot join the ride not carte blanche as to what participants can and cannot say in a public domain.
See you in the New Year,
G.
