speaking as a katze and not as a modze i kinda dont know how much id support forcing moderation on this kind of thing
at least my impression is that not releasing is the exception and releasing is the default, but its possible im a bit out of the loop in this regard compared to a lot of other people
speaking as a modze we’ll see what happens
next monday we will discuss this, thank you
ok but this isn’t just speculation from me it’s factual it’s happened like the past 4 games in a row
I will admit I’m not happy with explicit statements of “I don’t want my wolfchats released so people don’t know how I play”. I find that kind of spirit… frustrating, and I think it’s exploiting the good faith of the hosts, when releasing wolfchats is supposed to be the default, and not releasing them is supposed to be reserved for people who feel genuinely uncomfortable with that content being out there, not for people who want a strategic advantage.
I think it’s difficult to moderate a situation like this, because what people do or don’t want released is subjective, but I don’t like the… attitude around it, I suppose.
what in tarnation
my understanding is that the default is “released unless wolves request for it to not be” and from this i would assume that the host cannot overrule this unless they stated somewhere that it would be released prior
like, who has the final say in this situation, wolves or host, if the host wanted to release it?
don’t take this as an explicit moderator statement, but imo in that case (theoretically) the host could release the wolfchat, it would just probably make people think they were a dick
id say the wolvs should have the final say honestly, like hosts should get some input but assuming there was no rule breaking or anything that may involve a mod i feel like wolves should have final say over their wolf chat like how wolves can craete channels n stuff like that, its sort of their chat for whatever they need it to be
It, like, feels wrong to deny people privacy if they genuinely want it. It’s very difficult to distinguish between situations of discomfort and situations where people are exploiting of these tools. But I think that, if wolfchats are supposed to be released by default, that asking your wolfchats not be released in order to get a strategic advantage should be at least be clearly stated to be exploitative, you know? To make it clear that it’s not something you should be doing, if it’s not something people want to be a part of the game.
when I joined fol i thought it was SO strange that was a thing that happened here. As i had scum games and talked to people in a place that was private and I felt comfortable to say the words coming out of my brain. I realised its a very useful tool because i dont want people seeing that shit. If people could see my brain words outside the niche specific context they were intended for I would not enjoy it. I am happy it is there
I generally think that… it’s also an undue burden on hosts for wolfchats to not be considered within the purview of the game, to be somewhere where the general rules about toxicity/not sharing personal information/et al don’t apply. I think having a standard of wolfchat being a place to vent or share something you wouldn’t want to say in public creates a situation where hosts are expected to be the ones dealing with these situations, rather than the actual site moderators.
Of course, sometimes it just happens that people get heated there, and I think in exceptional circumstances like that, it’s fine to just not release wolfchat, but it being the norm creates expectations that I think are unhealthy.
yeah thats about my understanding too
as for the bottom question ngl i dont have a good answer. its a good question. its a touchy subject because like may just said it’s… wrong to deny privacy. i don’t support people being forced into releasing stuff they don’t feel comfortable releasing but like, i wholeheartedly agree that “i dont want people to see how i play as mafia” is cringe at best
having been in unreleased wolfchats i can think of a couple where i fully agree that releasing it was for the worse and for curious bystanders i tried to answer questions as to the contents (do vanity searches for them 
) but also definitely a handful of “yeah but you can just delete those messages or make a private role or something”
maybe there’s more to discuss here than i thought at first glance
Once you create an expectation that “wolf chat is private and a place where you can just say whatever you want, it won’t be released after the game”, you force the host to see and moderate that content, and you make it infinitely more awkward to bring in forum mods about content within wolfchat (and it’s absolutely possible to have content within a wolfchat that is a safety issue that warrants bringing in forum mods). A wolfchat is still part of the mafia game. If you wouldn’t want the general public to see it, you shouldn’t put it on the host, either.
Wolf chat is already moderated tbough
moving forward all wolfchats will be hosted on skype
They’re, like, literally moderated, but I think the trend of not releasing wolfchats because “they’re private and I said things I don’t want others to see here” creates a vibe/precedent that they’re a place where it’s okay to vent
this is also what i think. i feel like maybe people ought to think differently about how they view /conduct themselves in wolf chat because it is in fact an extension of the game and not a private space like a rolecard might be
I’m going to be real I brought this up because it’s been the same people doing it which naturally raises some concerns
I say this as someone who has made host executive decisions not to release wolfchats because of shit I wouldn’t want the general public to see. I didn’t want to see it either! It made me frustrated and uncomfortable and unhappy to have to be witnessing that shit and having it be fine because “it’s wolfchat, it’s private, it’s okay to vent there”.
Individual cases of not releasing wolfchat because it sucks? That’s fine. A general culture that “most wolfchats will not be released because most wolfchats contain venting”? I don’t want to host or wolf on a site where that exists.
There’s two distinct issues I’m frustrated about here, I think: people strategically deciding not to release wolfchats despite them not necessarily containing private content, and people treating wolfchats as private spaces instead of game spaces. I think they feed into each other, but they come from different places.