---
title: Why Minecraft Java's new report system is horrible.
description: here I talk about why the introduction of a report system is horrible for the community as a whole.
image: https://i.imgur.com/7sgBn8Q.png
tags: Minecraft
---

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:::warning
Make sure to read up on how to use HackMD comments [here](https://hackmd.io/c/tutorials/%2Fs%2Fhow-to-use-comments)
:::

# Why Minecraft Java Edition's new report system is horrible

If you've been around the Minecraft community for a bit, specifically playing on Java, then you might've noticed that in a recent snapshot, and recent Minecraft versions in general, reporting user's chat messages became a thing.

### Generally, it works like this:
When you see someone breaking chat "rules", you can **highlight particular messages to report them**, and are then given **a box with a 1000 character limit in which you can further explain what happened**
This also confirms that there will likely be human moderation involved
*The rules for this reporting is taken from Xbox's Community Guidelines, and we have agreed to them when we migrated our Mojang accounts to Microsoft ones.*

### Though, there is a lot of issues with the way this was released to the community, notably:

:::danger
- **Many of the reporting reasons (i.e impersonation) are lacking clarification**
- **Many of the reporting reasons are quite context-sensitive and cannot be judged by one set of rules easily**
- **The information in the announcement post is quite vague, presumably on purpose**
- **A Mojang Community Manager has said that "false positives would sometimes be accepted to prevent false negatives" when this "feature" first made it to Bedrock edition in 2020**
:::

Not only are there problems with the actual reporting feature itself, but also is this just another example of Microsoft forcibly taking away control from users:

:::danger
- **in 1.18, Snooper Settings were re-introduced**
Whilst these *could previously be turned off, they're now always on, and cannot be disabled without the use of mods.* Whilst the fact that this exists isn't necessarily a bad thing, taking the choice of disabling it off certainly is (IMO)
- **Vaguely worded Report system, which takes away Moderation as it previously was**
Mojang previously made itself really clear when it came to Minecraft Server Moderation: "*You moderate your server yourself by your own rules, your moderation is based on the fact that Mojang trusts you.*" Now however, with Microsoft pushing this report system, that choice, and control, is taken away from users and server maintainers, leaving it up to Microsoft to do that.
:::

### What does this mean for us?

There are many things that this could be interpreted as, but overall this means a couple of things will change. But first, I need to give a little more context

With the introduction of this reporting feature, Multiplayer Chat Message Signing became a thing, which allows anyone to verify a message is *actually* coming from who they think it is, ***including Microsoft***

Whilst this won't be forced onto servers *right now*, it very well might be in the future, if Microsoft decides to push for a removal of the option to sign chat messages

All of the above has consequences for everybody, consequences that we never willingly agreed to, this will mean:

:::danger
- **People are likely going to abuse the report system for personal, unrelated reasons**
- **Servers made for more mature players are going to have a hard time with the new "Chat Rules"**, especially with context-sensitive topics like Drugs or Alcohol, because talking about them isn't necessarily a bad thing, and could even be educational
- **Anarchy servers will likely struggle to update to newer versions of the game, as bots, Hacked Clients, or similar would likely add Auto Report features or alike**
:::

Also, the punishments for not complying with the Xbox Community Guidelines, or "Chat Rules" would be **a permanent ban from all online play**, at least that is what we have seen so far

### Conclusion

Overall, this takes away a lot of control from players, server maintainers, and the community as a whole, and puts all of us at risk of loosing our Accounts, or rather the permission to play onlin, to other players.

<span style="font-size:25px;">**I don't like this new system, many of you don't, make your voice heard!**</span>