Warner Brothers rejects non-English-speaking Gossip Girl fans

by Tateru Nino Jun 29th 2009 at 7:00PM

Filed under: Culture, News items, Opinion, Second Life, Virtual worlds

Warner Brothers has a very successful setup in Second Life, centered around its popular Gossip Girl property. All isn't exactly rosy there, of late, as WB's actively moderated environment collides with Second Life's and Gossip Girl's rather broad popularity demographics.

Warner Brothers uses the Metaverse Mod Squad for active moderation of the Second Life presence. The question is, how do you moderate conversations in languages you don't understand? The answer, it seems, is that you don't. Visitors who communicate in languages other than English are warned to switch to English. Failure to comply sees the visitor ejected.

We understand the problem. Despite a coincidence of names with the 1960's multicultural television series, the Mod Squad is primarily an English-speaking team, and Gossip Girl fans are from a wide variety of languages and cultures – especially in Second Life where a substantial percentage of users are not native English speakers.

The ejection of non-English speakers from the location could, perhaps, be handled more delicately – tempers have run rather high among speakers of all languages as visitors and friends of visitors have been ejected – but it is obvious that Warner Brothers doesn't want to see conversations at Gossip Girl devolving into Cybersex in Afrikaans or Urdu.

Is there a good solution, however? There are scripted translation devices that are hooked through language-translation Web-services certainly, but if you've ever used those to translate ordinary chatter filled with the usual gamut of contractions and slang, you're probably already aware that they range from misleading to laughable.

It certainly doesn't seem like any mechanical translation solution is going to make things any better in the foreseeable future.

Update: A blog called Shopping Cart Disco has more information, including comments from members of the Metaverse Mod Squad.

Are you a part of the most widely-known collaborative virtual environment or keeping a close eye on it? Massively's Second Life coverage keeps you in the loop.

Tags: culture, cw, gossip-girl, metaverse-mod-squad, opinion, second-life, virtual-worlds, warner-brothers

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

Rik Riel said on 8:16PM 6-29-2009

That's a very weird policy. But where is your proof that this actually occurs? And has WB or the sim owners been contacted to verify that this is policy?

aki.shichiroji said on 8:36PM 6-29-2009

There are numerous chat logs found on Shoppingcartdisco.com (an SL fashion/gossip blog) here: http://shoppingcartdisco.com/?p=2452 , as well as comments from the Mod Squad staff further down in the page.

Dale Innis said on 8:39PM 6-29-2009

There's an obvious solution: don't try to play Nanny in conversations between consenting adults. rofls.

Lunata Lupino said on 10:33AM 6-30-2009

Dear Rik, if you have any questions to *proof that this actually occurs*, it happened to me, so feel free to contact me in SL. Greetings Lunata Lupino

Melampus said on 9:10PM 6-29-2009

I'm not sure why Metaverse Mod Squad is being singled out in this. There are many forums and virtual worlds where it's necessary to speak English.

It's pretty common practice. This is a mountain from a molehill.

Dale Innis said on 10:08PM 6-29-2009

Are there really virtual words *for grownups* (i.e. not Club Penguin) where people are required to speak English? That seems so utterly obnoxious.

MMS is being singled out, I think, only to the extent that they were rather rude and unapologetic about it in the chat transcripts that have been posted. Moderators should be more moderate. :) The real FAIL here is whoever at WB decided to have this policy. It looks just horrible from a PR point of view, and I can't imagine that it actually does any good.

In general, "moderation" seems like a completely silly idea to me in SL. Note that the moderators can do nothing at all about what happens in IM, so having them try to enforce rules over group chat seems completely futile. It's entirely sensible to have people ready to help answer questions, and to have people ready to warn people who misbehave and bother people, and eject them if necessary. But enforcing benign English-only chat? I'm really not getting the threat-model here...

Catnapkitty said on 3:05AM 6-30-2009

Because Second Life is not an English only community.

Mod's Squad's actions are flying in the face of the normal way things have been done in Second Life for years.

Tateru Nino said on 9:39PM 6-29-2009

We had a whole *lot* of readers write in about this one, which is why. It seems to matter a lot to the readers.

Tenshi said on 10:27PM 6-29-2009

Hey Tateru, thanks for usurping your material from SCD. You might want to credit Dan for originating this post. Last night. Waaaay before your post.

Tateru Nino said on 10:57PM 6-29-2009

I've added a link to Shopping Cart Disco, but until now, I hadn't read the post there.

Ari Blackthorne said on 10:58AM 6-30-2009

Wow. Someone define "conceit" for me, please.

Tateru: you burst my bubble to know you look at that blog with any serious credit given.

Tenshi: get a clue. I and many, many other bloggers will write about something on their own and then learn later that someone else also wrote on the same subject. I don't know how Tateru does it, but I (and I am sure many others) also write now and set for a scheduled post-publish later in order to space the articles out rather than a burp of 10 articles then a few days with nothing.

In such cases, credit is not only not required in any way, shape or form, but not deserved. As for Tateru's blogging ethic? I speak for myself when I say it is like a rock with me. Which is more than I can say about others.

I won't mention any specific name, just hold my nose and point.

On subject: If this is true the real question is what is Warner Brothers' policy? Could it be the 'Mod Squad" team acting on their own? Or more likely, acting according to instructions from a "supervisor" acting on their own?

I can see Disney doing this, but Warner Bros.?

Disney will kick you out of their RL Amusement parks for using expletives because it's "the happiest place on earth - whether you like it or not". LOL

I'm in the media industry and at least from all I've seen and heard via industry channels is how WB is considerably more 'laid-back' and 'easier-going'.

Harper Beresford said on 8:17PM 6-30-2009

Even if there is Cybersex in Urdu, who is going to understand it? If a tree speaks Cybersex in the forest, if there is no one to hear it, is it violating PG?

It WAS a horrible way to deal with visitors to the sim, as Dale pointed out. What it comes down to is if a group is subcontracted by a corporation (in this case the "ModSquad" was subcontracted by Warner Bros. for day to day operations), the onus is on them to make sure their employees are trained for such circumstances. If English was so darn important to be maintained in chat (which I still don't understand), then their employees should have had scripts for insuring that this was done in a proper and diplomatic manner AND would have translators on themselves and for their patrons. It's not brain surgery--it's professionalism.

What is really concerning is not just that Warner Brothers requested only English be spoken, but that the ModSquad chose to use tactics which can only reflect poorly on Warner Bros. and English-speakers in general.

(Pure speculation: what I suspect WB did direct them to do was insure it's kept PG, and the ModSquad took it upon themselves to enforce an English only rule when they themselves did not have the acumen or resources to make sure it was policed properly.)

Tenshi said on 11:18PM 6-29-2009

Yeah. Okay. Thanks :)

Melissa Yeuxdoux said on 6:25AM 6-30-2009

The hypocrisy of WB is positively breathtaking. _Gossip Girl_ is a cheesy soap opera targeting teen girls based on a sex-saturated, vapid, empty-headed series of books targeting teen girls--and yet they set up its SL presence as PG, though, ironically, none of the target audience should be able to even visit it.

I went there to look around shortly after I first heard of it, dressed in full-length, high-top jeans and a turtleneck sweater--and was told that my prim breasts made me persona non grata. Nearby, as I was informed of my offense, was Dragonfly Designs' store in the Gossip Girl sim(s), featuring a poster of a woman scantily clad either in leather or latex in a blatantly BDSM pose. What a joke.

Catnapkitty said on 10:37AM 6-30-2009

Well... even I don't have prim breasts in in SL I am... well... an adult semi-entertainer (I freelance in a few women only places). O.o

But still, the BDSM thing is funny.

Gossip Girl is targeted at teens and 20-somethings, so I does fit to market on SL, which has quite a few 20-somethings.

Jay said on 12:03AM 6-30-2009

I guess I just have to say "Who cares".

Mediocre rules for a mediocre sim covering a shitty show made by a cartoon company. Meh.

Rusalka Writer said on 12:54AM 6-30-2009

I sent WB this comment:

I hear you've been kicking people out of your sims in Second Life if they don't speak English. I guess you haven't heard of SL founder Philip Rosedale's plan to have SL feature translation for world languages. So we can all join together as one, and all that. In case you're interested in an international audience.

Oh, and by the way, I picketed you with the WGA. I was there in Burbank one morning well before dawn. You should know that you have a startling number of rats living in the bushes outside your studio.

Cheers,

SL Avatar - Rusalka Writer

RJGiskard said on 2:14AM 6-30-2009

Is that supposed to be impressive? You want props for *that*?

As much as I'm against their stance here, I think you ended your comment in an entirely UNimpressive and sophomoric way.

Catnapkitty said on 3:03AM 6-30-2009

I rely on those translator bots all the time, and they work just fine.

I think Mod Squad is way out of line on this one. Second Life is an international community, and they need to get with the program.