Man banned from XBL over his residence

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl...-+Top+Stories)&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher


Xbox Live investigates tussle over town name

By VICKI SMITH Associated Press

Sept. 8, 2010, 12:17PM



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MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Microsoft Corp. and the chief rules enforcer for Xbox Live are apologizing to a small West Virginia town and a 26-year-old gamer accused of violating the online gaming service's code of conduct by publicly declaring he's from Fort Gay — a name the company considered offensive.
The town's name is real. But when Josh Moore tried to tell Seattle-based Microsoft and the enforcement team at Xbox Live, they wouldn't take his word for it. Or Google it. Or check the U.S. Postal Service website for a ZIP code.
Instead, they suspended his gaming privileges for a few days until Moore could convince them the location in his profile, "fort gay WV," wasn't a joke or a slur: It's an actual community of about 800 in Wayne County, along West Virginia's western border with Kentucky.
"At first I thought, 'Wow, somebody's thinking I live in the gayest town in West Virginia or something.' I was mad. ... It makes me feel like they hate gay people," said Moore, an unemployed factory worker who plays shooters like Medal of Honor, Call of Duty and Ghost Recon under the gamertag Joshanboo.
"I'm not even gay, and it makes me feel like they were discriminating," said Moore, who missed a key Search and Destroy competition because of last week's brief suspension. His team lost.
Angry and incredulous, Moore contacted customer service.
"I figured, I'll explain to them, 'Look in my account. Fort Gay is a real place,'" Moore reasoned. But the employee was unreceptive, warning Moore if he put Fort Gay back in his profile, Xbox Live would cancel his account and keep his $12 monthly membership fee, which he'd paid in advance for two years.
"I told him, Google it — 25514!" Moore said, offering up the town's ZIP code. "He said, 'I can't help you.'"
Mayor David Thompson also tried to intervene, but with little success. He told television station WSAZ, which first reported the dispute, that he was informed the city's name didn't matter. The word "gay," he was told, was inappropriate in any context.
"It was so inappropriate for them, they wouldn't even say the word," Thompson told the AP Wednesday. "They said, 'that word.' It's beyond me. That's the name of our town! It's appalling. It's a slap in our face."
Stephen Toulouse, director of policy and enforcement for Xbox Live blamed miscommunication.
"That is absolutely incorrect" and is not Xbox Live policy, he said.
Xbox Live received a complaint, which was directed to an agent for review.
"Someone took the phrase 'fort gay WV' and believed that the individual who had that was trying to offend, or trying to use it in a pejorative manner," Toulouse said. "Unfortunately, one of my people agreed with that. ... When it was brought to my attention, we did revoke the suspension."
Complaints, he notes, come to agents with no contextual information, including who the suspected offender is or what games they play. The agent simply looks at the language and determines whether it complies with policy.
The Xbox Live player's contract says users cannot "create a gamertag, avatar or use text in other profile fields that may offend other members," and lists potentially dangerous topics such as drug use, hate speech and racial, ethnic or religious slurs.
The Code of Conduct, however, says players may use words including lesbian, gay, bi and transgender to express relationship orientation in their profile or gamertag.
Toulouse contends his team rarely makes mistakes but acknowledged, "Absolutely, a mistake was made here, and we've updated our training to account for that."

 

:smt005:smt005:smt005:smt005

Fort Gay. That's epic! Shitty that he ot banned, though.


There's a street in my city called Manlove. My friends and I want that sign hella bad because of a project we did back in high school. There's also a street called Excelsior. I NEED that sign.

 

You should click the Preview Post button more often before you Submit New Thread.

 

You gotta get that sign.

Sneak out at 3am and cop that joint.


That's epic!!

 

There was some kind of 'politically correct' Closed Captioning enhancement for the U.S. telly systems some time back. Had to be recalled because of *more* than a "few bugs" in it.


For example, when the star Dick Van Dyke was announced on screen by voiceover, the CC read: Jerk Van Gay

Yep, modern technology: A BOON TO MANKIND!:roll:

Between Niagara Falls/Fort Erie en route to Toronto on the Queens Expressway, there's a town or hamlet that has a...SODOM ROAD!

Wonder if anybody *voluntarily* opts to reside in such a neighbourhood?





















OpinionsCartoonStudios@Yahoo.Co.UK

 

i've seen people with Gay, as their last name and stuff...

microsoft just being highly intelligent dumbasses again, for not googling the town





epic noobs

 

A certain Much Regretted MOTOWN musical genuis of MUCH renown added an "e" to HIS *actual* last name of Gay.


But you already *knew* that, I'm sure, yes?

























OpinionsCartoonStudios@Yahoo.Co.UK

 

3 years ago, yeah. Today, naw. I'm not trying to fuck up before I ship out.

 

lol

they're less concerned with criminal behavior as they are with someone being completely psycho



when do you leave for basic? you know you gotta time it right so that you're not stuck freezing your ass off in one place, or sweating balls in another lol

 

Man, now that the military is almost as max cap, they are being strict as fuck. But since I have no problems or record, I'm good. My friend has 2 felonies.....he ain't gettin' in. :smt005:smt009


I go to basic January 24. I'm gonna be freezing my ass off in South Carolina, then baking in Hell's Oven, Arizona for 16 weeks in AIT. Fahking shat. :smt092

I'm trying to leave as soon as possible after I finish school.

 

hell's oven? lol

are you preparing yet? running with a ruck or something to put on your back usually helps guys, especially in the land branches. God forbid if you're going into the infantry.



if you can't get a ruck, running/jogging and doing muscular-endurance training will still make the transition easier, period

 

I start PT, tomorrow. I'm gonna sign up for morning PTs for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursdays, so I get more conditioning before I leave.


Fuck infantry. Military Intelligence in this bitch. :smt024

My friend is doing infantry or something like that. I forgot his field and letter, but he's gonna be the one scouting ahead to find the enemies and calling in the airstrike's n' shit. He WANTS that shit.


I'm only concerned about my endurance. I can do push=ups and sit-ups like a muthafucka. I'm decent at pullups, but I gotta start running.

 

when i was in army rotc in high school, i wanted airborne infantry (our first sergeant instructor was 82nd so...). But, my family ended up talking me out of it and I went ahead into college instead. I do miss wearing the uniform..you get a sense of pride from it.

but yeah, i think you're on the right track with the PT. you definitely dont want to go into it out-of-shape. We used to throw special vests onto the slow guys and make them run in the front of the formation. I dont think you want that honor

 

:smt043:smt043:smt043:smt043 Ownage, right there.

Wish I would've done some ROTC shit back in high school. Not sure if we had a program, though. The army did come to our school like once a year. If you could do 100 pullups, they would give you their Hummer. Sickness!!!

 

rotc isnt bad

summer camp at an army base, raider competition (high school version of the Ranger challenge), drills, stuff like that. Really gets you ready for the environment even tho technically, it's not supposed to be a pipeline for the armed services (which is what the politicians tell parents lol)

it's one of the few things i look back on and am happy i did...I just wish i signed up for college-level rotc now

 

Well thank you, Captain Obvious. I didn't have time to fix the formatting, I needed to go to work. But I figured the link, which has text that looks far better, would be pretty helpful.