Moderation: A Closer Look

It has been well over six months since Habbo Hotel Origins launched on June 18th 2024. In that time, many things have changed within the game - some for the better, some for the worse, depending on who you ask. However, some of the key issues that were of concern to the game's community from even the first couple of months of its lifespan have yet to be properly addressed. Most importantly, moderation.

Players still have to deal with a very slow and ineffective moderation system, where persistent trolls are allowed to spew their hatred much longer than should be the case. Many Habbos have noted that, even after they had reported a rule-breaking user and/or inappropriate room name, the room had been allowed to stay visible in the navigator - and the troll still roamed freely throughout the rooms of the hotel.

Alert a Moderator

The tool for reporting other players itself, the "Alert a Moderator"-tool, has been greatly neglected. With its confusing navigation and many written errors, it leaves even experienced Habbos at a loss for what to do.

Here are some examples of the tool's UI:

The categories of rule infractions in the first dropdown menu, as shown in the image above, are cut short (e.g. "Trolling and bad"). 

Here is another example of this:

There are also some major emissions from the categories of things you can report another user for. A common issue is that many trolls use a slur as a username to bypass the word filter in-client, but there is no way of reporting someone for their username; you can only report them for what they say, or what they name their rooms. One wonders how they were even allowed to create a user with a name like that in the first place...

On a more minor note, when responding to calls for help ("A non-serious issue" in the tool), the Hobbas have noted that their tool is broken; they're not able to go to the room the call comes from, they can only respond to the player via message - and it is not exactly easy to explain how to stack via Console. This was confirmed by a Hobba through the tool, as seen in the image below.

With the recent updates to the game's UI, it would only make sense to update this tool as well to encourage its due use.

The Moderation Team

That leaves the question: who reads and responds to these reports?

Macklebee has confirmed that there is a moderation team for Origins, but how they operate has not been discussed any further. On Zendesk, the Habbo Origins Help Tool site, there is an article titled: "Our moderation system" which seemingly has the answers. But on further inspection, it is clear that this is infact a word-for-word copy-paste of an article on the legacy Habbo Help Tool site (help.habbo.com). 

The graphic above, taken from said article(s), shows the gradual sanction systen - the modus operandi for Habbo moderation. The last, and most severe penalty on the ladder is a 'Permanent ban'' - but what does this really mean? With VPNs readily available, offenders can easily circumvent their IP-bans and create new Habbo accounts to continue their trolling, often immediately after being banned from their main account. 

The system is further elaborated on in an article titled: "How we moderate in Habbo" and written by staff member Istanbul. This article, however, was also written for legacy Habbo, and no such article has been written about moderation in Origins specifically. 

Istanbul's article highlights the 'Community Sift' word filter as the main feature of Habbo's moderation system, a machine-learning technology that applies the word 'bobba' to words that are deemed inappropriate, scans chat lines and flags any suspicious sentences. And here again, the difference in age limit between Legacy and Origins comes into play. Since Origins is geared towards adults as opposed to teens, the amount of words that are filtered has been decreased to allow for more adult conversation, which in it self is a great thing. However, the filter is very inconsistent; many types of slurs are not censored, while regular, non-offensive words like 'grape' are. The same lapse in vetting is seen in the offensive names previously mentioned in this article.

Room for improvement

We asked a group of Habbos who are knowledgeable on the topic to weigh in on the matter. Here's what they had to say:

How would you improve moderation in Origins?

Bab says: "Ideally Origins would have real-time human moderators who respond live to in game reports (with as much timezone coverage as possible). However these should not be players, and should under no circumstances be visible to players at all. They should be nameless, faceless human entities doing a job in the background (separate to community staff, who you should see in game)".

Matthew says: "I'm not calling for draconian chat filters or a mass crackdown on casinos. I appreciate the freedom that comes with being an 18+ community. What I think the game needs most right now is a system that consistently addresses repeat offenders who use hate speech. With technology today making it easy to change IPs, I'm curious about what kind of technology Habbo employs for moderation. Could they implement machine bans, or at least a system that makes it harder for habitual abusers to simply reappear? One idea could be a "soft mute" where users believe they're chatting freely, but their messages aren't actually visible to others."

Speedy says: "I would take action on severe hotel-wide harassment, especially for protected classes (i.e., LGBT, race, gender). This is an adults only game, so players, as adults, should expect a certain degree of disturbing content - but what we are seeing is well beyond that. While I know it's not my role as a Hobba, I think Sulake should utilize our programme more, given that there is minimal moderation in the hotel, and us Hobbas have more direct access to players than they themselves do".

In conclusion, the moderation system in Origins continues to be a pressing issue for players. There is a clear need for improvement, particularly in ensuring that reports are addressed swiftly, effectively, and with greater transparency. For Origins to become the welcoming environment it strives to be, a more efficient and robust moderation system is essential to foster a safe and enjoyable space for its players.