# Microsoft Bashes British Gamer from Xbox Live for Registering with his Real Name



## malware (May 22, 2008)

This story comes to prove what can happen if your name does not fit the standards. Last night, a British gamer was banned from the Xbox Live network, for registering with the RichardGaywood gamertag. From Microsoft's point of view nick names that violate the XBL policies are being removed immediately. You can't have a sexual term in you name. Yes, but what if the guy's last name is indeed Gaywood. His real full name is Richard Michael Gaywood. Do we have to change our real names so we can register and get permitted to access what we have paid for.



 



*View at TechPowerUp Main Site*


----------



## Triprift (May 22, 2008)

Booo to conservatism ya cant even register with ya own surname these days pretty sad M$ :shadedshu


----------



## UnkAsn93 (May 22, 2008)

Maybe the RichardGaywood would throw people off?


----------



## PVTCaboose1337 (May 22, 2008)

You should be able to register with whatever name you want.  You pay for a service, you get the service done for you.


----------



## Animalpak (May 22, 2008)

I think people dont have fantasy, dude just open your mind and find a nickname, why you put your real name ??? 

Oh c mon xbox live is a place for having fun !


----------



## Beertintedgoggles (May 22, 2008)

I don't hold this against microsoft at all....  if there didn't exist the need to censor the dumb shits that think OMG19inCoCk would be the perfect name (however if it does apply to you then display it proudly, the name that is) then this wouldn't happen.  Additionally, if they didn't have to worry about people getting offended too easily this wouldn't have happened either.  It all comes down to people and society and how much everyone but me sucks!!!


----------



## malware (May 22, 2008)

Animalpak said:


> I think people dont have fantasy, dude just open your mind and find a nickname, why you put your real name ???
> 
> Oh c mon xbox live is a place for having fun !


Why not use his real name? I also use my real name in games, I hate nick names like [CLAN, Team]CaP5 NiCkNaMe - ThE B3sT PlAyA etc.


----------



## Bjorn_Of_Iceland (May 22, 2008)

an honest mistake. All he needs is to talk to support. who wants a stroll on Gay woods?


----------



## bassmasta (May 22, 2008)

lol, they might have to allow people to include the word gay now.


----------



## Octavean (May 22, 2008)

I bet if his last name were "Heterowood" they would allow it, actually I would bet money on it. Maybe someone should try it,.... 

Seriously, its wrong IMO not to allow real names but it really isn't that big of a deal either. Although, I shudder to think what names would be used if Microsoft didn't filter in any way.

Richard Gaywood is lucky his first name isn't Gaylord, they probably would have banned him twice as fast


----------



## Ravenas (May 22, 2008)

Hmmm weird...

I have a friend in college and his gamertag is his full name (minus his middle name)...I wouldn't be surprised if they banned the name because it had the word gay in it.


----------



## DrPepper (May 22, 2008)

I think they should unban him since its his name but I understand the content filters because some people think they have to put thier beliefs into their gamer tag which I think is really stupid.


----------



## Mediocre (May 22, 2008)

Exact same thing happened to my college buddy. Although he had his tag for a good two months, right in the middle of a Halo round he got booted with a message saying his gamer tag was inappropriate. At least they let him change it for free (they actually CHARGE you to change your tag).
Jonathan Coon and his tag was Coon1979... Boy do we have stories of people walking into bars in Baltimore yellin out his last name (he had to pull out his ID to prevent an all out brawl )
It's sad really. Trying to make everyone happy all the time is a complete waste of effort...


----------



## Ravenas (May 22, 2008)

Well, while I don't think it is smart to actually make your gamer tag your full name...I don't think they should actually take away the privilege from you...

Really wouldn't be so bad if they didn't charge you for changing your gamertag...


----------



## ArkanHell (May 22, 2008)

Everybody should use the name they want!!!
Like some of my friends:

- James Buymaiaz
- Carl Shualowed
- Bill Koksoccer
- Jhony Fortbahaint


----------



## echo75 (May 22, 2008)

ArkanHell said:


> Everybody should use the name they want!!!
> Like some of my friends:
> 
> - James Buymaiaz
> ...



orc its coz he has the word "Gay" in his name.


----------



## btarunr (May 22, 2008)

It shows that the people who banned that user are pervert, not the user. They could've contacted the user by email or changed the handle for him, it's not that they're doing him a favour, but that they're fn paid for.

Assuming he didn't use the service at all, will he get a refund?


----------



## spacejunky (May 22, 2008)

XBOX live is for homos anyway.  I still don't understand why people pay to play.  If I want to play online, I play on my PC.  I just wish we could have a cross platform game so the PCs could whoop consoles and their slow controls.

Anyone who argues that consolers are better than a mouse kb combo has  probably never played on a PC and has no idea what they are missing OR they are overwhelmed by all the key possibilities.  llamas!

here's a thought.  Don't pay to play and give microsoft the power to control your gaming experience.


----------



## Steevo (May 22, 2008)

Someone still has to pay for a server. Hosting off fast internet connection is still only for a few people to play.


----------



## EarlZ (May 22, 2008)

Register with your real name, and use a different gametag how hard is that ?


----------



## Dangle (May 22, 2008)

Triprift said:


> Booo to conservatism ya cant even register with ya own surname these days pretty sad M$ :shadedshu


The only reason MS bans names with words like GAY and COON in them is because they are afraid of being sued. Liberals in this country have given lawyers and judges tooooo much power.  You can sue anybody for anything here.  Thanks to liberalism, censorship is quite necessary. 


He was not banned from XBL, just forced to change his name for free.  Not the end of the world.


----------



## WarEagleAU (May 22, 2008)

This whole ordeal is retarded if you ask me. What is the world coming too?


----------



## newtekie1 (May 22, 2008)

malware said:


> This story comes to prove nothing but what can happen if your name does not fit the standards. Last night, a British gamer was banned from the Xbox Live network, for registering with the RichardGaywood gamertag. From Microsoft's point of view nick names that violate the XBL policies are being removed immediately. You can't have a sexual term in you name. Yes, but what if the guy's last name is indeed Gaywood. His real full name is Richard Michael Gaywood. Do we have to change our real names so we can register and get permited to access what we have paid for.



I hate when the media over exagerate situations to make certain companies or indviduals look bad.

He wasn't banned from XBL, saying he was is a lie.  He was simply told to change his gamer tag because his old one was no longer allowed due to new rules.  Yes, it is his real name, but he real name includes a term that could be considered offensive to some, so he can't use it.  It really isn't a big deal.  People playing against him have no idea that is his real name, so saying it is ok just because it is his real name doesn't hold any ground.  His gamer tag has to conform to the XBL rules, regardless of how he came up with it.

He doesn't have to change his name, his registered name has nothing to do with his gamertag.  So the answer to your last question(it is a question, I don't see a question mark?) is a resounding NO, he doesn't have to change his real name to register with XBL, he just has to change his gamertag.  There is a very big difference there.


----------



## 1c3d0g (May 22, 2008)

If I had a ridiculous last name like that I would've legally changed it along time ago... 

I know of someone who had a last name called "Poepjes", which literally translated means something along the lines of "small pieces of shit". She legally changed it and hasn't had a problem since. Some surnames are just problematic no matter how you look at it. :shadedshu


----------



## HTC (May 22, 2008)

1c3d0g said:


> If I had a ridiculous last name like that I would've legally changed it along time ago...



Do you know what the word "gay" meant before being linked with homosexuality?

There are many names with the word "gay" in them: Marcia Gay Harden, Lisa Gay Hamilton, John Gay, ... i could go on ...

In Portuguese, the word "bicha" started to be linked to homosexuality as well and now another word is used instead but, actually, means something else:

"Esperar na bicha" means "To wait in line" in Portuguese!


----------



## Thermopylae_480 (May 22, 2008)

It isn't like some person at Microsoft went and hunted down this guy.  They undoubtedly designed a program that looked for certain letter combinations and automatically disabled their account in order to prevent people from having names such as gaybuttsexx.  He is simply the unfortunate victim of an automatic program.  People don't want to manually search through millions of user names looking for ones which violate TOS.  This was not a personal attack by Microsoft on this individual, as it seems so many want to believe.


----------



## HTC (May 22, 2008)

jezz said:


> dura lex sed lex
> 
> did u prefer this:
> 
> link



That's *WAY* worse: in fact, it's a crime punishable with jail time, i believe!



Thermopylae_480 said:


> It isn't like some person at Microsoft went and hunted down this guy.  They undoubtedly designed a program that looked for certain letter combinations and automatically disabled their account in order to prevent people from having names such as gaybuttsexx.  He is simply the unfortunate victim of an automatic program.  People don't want to manually search through millions of user names looking for ones which violate TOS.  This was not a personal attack by Microsoft on this individual, as it seems so many want to believe.



I have to agree with this: +1


----------



## niko084 (May 22, 2008)

malware said:


> Why not use his real name? I also use my real name in games, I hate nick names like [CLAN, Team]CaP5 NiCkNaMe - ThE B3sT PlAyA etc.



Right with you on this.... Now if there was some offense term being used there, well then I can see an issue I guess.... But seriously this is the guys real name, so I guess he should be arrested too?!?!?!


----------



## thoughtdisorder (May 22, 2008)

Unfortunate situation, I can certainly see why MS has to control usernames. 

This poor guy has probably taken sh*t his whole life for his name, so I feel badly for him as well.


----------



## Snake05 (May 22, 2008)

LIVE Code of Conduct said:
			
		

> Don't give out information that personally identifies you (such as your real name, address, phone number, credit card number, etc.) while you're playing. This includes voice chat and the names you create for your gamertag or mottos. This information could be used by other players for illegal or harmful purposes. Also, don't give out the personal information of other players.



If he'd of read the Code of Conduct before creating his account with his real name in it, then he would have noticed the excerpt above.  I understand that some people aren't creative enough to form a unique gamertag, and therefore default to their name, but it's not that hard.  This is for security purposes, not to discipline those who are less creative.  There are always going to be issues like this with many filter systems, so I'm not going to jump on the bandwagon and start cursing at MS, as much as I like or dislike them.  The issue can be resolved within a few minutes (assuming the player can create something that fits into the Code of Conduct) and everyone can be happy again.  I don't see this being a big issue at all, just got blown out of proportion.


----------



## Triprift (May 22, 2008)

If ya wanna use ya name so be it yeah i understand ya get some really stoopid names and the "someone think of the childeren crowd" gets there knickers in a twist but so what he uses gay in his username oh no lol.


----------



## twicksisted (May 22, 2008)

gaywood... hehehehe


----------



## Haytch (May 22, 2008)

He got banned, he will stay banned, he will make a new account and learn from his selfcaused mistake.  He breached the code of conduct and was banned, his lucky not to be sued.
Its an unfortunate incident that could have been avoided by Mr Gaywood whom most likely was aware of what was going to occur prior to signing up.

I think its very important that everyone uses a unique ' nickname ' that doesnt breach the code of conduct and avoids using real names for too many reasons to list, but most importantly because now MS know where Mr Gaywood live! Mwahahahaha!

Beware of the men in black suits with the windows logo on the buttons.


----------



## mdm-adph (May 22, 2008)

Dangle said:


> The only reason MS bans names with words like GAY and COON in them is because they are afraid of being sued. Liberals in this country have given lawyers and judges tooooo much power.  You can sue anybody for anything here.  Thanks to liberalism, censorship is quite necessary.
> 
> 
> He was not banned from XBL, just forced to change his name for free.  Not the end of the world.


You know, I really hate to feed the obvious troll that you are -- I think you say the "L"-word (liberal) in like 90% of your posts here -- but how the hell do you say this stuff with a straight face?  Is there like a troll academy somewhere where you go to learn how to do it?

(Are you not even aware that it's the current CONSERVATIVE government in the US right now that's responsible for some of the worst censorship ever: the abuse of the "National Security letter", which censors people and prevents them from even talking about it?)

Please, for the love of all things good and holy, stop bringing your flamewar-worthy political views here to TechPowerUp, which is supposed to be a board focused on *technology*.

Stop blaming everything on "liberals" -- FFS, look up the meaning of the goddamn word, and you'll see how foolish you've been in using it to describe people who censor.  By the very nature of the word, a "liberal" is one who wouldn't censor, and a "conservative" is a person who *would*.

Mods, please wake up and send a damn PM to this guy or something.  The random political-themed post here and there is okay, but this guy seems to make a habit of linking every damn thing to either the American Democratic party, "liberals," Communism, or (as you can see from his sig) Barack Obama.


----------



## Rebo&Zooty (May 23, 2008)

Dangle said:


> The only reason MS bans names with words like GAY and COON in them is because they are afraid of being sued. Liberals in this country have given lawyers and judges tooooo much power.  You can sue anybody for anything here.  Thanks to liberalism, censorship is quite necessary.
> 
> 
> He was not banned from XBL, just forced to change his name for free.  Not the end of the world.



look up the facts, its not librals who get bent over words like gay, its "social concervitives" those people in the red states that want to make laws to bann gays from getting marryed, or to outlaw being gay period.

I live in what you....well anybody would call a libral state, and its extreamly rare that anybody here sues over "gay" or "lesbian" or the like, hell here the words are JUST WORDS, you use them in plublic and unless your using them to try and attack somebody NOBODY GIVES A SHIT, on the other hand people do get upset about racial terms that are fully acceptable in the redstates/south.

if you call comebody a coon,nignog,jigabu(thanks clerks2 for that list in that order) or the n word, or terms for mexican like wetback, spic or on and on and on, or for any race other then white(they can make fun of us whites all they like and nobody gets offended.....) your gonna get ur arse reamed by people.

good example, i was on the buss one day with a bunch of friends, i was the ONLY one there who was white, they had spent the whole ride(over 45min) cracking jokes about crackers and shit, comparing me to kernal sanders, a chick with a huge ass walks by(rest of her was small but huge HUGE ass) my mexican buddy says something.....off colour, effectivly "back that ass up and let me...it" i called him a dirty mexican, driver slamed on the breaks, tells me to get the fuck off the buss for being a racist, all 8 of us got off the buss sicne we where out to go see some new movie(moves are alwase better with friends!!!) she was shocked we ALL got off, well it was only like 1.5 blocks to the buss station, by the time we got there the security guard was out waiting for us, he started to tell me i was getting a 6 month bann from the buss, my buddys steped in, informed him they wanted complain forms for HER racisim, in the end, i didnt get in trouble, she got a 2 day suspention and was taken off the public routs(put on a short buss that payed less) 

but that shows what its like here, nobody sues over it, but you will get reamed for saying that kinda stuff even if its jokingly, had i been like them, mexican, asian or black, i would have been able to say whatever i wanted, but im a big white guy, so i get dinged for it....

now your assertion that librals are to blame, well read what "concervitives" put into law, and how they react to things they dont like, they make laws to try and bann them, stupid but true, tho its ok if your in the south for whites to say shit to other races and do things that genraly would get you kicked out of places here.

the conservitive south/redstates make me sick, honestly.........

oh and b4 you imply it, no im not gay, but yes i have gay friends, and i have friends with ammusing names that would be banned from xbxlive, thankfully none of them are consol junkies, only one of them even owns a consol for gaming, and its a Wii to play with his wife and kids.


----------



## Rebo&Zooty (May 23, 2008)

malware said:


> This story comes to prove what can happen if your name does not fit the standards. Last night, a British gamer was banned from the Xbox Live network, for registering with the RichardGaywood gamertag. From Microsoft's point of view nick names that violate the XBL policies are being removed immediately. You can't have a sexual term in you name. Yes, but what if the guy's last name is indeed Gaywood. His real full name is Richard Michael Gaywood. Do we have to change our real names so we can register and get permitted to access what we have paid for.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



what no props for forwording this ammusing yet sad story


----------



## Rebo&Zooty (May 23, 2008)

HTC said:


> Do you know what the word "gay" meant before being linked with homosexuality?
> 
> There are many names with the word "gay" in them: Marcia Gay Harden, Lisa Gay Hamilton, John Gay, ... i could go on ...
> 
> ...



is that like "to wait in line for buttsecks"


----------



## panchoman (May 23, 2008)

shouldn't they be getting rid of sexual predators instead of trying to get rid of the word "gay" on an 18+ age network?


----------



## Triprift (May 23, 2008)

I coudnt agree more panch get ya priorities right ms


----------



## magibeg (May 23, 2008)

Well actually if you look a little more into the topic ms asked for him to change his username. He wasn't actually banned. On top of that he was banned because of a user complaint. Blame the people that are easy to offend


----------



## Rebo&Zooty (May 23, 2008)

panchoman said:


> shouldn't they be getting rid of sexual predators instead of trying to get rid of the word "gay" on an 18+ age network?



no, because the conservitive right is offended by words like gay, lesbian, free speech, abortion, freedom of religion, darwin, evolution, alah, buda, magic, wizard.....

i could go on and on about the stuff you see them rally against, funniest to me was when they attacked the harry potter books because they talk about magic and wizards.......ok it gave me lulz to no end listening to a couple of my mothers conservitive friends from church go on and on about it.....they never read the books ofcorse, they just went by what they heard or read......

really all factions in this world suck, religious, political, hardware, software, sexual......again could go on and on.

you would think that ms could find better things to do with their time, maby track down hackers and abusive pricks in xbxlive, maby fix vista, maby work on windows 7!!!!
once again, the list of things ms needs to work on can go on and on, and on and on and on, but insted they spend their time banning the gays...........lol


----------



## Ravenas (May 23, 2008)

Lol this is a joke of course, but...

I think MS should invest more money in a voice communication filter rather than a "stupid" name filter... I can easily deal with stupid names, its the annoying voice chat on xbox live that drives me nuts.

Lol just my 2 cents...


----------



## Rebo&Zooty (May 23, 2008)

magibeg said:


> Well actually if you look a little more into the topic ms asked for him to change his username. He wasn't actually banned. On top of that he was banned because of a user complaint. Blame the people that are easy to offend



 i use to run a game server, when ppl would report names like that, i would tell them to grow up, if they kept it up, i would bann them, This was an MMO server for UO, and tho the community in UO is enlarge far more mature then most other communitys, u still at times get what i alwase think of as CS kiddies, people who like to cause drama and cant take anybody beeting them.

i would bet that if there really where complaints, it was people who got "gay bashed" (pwned by gaywood in game) that reported it just because they where pissed they died.


----------



## Rebo&Zooty (May 23, 2008)

Ravenas said:


> Lol this is a joke of course, but...
> 
> I think MS should invest more money in a voice communication filter rather than a "stupid" name filter... I can easily deal with stupid names, its the annoying voice chat on xbox live that drives me nuts.
> 
> Lol just my 2 cents...



i have though for years that the world needs a fix for EUE's (end user errors) but i think we need quantium computers with AI like startrek puters have b4 we will see EUE's go away 

if only the net had "stupid people filtering" sending them all to AOL chatrooms and forums and keeping them off the open internet..........god thats one thing i miss since AOL went open network, when it was 56k AOL tryed to keep you in their home network, it kept alot of stupid people off the global netz, god that was nice...........since they went open.....well alot of morons show up in games and on forums to cause people greif


----------



## XooM (May 23, 2008)

his name is dick gaywood.
seriously, wtf.


----------



## Rebo&Zooty (May 23, 2008)

XooM said:


> his name is dick gaywood.
> seriously, wtf.



i got friends with names like that, their pairents eather didnt think OR had a mean streek.....

james offinshoer, some places Jack is short for james(.....i dont get it but hey) and if you pronounce his name slitly wrong.......well u get it......

there are others but thats one of the worst since his mother alwase called him jack.....it got around at school and once we hit "that age" oh did he get alot of shit for it


----------



## AsRock (May 23, 2008)

Umm i kinda agree stopping him registering with his name BUT same for everyone else what ever your name is. ( privacy reasons ) 

Like come on this 1st time this has happened lol ?..  You think it is for one second lol.


----------



## iamollie (May 23, 2008)

spacejunky said:


> XBOX live is for homos anyway.  I still don't understand why people pay to play.  If I want to play online, I play on my PC.  I just wish we could have a cross platform game so the PCs could whoop consoles and their slow controls.
> 
> Anyone who argues that consolers are better than a mouse kb combo has  probably never played on a PC and has no idea what they are missing OR they are overwhelmed by all the key possibilities.  llamas!
> 
> here's a thought.  Don't pay to play and give microsoft the power to control your gaming experience.



Wow you give a convincing argument, dont you have any friends to play with on the same screen............o ok then. also unless you are using wine you pretty much are using microsoft.
Not that i dont enjoy pc games, im loving sose.

also gta4 .............ill guess you'll just have to wait for that lovable mouse and keyboard combo. (i know its better so dont even bother)


----------



## Ravenas (May 23, 2008)

iamollie said:


> Wow you give a convincing argument, dont you have any friends to play with on the same screen............o ok then. also unless you are using wine you pretty much are using microsoft.
> Not that i dont enjoy pc games, im loving sose.
> 
> also gta4 .............ill guess you'll just have to wait for that lovable mouse and keyboard combo. (i know its better so dont even bother)



Your arguement is no more convincing. 

Both sides have vaild points. I happened to thank spacejunky simply because I agreed with a few of the points he made (not that everyone on xbox live is a homo).


----------



## thoughtdisorder (May 23, 2008)

mdm-adph said:


> (Are you not even aware that it's the current CONSERVATIVE government in the US right now that's responsible for some of the worst censorship ever: the abuse of the "National Security letter", which censors people and prevents them from even talking about it?)



Thx for that!

Ironic that the US supposedly embraces "Freedom of Speech". You can burn a flag as an expression of this right but don't you dare say something that could possibly offend someone. Well, flag burning offends me, but yet I don't whine to the press or anyone else about it. People take them damn selves way too seriously these days and they should lighten the hell up. Whatever happened to the days when we laughed at ourselves?


----------



## Snake05 (May 23, 2008)

thoughtdisorder said:


> Ironic that the US supposedly embraces "Freedom of Speech". You can burn a flag as an expression of this right but don't you dare say something that could possibly offend someone. Well, flag burning offends me, but yet I don't whine to the press or anyone else about it.



I haven't seen anyone burn a flag inside the country, and if it did happen I'm not sure it would be taken lightly by most of us, including myself.  Most flag burning is done in hatred towards the US from protests overseas.

More on topic, again, this could all be avoided if someone would have read the small print.  Everyone should read all the Terms and Use Policy's on EVERYTHING they partake in....


----------



## Triprift (May 23, 2008)

thoughtdisorder said:


> Thx for that!
> 
> Ironic that the US supposedly embraces "Freedom of Speech". You can burn a flag as an expression of this right but don't you dare say something that could possibly offend someone. Well, flag burning offends me, but yet I don't whine to the press or anyone else about it. People take them damn selves way too seriously these days and they should lighten the hell up. Whatever happened to the days when we laughed at ourselves?




Ya need to come to oz man were all supa casual here especially me i make chillin an art form


----------



## mdm-adph (May 23, 2008)

thoughtdisorder said:


> Whatever happened to the days when we laughed at ourselves?



Sadly enough, those days were all before September 11, 2001.  :shadedshu


----------



## craigwhiteside (May 23, 2008)

i hate political correctness...


----------



## thoughtdisorder (May 24, 2008)

craigwhiteside said:


> i hate political correctness...



+1 brother, +1. Political correctness = :shadedshu

Although I'm curious, has "PC-ism" spread to the UK as well?


----------



## Rebo&Zooty (May 24, 2008)

mdm-adph said:


> Sadly enough, those days were all before September 11, 2001.  :shadedshu



some people never could laugh at themselves or take others laughing at them a good map of where people have trouble lauging at themselves and being laughed at.

http://www.lukecole.com/Electoral%20Maps/dumfuckistan.gif

blue tend to be far more layed back and not take themselves to seirously, red areas enlarge are full of "concervitieves"(you know like bush, social concervitives who like to spend spend spend when it comes to $  driving up national debt....) the red areas tend to take themselves to importantly and cant take a joke or laugh at their own insanity.

i live in a blue area, but i have alot of friends in both areas, invariably its the ones from red states who cant lulz at themselves and get all butt hurt when others laugh at them......blah


sorry but this is my personal experiance......this countrys gotten worse since bush took office worse and worse every day.....


----------



## vtaylor67 (May 24, 2008)

*the Decline of western civilization Pt ?*

Its too bad that in a world of Extrem poverty, abuse of every kind, killing of children and the slow death of our planet, that it does Indeed seem as if even a Mans or Womans name is now censored. Dont We have enough bigotry in the world yet ? for ch**st sakes, I understand the need to police those that are Ignorant and feel the need to make up silly and debasing tags. Instead of spending god-knows-how-much on server access for Your favorite game, why not send some to the disabled Vets fund or some charity of worth . I guess it is true, The rich just get richer.


----------



## Dangle (May 24, 2008)

^LMAO


Thermopylae_480 said:


> It isn't like some person at Microsoft went and hunted down this guy.  They undoubtedly designed a program that looked for certain letter combinations and automatically disabled their account in order to prevent people from having names such as


They don't have a program that hunts down names after they've already been created.  There's a filter while creating your gamertag.  This person was caught after the fact because other players can report offensive gamertags.  If enough people report your gamertag, you'll be forced to change it.





mdm-adph said:


> Please, for the love of all things good and holy, stop bringing your flamewar-worthy political views here to TechPowerUp, which is supposed to be a board focused on *technology*.



So it's only ok to bring up politics when it's pro-liberalism/communism?  I didn't see you flipping out about the first reply in this thread blaming conservatism - trust me, MS couldn't give the slightest Shart about bad words, they are in the business of making money, and if they offend a homosexual and get sued, they'll lose money - their primary interest...  I was merely explaining why Microsoft is afraid of being sued.  The EU commies are suing Microsoft for bundling a media player with their OS....


----------



## thoughtdisorder (May 24, 2008)

Dangle said:


> ^LMAO
> They don't have a program that hunts down names after they've already been created.  There's a filter while creating your gamertag.  This person was caught after the fact because other players can report offensive gamertags.  If enough people report your gamertag, you'll be forced to change it.
> 
> So it's only ok to bring up politics when it's pro-liberalism/communism?  I didn't see you flipping out about the first reply in this thread blaming conservatism - trust me, MS couldn't give the slightest Shart about bad words, they are in the business of making money, and if they offend a homosexual and get sued, they'll lose money - their primary interest...  I was merely explaining why Microsoft is afraid of being sued.  The EU commies are suing Microsoft for bundling a media player with their OS....



Dangle, with all due respect there's a place and a time for your views. This thread and forum is neither. TPU stands for "Tech Powerup", not "Bullshit Ideals powerup". No offense, but dude, come on, lose the BS Sig and move it to an appropriate bleeding heart political blog. Thanks.

I can give you a Hillary, Obama, or McCain linky if ya need it. (Even maybe a Lieberman linky!) Let's face it, when we step in that voting booth in November we'll be faced with two bowls of sh*t. Bottom line is, which one smells the least?

Quite simply, MS did nothing different than anyother self respecting site would have done. It's a code thing, not a personal thing. Some schmuck in the basement of MS didn't jump up and say, ha-ha-ha-ha, let's screw this guy! I mean, Gaywood, I feel sorry for all involved....


----------



## Haytch (May 24, 2008)

You Americans are just lucky my ex girlfriend isnt President. 
Bitch she was!
Once a month it would be nuclear war in some part of the world. Anyone that opposed her, bodybagged.

I agree with ' thoughtdisorder ', i doubt MS wish to offend any of their users, and i dont think they really give a shit about any word. Like binary means jackshit to the average person, normal words mean jackshit to MS.


----------



## DaedalusHelios (May 24, 2008)

Dangle said:


> The only reason MS bans names with words like GAY and COON in them is because they are afraid of being sued. Liberals in this country have given lawyers and judges tooooo much power.  You can sue anybody for anything here.  Thanks to liberalism, censorship is quite necessary.
> 
> 
> He was not banned from XBL, just forced to change his name for free.  Not the end of the world.



Wrong. You listen or read republican propaganda too much. 

Read this from the right wing "AFA" which is a huge lobby/special interest group behind the republicans:



> "The American Family Association (AFA) has been a long-time promoter of "traditional moral values" in the media, particularly television. AFA built its reputation on organizing boycotts against sponsors of TV shows with "anti-Christian" messages and ideas, or against companies it claims support the so-called "homosexual agenda" or marriage equality."
> 
> ~Source http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oid=3796




More proof:




> When a citizen listens to a local radio station, he should reasonably expect the content of that broadcast to be free of indecent or profane language. When the station breaks the public trust by airing content which the listener feels violates community standards, the citizen can file a complaint against the station with the FCC. In turn, the FCC will begin a formal investigation to determine if the station is subject to fines or license termination.
> 
> 
> ~Source http://www.afa.net/activism/wopcd_radiostations.asp




Dangle: read more, and quit it with the anti-liberal slander.(I changed my avatar to McCain for you yesterday. )


----------



## Rebo&Zooty (May 24, 2008)

Dangle said:


> This person was caught after the fact because other players can report offensive gamertags.  If enough people report your gamertag, you'll be forced to change it.


and i could report "Dangle" as bein an offencive gamer tag to me, because some people sall their cock a "Dangley" or because well i just dont like you and so your names offencive.
(not saying i dont like you,just an example)


> So it's only ok to bring up politics when it's pro-liberalism/communism?  I didn't see you flipping out about the first reply in this thread blaming conservatism - trust me, MS couldn't give the slightest Shart about bad words, they are in the business of making money, and if they offend a homosexual and get sued, they'll lose money - their primary interest...  I was merely explaining why Microsoft is afraid of being sued.  *The EU commies are suing Microsoft for bundling a media player with their OS....*


ms isnt gonna loose long term for bashing gays, because "concervitives" like you will give them more buisness for being "wholsome" and having "family values" or "treditional christian values" in the end they would upset a minority to make more off the majority, tho they dont want to have offencive tags because it may loose them players.

and they have every right to run their country/countrys as they see fit, in this case i happen to agree with them, IE and Media player was better when it wasnt forced on your as part of the default os install, IE8 is headed the dirrrection of being a standalone app this will also mean patching it will be easyer since patching out an IE bug wont have the possable effect of causing problems with windows explorer, I know some people like you who think that large companys should beable to do whatever they want whenever they want, but most of us dont agree, sure its capitilisim, but there are anti monopoly laws for a reasion.  Did you know that the EU would have allowed ms to keep media player as part of windows if ms also offered other players or preinstaled 3rd party player options?

so they could have slaped VLC in their for a media player option and gotten around the main gripe the EU and many of us have with ms's tactics.

as to IE, if ms would include opera or FF or both as OPTIONS along side IE during install, i would be stoked, hell download the latist version of IE8/opera/FF after windows is setup and install them all, not like they take up alot of space, hell could toss safari in there to, its a prety damn decent browser for something apple makes, and its downloader KILLS anything i have seen as a default browser downloader(no joke, take a look at it....)


----------



## Rebo&Zooty (May 24, 2008)

Snake05 said:


> I haven't seen anyone burn a flag inside the country, and if it did happen I'm not sure it would be taken lightly by most of us, including myself.  Most flag burning is done in hatred towards the US from protests overseas.
> 
> More on topic, again, this could all be avoided if someone would have read the small print.  Everyone should read all the Terms and Use Policy's on EVERYTHING they partake in....



i have, and it didnt offend me, butt then again i have been accused of being "to layed back" when it comes to that shit......

oh and i have burned flags, but for a reasion, out of tredition if a US flag touches the ground you MUST burn it, and my great grandfather took that and many other old time treditions very seirously, and yes he did get very offended at the protesters who burnt flag, but he also said that part of why he went to war(worldwar2) was to defend peoples rights to protest.
he was a hard core republican, never voted outside party lines, even he would be appauled by what bush and the "concervitives" have done to our rights......


----------



## Rebo&Zooty (May 24, 2008)

Haytch said:


> You Americans are just lucky my ex girlfriend isnt President.
> Bitch she was!
> Once a month it would be nuclear war in some part of the world. Anyone that opposed her, bodybagged.
> 
> I agree with ' thoughtdisorder ', i doubt MS wish to offend any of their users, and i dont think they really give a shit about any word. Like binary means jackshit to the average person, normal words mean jackshit to MS.



god/allah/buda/who the fuck ever, save us from people that PMS and that take themselves to seirously, my ex was like that as well, but i also have some gaming buddys who are guys that are like that, u would sware that 1 week a month they are having male pms attacks.......kinda fun to  mess with them when they are like that tho, they endup doing stupid things in game and getting killed


----------



## beyond_amusia (May 24, 2008)

I think Microsoft's goal with this is to prevent offeneding people and to help protect others. if you have a tag that sounds 'gay' people will harrass.


----------



## Rebo&Zooty (May 24, 2008)

beyond_amusia said:


> I think Microsoft's goal with this is to prevent offeneding people and to help protect others. if you have a tag that sounds 'gay' people will harrass.



and some people feed off being harrassed, i use to use game tags that would destract people, give then an excuse to make fun of me, it destracts them from the games true point, as such can be a usefull tool in some games(if somebody is busy harrassing you they arent gonna be paying attn to the gameplay....gives you an advantege.)


----------



## beyond_amusia (May 24, 2008)

Rebo&Zooty said:


> and some people feed off being harrassed, i use to use game tags that would destract people, give then an excuse to make fun of me, it destracts them from the games true point, as such can be a usefull tool in some games(if somebody is busy harrassing you they arent gonna be paying attn to the gameplay....gives you an advantege.)



ooh.. I never looked at it that way...


----------



## Dangle (May 24, 2008)

DaedalusHelios said:


> Wrong. You listen or read republican propaganda too much.
> 
> Read this from the right wing "AFA" which is a huge lobby/special interest group behind the republicans:
> 
> ...


Dude I actually kinda agree with you here.  I believe that if you don't want your kids to see dirty content, it's your own responsibility, not the government's. Keep your own kids safe!  Homosexuals could sue MS for being offended by a screen name like gaywood, and a social-conservative group could file an anti-trust suit for the same reason.  *If we didn't have soo many laws regarding political correctness *- much like in Nazi Germany, Microsoft wouldn't have to ban people with offensive names.  I truly believe MS's only interest is not to get sued... They didn't make the guy change his name because microsoft has strict morals.


----------



## Ravenas (May 24, 2008)

Someone lock this thread. 

People add in 2 sentences at the end of there post just to appear that they are staying on topic. This thread is going nowhere, and can be seen after the 1st page of posts.


----------



## Dangle (May 24, 2008)

^Useless off-topic post, ravenass.

-Xbox Live is offensive.
-People say dirty words on Xbox Live.


----------



## DaedalusHelios (May 24, 2008)

I do not agree with the AFA's views. I just quoted them because you were blaming it on the "liberals" and censorship is actually a republican platform.

I think all religious groups should stay out of the media. That goes for Christians that try to uphold their "values". It also applies to Muslims that get offended around every corner and threaten to sue like they are little children whining all freakin day. The Muslims are abusing all European legal systems right now. And the backlash is the general population disliking them for it. Muslims shouldn't force their "values" on other cultures like they do in Europe. Such Nonsense is no tolerated in the US.:shadedshu

On a private level the Muslims of Europe don't cause many problems except for a few isolated incidents from time to time. Its the cultural leaders of Islam(most currently) that are so twisted they make the Catholic Church's past look like Peace Corps.


----------



## Rebo&Zooty (May 24, 2008)

vtaylor67 said:


> Its too bad that in a world of Extrem poverty, abuse of every kind, killing of children and the slow death of our planet, that it does Indeed seem as if even a Mans or Womans name is now censored. Dont We have enough bigotry in the world yet ? for ch**st sakes, I understand the need to police those that are Ignorant and feel the need to make up silly and debasing tags. Instead of spending god-knows-how-much on server access for Your favorite game, why not send some to the disabled Vets fund or some charity of worth . I guess it is true, The rich just get richer.



just a note, the planits not dieing, we are just making it so that people and many animals will not beable to live here, we couldnt kill the planit if we tryed, it would keep on going, even if we wiped all life off the face of it, and eventuly life would return, probbly some kinda weird evolved cockroach 



Dangle said:


> Dude I actually kinda agree with you here.  I believe that if you don't want your kids to see dirty content, it's your own responsibility, not the government's. Keep your own kids safe!  Homosexuals could sue MS for being offended by a screen name like gaywood, and a social-conservative group could file an anti-trust suit for the same reason.  *If we didn't have soo many laws regarding political correctness *- much like in Nazi Germany, Microsoft wouldn't have to ban people with offensive names.  I truly believe MS's only interest is not to get sued... They didn't make the guy change his name because microsoft has strict morals.



u do realise that fascism is a far right, yes i said RIGHT philophisy, and thats what your talking about and what this countrys becoming since your oh so vaunted "concervitives" got countrol and used TERROIST TACTICS on ITS OWN PEOPLE, keep the people scared of what could happen, make them think they will all die if they dont let you do whatever you want, give them visions of mushroom clouds over every city if they dont vote for you and give you all the power you want......

do some research and read some history books befor you blame"librals" for shit like NAZI germany or the fascist bullshit going on in this country.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascism

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi


> Nazism, commonly known as National Socialism,[1][2][3][4] (German: Nationalsozialismus), refers primarily to the ideology and practices of the Nazi Party under Adolf Hitler; and the policies adopted by the government of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945, a period also known as the Third Reich.[5][6][7][8] The official name of the party was Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei[9] (NSDAP) — “National Socialist German Workers’ Party”. The Nazis were one of several historical groups that used the term National Socialism to describe themselves, and in the 1920s they became the largest such group. *Nazism is generally considered by scholars to be a form of fascism,* and while it incorporated some elements from the political left, i*t formed its most solid alliances on the political right.*
> 
> Nazism was not a monolithic movement, but rather a (mainly German) combination of various ideologies and groups, sparked by anger at the Treaty of Versailles and what was considered to have been a Jewish/Communist conspiracy (known in the vernacular as the Dolchstoßlegende or “Stab-in-the-Back Legend”) to humiliate Germany at the end of the First World War.
> 
> Among the key elements of Nazism were anti-parliamentarism, ethnic nationalism, racism, collectivism,[11][12] eugenics, antisemitism, opposition to economic liberalism and political liberalism,[13][14][12] anti-communism, and totalitarianism.



so stop your slander calling librals nazi's, read a damn history book not writen by some nazi douch bag or some far right wing nutter like limbah, O’Reilly, or that nutter (m)ann coulter.....


----------



## Polaris573 (May 24, 2008)

The oddest things bring out the crazy in people.


----------

