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>Which is a very sane default for most people I couldn't disagree more. Having an open mic setup for gaming is both insane and completely inconsiderate to ever

>Which is a very sane default for most people I couldn't disagree more. Having an open mic setup for gaming is both insane and completely inconsiderate to everyone else in the channel/group. It's hard not to personally judge people that join a group, whether that's a friend of a friend, someone looking to try out, public LFG lobbies, etc and you can immediately tell they have an open mic configuration. It's maddening. Breathing, keyboard smashing, mouse clicking, background noise, eating, or exasperated whining every time you die/lose are all annoyances you push on the rest of the channel/group with an open mic configuration. At best it's an annoyance. At worst it's actively disrupting people's game play and team communication. For the love of all that is decent with humanity, use push to talk.

gsich 8y ago
Open mic and voice activation are two different things. The first is permanent sending of your microphone input, the last one is only sending when there is activity, hence the name.
- kadendogthing 8y ago
  >Open mic and voice activation are two different things. In theory but not in practice.
  - gsich 8y ago
    Also in practice. You just need to tell people, and by tell I mean command them to fix their stuff.
    - snlnspc 8y ago
      "working as intended, just patronize other users into fiddling with their settings until it's acceptable" sounds to me like it's not a sane default
      - slavox 8y ago
        Sometimes it can be hard to know that your setup isn't working as you expected. Whilst commanding someone to fix it should be the last resort most people with voice activation would rather the setup work for everyone in the server so they can keep using it. On my setup for example I had a desk mic which sat on my wooden desk. People had to point out to me that there were sudden sharp noises coming from my mic. Eventually it was isolated to my mouse hitting the desk and vibrating up the base into the mic. I placed the mic on a bit of foam and everyone was happy. These types of activations are not picked up during self testing easily.
      - gsich 8y ago
        People don't hear their microphone, so they won't notice wrong settings. Telling them is the only choice you have. If you think "command" is too strong of a word, use "urge".
    - rainonmoon 8y ago
      Have you played an online game recently? Not exactly the most eager to take advice from strangers, those folk.
      - Fnoord 8y ago
        You can't command youngsters when you don't have authority over them. Asking it in a friendly tone is much more reasonable though it does require an extra keybind (I recommend rebinding caps lock to it).
      - gsich 8y ago
        Yes. You can if they come to your server. And then they are not exactly strangers anymore. Nobody cares about ingame voice as those are usually PTT per default.
souterrain 8y ago
> For the love of all that is decent with humanity, use push to talk. I’d love Zoom, WebEx, GoToMeeting, et al., to implement push-to-talk, and give an option for mandatory use to conference call organizers.
- bbrks 8y ago
  I think Zoom now has a preference for holding down space to temporarily unmute your mic. But I fully agree, push-to-talk should be absolutely mandatory for any calls with more than 2 people in them.
  - piyh 8y ago
    Zoom has to have focus which rules out using PTT while presenting or multitasking while meeting.
- flarg 8y ago
  Zoom does, long press the space bar to talk
- btown 8y ago
  http://mizage.com/shush/ http://mizage.com/shush/ for anyone on a Mac is a godsend. Emulates a hardware PTT (can be toggled to push to silence) before audio ever gets to applications. Best $5 I've ever spent.
  - Fnoord 8y ago
    What's so special about this? Discord has PTT and PTS native.
    - flamtap 8y ago
      The reply is suggesting it as a solution to the problem for apps other than Discord, which the parent comment mentions.
      - 8y ago
brownbat 8y ago
Mumble has a really great voice detection algorithm, so I never hear your parade of horribles. Not sure if discord has anything as good, that might be the difference.
anilakar 8y ago
There are situations where an open mic is useful, such as conference calls and high-intensity multiplayer FPS and MOBA games. Initiating such a group call shoud be as explicit as possible, however.
charrondev 8y ago
It’s just ignorance to do this. It’s definitely possible to run an open mic on discord without any of these sounds. Opening your audio settings where you can set the threshold very clearly for what makes it in and what does not. This falls apart for people that speak very quietly though. If there is no volume difference between your chewing sounds and your speaking sounds you __need__ push to to talk.
Bekwnn 8y ago
Voice activation on teamspeak was much more reasonable and accurate. Discord's is always either trigger happy or drops quiet speech. Also voice activation is a boon for competitive games where you can't spare a hotkey and finger during play.
- kadendogthing 8y ago
  >Also voice activation is a boon for competitive games where you can't spare a hotkey and finger during play. I've been playing competitive games for 15 years. I think you're overstating how difficult it is to press one other button. It's also contradictory to the common practice of clans/scrim groups having a PTT policy. I think people saying "Well X does it better." are missing the point. It's always been a problem. Ventrilo, Mumble, Teamspeak, etc. If you've never considered it a problem there is a good possibility a lot of people around you were just tolerating it.
  - _Tev 8y ago
    From my ~10y experience with multiplayer games voice activation IS clearly superior. Not sure what games are you talking about (and what's "competitive" level for you), but there was never enough keys for in-game actions and scripts, PTT is shooting yourself into the foot just because you can't find not-infantile teamplayers
    - kadendogthing 8y ago
      >voice activation IS clearly superior. Why? That's just a bald assertion with a butt load of evidence to the contrary. >and what's "competitive" level for you I'm pretty serious about competitive play. Started with CS 1.6, moved to SC2, then RB6:Siege, then GO, and now OW. I've consistently ranked in the top tier in each of those games. I moved my gym time to my lunch break and run when I wake up so I can play games in the evening and scrim when I'm on teams. It's an addiction. >PTT is shooting yourself into the foot just because you can't find not-infantile teamplayers I like how instead of addressing the technological merits of voice activation you just call people "infantile" to avoid actually discussing the subject.
Ntrails 8y ago
> For the love of all that is decent with humanity, use push to talk. This is super game/group dependent. For example if I'm playing with a 5 stack I'll have open mic on volume cutoff. We're casually chatting pre-game and ptt is not useful there, then dota starts and I cannot manage the additional load of regularly using ptt key whilst playing so I'll end up talking way less and it's bad On the other hand in a 250 man fleet in Eve Online - you'd best believe everyone with open mic is getting banned from the server.
nkrisc 8y ago
Can Discord server admins enforce PTT? I believe on Teamspeak there was a setting the disabled voice activation for that server.

gsich 8y ago

Open mic and voice activation are two different things. The first is permanent sending of your microphone input, the last one is only sending when there is activity, hence the name.

kadendogthing 8y ago
>Open mic and voice activation are two different things. In theory but not in practice.
- gsich 8y ago
  Also in practice. You just need to tell people, and by tell I mean command them to fix their stuff.
  - snlnspc 8y ago
    "working as intended, just patronize other users into fiddling with their settings until it's acceptable" sounds to me like it's not a sane default
    - slavox 8y ago
      Sometimes it can be hard to know that your setup isn't working as you expected. Whilst commanding someone to fix it should be the last resort most people with voice activation would rather the setup work for everyone in the server so they can keep using it. On my setup for example I had a desk mic which sat on my wooden desk. People had to point out to me that there were sudden sharp noises coming from my mic. Eventually it was isolated to my mouse hitting the desk and vibrating up the base into the mic. I placed the mic on a bit of foam and everyone was happy. These types of activations are not picked up during self testing easily.
    - gsich 8y ago
      People don't hear their microphone, so they won't notice wrong settings. Telling them is the only choice you have. If you think "command" is too strong of a word, use "urge".
  - rainonmoon 8y ago
    Have you played an online game recently? Not exactly the most eager to take advice from strangers, those folk.
    - Fnoord 8y ago
      You can't command youngsters when you don't have authority over them. Asking it in a friendly tone is much more reasonable though it does require an extra keybind (I recommend rebinding caps lock to it).
    - gsich 8y ago
      Yes. You can if they come to your server. And then they are not exactly strangers anymore. Nobody cares about ingame voice as those are usually PTT per default.

souterrain 8y ago

> For the love of all that is decent with humanity, use push to talk. I’d love Zoom, WebEx, GoToMeeting, et al., to implement push-to-talk, and give an option for mandatory use to conference call organizers.

bbrks 8y ago
I think Zoom now has a preference for holding down space to temporarily unmute your mic. But I fully agree, push-to-talk should be absolutely mandatory for any calls with more than 2 people in them.
- piyh 8y ago
  Zoom has to have focus which rules out using PTT while presenting or multitasking while meeting.
flarg 8y ago
Zoom does, long press the space bar to talk
btown 8y ago
http://mizage.com/shush/ http://mizage.com/shush/ for anyone on a Mac is a godsend. Emulates a hardware PTT (can be toggled to push to silence) before audio ever gets to applications. Best $5 I've ever spent.
- Fnoord 8y ago
  What's so special about this? Discord has PTT and PTS native.
  - flamtap 8y ago
    The reply is suggesting it as a solution to the problem for apps other than Discord, which the parent comment mentions.
    - 8y ago

brownbat 8y ago

Mumble has a really great voice detection algorithm, so I never hear your parade of horribles. Not sure if discord has anything as good, that might be the difference.

anilakar 8y ago

There are situations where an open mic is useful, such as conference calls and high-intensity multiplayer FPS and MOBA games. Initiating such a group call shoud be as explicit as possible, however.

charrondev 8y ago

It’s just ignorance to do this. It’s definitely possible to run an open mic on discord without any of these sounds. Opening your audio settings where you can set the threshold very clearly for what makes it in and what does not. This falls apart for people that speak very quietly though. If there is no volume difference between your chewing sounds and your speaking sounds you __need__ push to to talk.

Bekwnn 8y ago

Voice activation on teamspeak was much more reasonable and accurate. Discord's is always either trigger happy or drops quiet speech. Also voice activation is a boon for competitive games where you can't spare a hotkey and finger during play.

kadendogthing 8y ago
>Also voice activation is a boon for competitive games where you can't spare a hotkey and finger during play. I've been playing competitive games for 15 years. I think you're overstating how difficult it is to press one other button. It's also contradictory to the common practice of clans/scrim groups having a PTT policy. I think people saying "Well X does it better." are missing the point. It's always been a problem. Ventrilo, Mumble, Teamspeak, etc. If you've never considered it a problem there is a good possibility a lot of people around you were just tolerating it.
- _Tev 8y ago
  From my ~10y experience with multiplayer games voice activation IS clearly superior. Not sure what games are you talking about (and what's "competitive" level for you), but there was never enough keys for in-game actions and scripts, PTT is shooting yourself into the foot just because you can't find not-infantile teamplayers
  - kadendogthing 8y ago
    >voice activation IS clearly superior. Why? That's just a bald assertion with a butt load of evidence to the contrary. >and what's "competitive" level for you I'm pretty serious about competitive play. Started with CS 1.6, moved to SC2, then RB6:Siege, then GO, and now OW. I've consistently ranked in the top tier in each of those games. I moved my gym time to my lunch break and run when I wake up so I can play games in the evening and scrim when I'm on teams. It's an addiction. >PTT is shooting yourself into the foot just because you can't find not-infantile teamplayers I like how instead of addressing the technological merits of voice activation you just call people "infantile" to avoid actually discussing the subject.

Ntrails 8y ago

> For the love of all that is decent with humanity, use push to talk. This is super game/group dependent. For example if I'm playing with a 5 stack I'll have open mic on volume cutoff. We're casually chatting pre-game and ptt is not useful there, then dota starts and I cannot manage the additional load of regularly using ptt key whilst playing so I'll end up talking way less and it's bad On the other hand in a 250 man fleet in Eve Online - you'd best believe everyone with open mic is getting banned from the server.

nkrisc 8y ago

Can Discord server admins enforce PTT? I believe on Teamspeak there was a setting the disabled voice activation for that server.