Information About The Chat

Types of chat

There are three types of chat in Tanki Online: the lobby chat, the battle chat, and the clan chat.

1. The first type of chat (the lobby chat) is accessible when a player is in the lobby or home of the game opened by pressing the "Tab" on their keyboard or by simply clicking the chat button written "TAB". Messages sent in it can be seen by all players that are on the server at the moment or sent privately to a specific player. You may sometimes notice that your words are covered in red. This indicates that the anti-flood system is preventing you from sending the message until all the red has disappeared. So if you type too quickly, or paste something into the chat, you'll often notice this.

Chat channels:

The lobby chat is divided into various chat channels, each for different use.

They are: New Players, General, Announcements, Q&A, Game Reports, Events, eSports.*

*"New Players" chat channel is only available for players that are in the ranks of Gefreiter to Sergeant-Major and other channels are not available for these ranks. "New Players" chat channel disappear and other chat channels unlock from the rank of Sergeant. Chat Moderators can view and access all channels regardless of their rank. 

2. The second type of chat is only accessible - as the name might have spoiled - during a battle. It is activated by pressing Enter. In DeathMatch battles, sent messages will be visible to everyone in the battle. In case of team battles (TDM, CTF, CP) a player can either write a message visible to everyone or only to their team. To switch between these two modes, press the "Tab" key on your keyboard while the battle chat is open.

3. The third type of chat - again, as the name might have revealed - is only accessible and available to members of in-game clans. Players must press the "Tab" key on their keyboard in the lobby and select "Clan chat" at the top to enter this chat.

Message Privacy

Public messages:

Messages sent in any of the game's chats are public by default. Here is how public messages look in the lobby chat.

Private messages:

It is possible to write a message addressing a specific player by entering the desired player's nickname with a colon directly after it, followed by the message you wish to send. If anyone sends you a message using this method, you will see a highlighted message, indicating someone is trying to talk to you privately. Here is how private messages look in the lobby chat.

Anti-Flood System

In order to instantly and easily avoid players from flooding the game's chats, an automatic anti-flood system is in place. This is only available in the lobby and battle chats, clan chats are free from it.

It affects a player's entire message or a part of it. If a player writes a long message over the number of allowed characters (which is 300 characters), everything in the message text field turns red in colour and a timer appears in the place of the "Send" button indicating how long they must wait to be able to send the message. Such players can either reduce the number of characters in their message or wait for the timer to run out to send it.

Activity Timeout

Players are required to play and finish at least 3 MatchMaking battles during the last 30 days in order to be able to send messages in the lobby chat. If a player failed to do it, they will be considered inactive and a message in yellow will read the following, shown below.

This is another measure to avoid players from flooding the game's chats with unwanted messages.

Chat Prefixes

Sometimes you may see players with a special red-coloured round bracket enclosed prefix in their nicknames. Such players are Community Managers or volunteer Helpers of the game (such as Chat Moderators), depending on the kind of prefix they have on the chat. They help players understand and distinguish normal players from them and make impersonating them simply impossible.

Here are all the current chat prefixes in the game.

Please note that a player can hold multiple positions but only the prefix of their highest position (in the order depicted in the above table) is used.

Defenders of the chat

Any chat requires defenders to make sure players comply with the chat rules and keep violative messages away, and the defenders of the chats in Tanki Online are Chat Moderators.

Reading the above part of this article, volunteer Helpers of the chat moderation team get a special prefix in their nicknames. They are different depending on the status of the Helper in the team—Chat Moderator Candidate, Chat Moderator, and Chat Administrator—as shown below.

Chat Administrators: (A).

Chat Moderators: (M).
Chat Moderator Candidates: (C).

Chat Rules

Players violating the game's rules in the chats can be punished. Here are the rules concerning chat quoted from the official Game Rules of Tanki Online.

Brief Rules

The following in-game activities are prohibited in the Game, Chats, Forums and any other official places of communication:

– use of bots, use of third-party software, exploitation of bugs;
– impersonating a member of Administration or one of its assistants;
– creating obstructions for other users;
– advertising, political propaganda;
– violation of laws, including intellectual property laws;
– sale, purchase, exchange, transfer of Accounts or other in-game property;
– fraud or other dishonest actions.
– insults, threats, slander;
– obscene language, including in the implied form;
– flooding, flaming, spam, printing in capital letters (CAPS LOCK);
– swindling passwords or other Account information;
– instigating others to violate the Game Rules;
– publication of information forbidden by legislation;
– publication of links to third-party resources;
– any forms of discrimination.

2.2. Actions that will lead to (at the Administration’s discretion) a permanent limitation of access to Game’s Chats and Forum (ban):

2.2.1. Phishing — actions that are aimed at gaining access to Users’ confidential data, such as logins and passwords;
2.2.2. Posting links to 3rd party resources that are disguised as the Game’s official resources;
2.2.3. Posting links to resources that promise free crystals, crystals issued by administration, or explain or describe the exploitation of crystal bugs, etc.;
2.2.4. Posting links to sites/hostings containing 3rd party software (cheats, programs, clients, etc.), spreading links to sites containing software that changes the game’s functionality or promises to do so;
2.2.5. Other cases of fraud, aimed at stealing Users’ accounts.

2.3. Actions that will lead to (at the Administration’s discretion) a temporary limitation of access to Game’s Chats and Forum for up to 6 months (ban):

2.3.1. Discrimination towards inexperienced players (newbies): misinformation, intimidation, mockery;
2.3.2. Insults, slander (dissemination of misleading information) in relation to other Users, Administration, moderators, other persons;
2.3.3. Performance of any actions that have a negative influence on the Game’s development and image;
2.3.4. Other forms of behavior that hinder the normal game process which will be recognized as such by the Administration.
2.3.5. Attempts to obtain the password, other Account information or other personal information from any other User, including in the form of extortion by using moral, physical or technical threats;
2.3.6. Sharing the password to one’s own account
2.3.7. Dissemination of any personal information about other Users or about third persons (unless such information is publicly accessible);
2.3.8. Use of bad or strong language, other bad or rude words (phrases) not classified as bad language, including in the implied form;
2.3.9. Publication of the information and materials of sexual, erotic or pornographic nature, picturing or describing sexual relations or deviant sexual practices, as well as posting links to resources containing such information;
2.3.10. Publication of the information or symbols that insult or humiliate the feelings of believers, raises hatred, enmity, racial, international or ethnic discord, intolerance (including insults, giving nicknames on the basis of racial, national, ethnic, religious characteristics), and also provocation of the interlocutor to commit the specified actions;
2.3.11. Propaganda or demonstration of Nazi emblems, symbols, abbreviations or designations, names and surnames of Nazi activists;
2.3.12. Publication of the information in which one may see the elements of calling for violence, war, terrorism, overthrow of power; extremist activity and/or mass disturbances;
2.3.13. Publication of information about political organizations (political leaders) that committed political crimes or crimes against humankind, terrorist acts, or otherwise violated the international laws;
2.3.14. Any form of discrimination by gender, age, religion or other characteristics;
2.3.15. Publication of information containing methods for committing suicide, calls to commit suicide, violence, or other actions that pose a threat to life or health, descriptions of dangerous fighting techniques, stunts, methods for weapons production, description of body modification methods;
2.3.16. Publication of information that describes, instigates or justifies unlawful or antisocial behavior, crime, violence, mutilation, psychic or physical cruelty to people, animals, inflicting damage on the property of others;
2.3.17. Publication of information that causes fear, horror or panic in children, including pictures or descriptions of death, diseases, suicide, accidents, emergencies or disasters and (or) their consequences, other information that may damage health or development of minors;
2.3.18. Publication of information that contains direct or indirect propaganda, calls to consume alcoholic and alcohol-containing drinks, beer, tobacco products, smoking accessories, drugs, toxic, psychotropic and/or intoxicating substances, their precursors, contains information about the places and methods of their production, acquisition, cultivation and use;
2.3.19. Publication of the information that can encourage the desire to participate in gambling games, prostitution, vagrancy or beggary;
2.3.20. Any use of intellectual property objects (software, art, video and other objects or their parts, trademarks, etc.), or other materials without the right holder’s permission; posting links to pirated content; deletion or change of the information on intellectual property rights, in particular links to the right holders, authors and other confirmation of intellectual property rights;
2.3.21. Publication of information that may result in harm/losses for Users or the Administration;
2.3.22. Provision of false or fictitious information, documents or evidence. The Administration warns Users about the criminal and other responsibility for such activities;
2.3.23. Creating topics and/or messages in the Game’s Chats and/or Forums that are Flaming (“arguing for the sake of arguing”, an exchange of messages that is just a war of words, often bearing no relation to the original cause of dispute);
2.3.24. Creating topics and/or messages in the Game’s Chats and/or Forums, aimed at provoking other Users, the Administration, moderators, as well as obstructing communication at the Forum or game chats;

2.4. Actions that will lead to (at the Administration’s discretion) a temporary limitation of access to the Game’s Chats and Forum for up to 24 hours (ban) or an official warning:

2.4.1. Any attempts to pretend to be a former or current employee of the Administration or project assistant (moderator, consultant, etc.), including sending messages on behalf of the Administration or moderators;
2.4.2. Begging in any form, including requests to transfer funds, game values or crystals;
2.4.3. Publication of the information that negates historical events;
2.4.4. Publication of information that contains political solicitation, political advertising, election propaganda of any kind;
2.4.5. Discussion of present-day political issues that can provoke conflict in any way;
2.4.6. Threats in any form related to Users, Administration or third persons;
2.4.7. Publication of information about a minor that suffered as a result of unlawful actions (omissions);
2.4.8. Publication of any advertising materials or information without the Administration’s approval;
2.4.9. Unconstructive criticism of the Game and/or its authors, the Owner;
2.4.10. Commission or instigation (provocation) to actions (inaction) that are prohibited by these Game Rules, the Agreement and/or applicable law.
2.4.11. Starting topics and/or creating messages in game chats and/or on the Forum that:
  2.4.11.1. Reproduce already existing topics or messages, as well as topics that have recently been discussed and/or the answers to which are available in the information sections (the Game Rules, FAQ, Plans, etc.).
  2.4.11.2. Do not correspond to the theme of the section/category;
  2.4.11.3. Contain caps lock or a lot of capital letters in the title and/or content of the topic or message;
  2.4.11.4. Contain the following in the title and/or description of the topic or message: irrelevant or repeated symbols or characters, emoticons, referral links, “cheat codes”, information that complicates the understanding of the topic or section, or does not have any meaning (Flood), for example == – My topic – ==;
  2.4.11.5. Contain text with font size larger than 24;
  2.4.11.6. Lack information and do not reflect a sense of the matter in the title or description of the topic;
  2.4.11.7. Quote parts of previous messages that are too large, and/or images without any special necessity (overquoting);
  2.4.11.8. Continue to discuss the topics that were closed or deleted by the Administration (necroposting);
  2.4.11.9. Have the nature of a personal appeal to the Forum participants. For personal communication please use Private Messages. Personal discussions are allowed in parallel with solving issues.
  2.4.11.10. Contain spam, that is, distribute the information which the addressee did not request, showed no interest in receiving, and/or gave no consent to receiving;
  2.4.11.11. Contain other information that is forbidden by these Game Rules, the Agreement and/or applicable law.

Chat Warnings and Bans

Players breaking the chat rules are punished by banning (disconnection) them from the game's chats based on the violation made. Chat bans can vary based on the severity of the violation, some players can get banned temporarily for 5 minutes, for an hour, or a week, and some even forever permanently.

These are all the possible chat ban duration ranging from small to big: 5 minutes, 1 hour, 1 week, 1 month, forever (permanent).

Based on the severity of the violation, players can also first get warned before a ban is issued (when they continue making violations).

Automatic warns and bans:

Automatic warns and bans can be issued (only) for flooding by the anti-flood system. A ban that is automatically issued for flooding can either be for 5 minutes or 1 hour only.

Moderator warns and bans:

Moderators can issue warnings and bans for violating the rules of the chat and can be of any possible duration we learnt above in this article.

Hiding Messages

A player can be ignored by right clicking their nickname and selecting "Hide messages". This will hide all of their messages from you across all chats of the game.

Chat commands

Several actions can be done by entering the following commands in the game’s chat.

Report commands:

To report players (works only in battle chats): /vote nickname

Read more about reporting a violator here.

Link commands:

Typing the following commands in a chat message will create a link to the respective location.

• #rules — Goes to "Rules" section;
• #plans — Goes to "Developers' Plans" page;
• #feedback — Goes to Ideas and Suggestions;
• #updates — Goes to "Patch Notes and Updates" topic in the forum;
• #clans — Goes to "Clans" section in the forum;
• #ranks — Goes to "Ranks" page;
• #forum — Goes to the main page of the forum;
• #theft — Goes to "What to do if your account has been stolen";
• #wiki — Goes to Tanki Online Wiki;
• #help — Goes to Help Site;
• #nick — Goes to How to change your nickname.
• #news - Goes to Main page
• re: — adds the nickname of the last player who sent you a message in the chat typing form.