[Bug] Group publics allow targeted exclusion.

[SolacianAllie]

Pre-submission checklist

• (If using Mods) I ensured the issue occurred without using mods by renaming version.dll to version.dll.disabled
• I checked that no other Bug Report describing my problem exists.
• I accept that this issue may be closed if any of the above are found to be untrue.

Platform

SteamPC

Operating System

Linux but effects all

Game Version

2025r180

Branch

Stable (Default branch, use this if unsure)

Describe what happened as precisely as possible.

Public group lobbies still enforce their own block lists. This wouldn’t be a problem if the game had a huge player base like VRChat, but it doesn’t. As a result, certain group owners can effectively shut out players they dislike by controlling the largest lobby (and at times, only lobby) since that’s where most people gather. In practice, this means the game can become unplayable if the only active lobby is run by someone who doesn’t want you there.

Describe what you expected to happen instead.

Public groups should remain joinable regardless of block lists since they function as open lobbies with just a name tag difference. This feature should stay disabled for now and only be reconsidered once we have a large enough user base where targeted exclusion won’t be a concern."

Content GUID

No response

In as much detail as possible, describe the exact steps you took to make the problem appear.

Join the game when the only active lobby is a public group.
Get blocked by that group.
Congratulations—you’ve effectively been shadow-banned. No one will ever join the empty instance you just created because your excluded from the world where the people are.

Other remarks

No response

[ddakebono]

Currently Group Public functions completely identically to Public instances, there is no "group blocklist" functionality. There's been discussions internally and both public instance types will have changes in regards to how kicking is handled.

The exact same thing can happen in a regular public, if the instance owner doesn't like someone they can freely kick them immediately, this is something that will be changing in the future.

[SolacianAllie]

Currently Group Public functions completely identically to Public instances, there is no "group blocklist" functionality. There's been discussions internally and both public instance types will have changes in regards to how kicking is handled.

The exact same thing can happen in a regular public, if the instance owner doesn't like someone they can freely kick them immediately, this is something that will be changing in the future.

I hope so. Any moderative action taken by someone who isn’t an official moderator regardless of whether they’re the instance owner or otherwise should go through a democratic process, with a required explanation. Without this, it leaves room for people with superiority complexes to target and exclude others they simply dislike, which isn’t how ChilloutVR should be.

[Momofier]

Groups themselves should retain the ability to control their own instance but up to the moderation of the group or a moderator. However, I think there should be a compromise. If the group owner is found abusing this power. Any group they created should have this revoked. This should be part of Report group and the allowed moderation of group public's should be a boolean on the player.

[WandDschungel]

Groups themselves should retain the ability to control their own instance but up to the moderation of the group or a moderator. However, I think there should be a compromise. If the group owner is found abusing this power. Any group they created should have this revoked. This should be part of Report group and the allowed moderation of group public's should be a boolean on the player.

while i do agree with this in a sense that groups should be able to moderate their own instances, this should be limited to private group instance types only and group public instance types should never get this much power, making a compromise for group leaders, will just cause trouble if the moderators of that group are actually at fault and not the creator of that group.

Group Publics imo can be removed again, as they serve no other purpose other then create an instance representing a group, while you can easily use word of mouth to promote your group, or even props etc.

[Momofier]

Groups themselves should retain the ability to control their own instance but up to the moderation of the group or a moderator. However, I think there should be a compromise. If the group owner is found abusing this power. Any group they created should have this revoked. This should be part of Report group and the allowed moderation of group public's should be a boolean on the player.

while i do agree with this in a sense that groups should be able to moderate their own instances, this should be limited to private group instance types only and group public instance types should never get this much power, making a compromise for group leaders, will just cause trouble if the moderators of that group are actually at fault and not the creator of that group.

Group Publics imo can be removed again, as they serve no other purpose other then create an instance representing a group, while you can easily use word of mouth to promote your group, or even props etc.

Can also do a straight up permissions system for groups if their moderators are the issue. I personally am very picky about my moderators specifically because of this.