I swear I am not playing devils advocate here, I am genuinly curious about the difference of the following question:

How are things like Vent and TS not considered 3rd party tools?

Don't get me wrong, I use TS all the time, and I have NO desire to see it banned from use by SE. It just strikes me as stange that there seems to be this huge distinction between botting tools and controllers that make crafting easier, and tools like TS that make chatting easier. Both tools circumvent using the mechanics that you are meant to use as part of the game. And yet, here we clearly have a case of the Director of the game advocating the use of one kind of tool while, in a completely different thread, having his company condemn the use of similar tools for other purposes.

Again, I am not trying to be smartass or start some hullabloo for no reason. I am just genuinily wondering where the distinction lies.