I completely understand the reservation, but keep in mind that WoW has a different playerbase from FFXIV. We tend to have older, more mature players here. The insanity that happens on WoW (and on that game, I do keep general and other chats turned off) wouldn't likely be as prevalent here. Plus, with ignore, it's easy to just tune out repeat offenders.

The thing is, people who wish to be obnoxious -will- find a way to be obnoxious. Whether they spam /poke a bajillion times or spam in shout or say, they know how to get their attention.

I still think that a chat channel could do too much good for those who wish to use it, especially considering that one of the biggest complaints I've heard from people who have left this game have been "it's just too quiet".

Now if we were all forced to listen to this chat channel all the time, that'd be a different story. I wouldn't want it, either. But considering you can turn off /shout, /say, and others, I really don't think SE would implement such a feature that would work differently.