Era's Woman Problem (Read OP)

[Alice]

Thank you that means a lot i appreciate it. Yeah i got kind of heated as well, and kind of went overboard with mocking people for liking marvel so much. I too am a fan of marvel and guardians of the galaxy, which is a big reason why i was pretty hurt by the whole thing.

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I get that. For me it's such an old thing because I saw a lot of Troma stuff over the years and raised an eyebrow when they cast the guy, because none of that stuff was new for me. So instead I was there in the front row and followed his journey from a shock jockey to an upstanding ally. I guess what was a disappointment to you, was a success story that was undone from my perspective.

Either way, that's totally off topic, I'm just glad I got to properly apologize to you.

 

[House_Of_Lightning]

Ugh, that Kendrick Lamar thread was a trainwreck here... I didn't even have the energy to actually discuss on here because I was dealing with that shit in German Antifa circles. You wouldn't believe how much worse that even got.

Sometimes even among progressives, it's so hard to reach any sort of proper understanding on social justice issues because people tend to be just too selfish to see the bigger picture. :/

"Oh I couldn't possibly be someone who could do anything wrong!" - Yes you could, so listen and learn. It's okay to be wrong sometimes.

I also see a lot of threads where people are being downright and incredibly disrespectful simply because the OP has beliefs that don't mesh with the "general consensus" see every single thread about spiritualism and religion. Is it really all that progressive to instantly dismiss people who take value in spiritualism in such a fashion? "lol you and your imaginary friend" is insanely hurtful to religious people, who can, and will be really progressive people.

Not that I'm religious, but that's something that's really been bugging me in the majority of "progressive" circles I'm in.

Sorry for airing my general annoyedness with pet peeves, OP, it felt like the appropriate thread. x.x

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To be fair on the second situation, I can see how my comment would have gotten "swept up". The previous thread on the topic was a minefield and I probably shouldn't have bothered participating in the second one.

 

[Mugman]

I will never understand the love for a moderation staff that didn't actually have to abide by the Terms of Service, and just made up the rules as they went along. I suppose it was easier to like when you agreed with their politics, but now that it's so easy to see the level of abuse and corruption that such lazy ad-hoc management spawned, it's baffling.

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The TOS stuff doesn't even need to be about politics. For me personally, a huge issue with this forum on the gaming side is all the endless noise. I don't need a front page filled with a dozen God of War threads for the first two weeks the game is out. It's not an "actionable" offense, and it's such a small thing in the surface, but it doesn't mean those threads need to stay open. At that point, why have OTs at all if every user decides their take is groundbreaking

 

[Deleted member 24907]

I think this is unfortunately a byproduct of being part of a gaming-centric forum. Even if EtcetEra is technically a subforum and has plenty of non-gaming people in it. Gaming has serious culture problems and has become a hotbed for shitty alt-right movements starting (and certainly not ending) with GamerGate. It's a culture still largely dominated by shitty straight white males who exercise little introspection and still think the gaming industry is (or at least should be) a boys club and by extension a safe space for their shitty views.

For a gaming forum I would say ResetEra is one of the more progressive ones. I'd say it's rivaled only by Waypoint. Other gaming communities certainly seem benign until something vaguely political shows up and holy hell the crazies come out of the woodwork. Just look at the PC Gaming subreddit around the time of the Price firing from ArenaNet. So unfortunately even though Era has a long ways to go (certainly when it comes to gender issues), it's still one of the more progressive gaming communities. And I'm not saying that to excuse some of the decidedly shitty behavior on here, I'm saying that more as a criticism of the gaming culture at large.

 

[Deleted member 4452]

You're not wrong, and it's such a reflection of the wider world. My reaction was to fall out of my seat dying of laughter that a 30+ yr old man would actually let those words come out of his mouth with sincerity. I shared it with some of my friends in a group chat and to my horror literally every one of them sided with Cavill... As a man who truly sides with feminism and equality, the world is a super depressing and lonely place.

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It's because society at large cares more about the hypothetical minuscule chance of being falsely accused of rape than of people being raped. It is easier for them to empathize with the former than the latter.

 

[Seirith]

Maybe you don't understand the point?

Referring to someone as a Woman denotes the fact they identify as such, are an adult person, and gives them credit as a human being.

Referring to someone as a female doesn't tell us anything about their humanity. A female what? A female dog?

The term "females" used as a noun to describe "women" is dehumanising and is very often intended to be so. It's the same thing as "bitches" in this context.

Your wife may not find it offensive, but if you have any empathy at all you can understand why many do.

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I just read it and I don't get it. I'm female, if someone calls me female I am not offended. Saying that something draws a female audience is not the same as saying it draws an audience of bitches. Based on the context of the conversation, someone can tell if you are talking about female dogs or female humans. IMO, people get offended way to easily. Its impossible to talk these days without someone getting offended.

fe·male
ˈfēˌmāl/
adjective
adjective: female

1. 1.
   of or denoting the sex that can bear offspring or produce eggs, distinguished biologically by the production of gametes (ova) that can be fertilized by male gametes.
   "a herd of female deer"
   • relating to or characteristic of women or female animals.
     "a female audience"
     synonyms: feminine, womanly, ladylike
     "female attributes"
     antonyms: male
   • (of a plant or flower) having a pistil but no stamens.
   • (of parts of machinery, fittings, etc.) manufactured hollow so that a corresponding male part can be inserted.

noun
noun: female; plural noun: females

1. 1.
   a female person, animal, or plant.

 

[Merv]

Stricter moderation isn't the answer. People get warnings, small bans and if they have a history it can lead to a perma ban.

This will not ultimately result in a permanent safe space for everybody, because there will always be new members.

So, report posts you feel are insensitive\problematic. If you notice a trend with a user and mods aren't "handling" it, put the user on ignore.

Outside of that I'm not sure what else to say. I like Era and I've gained a lot of perspective here.

 

[Derrick01]

The reason why "the old place" was good is because the moderation team didn't just ban people based on "TOS violations". They worked really hard to create a certain vibe. It wasn't just soulless HR-esque statements and giving good users warnings or bans for calling people out on their actually toxic shit.

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Let's not go back and rewrite history here. They had plenty of problems and it went back years before the 2016 election. The constant covering for amirox, dragona running rampant and you had mods perming people just because they didn't like them. That's what happened to me on there, my ban message was super hostile and showed whoever did it really had a personal problem with me. I know of quite a few other people who were eventually permed on there for similarly random reasons.

 

[Deleted member 1635]

There are many people here and in the "female" thread arguing if that if a woman says they don't like the word, then the discussion is over, full stop. Lock the thread and ban those who disagree.

I don't like that at all.

I think you can acknowledge an opinion, and still respectfully disagree with it. It's not mansplaining or misogyny for a man to have a different opinion than a woman on a woman's issue.

IE, abortion. If a woman tells me abortion should be banned, based on her personal experience as a woman and mother, I should not be forced to agree with her because she has personal insight that I could never have.

In summary, I think there's a difference between taking concerns seriously (we agree), and ramping up the ban level, as some here are calling for.

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Exactly. I'm firmly on the side that thinks using "female" as a noun in place of "woman" or "girl" is gross, creepy, and condescending, but there are plenty of people, including women, who wouldn't feel the same way. We can speak generally (although we should be careful), but no one individual can truly represent their entire group.

 

[Kayla]

In topics like rape? Rape victims decide. Everyone else gets to shut up and listen.

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This. I just hope people are more willing to listen to rape victims when they are telling you their experiences and perspectives. Instead of people trying to discredit them or downplay their trauma, just listen.

 

[excelsiorlef]

My side? What's my side? I'm against racism, sexism, transphobia, homophobia and the like. But it's hard to know where the line exactly is on these topics, and sometimes it appears that almost literally no one has the same ideas about what those things are and what qualifies.

I want a progressive space as well, you don't need to straw man me. There is a reason I said SOME want different things. I never even put a label on it as progressive or anti progressive.

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Straw man you?

You crafted the biggest one there is in framing this as people who want a safe space with no debate and where they are never challenged vs people who want to debate and have discussions and be challenged and pushed.

 

[artemis]

Black people cannot be "racist" in the same way a white person can. Women cannot be "sexist" in the way a man can. Victims can exist in specific instances, but societally the power lies with white men. Racism and sexism have a component of power in their very definition.

Here's a quote from Sobantu Mzwakali to illustrate:



Backlash from the oppressed group is not the same as the oppression itself.

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That's is true if you have a American point of view. You jumped immediately on Black people, why not White to White racism that has history in Europe? But why should "in the same way" matter in the end? Racism is racism, sexism is sexism.

 

[Unknown Unknown]

While moderation seems strong and appropriately applied on the Etcetera side which contributes to a progressive environment moderators can't be expected to take responsibility for a lack of social progress. They do have the power to guide the forum though, if there are specific standards that can be put forward, recognized and addressed that may help.

Community coordination with sharing concerns might help if there were a thread specifically for that. These threads are good too. It gives a chance for the community to talk about specific concerns related to these issues and how they may be addressed. It also gives some insight into who participates, how they participate, some idea of the direction and depth of their thought, as well as the source of those thoughts they bring forward or echo.

One of the things that has prevented me and maybe others from making reports when seeing the behavior the OP mentions is often the behavior is questionable but not actionable. There is a concern of over-reporting and maybe diminishing the effectiveness of a making an actionable report in the future. If it were alright to simply report a concern only to make it known to the moderator to help them build an actionable case(if one could be made) not for them to take immediate action it would encourage making these concerns known to the moderators.

 

[Sephzilla]

The reason why "the old place" was good is because the moderation team didn't just ban people based on "TOS violations".

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No instead they banned people based on every mods individual feelings and biases.

Or, in the case of Evilore, banned people because they disagreed with him

 

[House_Of_Lightning]

I just read it and I don't get it. I'm female, if someone calls me female I am not offended. Saying that something draws a female audience is not the same as saying it draws an audience of bitches.

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IIRC the thread was about a very specific situation. If one refers to Men by any dozen different words but only refers to women as "female", on a consistent basis, then at some point you have to question where that comes from.

The only circles I know to do something like that are firmly in the red pill/biotruths garbage circles.

 

[astro]

Damn ya'll trying to create NeoEra not even a year into Resetera?

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This type of post needs automatic action if the poster doesn't back it up.

 

[LookAtMeGo]

Let's not go back and rewrite history here. They had plenty of problems and it went back years before the 2016 election. The constant covering for amirox, dragona running rampant and you had mods perming people just because they didn't like them. That's what happened to me on there, my ban message was super hostile and showed whoever did it really had a personal problem with me. I know of quite a few other people who were eventually permed on there for similarly random reasons.

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It was because you HATE videogames :p

 

[mugwhump]

To the people saying era isn't progressive because there are more progressive places out there, and that the only way you could consider era progressive is if you live in a bubble: your compass is off.

Sure, there are even more progressive places out there, but they are hugely outnumbered by the places that are more conservative than era. I can only assume you don't fully realize just how many of said places exist. (Possibly because you avoid them, because they are shitty).

I'm extremely confident that if we were to take a random sample of internet communities and somehow compare their average political leaning, resetera would be in the leftmost quintile.

Not that we shouldn't discuss how to further improve our community; that's a good and worthwhile thing. But let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater, eh?

 

[excelsiorlef]

Moderation has issues with problematic stuff being posted in a nice way so it flies under their blindspots but not subtle enough that isnt caught by people that will get banned by getting frustrated because its a constant barrage of allowed bait.

Some folks are so afraid of that "echo chamber" tag that they end up permabanning decent people.

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Tone over content bans are a serious issues

 

[It’s Time To Go]

That's is true if you have a American point of view. You jumped immediately on Black people, why not White to White racism that has history in Europe? But why should "in the same way" matter in the end? Racism is racism, sexism is sexism.

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seriously?

 

[prophetvx]

No one said to wipe it from existence. People are saying to use it correctly. It's an scientific adjective referring to the sex of a species. You can use it that way.

If a significant portion of the population finds it offensive plus it's not technically even correct to say in that way, then what's the benefit of saying it? Is there a significant portion offended by the word woman? No? Then why not use the word that's guaranteed not to offend anyone at all?

That's my issue. If even 5% are offended by it, why fucking use it when you have a perfectly good word that 0% are offended by?

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Because there is nothing to support the notion that 0% of people are not offended by the use of woman or girl, both are used in a derogatory way at times. That thread, is the first I'd heard of people being offended by the word female in a general context as well.

How about just respecting how people want to be addressed?

 

[Zelas]

Some seem to be looking for a safe space where they can freely discuss their issues without being challenged and questioned, and others on here are looking for interesting debate and being challenged and pushed on ideas.

I have an idea. I don't know if it's feasible, but would it make sense to make a subforum that is intended as a safe space that has heavier moderation and zero tolerance for anything questionable, and then a more generalized forum side that is more open to debate and different lines of thinking?

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I feel like the Hangouts can serve that purpose. I mean if we can have entertainment threads where a specific set of spoiler rules are enacted on a thread by thread basis, why cant certain community threads be the same?

Regardless, I'm really struggling to understand why so many people, on any subject, somehow jump to make sweeping generalizations about 40k members based on the posts of a dozen or so people in a single thread. I had a poster call me "fruity" the other day. I'm not going to start seeing Era as a homophobic hivemind now. The way Era feels about religion is more clear and I still wouldn't call it an anti religion hivemind. Especially when moderation steps in when necessary.

In fact that's the better indication for judging the biases of a site, looking at what is or isnt tolerated and if moderation actually stands by those tenets. Are people disappointed with how those threads were moderated according to the ToS? Or do they think the ToS doesn't go far enough, implying that even more stances on certain topics should be considered bannable offenses?

 

[ArrogantBastard]

No instead they banned people based on every mods individual feelings and biases.

Or, in the case of Evilore, banned people because they disagreed with him

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My ban message was: Since you're displeased with this forum, let's help you on your way to enjoy the forums/communities you prefer...

 

[El Bombastico]

The reason why "the old place" was good is because the moderation team didn't just ban people based on "TOS violations". .

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You're right. They banned people for whatever reason they felt like, TOS be dammed.

 

[Deleted member 2761]

This thread: women and minorities say, "Hey this place could be better", to which some say, "How about we not make it better because while I can't empathize with your pain, being banned sucks."

 

[Alastor3]

This forum is filled with fake progressives who think smoking weed and not actively raping people makes them leftists.

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yep, i thought with ERA it would be different but not really

 

[House_Of_Lightning]

Let's not go back and rewrite history here. They had plenty of problems and it went back years before the 2016 election. The constant covering for amirox, dragona running rampant and you had mods perming people just because they didn't like them. That's what happened to me on there, my ban message was super hostile and showed whoever did it really had a personal problem with me. I know of quite a few other people who were eventually permed on there for similarly random reasons.

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There was a thread about North Korea that basically became a farce, a complete "progressive circle jerk" of "we should humanely nuke and pave them". I responded stating that this mind set is what created North Korea to begin with, this strategy has never worked anywhere else, and it's the strategy of horrible and murderous regimes and human beings.

Perma banned.

 

[Holundrian]

To many dog whistlers and people that got a second chance that still can't help themselves but concern troll, false equivalency everything to push their narrative. Outside of being harsher on bans there is nothing else to do.

 

[artemis]

seriously?

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Tell me where you disagree. How can I reply to this?

 

[VeePs]

I will never understand the love for a moderation staff that didn't actually have to abide by the Terms of Service, and just made up the rules as they went along. I suppose it was easier to like when you agreed with their politics, but now that it's so easy to see the level of abuse and corruption that such lazy ad-hoc management spawned, it's baffling.

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Yep, old place was full of shady shit and had a bias. If it didn't effect you, great. I was never banned. But I realized what was happening and some stories make more sense now.

Give me mods who are transparent, respect the rules they make, and actually discuss with you every time.

 

[Deleted member 30544]

Yeah....i agree with the OP. Kinda.

The thing is that i started to have this impression , first on GAF and now on ERA that minorities are somehow "accepted" as long as we stay in line, but if you try to rise up the voice a little bit or fall in some sort conflict you are immediately shut down and told in a very nice way to "go back to your place" if that make sense. I don't want to say that this is a general impression because that would not be accurate, but definitely I've felt that way sometimes in this forum.

The World cup threads were one example. Some European users could not take you talking shit about the their national futbol teams and it didn't took long for the conversation to move away from futbol and starting to see messages like "You live in a third world country", " Your country is irrelevant to world's history" "i could say how much my country rules in comparison to yours but i would not say it" , stuff like that, and once the moderation got involved (Which was good) they started to play the victim and calling you a racist and stuff like that.
Although to be fair i got a ban too.


Another example was for calling out a user who thinks that Canada and US must merged because they share the same "culture" and I got warned by a moderator who didn't even had the courtesy to identify herself because i was accusing the OP for being racist. First warning i saw for that motive here.


Having said that, i guess this forum is a far cry from US based online communities which are openly tolerant to dog whistles and even blatant hate speech (See Neo.NeoGAF) and that's the reason i stay.

 

[Deepwater]

[some] people get too caught up in labels like progressive #onhere as well as thinking every topic or piece of news regarding a social issue is another battle in the culture wars.

There are definitely discussions you can have on this forum that you couldn't have on many other gaming-centric forums. That doesn't inherently make having those discussions easier for those who have to actually live those respective experiences.

Honestly, the medium of communication is partly to blame. This is a discussion forum, people have been groomed to believe that their opinion is at most welcomed, at minimum of value on every single topic. Other wise why would they be here? I've argued with posters in the past about discussing to learn rather than discussing to argue, because saying that "hey you might not have all the answers" challenges peoples egos and their perceived right-to-opine.

On the other hand, people are acutely wrapped up in how other people think about things. It seems like more and more often I hear things about "outrage culture" as if you have any right to marginalize whether or not someone can or cannot be offended at something. That's grating, that drives a wedge in the discourse because people jump into threads and, without even attempting to empathize, immediately have to proclaim "how you feel about this is invalid. The fact that you feel this particular way about this is problematic of a larger issue"

This leads to endless back and forth but it's so annoying to have to see that in the first place. You can't even have a discussion because people are entering the conversation with the intention of dismissing it without any sort of actual listening. There are TONS of threads where I look at the topic and OP and go "this is dumb" and you know what I do? I stay the fuck outta those threads. Other people use this site, I don't solely own it, if they want to talk about shit that I don't have any interest in engaging, even if it's about silly shit that I personally don't think deserves a whole thread...I don't even enter it.

I...mind my business and continue my day. Lotta y'all can't mind your business.

 

[RDreamer]

That's is true if you have a American point of view. You jumped immediately on Black people, why not White to White racism that has history in Europe? But why should "in the same way" matter in the end? Racism is racism, sexism is sexism.

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Yes I'm talking about an American point of view with the specifics. Obviously change the wording if talking about another country.

In the same way matters because if it isn't the same then it isn't racism or sexism. Racism and sexism are prejudice plus power. If there is no societal power then it is not racism. Power means a lot in the equation. The context means a lot.

Look at the quote I said there. If a slave was being whipped and he said something terrible about white people that is not racism. He has no power. If a slaveholder says/does something terrible to a black person then that is racism, because there is power!

 

[vexx987]

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I'm not going anywhere :)

 

[Border]

Who claims it?

A lot of progressives sure as fuck don't.

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The OP itself alleges that this forum claims itself to be progressive (or rather, I suppose its management does):

There's been some talk lately about how the level of discourse on Era is unacceptable for a forum that claims to be "progressive".

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I would say that there's not actually much evidence for this, but certainly some subset of users have come to the conclusion that this community is meant to stand for progressive values. It's not just troll-outsiders who see ResetERA as a Leftie-haven.

 

[stupei]

I just read it and I don't get it. I'm female, if someone calls me female I am not offended. Saying that something draws a female audience is not the same as saying it draws an audience of bitches. Based on the context of the conversation, someone can tell if you are talking about female dogs or female humans. IMO, people get offended way to easily. Its impossible to talk these days without someone getting offended.

fe·male
ˈfēˌmāl/
adjective
adjective: female

1. 1.
   of or denoting the sex that can bear offspring or produce eggs, distinguished biologically by the production of gametes (ova) that can be fertilized by male gametes.
   "a herd of female deer"
   • relating to or characteristic of women or female animals.
     "a female audience"
     synonyms: feminine, womanly, ladylike
     "female attributes"
     antonyms: male
   • (of a plant or flower) having a pistil but no stamens.
   • (of parts of machinery, fittings, etc.) manufactured hollow so that a corresponding male part can be inserted.

noun
noun: female; plural noun: females

1. 1.
   a female person, animal, or plant.

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When used as an adjective to describe or classify it doesn't sound weird. When used as a noun, it tends to sound weird. I don't think it's usually about being offended so much as it makes a person seem a lot like a creep who doesn't have a lot of interaction with women and thinks of us in the abstract and theoretical more than, you know, just other people. I took the thread as more of a public service announcement.

But frankly I'm all for letting the people who are inclined to continue to say "females." It's a really useful red flag tbh.

 

[Deleted member 1635]

It is completely and utterly mind-blowing that users on this forum can be seen actively participating in doxxing, stalking, and harassment of ResetERA users on sites like Voat, Kiwifarms, and the Bore, and if we call these people out on their conduct, we get banned for it. The idea that an abuse victim gets banned for calling out their abuser is so comically stupid that I have to wonder who came up with it. Evilore could come register on this forum and it would literally be a bannable offense to point out his conduct that led to the formation of the site in the first place.

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Is this for real?

I understand not wanting to bring "drama" here from other places, but surely there is some way to report this kind of thing to the mods and get them removed or at least investigated.

 

[PSqueak]

There was a thread about North Korea that basically became a farce, a complete "progressive circle jerk" of "we should humanely nuke and pave them". I responded stating that this mind set is what created North Korea to begin with, this strategy has never worked anywhere else, and it's the strategy of horrible and murderous regimes and human beings.

Perma banned.

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Oh, now i understand where "the USA should invade canada" guy came from.

 

[ishan]

If this place isn't progressive, do progressive places even exist?

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[Alice]

As for Vetting, is there no way for admins to actually build up a Vetting System like Facebook groups do? Drop a few questions on the user who registered that need to be answered in a satisfactory fashion? I dunno how viable that is, or how it would work, but it's one thing I can think of.

Also maybe further limiting junoir posters' posting priviliges to a certain number a day, so driveby bullshit will be limited? It should also help newbies to get used to the overall climate, and discourage people who only come here to start trouble.

I also think we should probably be harsher with the people excelsiorlef mentioned a couple of pages ago, the ones that post on other sites and basically use those to make fun of us while pretending to be cool here.

 

[excelsiorlef]

Sure, there are even more progressive places out there, but they are hugely outnumbered by the places that are more conservative than era. I can only assume you don't fully realize just how many of said places are out there.

I'm extremely confident that if we were to take a random sample of internet communities and somehow compare their average political leaning, resetera would be in the leftmost quartile.

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This is called defining left by right shifted/ leaning Overton Window... let's not do that

 

[It’s Time To Go]

Tell me where you disagree. How can I reply to this?

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'here is a problem black people in america have, as era is an American centric forum' HOW ABOUT WHITE ON WHITE RACISM THAT MATTERS TOO

 

[Newt]

GAF mods did an alright job at best. They played favorites with people they liked (certain users & communities basically had mod-immunity), and targeted users they disliked. Their mod team had leakers if you knew the right people.

I think the moderation on Era is (at least partially) a direct response to that foolishness, and is a lot more fair.

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Yeah, I think era shares the exact same problems.

Personally though, I don't think that era as a whole has a women issue. I think it's more specific posters that may stand out that have negative ideas of women. The "female" thing isn't inherently mysogenistic, it just makes you sound like an alien when you say it.

 

[Thunder]

Jhezz .. like its hard to articulate what i'm thinking but ill give it a go.

This website/ forum consist of people from all over the world . from different races, religions , ideologies and gender's, its a great mix of people who all share their thoughts and opinions on topics and issues be it gaming or Off-Topic. I feel that in order to have such an open mentality of accepting everyone you need to be willing to be challenged to an extent , with the clear exclusion of sensitive issues like identity , religion and race. But what tends to happen in these threads are random and stupid hot takes and shit posting that throws the thread off and it ends in a locked thread and as someone mentioned before ban graveyards. It's very hard to differentiate between someone who is generally interested in having a constructive discussion and someone who has no interest but to antagonise other users. I do think the moderation here is heavy handed and it does sometimes put me off posting as i dont want to offend even though that may not be my intentions i dont want my words being twisted.

Something i saw on NeoGaf is thread banning, and i think Era needs it. Banning a user from a thread but not the site can help discussion flow more easily, instead of ending discussion that people generally want to have you can take the offenders out of the way.

 

[artemis]

Yes I'm talking about an American point of view with the specifics. Obviously change the wording if talking about another country.

In the same way matters because if it isn't the same then it isn't racism or sexism. Racism and sexism are prejudice plus power. If there is no societal power then it is not racism. Power means a lot in the equation. The context means a lot.

Look at the quote I said there. If a slave was being whipped and he said something terrible about white people that is not racism. He has no power. If a slaveholder says/does something terrible to a black person then that is racism, because there is power!

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I acknowledge that and I agree to what the root is.

'here is a problem black people in america have, as era is an American centric forum' HOW ABOUT WHITE ON WHITE RACISM THAT MATTERS TOO

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You act like I downplay the racism on black people.

 

[Young Liar]

there seems to be a prevailing mindset here wrt what even a "discussion" is, with the implication that there can be no discussion and only an echo chamber if there is no disagreement, as if a "debate" is the only mode that leads to fruitful conversation.

a discussion can be additive. people can share their experiences, thoughts, opinions, or analysis without being contradictory and still lead to a nuanced discussion.

like, do y'all not have good discussions with friends and peers without debating? is it really impossible for y'all to gain insight conversing with people by supporting and adding to their points through different perspectives and filling in blank spots?

i think it's extremely telling that for some people, having a safer space here means to them automatically making this place a "boring echo chamber"

 

[Deleted member 32374]

My ban message was: Since you're displeased with this forum, let's help you on your way to enjoy the forums/communities you prefer...

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Mine was "the role of whiny, persecuted junior has already been filled, thank you"

It was post on how GAF trended toward the negative on most films/books. My following posts, which actually got some discussion about the media we were discussing, were of course ignored by the mod.

Lets remember NeoGAF as being better than it was.

 

[TyrantGuardian]

Fair play. It can be a bit hard to tell sometimes.

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Seeing as I'm constantly on peoples' asses preaching introspection and self-awareness, I love to take subtle digs at myself like that, hoping that others will catch on and call me out for it so it can serve as an example to others. I'm weird like that :P

But yeah, some people are genuinely more drawn toward vitriolic hatred and I'd rather not give fucking nazi scum a monopoly on drawing those people in. I'd rather channel the garbage masculinity I've had beaten into me growing up into connecting with others who are wired the same way over a positive cause rather than let them drift into joining the oppressors. I have no problem with others taking the civil approach, hat's off to you. I ask that you provide me the same courtesy (not that I'd state I should be free of criticism in my approach, quite the opposite.)

 

[VeePs]

One last thing I want to say is while mods aren't perfect and some fake posters come here and try to stir shit up, it's best to hit report and put those posters on ignore. Check back in a few months and there's a very good chance they will be banned.

The ignore function is great on this site. Ignore people who just want to shitpost and have no intention of discussing and just want to rile people up.

 

[Redcrayon]

Moderation has issues with problematic stuff being posted in a nice way so it flies under their blindspots but not subtle enough that isnt caught by people that will get banned by getting frustrated because its a constant barrage of allowed bait.

Some folks are so afraid of that "echo chamber" tag that they end up permabanning decent people.

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If you recognise something as a more subtle brand of bait or dog whistle, the best thing to do is press the alert button and tell the mods why, if enough people do it it removes those blind spots.