This situation is fast moving and highly charged. In order to try and prevent things from becoming more heated than they need to be, the following rules will be strictly enforced from here on out:
There is to be no fearmongering about things like WW3. If there is a legitimate worry, then you should be able to provide a source that shows things are moving in that direction.
There is a difference between advocating for the world at large to do better by the Ukrainian people and warmongering. If you cross it, you will be banned.
Any trolling, of any kind, will be severely punished
Any racism or Xenophobia will receive stricter bans than usual
ALL SOURCES MUST BE CHECKED BEFORE POSTING, DO NOT POST ANY FAKE LINKS OR NEWS. Please be sure to wait for confirmation from trustworthy news sources before sharing anything new.
Violating any of these guidelines will be met with no less than a 1 month ban from the site. These rules will hold for all threads on this conflict until further notice.
Guys, please don't post stuff from Twitter randos. Given how crazy this situation is, and how much misinformation is floating around, actual journalists and legitimite news agencies only.
Stop it with posting unverified information with no sources backing it up in the same post.
Let me reiterate the next paragraphs from the previous staff posts, in case it was unclear:
ALL SOURCES MUST BE CHECKED BEFORE POSTING, DO NOT POST ANY FAKE LINKS OR NEWS. Please be sure to wait for confirmation from trustworthy news sources before sharing anything new.
Violating any of these guidelines will be met with no less than a 1 month ban from the site. These rules will hold for all threads on this conflict until further notice.
This thread isn't the place for nuclear war speculation
This thread isn't the place to speculate about nuclear war and the horrors tied to it. We understand that the situation is very stressful, but we have to keep this thread organized and focused.
OK, guys, let's chill out a bit. I know the news sounds really scary, but we need to wait for actual confirmation as to what this means in terms of damage. It could be that whatever is going on isn't affecting anything critical and we're all freaking out over nothing.
I'm just asking for everyone to take a breath and wait for the journalists covering the story to do their job and report on what is actually going on, by talking to experts and people at the scene who know the details of the event.
Take a breath, go play a game, maybe watch some Netflix. There's no point in freaking out, let everyone do their jobs right now.
Look, this should go without saying, but not everyone in Russia supports Putin's war in Ukraine. We all joke about how dissenters are liable to "accidentally" find themselves falling out of 5th story windows, into some stray bullets, after drinking tea that was somehow contaminated with radioactive materials, but it is very true that dissent is harshly criminalized and there are those who have been killed for either asking too many questions or asking the wrong questions. We have seen it happen to everyone from activists and political leaders to journalists and whistleblowers who only sought to shine a light on the injustice their fellow countrymen face. People have been thrown in jail on trumped up charges or straight up assassinated in ways that make it blatantly obvious what has happened to them.
We also see this happening right now, in regards to dissent to this war. Protesters have been jailed and perhaps worse. We all know how Putin operates, the people of Ukraine are his victims but so are many of the people in Russia. Yes, there are those who support him, some wholeheartedly and some not knowing the truth due to a large and expansive propaganda network that reaches even Western audiences, but there are also many who have spoken out and would speak out given the chance to do so without losing everything.
As such, nobody should be blaming the general population for what is going on. The Russian government and Russian armed forces are solely to blame for all of this. We shouldn't be letting our anger at the events of the last few days distract us from the identities of those who are responsible for what has happened: Vladimir Putin, his government, and the Russian army. Russia is a dictatorship, the average Russian has as much sway in how their government is run as I have in the next Fire Emblem game: none at all. And we need to remember that.
OK, can we please stop derailing the thread with the Germany talk? If there is a legit article and legit sources (not twitter randos) then make a thread, the focus here should be on the conflict in Ukraine itself and not on one specific nation that isn't even directly involved.
OK, how about we stop the derail? Not everyone knows the intricacies of every other nation's politics and who does what. It's part of why the situation early on in the war was such a dumpsterfire.
There's no need to attack others or make crazy accusations against each other. If the derail continues then the ban hammer starts swinging.
