AWKWARD ZOMBIE

Agreed, that's what I was trying to say with my previous post.

Also when it comes to modding that sort of thing, it might be more effective to pm the parties so other people can't jump in and add to the debate where there shouldn't be one.

It's a double-edged problem.
If you only send a PM to the people involved, some members will think you're not doing anything as a mod, creating more enmities.
If you post directly in the thread, you run the risk of seeming insensitive or making a fool out of a member, or inciting people to post about whatever the problem was again (even if you tell them to drop it) or about the way you moderate (which should go in this thread).

I suppose it would be better to post a general "Please stop X because Y" post in the thread, then take it to PM with each person involved.

Yes.

It would also help if moderation posts were written more "professionally". I know it's frustrating to deal with this shit all the time, but yelling at people or making jokes doesn't help the situation. Don't be afraid to temp ban people for a short time to give them time to cool down and feel some consequence for what they did though.

Otherwise I think the moderators do a good job, although it'd be nice if there was a mod online at all times, that might be impractical achieve. Hopefully riku will help with that.

People need to realise that moderators can't be everywhere at once even if they're online. That's what the report function is for, don't be afraid to use it. If you see someone making a comment you think is inappropriate, report them and do not respond to their post. If you really can't resist calling someone out personally, resort to PMs so you don't derail threads. And if you still end up responding to someone for whatever reason, do not escalate the situation by name-calling or making fun of the person in question.

I hope I'm not out of line by saying this stuff, but I felt it needed to be said.

Yeah I've kind of run into the PM problem myself. One thing I glean from this thread sometimes is that people seem to think that the proletariats are only doing things when they are publicly intervening in threads to stop arguments and stuff. The truth is we're all killing bots mostly, and when there's a problem, I'm always throwing PMs around (as a few of you probably know already) but those obviously aren't seen by everyone. I know other proletariats do this too. I think it's always better to fix these problems behind the scenes and as privately as possible so drama can be avoided and we don't need to admonish and criticize people on the main forum.

You may not always see it, but we really are always trying to keep things from getting to the point where we have to tell the whole forum what you've done wrong and show everyone what's going on right on the main forum. We (or I, at least) like to handle things like this as privately as possible.

And also I wanted to address what went down last night on the Text Screencaps Thread, considering I can't help but blame myself for how things went down. I wanna start by saying that my comment was not made in moderation. It was made in criticism of Reyo's post. Obviously you can pick it apart and say I was being unfair or whatever, but I wasn't trying to start an argument or anything. I just found it ridiculous that someone would wholeheartedly want to argue about or discuss that specific topic. Obviously anyone can discuss anything they want, I'm not gonna stop you (unless you break rules of course) But you have to remember, I'm still a human being. If I have an opinion about something, I'm gonna want to make it known. We figure it's not necessary to act as Mod machines who just enforce the rules and stuff like that. We like being part of the forum and like to give our own posts and input too. Maybe I was being unfair to Reyo or whatever, but it is what it is. I wasn't trying to moderate, and only made one comment what eventually was taken well out of hand.

Not lookin to excuse myself here or anything. Just saying why I said why I said.

Yeah, that's right. I think we've said that a few times already but there's no harm in repeating it again.

everybody is banned

this is a one person forum now

i am the person

Loli. I don't really think talking like that helps when people are asking proletariats to be consistent. You're not making it any easier for yourself doing that.


I think that's best. A general post directed at everyone publicly and then reprimanding the individual privately. The private part is important because it means no one is jumping in with their two cents when you're trying to do your job and reach an understanding.
And if people keep posting after being told politely to stop, then a mod is well with in their rights to enforce stricter penalties.

Also, I think the main thing of importance is that if you feel strongly about an issue being discussed, either make sure it gets taken to an appropriate place to be discussed, or maybe just walk away from it.

The main times we seem to have problems is when someone has a very strong viewpoint on an issue and it can cloud their judgement on wording or civility. Taboo Topics proved this when it got closed 3 times a couple of years ago.

I also think we need to possibly do something about "gooning" which is when people bandwagon on either side (possibly because of friendship or something) but don't contribute to the topic, such as saying "Oh god, I can't believe you actually think like this!" or stuff like that. It's incendiary and there's really no place for it.

Honestly, the forum has discussed incest 2-3 times before much more civilly, so I'm kinda shocked that this blew up the way it did, though I guess the way Vax worded his post sounded more like a mod reprimand of "No, we're not going there, so stop", so that could have started the freakout as a misunderstanding.

In any case, I think banning topics for discussion shouldn't be a solution at least until the forum shows it's unable to deal with it without flipping their collective shits, which usually doesn't happen. We used to have issues discussing trans* stuff before but now it's a lot easier, and I think it'd be kinda backwards to ban discussion of a subject just because of 1 incident.

Though, on the other hand, I think it would be best if this topic is shelved for a bit to let people cool their heads. No need digging it back up the instant the Text Screencaps thread is opened again after all (especially if it's going to make people discuss the last incident and complain that "this is going to get it locked again, shut up!").

Vax it wasn't that you had an opinion that made me jump in to defend Reyo, it was that your post insinuated he was a horrible person. That's what I couldn't ignore, when you pretty much made the decision, before even listening to a reason, that he either wanted to start a fight or supported incest. No matter which way he answered, short of not answering which he did, he would appear guilty. THAT is what's unfair, giving someone two shitty choices that they can either answer and incriminate themselves or dodge and also incriminate themselves. So I wanted to let you know what you'd done, since I didn't think it had been done on purpose, so that you could be made aware and not do it again in the future.

Apart from NSFW stuff being mostly forbidden (that is except when you want to talk about health concerns and art references), there are no topics that are banned.
However, there is no point in posting something that you know is controversial or taboo somewhere else than in Taboo Topics. Do not do it. Take it to Taboo Topics right away.

Except what's considered a Taboo Topic is so subjective, there's no way to conclusively draw a line. People could get into an argument over bacon for crying out loud. Yes, I know that's a silly example and I don't think we've ever actually gotten mad over it, but at least half of the TST is composed of screencaps of "Social Justice Warriors" (or someone else) having some opinion that the poster would disagree with. A post of someone saying "XYZ is racist" probably isn't terribly funny, its one of those things that just makes most people rage because they have a different opinion. You could post about it in Taboo Topics, but it might not even be that "Taboo", and chances are it's not about making a logical argument, its about making fun of the person in the screencap. Unless what they said is so ridiculous that it becomes comical, the sole purpose of posting that is "Hey look at this stupid person I found on the internet".

The Text Thread just isn't worth it IMHO. Again, if it's funny enough, it goes in Funny Pictures Thread. If it's something controversial that you want to have an intelligent discussion over, it goes in Taboo. If it's just making fun of someone that the poster thinks is dumb, it shouldn't be posted at all. That's essentially bullying at an anonymous level, which doesn't make it okay.

If it involves politics, religion or sexuality it belongs in Taboo. If you're about to say something that's controversial and you know will upset people you should also take it too Taboo. If a discussion is about a serious subject and is upsetting you you should also ask to take it to Taboo. Using some common sense has always been one of the ground rules of the forums.

If people held off on posting the text post screencaps that had really controversial material (like the ones that sparked the last two thread lockings), that would probably help. Maybe they should think "do I really want to show this on a public forum where people will bicker about it nonstop?" That doesn't mean post nothing, but if it's going to lead to someone saying 'hey take this to taboo topics' maybe you should just put it in Taboo to begin with. I know since the first lock, I've been being more mindful of what I post in there to make sure it's not simply bullying or pointing out stuff about pedophilia/incest/etc.

And if people weren't so intent on proving how goddamn right they were all the time to a bunch of strangers, maybe they would be okay with just letting an issue be. I don't really quite know how to say this without sounding insensitive but I know folks on here sure do love their arguments even if they end up going around in circles.

I think a big problem is the weird fetish some people seem to have for being devil's advocates. Yes, you are presenting an alternative perspective on the issue. That doesn't make it worth saying and it definitely doesn't make it appropriate for the topic.

Also, next time someone wants to wax objective like that, try to consider how novel your ideas really are. We were all already aware of the arguments that were made, we just recognize that it doesn't need to be discussed because, hey guess what, there's no reason at all to discuss the validity of incest on an Internet video game forum.