AWKWARD ZOMBIE

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Madican, I promise it wasn't done to spite you-- not to be a busybody, but Loli had mentioned wanting to see about adding a new mod to help with late-night duties anyway and that she needed to put off the real choice until Great Handsome Oppressor and Dark were around to speak to, as she mentioned in the thread just now. He jokingly suggested being given a green name because new proletariats were being discussed. That's all, it really wasn't to hurt anybody or genuinely deceive, just a joke along the lines of other titles and name colors. It might have been poorly timed with the recent argument but the entire discussion really was "wouldn't it be funny to have a fake mod?"

I have genuine confidence that while a badly timed prank might happen from time to time, no one on our moderator staff would actually do something like that. Everyone may not always agree but I'm dead serious when I say that AZ is absolutely the nicest and most tame and polite forum I've ever run into. The proletariats make a genuine and concerted effort to be as impartial as possible. I've been on a fair number of forums and that is absolutely not the norm. Our drama is minimal and almost always over disagreements on otherwise serious topics being handled with general intelligence and weight. Even if someone is impolite or acts badly in anger it's handled pretty well I think. It's an effort between both proletariats and users that try to stay cool and make their business knowing each other and sharing interests and opinions rather than infighting or internet politics. When I introduced a friend of mine to the forum to read he genuinely didn't understand what we do for "fun" because no one was being trolled or attacked and we don't have a forum omega to kick around and demean; that's what a lot of other forums do, though.

That's just my opinion, though. I think that's something really valuable about AZ and while I joke like everyone else about "isn't this a forum about a webcomic" we have a really good community and I'm glad that we mostly put aside our differences and get along.

Please feel free to report posts if you see any problem with them, or to PM a moderator about them. We won't fault you for it, in fact it's quite appreciated. If we think there's no need for proletariats to intervene then we won't, but better safe than sorry.

Yes, this is why reporting posts is important. I'm not interested in some stuff like the Dating thread but I like reading the Art thread, for instance. We can't have eyes everywhere

I don't feel that way I think the other moderators are competent and I value their work and input very much, though it's true that I may be the most outspoken one and the one who seems most active or most willing to deal punishment. We're discussing new proletariats right now in our Skype mod chat. We'll get back to y'all on that!

Yeah, pretty much. Sometimes I felt "wow, there really aren't many spambots around these days!" before realizing another mod simply took care of them before I could see them.



Re: Text Screencaps being locked
You may disagree with the need for the thread to be locked, but the fact of the matter is that this thread is mostly used to point at people on the Internet and mock them. Now, it's not used just for that, and it can be pretty darn funny to see some of the shit people say, but it's becoming quite annoying when people use the first chance they get to say "ugh I hate X kind of people" whenever they see a screencap of someone being dumb. I hardly see any constructive discussions in this thread, as it often boils down to bashing on X kind of people.
I am glad that the discussion moved on to Taboo Topics quickly (where it was handled remarkably well by most members, kudos!), but that was obviously only the case because it was about pedophilia, which is an EXTREMELY touchy subject. I'm no betting man but I'd put money on any other subject in Text Screencaps not being moved to Taboo (at least not before a mod told you to) and not being dealt with as maturely as this one.
I don't know how exactly to change that but I think we proletariats ought to keep a closer eye on this thread. Maybe we should give it its own rules. No singling out communities/ minorities and mocking them, no drifting into serious discussions.


Re: Madican and Chopstix
First of all, I feel like I'm repeating myself again, but please ignore people you dislike. You can use the foe list if you heavily dislike a member. If anything, I want you guys to be polite. There's no need to call other members name or to tell them very unpleasant things, whether it's about saying they'd be a bad mod or saying their sexuality is dumb. Alright? It makes you a dick either way and that's against the rules. So, play nice. As you may have noticed we don't shy from giving people warnings, but we don't like doing it any more than you guys.
As Wry said, Chopstix with a green name started as a joke on Skype. It was however badly-timed and we understand why Madican could feel like it was done to spite him. We'll try to have a better timing for jokes next time.


Re: New proletariats?
We're talking about it between proletariats. Please don't send us PMs about you wanting to be a moderator - if we need to, we'll ask you guys if you're interested later on. For now, we're just gonna discuss it between proletariats and see what the best way to go about it is.
However, thanks for the input in this thread! It's very appreciated and valued. Keep it up if you have stuff to say! We're open to your ideas and feedback. I'm glad to see you guys so interested and involved.

Well, I've caught up with this and I can't really disagree with the reason text screencaps was locked. I see my post there after Malum sort of a final revelation about it, I suppose.

I think text screencaps could be opened again but with heavier rules as discussed. Maybe even open up a new thread instead with a fresh start, all the rules stated on the first post and then both members and proletariats keeping an eye out to prevent any slamming.

If DeviantArt thread wasn't so inactive already, I'd suggest putting the same rules there. With how it is currently though, I'd say the forum as mostly moved from it except for a rare post here and there.

All in all, I think this was a nice reminder to be careful what we post, especially if names are included. Come to think of it, if we make a new text screencaps thread, we should have a rule to black out or remove names in some other way from the images we post. That will be less harmful.

I trust most active members here have the decency not to look people up to bully them about something they said or did but there is always a chance a lurker or a guest could see the name and hunt these people down.
That would be something I wouldn't really want to see happen as a result of what we post here.

I don't know how to feel about the 'don't laugh at neckbeards/heretics/polititians' thing. Is it a rule that really needs to be implemented? I feel that if a person dislikes a thing it's no big deal.
It's more when everyone else jumps on the opportunity to also dump hate that's when it becomes definite bullying. I know I've said off hand comments that are a bit rude or sarcastic meaning only to challenge the OP, only to have half a dozen other people jump in and turn my single comment into a lynch mob.
And the most effective way of stopping that is for a mod to go 'Guys, enough.'

I think a list of care bear etiquette rules are just too... nanny-ish.

I guess I feel dealing with these problems case by case is better than having one hard rule enforcing love and friendship.

It's hard to make a choice. When you need a mod to stop people from saying shit, you've already messed up, in my opinion. I'm not saying poking fun at stuff or people should be forbidden. I just don't want it to go too far, too often.

I think that Lolita did the best thing in her opinion, thinking about the thread and that it often devolves into arguing and yelling at internet people. While I don't think a lock was completely necessary, I don't read into any of the threads, so if there were a problem, I hadn't noticed it. On the topic of the thread, though, I'd like to say that I enjoy the humorous (ex. Wadjet) caps far more than the antagonistic (what started the discussion in Taboo Topics) ones.

So it was an ill-timed joke then. Alright, that's good enough for me. Sorry about that Lolita, and for the PM. I've had people, in real-life, do exactly what I thought you did and it pretty much put me into full-on defensive mode. I'm no stranger to bullying.

I for one agree with the thread lock. That thread was extremely repetitive in content and was being used slyly by people to propagate their opinions while avoiding a discussion to defend their points. I do think it should eventually be re-opened/re-made as a funny text-only thread, to avoid the funny pics thread from being clogged with text (the original reason it was created). That rule shouldn't be enforced too strictly, just deleting posts that are clearly intended to inflict cringe or rage without humorous intent.

vote cafall for all proletariats, admin, and forum software

banned

I honestly don't think the text screencap thread was ever really necessary. If it really is genuinely funny, it can go in the Funny Picture Thread. If it's only funny because its making fun of someone (which made up most of the thread) it's bound to tread on somebody's toes or turn ugly somehow. The only reason I can remember for making the Text thread was because people were tired of reading huge masses of text in the Funny Pics thread, and I never really minded that. (there's always the good ol' TLDR approach) It definitely took a turn for the "lets make fun of dumb people" route since then.

I think the main problem is that when people read about these people, it slowly became acceptable as a group to make fun of them. It kinda diverged from "wow this guy has a shitty/dumb opinion" to "wow, this bronie has a stupid/dumb opinion" to "why are heretics so socially awkward and dumb"

I mean, I kinda cringed when the okcupid posts were a big thing in the text thread because it boiled down to "wow, look at this guy and his shitty attitude, no wonder he's a virgin"

I also agree that if someone is going to post something like this, we need to censor names. Very often we've had people go and look for the source tumblr or whatever to verify if it's a joke account or see how shitty the person "really is" and that feels really offputting.

It just sounds like too much trouble to go through for a laugh, imo.

We could make a text thread with a rule of "no pictures should be posted for the sole purpose of making fun of their opinions, no matter how ridiculous they might seem"

About the recent text topics thread lock.

If it gets unlocked again, I'd suggest placing new rules on what can't be posted. There were only new rules about not going into hate trains but seeing as it got locked again, I think we need to restrict the material if it opens again.

In this case, no taboo topics like pedophilia, incest and so on.
We all have our own ideas of these kind of topics, so it might be better we leave them alone (at least in threads meant for fun) rather than people using them to jump down someone's throat.