On reducing vitriol

[Ivan The Mouse]

Literally accept that communities change over time.

Then we can change this attitude the forum has right now. As simple as that.

[Megas]

Then we can change this attitude the forum has right now. As simple as that.

Even if it does change dood, I'd bet 50 dollars it won't become anything similar to the original proboards forum

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What exactly do you want out of this forum?

[Seika]

Well, I'd like the mods opinion on this as well.

This is a notice, rather than a change to the rules. As such, I understand that we would let that go up until the point that someone reported it. If it were reported, we would be ready to listen to their complaint and explanation of how they felt discomfited. I don't think we'd necessarily even give someone a private for such an indirect and one-off use, but we might ask the reported poster to change their wording because it was manifestly making other users uncomfortable.

So ... use some of these words if you must, but know that they're not accepted by everyone, that you might get asked to stop if we decide on the basis of provided evidence that you're breaking the "don't discomfit other users rule", and that if you persistently used the words despite being told that you were being reported by other users, we might eventually start taking steps on the formal punishment ladder.

Once more: it's not a new rule, but rather a way to inform a number of users (apparently ignorant of the connotations of their vocabulary) that they might be in violation of old ones, whether that's the flaming rule or the discomforting users rule.

All that being the case, the staff as a whole would rather not deal with issues of wording people's posts and mediating between offenders and offended if we don't have to. Nor are we supportive of people thinking slurs are just fine and dandy to use. It would be easier and make us happier if people voluntarily decided not to use this sort of language.

[Ivan The Mouse]

Dood, do you even like the forum at all?

I mean, what exactly is the point of a politically correct forum to talk about porn games?

I'm not championing political correctness in general. I just want for people to stop conflating "chuunibyou" with "edgy" and treating it like an insult. Or better yet, don't use the word at all because you people don't know how to use it and I don't trust you with it. But the latter will never happen, for certain. Or rather, I won't dare to use force to make people stop using it, anything beyond mere suggestion.

I'm just giving you a reminder how that word should be used and what does it mean, since it has been brought up. But then, you people simply chose to ignore it, under the assumption of getting used to people's stupidity.

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Even if it does change dood, I'd bet 50 dollars it won't become anything similar to the original proboards forum

We can't bring that back, but we can make what we have now better.

[Gold5]

it only makes the forum look inhospitable.

Just a quick question... can anyone compare the number of active users today to the number of active users 4 years ago? Because this forum looks pretty hospitable to me.

[Cruor]

The problem with your conception of BL's vitriol is the fact that you came here back when that vitriol has seeped outside the TM-GD. BL, as I first knew it, only had it's vitriol quarantined inside the TM-GD. Nobody, back then, brought massive amounts of it outside TM-GD, if they bought anything at all. That's what I knew back in the Proboards Era of BL, when vitriol was kept in a subforum and mostly stayed there.

And my point here is, you're telling me to "get used to it.": The vitriol, the memes, the irony, the acerbity, the stupidity, the antipathy, the shitposting, the elitism of BL in general. I myself never cared what goes into TM-GD and all the chaos this whole forum has can stay there for all I care. But to see it in the other parts where most of the activity happens? That's not a too good sign, isn't it?

One of the most vitriolic users I've known on this forum was Exfm (ask Verg, toby, or KENTA about their Umineko arguments). Who never left AMG after like 2008. Fanfics was also filled with it. In fact, I'd argue it wasn't even that bad in TM-GD ever. (I should mention that I actually liked Exfm even though I never never really agreed with many of his long list of opinions. He was the SMT king)

But yeah, I do agree the current general forum atmosphere is much more acidic. But again that's less to do with the language used but more the trend of the attitude of the users (and I would consider calling things autistic as an insult to be this as a lack of consideration). I mean, a few months ago even without widespread use of such terms everyone just started 'memeposting' or however you'd like to describe it.

Now the reason for that, I have no recourse. I think it only got this bad because we had people being hostile to each other without it. I mean, even years ago people called things retarded, now, they didn't call things autistic (which is pretty much exclusive to a certain forum). Its only when people began constantly making in jokes, one liners, etc. did discussion slip so much. I mean, it became a joke to some people to see someone posting seriously here. That's a problem.

So yeah, I can definitely see calling things autistic as the main ones who do that are definitely contributing to a hostile forum atmosphere.

[Paitouch]

My dastardly plot of turning AGMD into a forum of cute and funny image posts and no opinions is being uncovered nanodesupoi.

[Mcjon01]

My dastardly plot of turning AGMD into a forum of cute and funny image posts and no opinions is being uncovered nanodesupoi.

It doesn't really matter what plots you hatch since they're just going to fall apart in 300 posts, right? And a plot with no follow-through can never be particularly dastardly. Maybe dangerous, sure, but that's at best and being generous.

[RacingeR]

This is a notice, rather than a change to the rules. As such, I understand that we would let that go up until the point that someone reported it. If it were reported, we would be ready to listen to their complaint and explanation of how they felt discomfited. I don't think we'd necessarily even give someone a private for such an indirect and one-off use, but we might ask the reported poster to change their wording because it was manifestly making other users uncomfortable.

So ... use some of these words if you must, but know that they're not accepted by everyone, that you might get asked to stop if we decide on the basis of provided evidence that you're breaking the "don't discomfit other users rule", and that if you persistently used the words despite being told that you were being reported by other users, we might eventually start taking steps on the formal punishment ladder.

Once more: it's not a new rule, but rather a way to inform a number of users (apparently ignorant of the connotations of their vocabulary) that they might be in violation of old ones, whether that's the flaming rule or the discomforting users rule.

All that being the case, the staff as a whole would rather not deal with issues of wording people's posts and mediating between offenders and offended if we don't have to. Nor are we supportive of people thinking slurs are just fine and dandy to use. It would be easier and make us happier if people voluntarily decided not to use this sort of language.

Well, I can agree with this, as long as discernment is adequately used.

[Cruor]

Yeah, I'm okay if its how Seika says it will be.

[mAc Chaos]

i literally said that in the OP ;_;

anyway the good part is the forum culture being a topic of discussion instead of just something in the back of peoples minds as it usually is

[Cruor]

From what the previous thread sounded like and posts here it sounded more like 'things which sound clearly offensive aren't allowed' and I was like woah.

[Ace]

From what Lyco and Rai said, the use of autism outside of its intended purpose of classifying a mental condition makes them uncomfortable. Would that break the "don't discomfort others" rule enough to get a warning though?

[Dark Pulse]

Does calling Sojuro retarded because he never realized he was about to be hit with a comet when it was coming right at him count as flaming now? Because that's what the rule is. If you were to say that you aren't directly insulting someone or even directly talking to someone.

Rule doesn't apply in this case.

People, it's not hard. We're not saying "You can't use these words," we're saying "think carefully about which words you use." And as Seika said, we're not going to be cracking down on every little use of it, but if it's making some people uncomfortable, we are going to be looking into it.

Even though some people will take offense to retarded, too many people use it, so I think it's over the general cusp. Not only that, but it's a fictional character (right? I think it is...) so nobody's actually being harmed here. Someone saying "I'm offended you use that word because I know someone who's like that!" over using it in that way has a thin skin.

But I'm still waiting for a justification of why "autistic" is the only word that can be used to describe a certain class of behavior when "obsessive" is practically (if not totally) synonymous with it.

And no, it does not mean people can just smack the report button every time words they don't like come up, either - they need to differentiate between benign uses of the word versus personal attacks. Someone saying something is "retarded" isn't quite on the same level as a racial, ethnic, or personal slur, and there is also a step of a difference between a fictional character and an actual, living, breathing human being.

I generally don't like censorship on forums, we're basically all adults here (at least physically...), and they are forums for a universe that's got no shortage of adult content, be it sex or violence.

We shouldn't have to even BE telling people to knock it off, but when self-policing fails, we will be looking into it. That's basically all this rule was meant to say.

Police yourselves and things will be fine, but if enough people are upset, we will step in and look at what's going on.

[Spinach]

From what Lyco and Rai said, the use of autism outside of its intended purpose of classifying a mental condition makes them uncomfortable. Would that break the "don't discomfort others" rule enough to get a warning though?

Apparently yes.

[Paitouch]

I can't speak for everyone else, but after I finished the sentence with jewtube in it, I stopped reading the OP and hurried to post about how funny I thought that was nanodesupoi.

[Megas]

I'm literally fine as long as I can use chuuni as it's been used in the past.

I can avoid name calling users pretty easily

[kay4today]

From what Lyco and Rai said, the use of autism outside of its intended purpose of classifying a mental condition makes them uncomfortable. Would that break the "don't discomfort others" rule enough to get a warning though?

i think it should be simple

[mAc Chaos]

From what the previous thread sounded like and posts here it sounded more like 'things which sound clearly offensive aren't allowed' and I was like woah.

i was struggling to come up with a way to just say "yeah you CAN technically be a dick rulewise. but why cant you just not be one"

[Paitouch]

it's a fictional character (right? I think it is...) so nobody's actually being harmed here.

This is what I really care about nanodesupoi. I just want the freedom to call random fictional characters retarded/autistic nanodesupoi.