The Banhammer and You: A User's Guide to the Forums

[General Twinkletoes]

The Escapist either needs to change its Code of Conduct for the forums, or enact the same code for the site's contributions.

Why's that? The site contributers being able to say anything makes for funny videos, and it'd be a lot more boring otherwise. Forum goes being able to say anything leads to an unmoderated cesspool that is boring and stupid to read through, and filled with angry idiots shouting bullshit at eachother over nothing. This is the best of both worlds, the forums aren't total ragefests and the videos can still be funny.

If you want unmoderated discussion, you can go to 4chan or reddit.

 

[DigitalSushi]

What's The Escapist's policy on general racist/sexist/homophobic/transphobic slurs when not directed at any forum member in particular? Are words like homo/fag/tranny/******/spic/monkey/kike etc OK to throw around?

I only ask because I've attempted to report homophobic/transphobic slurs in the past with no result, and right now there's a thread in R&P which starts off by referring to Asian-Americans as "Yellow Americans" and actually managed to get more racist from there. I tried reporting it and - again - nothing happened.

The Code of Conduct appears to take a general stance against sexist/racist language but I've never seen it enforced. Maybe it's just because it's not directed at any particular forum member in particular, but I can't imagine it paints a great impression of The Escapist when LGBT people/racial minorities drop by and see themselves cheerfully described with offensive language, while people are getting warnings for using the word "idiot".

If you spam the same report button you might end up setting off the automatic spam detection on this site, basically deleting all those reports you've just done and stopping our inbox's getting filled with spam.

Hit it once, its all that is needed, for you want us to have a closer look at an issue then you can either PM us directly or use the Moderation User Group. using this thread helps of course.

 

[DigitalSushi]

If you spam the same report button you might end up setting off the automatic spam detection on this site, basically deleting all those reports you've just done and stopping our inbox's getting filled with spam.

Hit it once, its all that is needed, for you want us to have a closer look at an issue then you can either PM us directly or use the Moderation User Group. using this thread helps of course.

I only ever click the report button once. I figured that was all that was needed.

Again, I'm interested to know whether The Escapist has any kind of policy against using racist and homophobic slurs. Is it OK for forum members to describe groups of people as n***rs or f*gs, so long as they're not directing it at a particular member?

No its not OK, its an insulting pejorative.

 

[southparkdudez]

Great pointers in here thank you, I always try to act my best but this will help me even more.

 

[manic_depressive13]

Can someone please clarify what qualifies as sexism around here? Apparently calling women who don't dress modestly enough for your tastes "sluts" and comparing them to objects who have sex robbed from them isn't sexist according to the Escapists standards, so I would be fascinated to know what is.

 

[DigitalSushi]

Can someone please clarify what qualifies as sexism around here? Apparently calling women who don't dress modestly enough for your tastes "sluts" and comparing them to objects who have sex robbed from them isn't sexist according to the Escapists standards, so I would be fascinated to know what is.

That's not nice, could you link me the comment please and I'll take a look at it.

Great pointers in here thank you, I always try to act my best but this will help me even more.

Its good this sort of things helps, also you can join the Moderation Team user group for further clarification and as another way to quickly get hold of the mods here
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/groups/chat/Moderation-Team

oh and the mods here have blue names, just so you know.

 

[manic_depressive13]

Can someone please clarify what qualifies as sexism around here? Apparently calling women who don't dress modestly enough for your tastes "sluts" and comparing them to objects who have sex robbed from them isn't sexist according to the Escapists standards, so I would be fascinated to know what is.

That's not nice, could you link me the comment please and I'll take a look at it.

It's not 'a' post. Go through this thread: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.401808-The-Provocative-Clothing-Rape-Defense?page=1

and ctrl-f "slut", then read those posts. Here, I'll help you out a bit. These are all from the second page alone:

Spoiler

People don't use it as a defense for rape except in cases of where the woman's character comes into question. It's the same way as a woman who's constantly going to bars, who is known for being a slut and so on.

If enough tags up then it can be considered circumstantial evidence against her case of rape.

There are a lot of cases of women later on coming out and saying that the person who "raped" them in fact didn't rape them but they said it.

Spoiler

They don't use it as a defence for rape. It's a way of giving the person who wore as much as a bra and some knickers some responsibility. Dressing like a slut means you're only going to be seen and treated as a slut by some stranger, hell probably even to a lot of people who know you well, so some responsibility needs to be accepted for that.

A moderator actually responded to this next one later in the thread saying that "We don't tolerate language like [retard] here" and then proceeded to tolerate the shit out of it seeing as it wasn't moderated in any way.

Spoiler

I like how the subject of the woman being flirtatous and leading the man on is not included. You think women only DRESS a certain way or do you think it follows that they also act a certain way when dressed (lets not pull any punches here) like a slut. Try to act like booty shorts at the club instead of the gym is somehow not slutty if you want to but then youre just being dishonest.

Before you say (like a retard) that Im actually defending the rapist: False. I am not defending the rapist. Rape is so obviously wrong it is insulting you accuse me of thinking otherwise.

This isn't even counting the people who compared women to objects who have sex 'stolen' from them like a car or a house. Several women on this site have expressed disappointment with the lack of moderation surrounding sexism on these forums. If you want to have a clause in the Code of Conduct saying you don't tolerate sexism, I suggest you at least define sexism, because by you are alienating your female forum-goers with how shockingly tolerant you are of it.

 

[DigitalSushi]

Can someone please clarify what qualifies as sexism around here? Apparently calling women who don't dress modestly enough for your tastes "sluts" and comparing them to objects who have sex robbed from them isn't sexist according to the Escapists standards, so I would be fascinated to know what is.

That's not nice, could you link me the comment please and I'll take a look at it.

It's not 'a' post. Go through this thread: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.401808-The-Provocative-Clothing-Rape-Defense?page=1

and ctrl-f "slut", then read those posts. Here, I'll help you out a bit. These are all from the second page alone:

Spoiler

People don't use it as a defense for rape except in cases of where the woman's character comes into question. It's the same way as a woman who's constantly going to bars, who is known for being a slut and so on.

If enough tags up then it can be considered circumstantial evidence against her case of rape.

There are a lot of cases of women later on coming out and saying that the person who "raped" them in fact didn't rape them but they said it.

Spoiler

They don't use it as a defence for rape. It's a way of giving the person who wore as much as a bra and some knickers some responsibility. Dressing like a slut means you're only going to be seen and treated as a slut by some stranger, hell probably even to a lot of people who know you well, so some responsibility needs to be accepted for that.

A moderator actually responded to this next one later in the thread saying that "We don't tolerate language like [retard] here" and then proceeded to tolerate the shit out of it seeing as it wasn't moderated in any way.

Spoiler

I like how the subject of the woman being flirtatous and leading the man on is not included. You think women only DRESS a certain way or do you think it follows that they also act a certain way when dressed (lets not pull any punches here) like a slut. Try to act like booty shorts at the club instead of the gym is somehow not slutty if you want to but then youre just being dishonest.

Before you say (like a retard) that Im actually defending the rapist: False. I am not defending the rapist. Rape is so obviously wrong it is insulting you accuse me of thinking otherwise.

This isn't even counting the people who compared women to objects who have sex 'stolen' from them like a car or a house. Several women on this site have expressed disappointment with the lack of moderation surrounding sexism on these forums. If you want to have a clause in the Code of Conduct saying you don't tolerate sexism, I suggest you at least define sexism, because by you are alienating your female forum-goers with how shockingly tolerant you are of it.

Can someone please clarify what qualifies as sexism around here? Apparently calling women who don't dress modestly enough for your tastes "sluts" and comparing them to objects who have sex robbed from them isn't sexist according to the Escapists standards, so I would be fascinated to know what is.

That's not nice, could you link me the comment please and I'll take a look at it.

It's not 'a' post. Go through this thread: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.401808-The-Provocative-Clothing-Rape-Defense?page=1

and ctrl-f "slut", then read those posts. Here, I'll help you out a bit. These are all from the second page alone:

Spoiler

People don't use it as a defense for rape except in cases of where the woman's character comes into question. It's the same way as a woman who's constantly going to bars, who is known for being a slut and so on.

If enough tags up then it can be considered circumstantial evidence against her case of rape.

There are a lot of cases of women later on coming out and saying that the person who "raped" them in fact didn't rape them but they said it.

Spoiler

They don't use it as a defence for rape. It's a way of giving the person who wore as much as a bra and some knickers some responsibility. Dressing like a slut means you're only going to be seen and treated as a slut by some stranger, hell probably even to a lot of people who know you well, so some responsibility needs to be accepted for that.

A moderator actually responded to this next one later in the thread saying that "We don't tolerate language like [retard] here" and then proceeded to tolerate the shit out of it seeing as it wasn't moderated in any way.

Spoiler

I like how the subject of the woman being flirtatous and leading the man on is not included. You think women only DRESS a certain way or do you think it follows that they also act a certain way when dressed (lets not pull any punches here) like a slut. Try to act like booty shorts at the club instead of the gym is somehow not slutty if you want to but then youre just being dishonest.

Before you say (like a retard) that Im actually defending the rapist: False. I am not defending the rapist. Rape is so obviously wrong it is insulting you accuse me of thinking otherwise.

This isn't even counting the people who compared women to objects who have sex 'stolen' from them like a car or a house. Several women on this site have expressed disappointment with the lack of moderation surrounding sexism on these forums. If you want to have a clause in the Code of Conduct saying you don't tolerate sexism, I suggest you at least define sexism, because by you are alienating your female forum-goers with how shockingly tolerant you are of it.

Firstly Manic, I'd like to apologise for taking so long to get back to you on this matter.

I find it troubling that you and other people feel that we are tolerant of sexism, I'll admit that I'm not perfect and I do fuck up sometimes, I've emailed all of the mods with regards to this issue to get a round table discussion on this matter.

 

[PsychicTaco115]

If someone reports a post, can you guys tell what the reporting was for?

Like, say I report a post for being in a wrong section; can you tell that it's just in the wrong section or what?

 

[Eleuthera]

If someone reports a post, can you guys tell what the reporting was for?

Like, say I report a post for being in a wrong section; can you tell that it's just in the wrong section or what?

Yeah, like @TopazFusion said, you'll get answers more quickly/easier in the Mod Group.
However since I'm here anyway. No, we can't see what a post was flagged for. We can see the post itself (obviously) and where it's posted, so if it's obviously a report for being in the wrong section we'll notice.

 

[manic_depressive13]

Firstly Manic, I'd like to apologise for taking so long to get back to you on this matter.

I find it troubling that you and other people feel that we are tolerant of sexism, I'll admit that I'm not perfect and I do fuck up sometimes, I've emailed all of the mods with regards to this issue to get a round table discussion on this matter.

Uhuh. I don't mean to be rude but I'm patiently awaiting your verdict here.

 

[Eleuthera]

Uhuh. I don't mean to be rude but I'm patiently awaiting your verdict here.

I'll give you my reply then. The topic was brought up with the mods in general, and it will probably not come as a surprise that we're not 100% in agreement. I don't know if an official line will be communicated, but here's my view as I posted it in the mod-discussion:

Since he posted that complaint I've wanted to reply a few times, but since this all happened outside my jurisdiction and I didn't want to step on anyone's toes I refrained from doing so.

IMO, the issues brought forward by this user aren't sexism, they're definitely not nice, but calling a subgroup of women 'slut' and not all of them is pretty much by definition not sexism. The issue he has with "comparing women to houses, who have sex stolen from them" I also don't really agree with, I think it's a rather apt comparison usually.

I don't really have any good ideas as to how to communicate this to the user(s) though. I feel just explaining why I feel this way will only lead to more discussion

Keep in mind this is my personal opinion, and not any official stance of either the Escapist or the mods as a group.

 

[manic_depressive13]

Uhuh. I don't mean to be rude but I'm patiently awaiting your verdict here.

I'll give you my reply then. The topic was brought up with the mods in general, and it will probably not come as a surprise that we're not 100% in agreement. I don't know if an official line will be communicated, but here's my view as I posted it in the mod-discussion:

Since he posted that complaint I've wanted to reply a few times, but since this all happened outside my jurisdiction and I didn't want to step on anyone's toes I refrained from doing so.

IMO, the issues brought forward by this user aren't sexism, they're definitely not nice, but calling a subgroup of women 'slut' and not all of them is pretty much by definition not sexism. The issue he has with "comparing women to houses, who have sex stolen from them" I also don't really agree with, I think it's a rather apt comparison usually.

I don't really have any good ideas as to how to communicate this to the user(s) though. I feel just explaining why I feel this way will only lead to more discussion

Keep in mind this is my personal opinion, and not any official stance of either the Escapist or the mods as a group.

Woooow, okay. I'm not sure what I was expecting but I did have some vestiges of hope that have now been quite thoroughly dashed.

Saying "Some women are sluts" is about as not sexist as saying "Some black people are niggers" isn't racist. "Slut" is a slur designed to shame women who enjoy their sexuality. It's fucking horrifying that you would say it's not sexist. You could argue that some people use "slut" to describe men, but some people use "******" to describe white people, and some people call their straight friends "faggots". Personal usage doesn't change the shameful historical origins and cultural connotations of slurs.

And pray, how is it "a rather apt comparison" to compare women to houses? Last I checked my vagina didn't have a lock, but I'll go check a second time, and while I'm at it I may as well wash some of the vomit out of my mouth.

 

[sky14kemea]

Woooow, okay. I'm not sure what I was expecting but I did have some vestiges of hope that have now been quite thoroughly dashed.

Saying "Some women are sluts" is about as not sexist as saying "Some black people are niggers" isn't racist. "Slut" is a slur designed to shame women who enjoy their sexuality. It's fucking horrifying that you would say it's not sexist. You could argue that some people use "slut" to describe men, but some people use "******" to describe white people, and some people call their straight friends "faggots". Personal usage doesn't change the shameful historical origins and cultural connotations of slurs.

And pray, how is it "a rather apt comparison" to compare women to houses? Last I checked my vagina didn't have a lock, but I'll go check a second time, and while I'm at it I may as well wash some of the vomit out of my mouth.

Keep in mind he did say it was his personal opinion.

It does depend on the given situation, but I agree that the word "slut" shouldn't be tossed around as easily as it has been.

 

[manic_depressive13]

Keep in mind he did say it was his personal opinion.

It does depend on the given situation, but I agree that the word "slut" shouldn't be tossed around as easily as it has been.

Yes, but it's the personal opinion of someone who has the power to ban users or dismiss reported posts from the queue, and with rules like "don't be offensive" and "don't be a jerk" personal opinion is exactly what we're relying on. Doesn't really cut it as an excuse.

Edit: By the way Sky I just wanted to say I really appreciate your efforts. I can see you're trying hard to act as mediator and just make everyone happy. However, this site is becoming increasingly alienating with its attitudes towards women and minorities and I just want an honest answer as to where the site stands on this issue. You know, as opposed to an dismissive assessment of what women are reasonably entitled to find offensive, shielded flimsily behind a banner of "Just my opinion man".