UPDATE: Microsoft Disallows Public Lesbians on Xbox Live

[The Bandit]

XBox live is not a dating service. Terms like gay/lesbian/bisexual are used most often as slurs.

Microsoft did the right thing, they did they same thing that every on-line service does.

This lady needs to shut up, she's bugging me.

EDIT: Also; she violated the XBOX LIVE Terms of Use [http://www.xbox.com/en-GB/live/legal/xboxComTOU.htm], her arse is banned. Job's a good'un.

"You agree that we may also discontinue your access to the Service if you do ....Publish, distribute, or disseminate any content, topic, name, material, file, or information that incites, advocates, promotes, depicts, constitutes, or expresses......homosexual status"

Sorry. This argument holds no weight. It's like saying slavery/segregation were OK because it was the law at the time. The discussion shouldn't be "should she have been banned?" It's "is it right to ban people for putting their sexual orientation in their profile?"

And the answer to that riddle is, no, it is not right.

 

[Above]

What the hell...

I Second this

 

[Actual]

XBox live is not a dating service. Terms like gay/lesbian/bisexual are used most often as slurs.

Microsoft did the right thing, they did they same thing that every on-line service does.

This lady needs to shut up, she's bugging me.

EDIT: Also; she violated the XBOX LIVE Terms of Use [http://www.xbox.com/en-GB/live/legal/xboxComTOU.htm], her arse is banned. Job's a good'un.

"You agree that we may also discontinue your access to the Service if you do ....Publish, distribute, or disseminate any content, topic, name, material, file, or information that incites, advocates, promotes, depicts, constitutes, or expresses......homosexual status"

Sorry. This argument holds no weight. It's like saying slavery/segregation were OK because it was the law at the time. The discussion shouldn't be "should she have been banned?" It's "is it right to ban people for putting their sexual orientation in their profile?"

And the answer to that riddle is, no, it is not right.

Sure, if slavery was a service that everyone wanted to be in, and agreed to all the conditions before hand.

Of course it was right to ban her, they made it clear from the start that she would be banned if she did this.

Perhaps you could argue that they haven't made it clear why it's a rule so she should be able to ignore that rule? People on the internet are largely children and stupid people, so if you want to run a successful business you need to protect yourself from that. Sexuality is a beehive of problems which can cause massive PR nightmares, like this one but worse. Think of headlines like "13 year old girl runs lesbian cybering brothel through evil Internet service!" best solution is just to shut it off completely and say no mention of sexuality allowed.

There is no freedom of speech element this is a business owned enviroment they have complete legal right to set the rules, no-one is being discriminated against, no-one is allowed to talk about sexuality. This girl is really going to complain just because she didn't want to follow the rules!?

 

[Smurfman]

You agree that we may also discontinue your access to the Service if you do any of the following while connected to the Service:

Publish, distribute, or disseminate any content, topic, name, material, file, or information that incites, advocates, promotes, depicts, constitutes, or expresses child pornography, profanity, illegal drug use, gratuitous or graphic violence, criminal or fraudulent activity, discrimination, --->hate or violence towards one person or a group because of their race, religion, nationality, transgender status, homosexual status or HIV/AIDS status, or that insults the victims of crimes against humanity by contesting the existence of those crimes;

Actual's quote was taken out of context, what Microsoft does NOT permit is inciting or promoting hatred towards homosexuals. Says nothing that they're not allowed to state that they are what I can find.

 

[Smurfman]

So if anything all the people shouting fag and gay and whatnot should get the banhammer, not the other way around.

 

[LINKXIII]

Why can't we all get along without being harassed by a whole swarm of over-opinionated 12 yearolds?

 

[Fwee]

First of all I'd like to express my disappointment and sympathy for one who was wrongly persecuted. I think anyone who's played on Xbox Live more than once has been treated like this way in one form or another. My most recent example is being constantly kicked off Left 4 Dead for not using a headphone. Not as grievous, but it still hurts.

I'm sure at least 95% of the entire Xbox community get (verbally) sexually harassed at least three times a month, and there is never any action taken to set things right. The first time I played online, I was called a fag for not letting a teammate drive. For ten minutes. It's an unavoidable fact of averages that 49% of the people you will meet online will be assholes, with a error margin of about 7%.

Unfortunately, the way Xbox Live is managed is based on a lot of automation, so if one malicious asshole has enough asshole friends, they can get anyone banned using any reason that they choose. It's their way to abuse the system. I'm really let down that there are actually people that would waste their time forming a virtual lynch mob against one person who was enjoying the freedom of expression. Basically Microsoft was forced to ban this profile just due to the amount of complaints lodged against it, but I don't believe that Microsoft was intentionally malicious in the ban. Which makes me wish there was a sort of appeals court for these kind of events.

It isn't like she was forcing everyone with a Gold account to instantly look at her sexual identity the moment they connect to Live, it was just a piece of information on a PERSONAL PROFILE. No one was getting their face rubbed in the fact. I'm also pretty sure she wasn't screwing other women during the game, because if that game existed I'd be #1 on the ranking.

Not to mention that with the plethora of names I myself find offensive (or at least boorish, immature and annoying), if I was banning each one I ran across I'd never actually play a game. There's too many examples to start to examine. Just let it be known I run across at least 5 every time I play. I find it easier to ignore them.

Too bad we live in the 21st century with people who don't realize that it isn't the 17th century. These assholes enjoy way too much freedom to even realize how easy they have it. May I also mention that there seems to be a lot of misinformation in these replies?

 

[Actual]

You agree that we may also discontinue your access to the Service if you do any of the following while connected to the Service:

Publish, distribute, or disseminate any content, topic, name, material, file, or information that incites, advocates, promotes, depicts, constitutes, or expresses child pornography, profanity, illegal drug use, gratuitous or graphic violence, criminal or fraudulent activity, discrimination, --->hate or violence towards one person or a group because of their race, religion, nationality, transgender status, homosexual status or HIV/AIDS status, or that insults the victims of crimes against humanity by contesting the existence of those crimes;

Actual's quote was taken out of context, what Microsoft does NOT permit is inciting or promoting hatred towards homosexuals. Says nothing that they're not allowed to state that they are what I can find.

Sorry fella, had to re-read that rather long and convoluted sentence a couple of times, but you are right, and I was incorrect, sorry folks.

However If I may attempt to cover my arse, the next paragraph states:

"You agree that we may also discontinue your access to the Service if you do any of the following while connected to the Service:

Create a Gamertag, avatar or use text in other profile fields that may offend other members. This includes comments that look, sound like, stand for, hint at, abbreviate, or insinuate or relate to any of the following: profane words/phrases,topics or content of a sexual nature...."

Sexual preferences are by definition of a sexual nature, so she still broke the rules. And it sounds like Microsoft puts the responsibility on their user to avoid upsetting all the many easily upset-able people out there.

I'd be happy if you checked this one too as I tend to get confused by long sentences as you've seen.

 

[cathou]

honestly, i support her. i fully understand that MS doesnt want anything related to sexuality in the gamertag. if her gamertag was lesbian99 for exemple, it would be wrong. In her bio, well, what the bio is there for if you must hide parts of your life. It look like the dont tell dont ask policy in the army...

for exemple if my gamer tag is catherine val. catherine being me and val being my wife. because we both use it, and the bio say roughly: catherine : married and happy, gamer and passionate... sometimes / val : the other half, occasional gamer and clumsy.

you might understand that i'm a lesbian, even if not explixitely tells it, so should i be afraid to be banned ? (which i dont think so because i'm silver anyway...) if not, why not me and why her ?

 

[MR T3D]

TBH, your gamer tag, Bio, etc. is NOT Craigslist or whatever, so i feel information in it should pretian to either gaming-related, or of relaitvely innocent humour. (that's the proper spelling, fool!)
and the reason she was banned is simply because enough stupid 12-year-old-white-homophobic-boys filed complaints about her to be noticed by MS, whom likely looked at profile, said ToS, violation, suppose well ban.
IMO its not terribly offensive, as long as she doesn't be loud about it ingame, or is some kind of jerk, then i wouldn't see a banning need.

 

[Knight Templar]

stupid ***** shouldnt have to write her sexuality on her profile page, its not out fault she bases her whole life around being a lesbian

It is your fault if you have a problem with her being that way, particularly when the mention of her being gay in in her Bio. She's not hurting anybody but people like you are, so from where I stand she has more right be be on xbox live than you.

This is old news you decided to bring back up with ignorance and insults.

i have nothing against gay people, but there's no need for her to flaunt it about, she's just asking for a ban that way

You called her a "stupid *****".

Anyway she wasn't "flaunting it about", she put it in her Bio, the place where you're suppost to put personal infomation. The only people shouting this out were her stalkers, therefore it's not really her fault.

XBox live is not a dating service. Terms like gay/lesbian/bisexual are used most often as slurs.

Microsoft did the right thing, they did they same thing that every on-line service does.

This lady needs to shut up, she's bugging me.

EDIT: Also; she violated the XBOX LIVE Terms of Use [http://www.xbox.com/en-GB/live/legal/xboxComTOU.htm], her arse is banned. Job's a good'un.

"You agree that we may also discontinue your access to the Service if you do ....Publish, distribute, or disseminate any content, topic, name, material, file, or information that incites, advocates, promotes, depicts, constitutes, or expresses......homosexual status"

Sorry. This argument holds no weight. It's like saying slavery/segregation were OK because it was the law at the time. The discussion shouldn't be "should she have been banned?" It's "is it right to ban people for putting their sexual orientation in their profile?"

And the answer to that riddle is, no, it is not right.

Sure, if slavery was a service that everyone wanted to be in, and agreed to all the conditions before hand.

What you are describing isn't slavery.

 

[Actual]

What you are describing isn't slavery.

Exactly my point, no-one is forcing this woman to use LIVE, if she doesn't like the rules she could just not pay for the service. So a comparison of the similarities of this situation and slavery is pretty weak.

I think The Bandit was saying that this woman being banned was immoral so her breaking the rules wasn't relevant. And then slavery came into it, and we all got confused.

 

[Knight Templar]

What you are describing isn't slavery.

Exactly my point, no-one is forcing this woman to use LIVE, if she doesn't like the rules she could just not pay for the service. So a comparison of the similarities of this situation and slavery is pretty weak.

I think The Bandit was saying that this woman being banned was immoral so her breaking the rules wasn't relevant. And then slavery came into it, and we all got confused.

It looked like you were using the rules and law as a guide for morality, in which case bringing up slavery makes sense.

 

[Knight Templar]

stupid ***** shouldnt have to write her sexuality on her profile page, its not out fault she bases her whole life around being a lesbian

It is your fault if you have a problem with her being that way, particularly when the mention of her being gay in in her Bio. She's not hurting anybody but people like you are, so from where I stand she has more right be be on xbox live than you.

This is old news you decided to bring back up with ignorance and insults.

i have nothing against gay people, but there's no need for her to flaunt it about, she's just asking for a ban that way

You called her a "stupid *****".

Anyway she wasn't "flaunting it about", she put it in her Bio, the place where you're suppost to put personal infomation. The only people shouting this out were her stalkers, therefore it's not really her fault.

she broke the rules that she agreed to, then when she got banned she complained about it, she is a stupid *****, there was no need for her to have that on her profile so its her own fault for not taking it off

Likewise there was no reason for MS to ban her, see where that argument goes?

 

[Smurfman]

You agree that we may also discontinue your access to the Service if you do any of the following while connected to the Service:

Publish, distribute, or disseminate any content, topic, name, material, file, or information that incites, advocates, promotes, depicts, constitutes, or expresses child pornography, profanity, illegal drug use, gratuitous or graphic violence, criminal or fraudulent activity, discrimination, --->hate or violence towards one person or a group because of their race, religion, nationality, transgender status, homosexual status or HIV/AIDS status, or that insults the victims of crimes against humanity by contesting the existence of those crimes;

Actual's quote was taken out of context, what Microsoft does NOT permit is inciting or promoting hatred towards homosexuals. Says nothing that they're not allowed to state that they are what I can find.

Sorry fella, had to re-read that rather long and convoluted sentence a couple of times, but you are right, and I was incorrect, sorry folks.

However If I may attempt to cover my arse, the next paragraph states:

"You agree that we may also discontinue your access to the Service if you do any of the following while connected to the Service:

Create a Gamertag, avatar or use text in other profile fields that may offend other members. This includes comments that look, sound like, stand for, hint at, abbreviate, or insinuate or relate to any of the following: profane words/phrases,topics or content of a sexual nature...."

Sexual preferences are by definition of a sexual nature, so she still broke the rules. And it sounds like Microsoft puts the responsibility on their user to avoid upsetting all the many easily upset-able people out there.

I'd be happy if you checked this one too as I tend to get confused by long sentences as you've seen.

Triple checked it and you are spot on there about her typing in her "sexual preferences", was gonna dispute it but you even defined it as such so will yield.


However one (meaning myself as I quite hate bigots and cunts)would think that Microsoft in retrospect should look over to what the people reporting her were up to as they aswell broke more codes of conduct whilst "turning her in" for example:

In addition, your use of the Service is subject to your compliance with the Code of Conduct (www.xbox.com/en-GB/live/legal/codeOfConduct.htm and its successors). You agree that we may also discontinue your access to the Service if you do any of the following while connected to the Service:

* Defame, abuse, harass, stalk, threaten, or otherwise violate the legal rights (such as rights of privacy and publicity) of others;
* Publish, distribute, or disseminate any inappropriate, profane, defamatory, infringing, obscene, indecent, or unlawful content, topic, name, material, file, or information;

By rallying others to "get at her" they broke these two "codes" and should in their own right get theirs. Theirs implying a wide heavy smack of the BanHammer.

This being my own opinion though. Right should be right, even though my opinion is clearly with her and I quite honestly don't think she should be punished for putting up her "personal information" in the profile tab. Nor should children young enough to be "damaged" by such "content" even be allowed to sit on Live, nor look people up.

I find that "think of the children" is the cowards excuse to hide behind when pointing at others they disapprove of.

Wasn't all that long ago people did that with "coloured people". Should we really revert back to that?

Thought we had some morals today, perhaps I was wrong.

 

[Knight Templar]

stupid ***** shouldnt have to write her sexuality on her profile page, its not out fault she bases her whole life around being a lesbian

It is your fault if you have a problem with her being that way, particularly when the mention of her being gay in in her Bio. She's not hurting anybody but people like you are, so from where I stand she has more right be be on xbox live than you.

This is old news you decided to bring back up with ignorance and insults.

i have nothing against gay people, but there's no need for her to flaunt it about, she's just asking for a ban that way

You called her a "stupid *****".

Anyway she wasn't "flaunting it about", she put it in her Bio, the place where you're suppost to put personal infomation. The only people shouting this out were her stalkers, therefore it's not really her fault.

she broke the rules that she agreed to, then when she got banned she complained about it, she is a stupid *****, there was no need for her to have that on her profile so its her own fault for not taking it off

Likewise there was no reason for MS to ban her, see where that argument goes?

all im saying is she broke the rules she had agreed to, i'm not saying it was right for them to ban her, but she was stupid for refusing to change her bio to conform to the rules
/argument

They didn't ask her to change, they just banned her. Furthermore the EULA is notorious for it's harsh treatment of consumers, they could just ban wothout reason and it would be ok for them to do so by your logic.