Discussion of Rule 3

[King_]

Rule 3 is stated as follows^[1]:

 

No bigotry / hate speech

• This includes, but is not limited to, bigotry based upon ethnicity, age, gender, sexual orientation, nationality, and religion.

 

    Now, this seems like a great rule at first glance. A rule that goes as far as to put a halt to any racism, ageism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia and religionism. And, in fact, it does that. It does all of those things very well.

    Unfortunately, though, the line that dictates any of these things appears to be very much so up to interpretation, which, while good to an extent, has caused toxicity and raw censorship due to the extremes that are constantly being imposed by Nerd's staff. Nerd has the most severe stigma towards the word "gay" that I have ever seen. So much so, that people who have been playing for years absolutely freak out over every single use of the word "gay," or any other potentially discriminatory phrase, even in the most non-threatening and peaceful way possible^[2[. If someone on one of our servers were to simply express, "I'm gay," it wouldn't even be out of the realm of expectancy for that user to be banned. At all. In fact, I have anxiety about including that wording in this post, simply due to how I imagine people in this community will react. 

    I have spoken to several staff members about this. Most recently, an anonymous staff member says that he or she would "rather not people be quoting such words or anything" in regards to my outrage towards multiple admins who freaked out at a mod for quoting a song lyric. The song lyric in question was absolutely not in a hateful context. The (mis)quoted lyrics^[3] in question:

 

Admin 1: "NO MATTER WHAT YOU SAY AND[sic] WHAT YOU DO"

[And of course there was a missing line here, "When I'm alone, I'd rather be with you"]

Admin 2: "FUCK THESE OTHER"

Admin 2: "UM"

Admin 2: "**********"

Mod:       "niggas"

 

    Is this vulgar? Absolutely. Is it hate speech? Absolutely not. In no way is it hateful towards any ethnicity, age, gender, sexual orientation, nationality, or religion. To go back to the anonymous staff member's quote, "rather not people be quoting such words or anything." So, that member seems to be against the mod quoting what was quoted. I, personally, don't feel that what he or she would "rather" have matters at all. I think what is written in the rules is what matters, and what is written in the rules states that there is to be no hate speech. I don't believe that quoting this love song could possibly be misconstrued as bigotry or hate speech. 

    I don't want to continue rambling to the point of losing focus and destroying potential for a healthy community discussion, so I will conclude with this point: I feel as though the current disciplinary actions and interpretations of rule 3 are quickly leading into a 1984-esque censorship that will continue to cloud over the Nerd servers until something is done.

    Anyways, I hope I didn't jump around too much. I would like to open up to discussion at this time. 

 

1. http://www.redditpublic.com/wiki/Rules

2. http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/lapfoxtrax/images/c/ca/Gay_Deer_World_Takeover.png/revision/latest?cb=20150629163850

3. http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/childishgambino/3005.html

[Silversunset01]

This post is quite interesting to me, as in the last year-or-so since I've been on staff I have seen all levels of moderation in regards to chat on p.

When I first began anyone using the word gay would be instantly kicked or banned. Now it comes up every now and again and to my knowledge staff is only stepping in when it gets to the point of being offensive or negative. We have been trying, and I believe succeeding, in being a bit more flexible with what goes on in chat. Granted it is up to who is on staff at the time the conversations take place but we are making sure to tell new moderators to look at the context of a conversation rather than just the words themselves.

This is something that I believe will take time for everyone to adjust to, but I think so far we've made a fairly decent start.

When it comes to quoting lyrics and expecting that to be a "free pass" I don't think that will ever work. Anyone can claim anything is a song quote, and unless someone knows every song in the world by heart it would take far too much time researching on the part of staff who are here to play just like anyone else. A lot of song lyrics out of context can be very offensive, and as we are trying to create an exclusive environment we have to be careful with those.

We have also been using a mute or some cases a kick rather than an outright ban. Those options are usually a bit less severe to players and give us the chance to explain the issue without having to deal with a lengthy ban/appeal process.

[King_]

This post is quite interesting to me, as in the last year-or-so since I've been on staff I have seen all levels of moderation in regards to chat on p.

When I first began anyone using the word gay would be instantly kicked or banned. Now it comes up every now and again and to my knowledge staff is only stepping in when it gets to the point of being offensive or negative. We have been trying, and I believe succeeding, in being a bit more flexible with what goes on in chat. Granted it is up to who is on staff at the time the conversations take place but we are making sure to tell new moderators to look at the context of a conversation rather than just the words themselves.

This is something that I believe will take time for everyone to adjust to, but I think so far we've made a fairly decent start.

When it comes to quoting lyrics and expecting that to be a "free pass" I don't think that will ever work. Anyone can claim anything is a song quote, and unless someone knows every song in the world by heart it would take far too much time researching on the part of staff who are here to play just like anyone else. A lot of song lyrics out of context can be very offensive, and as we are trying to create an exclusive environment we have to be careful with those.

We have also been using a mute or some cases a kick rather than an outright ban. Those options are usually a bit less severe to players and give us the chance to explain the issue without having to deal with a lengthy ban/appeal process.

I absolutely agree that we have made a decent start, I remember briefly discussing this with you during my P mod training. My issue is that it shouldn't depend on who is on, rules shouldn't be subjective to a person's opinions.

 

Further, concerning the song lyrics, I think I may have given off the wrong idea by using a song as an example. I'm not at all suggesting that we give a "free pass" to anyone who claims to be quoting a song or any other piece of entertainment, I was simply using that as a means of showing that we as a community should really do a better job at judging these things on a case-by-case basis, based on the context of the user saying  whatever. If you quote a song and you're being outright offensive or hateful, it should absolutely be punished, but if you're just talking and happen to throw around a word that has, in the past, been considered offensive, but in a non-offensive manner, I don't believe it should be punished, as it honestly doesn't break any rules. 

[Guest Former Staff]

Thanks for bringing this discussion up King_, would you mind me moving it to the Minecraft forum for greater visibility?

 

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In my opinion, public chat is the only place where I would be concerned seeing 'nigga' thrown around as the word is largely used as a derogative term. If this is a conversation amongst friends somewhere outside of public chat (/msg or /clanchat) then feel free to discuss as much faith, politics or otherwise as you're comfortable with.

 

When public chat is moderated, whether that be by asking someone directly via /msg to take the conversation somewhere private or by muting that person, I'd like to think that we can avoid being trigger happy banning simply by having a little dialogue with that person to detirmine the intent (if the conversation is that ambiguous).

[King_]

Oh yeah absolutely, go for it. I wasn't really sure where to make this thread, to be honest.

 

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I agree completely with what you have stated though. That's a very legitimate concern for public chat, there will always be people out there with negative intentions, and I think those people should definitely be a concern for moderation. I am very much in agreement with your statement on discussing anything in private messaging or clanchat and I'm glad you mentioned it.