Moderation topic 2.0

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So I go to work for a few hours and come back and there’s a Thread about Moderation that’s closed immediately before I even get to it. I can’t say I’m gonna reply to this immediately either because I’m a sleep soon but I want to address the scenario because I never got to and hope to make an overall impact on moderation of the forums. For some quick backstory some dude is talking about how disgusted he is at new Skaarf skin because “not masculine” then some other dude says “fragile masculinity” then it gets flagged then me-dude ask “why?” Then that post was flagged then a separate thread was created and closed immediately.

I want to say that the second dude’s comment on first dude was not flag worthy because

  1. It was barely offensive
  2. first dude was being dramatic acting like Skaarf having a funny skin was the end of the world for Skaarf to have that skin and for any “masculine” hero to have a soon as such would ruin the hero. His quotes for example. [quote=“Aducard, post:6, topic:3668, full:true”]
    Ew. I would be embarrassed to be killed by a player having this skin. A Blackclaw skaarf skin would be great, instead they do more innocent and embarrassing skins in a game about killing each other over and over again. Prehistoric Glaive FTW
    [/quote]

I have no problem with his opinion of the skin but second dude’s reaction to him was justifiable for first dude’s show and like I said before it was hardly aggressive.

I also believe if we’re not able to comment on each other’s flaws then this forum is not for any form of discussion but for only for people’s opinions. People have their opinion and no one can say anything about it. “Kensei is under powered”- person —> Ohp! someone else says " that’s a funny joke lmao " Ohp! that person gets flagged for being “offensive”. I think this is over the top. Now there is a limit yes but if we open ourselves up to being too sensitive then appropriate actions should be taken of course. I’m just sayn’ though everyone is entitled to their own opinions but there’s also people who are right and people who are wrong and some people need to be told they’re wrong and if someone has a little humor in doing so spare them, but like I said there’s a limit but second dude’s comment on first dude didn’t reach the limit. But whateves.

TL;DR: mods should be a little more lenient

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This is a weird take on it. Second dudes comment was off topic/didn’t add anything to the discussion. I didn’t even know what they meant so I just ignored them, but alas it got flagged by someone else. My posts get flagged a lot, I even had a compilation of my wins getting hidden. It’s weird

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Thanks for posting your thoughts on this, man. I’m always interested in how people are feeling about discussions and disagreements. It helps us all be better internet citizens.

So, I wasn’t involved in moderating the situation you’re talking about, but the thread was about Skaarf, so naturally, I was following the conversation and can give my impression on why I think it was flagged and then hidden. I actually agree with you that the post wasn’t terribly offensive or malicious, but I think it was also meant as an insult, rather than as a counterpoint. There’s a difference between “your masculinity must be pretty fragile” and “I don’t think enjoying a hero with a rainbow scheme makes you any less masculine…” These say somewhat similar things, they both show disagreement, but the second one is more of a discussion and less an insult. I don’t think the second one would’ve been flagged. Or if it had been, I’d have disagreed and removed the report.

I guess what I’m saying is that the post, while not all that bad, could have been more gracious and open to further discussion. If a post is three words long, and is just an insult, then it’s probably not appropriate.

It’s probably good for everyone to re-read the FAQ every now and again. Here’s a section that sums it up pretty well:

Be Agreeable, Even When You Disagree

You may wish to respond to something by disagreeing with it. That’s fine. But remember to criticize ideas, not people. Please avoid:

  • Name-calling
  • Ad hominem attacks
  • Responding to a post’s tone instead of its actual content
  • Knee-jerk contradiction

Instead, provide reasoned counter-arguments that improve the conversation.

Those are my thoughts, at least. As for leniency, we try to be, most of the time. We let conversations run their course a lot, even if they evolve into topics that are slightly unrelated to the initial post (like any conversation will do), and, personally, if I’m unsure of someone’s intent, I’ll PM a person before I moderate their content. Keep in mind, too, that this forum is largely community-policed. It’s one of the great things about discourse. Mods verify the reports, but we’re relying on everyone to make this a welcome space by both reporting things themselves, and by posting in productive ways. So far, everyone’s done a pretty great job of making this place cool, and we don’t really have to moderate much at all. :vgcheersx3:

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Awesome response! I think the moderator took the right steps now that I know the full details. Dowsing a potential flame war early is better than putting out a forest fire of petty comments.

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Going off of what the “fragile masculinity” person’s tone seems to usually be, I’d say their intent was humorous and harmless. But I guess it did start to go downhill, and intervention seems like it was the right step, although I still don’t think that anyone was really offensive enough to get flagged or hidden. People here are sensitive to very particular things, it’s hard to judge what’ll get you into trouble.

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I would not like to see the term “fragilr masculinity” thrown around in this forum cause it is pretty divisive and imo insulting

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