Jeez Unaco. It's beyond question that rpgcodex is a fine example of webforuming. Just because there are
Originally Posted by Wizardry
whom post just
doesn't mean anything against it. I mean, so what that
for someone browsing the forum
does that mean the place is somehow "BAD"? Get off your high horse, bucko. Why are you even trying to argue this over? It's obvious as is.
Of course the moderators do nothing about it. Free speech is an important part of the culture over there. Moderators only ever really punish spammers. People may be racist or homophobic, but the forum is made up of a wide range of people including a sizeable transsexual contingent.
"Free speech" is the protection from government sanction for voicing or otherwise expressing opinions concerning the government. It is not, and never has been, in any part of the world, a carte blanche to freely insult or disrespect other individuals. The official stance on which is that it can be resolved amongst individuals. The fact that RPGCodex engages in such derogatory comments as a matter of course has nothing to do with "Free speech" and everything to do with sycophantry and anti-intellectualism.
The solution to which, for most users of the internet, is to ignore the place. Which is why such vitriol is arises when people try to use the place as an example of anything other than what it is.
(Expecting this post to appear on RPG codex and be picked apart as if my disgust at their behaviour is somehow wrong)
Mumble :: Thread :: Click to Join
Yeah. It's such a terrible place that Obsidian developers frequently browse the forum.
Wow.
tenasintenasintenchars
The way I see it, having been prolific in a great number of forums, there's plenty of ways to have bad moderation.
The Giant Mess (aka the Corporate Method)
Ex. Blizzard Forums, Steam Forums
The kind of forums where you have a strong word filter and far too few actual moderators paying attention to endless floods of talk and backtalk. These become useless in popular forums (like general forums) because that's where all the mods kill threads left and right except for a few 500-page monstrosities, and become dens of trolls in niche forums because, due to the overload and lack of staffing, only reported posts get seen - and always out of context, because they don't read threads - and as such to create a semblance of proper policing, the few people they do punish they hit with a ton of bricks.
You're likely to get permabanned for cursing after being baited by a guy who's cleverly insulted your parentage, place of birth and educational attainment using florid language.
The Giant Clique
Ex. No Mutants Allowed
The mods have been in charge of this "community" since before you were born, and the average poster has 3,500 posts. Nobody discusses the topic at hand because they did so four years ago and are sick of you bringing it up again. God forbid that you should try to enter their warrens of arcane errata - or worse, present an opinion the moderators don't like - because the regulars will pounce on you like a ton of bricks long before the moderator gets around to booting you.
You're likely to get permabanned for defending your on-topic point against a moderator.
The Troll Pen
Ex. RPG Codex
Mods? We don't need no steenkin mods! Our natural acerbity wins the day!
You're not likely to get permabanned, but why would you bother?
My God, this thread. Definitely.
I'm failing to writing a blog, specifically about playing games the wrong way
http://playingitwrong.wordpress.com/
Pretty much any forum on the internet that gets too political ends up being a nightmare. Sports, Gaming, comedy.. it doesn't really matter, they all turn in to piles of shit. The reason I find is that people can't seem to separate politics and the subject at hand very well, and suddenly two people who agree on everything related to sports, gaming, comedy are at each others throats over the others stance on government fiscal policy.
Go over there and make a contrarian statement. Not a rude one, just an unusual one. See what response you'll get. I don't think it'll be one that'll display a culture of free speech.
So you can say "Jew" or "Fag". So what? It's baby-talk to equate that with free speech. Free speech isn't about "I can express what words I like". Free speech is about "I can express what IDEAS I like".
The type of speech you're defending is a sham of freedom. It promotes intolerance of ideas behind a claim of being tolerant of words. What the words are promoting moreover, is an even further intolerance of other ideas.
"Free speech is an important part of the culture". You really believe that?
Gamespot has some of the worst mods and rules. They're trying very hard to keep it as clean as possible to the point where you can't start a thread dealing with Nazis or homosexuals because those words are automatically censored in the thread title. I remember being banned for three days because I mentioned a rumoured sex tape lol
On the other hand they allow users to start their own "union" boards moderated by themselves and people can talk shit freely.
I'd say a forum is screwed when one member is able to derail entire threads just by turning up and saying hello, because everyone keeps having the same argument with them over and over and over and over and over and over...
Haven't really had any bad personal experiences as such, heck, I've hardly ever had an argument with anyone. I've seen a lot of shit on sites like IGN, Gamespot, Destructoid and the WoW forums though.
Edit:
What the...
Last edited by Shane; 20-11-2011 at 05:06 PM.
Best part of RPG Codex is who they determine is or isn't a "protected group". If you insult someone of a protected group about that, you're going to get banned.
Protected groups: Furries, transvestites, aspies, fat people.
Non-protected groups: Black people, Jews, Nazis, gypsies.
Mods on gametrailers are one of the worst,they close normal threads all of the time but keep open those with flamebait and similar stuff,also they ban people for such a ridicilous reasons.. Pathetic.
That's just hilarious, especially the inclusion of fat people.
There was a time, when saying that yo don't believe in the imaginary guy in the sky could get you burned at the stake. There were times where saying that, just maybe, it would be nice if you didn't have to starve, would land you in the prison. There were times when criticising those in power would make you disappear forever. And there are enough places in the world, where exactly his is happening right now.
All across the ages and all across the world, people have fought for their rights and the rights of their fellow human beeings to express their ideas without the fear of retribution from those in power. They've fought, they've been imprisoned, tortured and killed for doing so. They fought for free speech.
If they had known that the freedom they fought for through their struggles and their pain would now be used by a bunch of immature sociopaths to defend their own right to hurl any kind of hate speech in the direction of everyone and everything they don't agree with, I think they would have thought twice before sacrificing themselves for their beliefs.
As one of the openly Gay Male moderators of the Codex, I don't have a problem with it. They are just words. And given our "free speech" stance, derogatory comments are just going to be the norm, the general public is just that way.
What people fail to see are the VERY well discussed topics that abound there. While they are few and far between (and you would have to actually search for them), people just look at one or 2 threads inhabited by spammers and people using derogatory remarks and think that is all we do.
I guess your post did end up on RPGCodex!
BobHound - EVE Online
Yeah, some people have an odd inability to differentiate between forum moderators and their national government.
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