(03-13-2024, 07:27 PM)Hap Shaughnessy wrote: As much as it pains me to say it, there are actually worse governments than the USA. China is one of them.
era are - for the most part - so painfully insular and uninformed about the world at large that when they see news headlines about bad things happening in the US they assume every other country is starting from the same baseline, and you just don't see stories about codifying the difference between sex and gender because Russia and China are just so fucking LGBTQIA+ tolerant
(03-13-2024, 02:45 PM)Snoopy wrote: I think it’s a good thing they banned all the politics wonks. Replacing them with smarmy vapid bullies like this one will definitely improve the election coverage
kyuuji wrote:Still wild one of the two options to lead the country is an out and out unapologetic fascist openly vocal about his intent to instate an authoritarian dictatorship. But enough about Genocide Joe. 
(03-13-2024, 04:39 PM)BIONIC wrote: Benji summarize plz
Finale Fireworker, post: 120417690, member: 1944 wrote:I was a known quantity in the GAF thread that preceded this website. 
If they weren't so predictable it would be really funny, but the mods have learned nothing and put all the blame on the users. That PoliEra pissboy coming back for his weekly ration of force-fed dogshit is the icing on the cake.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NeoGAF#ResetEra wrote:ResetEra moderators enacted the site's first game ban by barring all promotion of the game Hogwarts Legacy, citing a "far-right" YouTube channel run by then-lead designer Troy Leavitt, and comments criticized for transphobia made by author J. K. Rowling.[37] In January 2023, the ban was extended to include any discussion of the game.[38][39] First of all, this should be after the next paragraph down which talks about things in 2021. Second, feel like it should mention the ban extended to the entire franchise, no?
(03-13-2024, 04:39 PM)BIONIC wrote: Finale Fireworker, post: 120417690, member: 1944 wrote:I am no longer comfortable on the internet and have my guard up at all times. As I've shrunk and contracted my presence across the broader internet, there are a few locations I continued to haunt devotedly. I continued to observe PoliERA with a dutiful vigilance for many years. There were many election years, election months, and election nights where the level-headed activity in that thread was singularly responsible for my mental stability. I owe a lot to those members. It is neither romance nor embellishment to say so.
Despite no longer being the active participant I once was, I think I still have a multi-dimensional perspective on the community and the website as a whole. I was a known quantity in the GAF thread that preceded this website. I was very active in the migration and the establishment of new territory here on Era. I was a member of the moderation team under the original administration, eventually a member of the administration myself during some of this forum's most stressful periods, and I remained a devoted member in the years that followed. I have a broad perspective on how community problems develop, worsen, and the volatile ways they resolve themselves. I have a working perspective on why moderation is often ineffective at addressing conflicts prioritized by sub-communities. I will never have a complete picture of every situation, and there are many situations where I've come to lack a personal stake, but I still believe I have an effective perspective for perceiving and processing these kinds of problems.
One thing I strongly believe is that balancing the priorities of different sub-communities against the priorities of the greater site is extremely difficult. The original conception of this website, fueled by the migration of members from identity and interest based Discords, produced a myriad of established sub-communities with sometimes conflicting visions of what "ResetEra" was supposed to look like. On the surface, most people's common goals were aligned. But in practice, it was not possible to accommodate the image of the forum that all these disparate communities wanted.
Something I experienced as far back as 2017 is the frustration that the website as a whole does not match the environment different sub-communities foster within their own community threads and Discords. On Gaming side, we witnessed the total collapse and exodus of the Steam Community, the Nintendo Community, the Xbox community, and the PlayStation community. You might recognize that most of these communities spun off onto their own walled garden community forums where they could maintain their preferred culture and moderation standard. This is not to say that these communities did not have legitimate grievances, but the grievances of these communities were all identical:
- They believed their communities were being targeted unfairly while other communities were given preferential treatment.
- They believed ResetEra as a whole was openly hostile to their preferred interests and desired conversation topics and only their own controlled OTs were safe spaces.
- They believed the staff did not have their best interests in heart and turned on their own members-turned-mods.
- They believed ResetEra was not living up to its promises to them or, at worst, actively working against them.
In the context of Gaming, we can recognize that there is some ironic to the consistency of these grievances. There is something telling about the fact that the four major platform communities all equally believed they were among the forum's most marginalized. Each of these communities were convinced, irreversibly, that the forum was out to get them specifically - that the forum and site staff had an innate bias against their communities and the only solution was to splinter off into a protected space of their own where they could call the shots. If it was limited to just video games, I think I would be able to laugh this off as console wars. But we know that this is not just a thing that happened in the Gaming side of the forum. This is something that happened sitewide, repeatedly, with far more important and sensitive topics.
We also witnessed community collapses in REgals, AsianEra, BCCT, plus crucial focus topics like SalesERA and US PoliEra, and these are disasters that cannot be handwaved. These were the pillars of the community that ResetEra was supposed to be built on. These were the passionate participants who were coming here to really make something, who were here to cultivate a space, who wanted to actually achieve something more than just a website for video games. These communities did not collapse overnight, many endured multiple watershed tipping points before they ceased to exist in the form they initially did. Even as they limped along and reformed with new members or new standards, they were verifiably not what they once were. And these communities all had the same complaints:- They believed their communities were being targeted unfairly while other communities were given preferential treatment.
- They believed ResetEra as a whole was openly hostile to their preferred interests and desired conversation topics and only their own controlled OTs were safe spaces.
- They believed the staff did not have their best interests in heart and turned on their own members-turned-mods.
- They believed ResetEra was not living up to its promises to them or, at worst, actively working against them.
But this isn't Xbox or Nintendo. This is people's lives, livelihoods, and sense of worth and safety. These aren't just opinions and interests, these are traits core to the very people of the website. I could roll my eyes when it seemed like "gamers always play the victim" - but seeing these same patterns for subjects and participants of much greater importance was chilling to me. I have thought about this a lot in the years since my self-selected privacy. What is the psychology at play here? What can be attributed to reason and what can be attributed to emotion? How much responsibility is on site staff to solve certain problems and how much is on the community to overcome them?
It seems like every sub-community on this website is a ticking time bomb. The examples listed above are not even all of the high-profile meltdowns that have plagued this site. This just keeps happening over and over and over and we are all collectively - members and staff alike - inflicting this pain on ourselves. We have only ourselves to blame.
I do not mean to elevate PoliERA as more important than communities that collapsed in the past. That is not the case. This is just an opportunity to maybe save one from what is historically been an inescapable outcome for so many people here. I do not want to lose this last bastion of content I can consume with confidence and comfort.
I think the specific moderation rules applying to threads about politics is welcome and important. It's a direction I want these threads to move in. The consistent tag system also allows for meaningful contributors to be identified within these topics more easily so that members who understand and uphold the values of these topics can be elevated to moderation. I have always believed that all of these threads should be subject to a far stricter standard of conduct from the outset. I would still like to see World News relocated to its own subforum away from unrelated topics. As I recently shared privately:
Quote:It just does not make sense to have threads about invasion, genocide, and rape alongside topics about anime, comics, and celebrity gossip. Beyond the absurdity, it levels the quality of conversation around the juvenile and invites participation from people who are not in the frame of mind to engage with a serious topic in an intelligent way. This website is suffering madly because of an adherence to a structure inherited by another forum. Nobody would logically structure discussion this way. I think the need to separate these topics and give them the privacy and moderation they deserve is required at this stage if these conversations can be expected to exist here in 2024.
I have held this belief for many years and I have heard all the arguments against this. But my resolve has only hardened on this subject with time and I am immovable in my belief someday this will be a mandatory restructuring of the website. I hope that if the tag system with its own rules proves successful that it results in this eventual transition.
I think this is crucial because the way politics are discussed on the open forum are needlessly reactionary. Members are not trained to intelligently and respectfully engage in these topics. We have concrete examples of how setting and upholding strict expectations can be extremely beneficial for these conversations and they should be applied universally to topics for this genre. Instead of waiting for a news thread to spiral into chaos and rebooting it as a new thread with special terms, these terms should be universal and applied to every topic of this nature.
One of the only places members are trained to engage with these threads constructively was the PoliERA OT. This created a great thread to follow news, find sources, and consume perspective. It also produced a bitter and tribal enclave of members who hated the rest of the website. It created a standard of conversation that could not even be approximated anywhere else on the forum. It also created a vulnerable target for bad actors who knew where all these sorts of members congregated. For all the good it produced, the consequences of this kind of exclusive zone are terrible. A community that views in-group and out-group members as enemies is a disaster that must be addressed.
The effort here is not to make every political thread have the culture of PoliERA. PoliERA has its own clear culture issues that do not need be used as a template elsewhere on the forum. But what this does is make it so anybody who wants to participate in a political topic on this website would be subject to the same consistent and transparent guidelines, unique to these topics, and enforced evenly for every user. There should not be whiplash and culture shock going from topic to topic on this forum.
It is a known fact, a fact we've known for years, that political threads on this forum require unique policies. Sometimes situations are so specific and context-laden that there will need to be special enforcements determined organically. But there could and should still be a basic understanding of what engaging with political threads on this forum should look like and we should be asking more from our members if they wish to participate in them.
I know some people would call this gatekeeping. They would say it is elitist to insist on a certain level of decorum to participate in topics like these. They would say they do not trust in other people's definitions of what appropriate discourse looks like. People are entitled to feel this way. They are entitled to be distrustful. But it needs to happen anyway, because fundamentally these conversations require structure and regulation to be successful. We've seen it on our own forum time and time again that this is the only way these threads work. Even if it lowers engagement in these topics, the quality of conversation will be higher and the benefit of information will be greater. These threads need to be held to a higher standard than news about "Zack Snyder's comments on Batman."
I urge both members and staff with a vested interest in seeing this site-wide problem rectified continue the necessary dialog to further these goals. If people do not want this to be another pivotal point of no return for yet another important part of this website, then every actor needs to recognize this reckoning as a call to action. Even if you do not trust each other, even if you do not like each other, even if you think it's bull shit that this is happening and it shouldn't be your responsibility to fix it, do it anyway. It is possible to still reach a better outcome even as you hold grudges and mourn circumstances. Not everyone is going to make it. But we don't have to keep going down the drain. We can, if we care enough, actually climb back out. Recognize that rebuilding is a process.
I'd also like to say that I am extremely ashamed of any member who felt this conflict justified visits to the hate sites to dig up dirt on other users or staff. If you did this, and if you do not condemn this, your brain rot has reached critical levels. I cannot believe that with everything that this forum has gone through, both members and users alike, that anybody would be desensitized enough to do that.
Oh, hey, Tobys back.
![[Image: wgspQTt.gif]](https://i.imgur.com/wgspQTt.gif)
why do people give a shit about ots? 
Do people even go back and read them past the first page of posting?
(03-13-2024, 04:39 PM)BIONIC wrote: Benji summarize plz
Finale Fireworker, post: 120417690, member: 1944 wrote:I have always believed that all of these threads should be subject to a far stricter standard of conduct from the outset. I would still like to see World News relocated to its own subforum away from unrelated topics. As I recently shared privately:
Quote:It just does not make sense to have threads about invasion, genocide, and rape alongside topics about anime, comics, and celebrity gossip. Beyond the absurdity, it levels the quality of conversation around the juvenile and invites participation from people who are not in the frame of mind to engage with a serious topic in an intelligent way. This website is suffering madly because of an adherence to a structure inherited by another forum. Nobody would logically structure discussion this way. I think the need to separate these topics and give them the privacy and moderation they deserve is required at this stage if these conversations can be expected to exist here in 2024.
...
I think this is crucial because the way politics are discussed on the open forum are needlessly reactionary. Members are not trained to intelligently and respectfully engage in these topics. We have concrete examples of how setting and upholding strict expectations can be extremely beneficial for these conversations and they should be applied universally to topics for this genre. Instead of waiting for a news thread to spiral into chaos and rebooting it as a new thread with special terms, these terms should be universal and applied to every topic of this nature.
...
It is a known fact, a fact we've known for years, that political threads on this forum require unique policies. Sometimes situations are so specific and context-laden that there will need to be special enforcements determined organically. But there could and should still be a basic understanding of what engaging with political threads on this forum should look like and we should be asking more from our members if they wish to participate in them.
I know some people would call this gatekeeping. They would say it is elitist to insist on a certain level of decorum to participate in topics like these. They would say they do not trust in other people's definitions of what appropriate discourse looks like. People are entitled to feel this way. They are entitled to be distrustful. But it needs to happen anyway, because fundamentally these conversations require structure and regulation to be successful. We've seen it on our own forum time and time again that this is the only way these threads work. Even if it lowers engagement in these topics, the quality of conversation will be higher and the benefit of information will be greater. These threads need to be held to a higher standard than news about "Zack Snyder's comments on Batman." What a weird dork.
(03-13-2024, 07:55 PM)Hap Shaughnessy wrote: https://www.resetera.com/threads/united-states-house-of-representatives-passes-bill-to-require-tiktok-divestment.826758/page-8?post=120427245#post-120427245
loco wrote:This ruling may impact the November election. 
TikTok should smarten up and arrange some defense contracts for the war in Ukraine, that's how Elon gets away with it.
Love all the people not even looking at any of the stories to see Tik Tok won't be banned before the election because they have six months to sell.
(03-13-2024, 01:54 PM)kaleidoscopium wrote: Pizza Tower the new banned game?
RockmanBN wrote:FYI, the creator of the game McPig is a shithead
They sound like an edgy maga head. You see them using slurs, trans racism, racism, ableism, allowing nazi jokes, misogyny, sexism, conservative jokes, etc.
Long thread of edgy discord jokes
May just have to get this game after all…
smash it stan wrote:10 seconds in the Pizza Tower discord would've shown you everything you wanted to know. Place is an absolutely unhinged snapshot of 2010s 4chan. You're as good as the people you allow around yourself. 
https://www.resetera.com/threads/pizza-tower-the-noise-update-new-game-released.826719/?post=120411339#post-120411339
Capra wrote:This might pass some threshold into meta-whining or whatever but it's a really unhealthy, unsustainable mentality that pervades internet culture now.
Like not only is the shitty person themselves judged, but all the people who didn't realize the shitty person was shitty. I don't have fucking ESP. It's mentally exhausting to have the burden of moral judgement on me every time I lay eyes upon a given piece of media.
What the fuck is trans racism?
Quote:10 seconds in the Pizza Tower discord would've shown you everything you wanted to know.
Why would I do this?
How do you have the time for a discord for every game you've ever played 
(03-13-2024, 08:09 PM)Taco Bell Tower wrote: (03-13-2024, 01:54 PM)kaleidoscopium wrote: Pizza Tower the new banned game?
RockmanBN wrote:FYI, the creator of the game McPig is a shithead
They sound like an edgy maga head. You see them using slurs, trans racism, racism, ableism, allowing nazi jokes, misogyny, sexism, conservative jokes, etc.
Long thread of edgy discord jokes
May just have to get this game after all…
smash it stan wrote:10 seconds in the Pizza Tower discord would've shown you everything you wanted to know. Place is an absolutely unhinged snapshot of 2010s 4chan. You're as good as the people you allow around yourself.
https://www.resetera.com/threads/pizza-tower-the-noise-update-new-game-released.826719/?post=120411339#post-120411339
Capra wrote:This might pass some threshold into meta-whining or whatever but it's a really unhealthy, unsustainable mentality that pervades internet culture now.
Like not only is the shitty person themselves judged, but all the people who didn't realize the shitty person was shitty. I don't have fucking ESP. It's mentally exhausting to have the burden of moral judgement on me every time I lay eyes upon a given piece of media.
What the fuck is trans racism?
(03-13-2024, 08:15 PM)Besticus Maximus wrote: How do you have the time for a discord for every game you've ever played Owned, I'm not going to play that shit until I know if the Discord isn't problematic. 
(03-13-2024, 08:08 PM)benji wrote: Love all the people not even looking at any of the stories to see Tik Tok won't be banned before the election because they have six months to sell.
Democrats are deliberately tanking their election chances because in secret they think 'dictator' Trump is more fit for the Presidency than Kamala 
(03-13-2024, 08:09 PM)Taco Bell Tower wrote: What the fuck is trans racism?
We're gamergate 2.0, we've leveled up our game 
(03-13-2024, 05:53 PM)BIONIC wrote: Like jangling keys in front of a toddler. Completely threw them off the scent
Morrigan, post: 120420831, member: 27 wrote:Agreed completely. I can't believe it's even being entertained for the forum at large.
B-Dubs, post: 120420969, member: 143 wrote:Word count minimums are absolutely not being entertained for the forum at large.
Alavard, post: 120421227, member: 2582 wrote:Thank you for the clarification.
On that note, I hope you consider not having them on US political threads that specifically deal with incoming results, like on election day itself (at least once the results are coming in), when most of the posts are driven by updates rather than longer-form discussion.
Morrigan, post: 120421293, member: 27 wrote:Good to hear! FWIW I didn't mean staff, just people in general floating this idea which I think is objectively terrible.
B-Dubs, post: 120421734, member: 143 wrote:This sort of thing can easily be adjusted with the click of a button. We used it last time around to slow the thread down when people were spiraling and it went ok once we turned it on. We'll probably do the exact same thing this time around. Maybe turn the slow down on a bit sooner to get people to think before they post.
No, I'm with you there. It's why we haven't really touched that feature until now.
What we are studying is the subforum bans in the election threads. If it goes well it's something we could easily roll out to handle minor infractions in other situations. Kinda save otherwise good posters from their worst habits, you know?
![[Image: 906-l.jpg]](https://www.resetera.com/data/avatar/31694090297/906-l.jpg)
The phone buzzes and Nepenthe answers. "We tracked the address of the Doxxer Ma'am.." the police officer began with a voice quivering in growing fear. "The Doxxer is there! In your house! You need to leave!" Nepenthe couldn't move. A voice behind her speaks "Take a carrot" it says. Nepenthe replies without knowing. "Leave a carrot"
Nepenthe turns and sees no one. Is this a trick it must be a trick. But then she sees it in the mirror beside her.
Her reflection isn't hers. What stands there in the mirror is a cat.
"The collective nation of Jewish people is to blame. You know this. My other me."
Nepenthe was Benji all along.
(03-13-2024, 08:09 PM)Taco Bell Tower wrote: What the fuck is trans racism?
![[Image: 51pWgVoQGmL._AC_UF894,1000_QL80_.jpg]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51pWgVoQGmL._AC_UF894,1000_QL80_.jpg)
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03-13-2024, 08:39 PM
(This post was last modified: 03-13-2024, 08:40 PM by Jansen.)
(03-13-2024, 06:19 PM)BIONIC wrote: SSF1991, post: 120423408, member: 45208 wrote:Hello!
I just want to thank the staff for unbanning me. I really appreciate it. <3
It has already been mentioned here, but prior to being banned, I did indeed resign as an admin there and left the server entirely. Going forward, I will also be doing a similar manner with PoliERA here on Era. I was already emotionally and mentally drained from all this shit going on before recent events even happened, so I had plans to pass the OT torch to someone else anyway and post in it less (honestly I never really wanted to be the OT creator in the first place, it's just that I was under the impression that I had to because if I didn't do it, no one else would), but this was the final straw for me. For the sake of my mental health, I'm moving on from PoliERA entirely.
This has all been a mess, and I really look forward to putting this behind me. I hope everyone's doing okay, and I wish everyone all the best. =)
Blink twice if B-Chubs is holding a gun to you off camera
What a little bitch. Where's your fucking dignity
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https://www.newson6.com/story/65f2079ad2c90009731b166b/owasso-teen-nex-benedict-died-by-suicide-says-medical-examiner-report wrote:Page 1 of the report states that Benedict's death was caused by a combined overdose of Diphenhydramine and Fluoxetine. The full medical examiner's report will be released on 03/27/2024. FUCK JOANNE
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They will never ever ever admit they're wrong about anything. ever.
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