Journal of Other Forum Analysis

[BIONIC]

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Constructive:

Question and clarification of the rules and policies. What qualifies as a "shock" thread?

In the General Guide, a shock thread is described as, "These are threads about news or content that is just disgusting and/or shocking, with little potential for discussion other than outrage. Nobody gains anything from these threads and you should not make them."

Two threads in particular are the very recent threads are the "[SoraNews24] "A friendly reminder not to accidentally get squid sperm in your mouth, it hurts" [NSFW?]" and one posted in early June titled, "Just a friendly reminder that we are all going to die"; the latter's op is just a sentence long and the former clearly written for the sake of the shock value, especially since the OP ends with, "Happy weekend dining, Era! 👋".

Neither of these threads really had much to discuss  and the replies are just filled with memes, disgust comments, innuendos and tons of one sentence comments, mostly jokes. These aren't the only two threads like this, but just two examples of something I've noticed has become more of a trend over the past year on the Etcet side of the Forum.

It honestly feels like "Weekend era" has just become "be as gross/shocking/edgy/dark as possible" now and many of them are just low effort, especially when it feels like long time users get a lot of leeway with these threads that wouldn't normally be acceptable. Personally I find it can often create a boys club feel, feels at best tacky and makes me uncomfortable sometimes, especially when the titles are deliberately vague just to draw in users to make them feel disgusted or uncomfortable when they read the op; plus incredibly annoying just to having to keep ignoring these threads.

I feel like suggestion a NSFW area for the site (within reason) but fear that would only make it worse and just give many of the users a place to be even more uncaring about the feelings of women.

We’ll sooner achieve world peace than this dumb fuck stop feeling “unsafe” about everything

I'm thoroughly confused by this post, not gonna lie.

The squid thread is funny and completely harmless. It's "gross" yes but not in a dangerous, creepy or alienating way, it's just humour about how the peculiarities of some of the animals we eat can backfire on humans. That's a perfect example of a completely fine "weekend era" thread. Why are you bringing up the feelings of women in this context?? Not only is there nothing about gender politics in this thread (at least I seriously hope you don't consider jokes about squid sperm to be gendered or sexist...) and a woman made the thread.

If anything, I'm actually annoyed that you would be bringing up the real issues of sexism and "boys club" shit we see on Era in the context of harmless threads about weird animals/food. Just because you don't like that kind of thread or humour or whatever doesn't mean you get to bring up sexism where it does not belong.

Sorry, wasn't in a good place and went overboard.

I don't think there is a need to apologize. Sometimes we find something but it is hard to pin down exactly what it is and boys club has always been a little more vague in like this.

Everyone draws the line a little differently on things whether it is boys club or shock threads. For myself I find stuff that is aiming to be humorous more acceptable than for example pain or violence or tragedy. Boys club isn't always strictly leaning misogyny or clear cut sexism. I think a lot of different behaviour especially in an environment where majority of the users are enthusiasts and the industry works like a hype factory can be potentially uncomfortable. We might feel it as cringey or borderline toxic or creepy or just... overly enthuse fan craze. Sometimes it isn't one person but the culmination of majority of the users and off-site opinions as well, from general or from popular figures. It can add weight to change the atmosphere of a thread and it can be unpleasant. It isn't always just boys club contributing either.

We also don't want to always be the fun police. Weekends we do tend to allow a little bit more mischief, partly because we want users to have fun and let loose a bit but also because we (staff) want to do other things and aren't moderating Era so might not be as active. The general state of the forum also needs to be considered, how many such silly threads are there? How frequent? How does the discussion feel? How is the OP? How are you? If the forum is slow and this thread isn't too problematic then generally it is whatever for me or maybe I'll make a note to reconsider it on Monday if it is even still relevant by then. The latter tho can be a thing. A thing like a 2am discord ping where I'm reading a report and thinking "This thread? W-why? How? Why? ... Ohhh ffs."

Any ways. I just want to say that while I know you've taken the post back and such, discussing feelings can be hard and more so for feelings of unpleasantness or exclusion. Trying to pin point examples is hard too but it is also important. Staff needs posts like this sometimes too, to check things, to remind us and everyone. Because it is hard and we all draw the line different.

Hope I'm not mansplaining.