Journal of Other Forum Analysis

[Taco Bell Tower]

Don’t hate myself quite enough to read this entire dreck, but I’m sure benji does

Hi friends. I'll give this a crack. I have a moment and a lot of thoughts on this. I'm not going to pretend I haven't looked at something in surprise the user didn't get it but at the end of the day we come from different backgrounds, we have different experiences. What is obvious to me is not to you sometimes. The reverse is also true. I've asked thousands of dumb questions and I've forever been saying that this shit can be complicated and it sucks.

Firstly I am on break so I can't actually even look at stuff to check anything but I'll weigh in. I don't think I can give an answer anyone really wants because well, I don't really have an answer. We've tried things and see some improvements but there is always some that don't understand and our responses or lack of isn't good enough. The first thing I want to make clear is that I'm definitely here to acknowledge the problem, that it isn't great and I'd like to see improvements too.

Users not understanding bans and moderator actions has been an issue since... forever. It was a thing when I joined back in 2018 and is still a thing today. It has improved in some areas but also not in others. It is a constant point of frustration for our members who want to improve,  our members who read and don't understand, the mods who read and don't understand, the brains who are trying to find the answers for us and honestly just about everybody. No one is benefitting from this and no one likes how this plays out. That said, if it was so easy of a fix we wouldn't need this discussion and it would have been resolved years ago. We have certainly tried and sometimes, time permitting we still put in a lot of effort. It really is never enough and I am also disappointed but unfortunately this is what we have at the moment.

Right, so our responses are kind of shit sometimes with canned messaging that doesn't help our members understand the issues. Let me tell you about a conversation I had during the early years with mods/admins. I was not satisfied with how things were going. We were ghosting users more frequently back then or just not getting to them in time because often we had no response and I was watching users get banned and again and then lash out or fall into theorizing mods were targeting them specifically. There were some members where I felt that their hearts were in the right place only the way they approached or the wording could land them in reports. I felt that the users often could better follow moderation if they understood exactly what the issue was. I threw an idea to reach out to users who we think were generally good users and try to guide them through conversation and discussion. It was never shot down. I only ever received caution from the mods where were there at the time, mods who had experience I did not.

We are not educators. There are a lot of topics that we will try our best to inform ourselves on through research and such so that we can moderate the forum. But we typically don't have the knowledge to really help people understand complex topics as much, we similarly aren't expected to teach members how exactly to follow the rules if the general stuff isn't working. Not everyone is good at explaining or summarising things in a professional or appropriate way etc. Sloppy responses can potentially cause more issues for us as well. For each example I am able to show a user being great after reaching out there were others that... weren't. It is ultimately very time consuming and exhausting. It is, like everything else we do, a voluntary thing that we do if we choose to. It is also important that we don't give false information, remember that most of moderation is a team effort but this sort of reaching out is often a 1 on 1 thing (we report it so it does get logged into the system for other mods to review these days, unless for whatever reasons it needs/deserves more confidentiality etc). So over the years I've tried it and yeah, mixed results but it doesn't change the fact that if users are not understanding something then perhaps the rules could be clearer or the banners could have been better. Prevention would have been a lot better honestly. This stuff can and has in the past lead to harassment of individual staff who tried to help so there is stuff like that to consider as well.

Spoiler: "On banners" (click to show)(click to hide)

We have tried to improve them over the years and I'd like to think we are in a better place than we were. Banners are meant to be a bit consistent and somewhat professional. Which can make coming up with new ones harder when my brain says "You're right but you're also being a gloating asshole about it. Stop it." We can still do custom banners but we also don't want to make it a spectacle or degrading or risk identifying the mod placing the banner.

So common and simple banners are a thing and they are great when it correctly covers what the issue is. Obviously this isn't always true and so we want to be accurate but also not editorialize. Staff has said it before but majority of the short bans we hand out tend to be to de-escalate a situation. Perhaps its time to review and come up with more common issue banners.

We rarely get feedback on good banners. Mostly someone doesn't understand and this might be because the banner isn't exactly right. It might be missing something like "over multiple posts" or "history of similar behaviour" or "across multiple threads". Even then, users might have time really understanding what is happening. They only see that the problem might not just be with this post in isolation. Other times a banner might be wrong entirely. Might be on the wrong post because the user was reported multiple times in the same thread and we pooled the discussion of the issues into a single report and didn't pick the most accurate post where the issues are more obvious. The are of course entirely bans as well.

So tickets. I'll try to talk a little about some of the process from this side of things.

Spoiler: "Tickets" (click to show)(click to hide)

As you may know, reports are generally handled by 1 or more mods each. Usually if it isn't a super obvious troll on a rampage, we want discussion before moderating it. By the time the ticket comes in, there is a chance it is a different set of eyes viewing it. I've talked about tickets being one of the more difficult parts of the job before. We have a lot less staff working in tickets than we do in reports. Tickets work best when a few mods schedule time in to try and resolve as many as we can. I haven't been involved in many as of late, they aren't that frequent any way. We mostly try to chip in when we can. The last time I remember doing this it was a 6~ish hour block with mods working on resolving tickets. We would discuss issues then one person drafts while the rest looks through other tickets. Some tickets can be resolved easily with a single mod, so we call it out so we don't double up on drafting a reply for the same thing, anything complicated we bring back and do the same which can disrupt the draft writing but discussion takes priority since it isn't as common these days to have many mods on hand working in tandem like this. When a draft is done we ask for quick review, fix things then fire it off. Sometimes we even get a quick reply and can work on that while it is fresh on everyone's memory too. This also helps as often there is an admin around so we can sign off stuff like complicated histories and specials cases. Sometimes we take a break and come back later to finish where we left off. When the queue is crazy big I also don't even finish the draft and just note what I want in the draft to complete over the week so I can have more time to get a deeper understanding and discuss the other challenging tickets. Often, these sessions would be on weekends. For the US staff, their Saturdays are my Sundays. Sometimes we do Sundays which is actually my Monday and there has been more than a couple of late night ticket romps. Just typing this out I can say with confidence that this system feels a bit broken and needs something to help it. If anything, we would benefit if we had more sessions like this but I also don't think any of us could put the time in for it as a regular thing.

So what about other times when we aren't scheduling it into our lives? We chip in when we can. We chip at it however we can. Discussion is slower. Motivation is lower. Sometimes singular mods will do a long session and leave a bunch of drafts for reviews while other times we might post just the one or spend the time following bread crumbs and discussing an issue.

If you ask me, it would be great to have 2 new people on this. Perhaps twice a week they crunch some tickets together. This should be what they do, not reports, not warnings, not banning or unbanning or title changes. Just straight up investigating issues and answering questions, drafting replies and communicating with staff and members, maybe even popping into this thread at time maybe.. They should be able to access other staff to help them when needed. They should be experienced in customer support because that is what this part of the job is. They should absolutely be paid for this.

So next I want to talk about how or why some of this is difficult and I'll just use some examples and you can probably fill in the blank with a banner you've seen before or an experience that might match it.

Lets start with something simple like trolling.

Spoiler: "Trolling" (click to show)(click to hide)

I am sometimes a troll. I like to prank people for a laugh now and then. I try not to make it personal or have any seriousness to it but at the end of the time I'm still trolling when I do it. That said, trolling can happen in a lot of ways and moderating it can be difficult. For one the definition of trolling suggests posting to provoke or bait others. This can also be done entirely unintentionally. There are tickets that are basically "How can this be trolling? I'm just posting my genuine feelings and opinions. I am not trying to troll any one. Is this opinion not allowed?" The user is confused. They don't understand so I look into it and say I read through the stuff and... I think they were trolling. These conversations can go a few ways. Semantics and definitions. Interpretations vs intention. Ultimately there isn't a lot to say that can change the user's mind.

Another issue to look out for is that sometimes, you could have said things in a way that didn't cause the reactions that it did. When you evidently pissed people off how you react comes into consideration. This isn't great though because sometimes, well, the reactions might be understandable but are some not always helpful and so the ticket replies "I gave my opinion and Snormy basically said I was an idiot. Of course I defend myself, I'm not going to just take that." which is... also pretty fair but while the logic is fair the issue comes from the actual post and responses. The general feel of the thread, the escalation or de-escalation etc. Whether or not the members manage to settle things amicably or not or maybe they are turning the entire thread into a needlessly hostile environment. It is essentially a break down of communications and sometimes as a moderator we might be reading it wrong because at the end of the day words can be read harshly quite easily online because tone is absence. It takes greater effort to ensure things go smoothly but this also means spending more time which not every one has. And then people like myself ramble and waste everyone's time also, which can maybe even be considered trolling for example...

Trolls can also come in a variety of flavours. We all know trolling can be subtle. It can be careful. When we use things like concern trolling it is usually because we feel it more accurately describes things. No, it isn't in the rules but it is under the trolling umbrella I guess. The rules are unfortunately never going to be exhaustive because people will always find ways to troll and similarly a troll can also be harmless and fun sometimes, I think. We certainly have users who aren't serious and are more like a running gag or meme most of the time and this isn't what the spirit of the trolling rules are about.

In the earlier days of moderation we were much stricter about tying things back directly to a rule in the book. And over the course of many years we have relaxed this because there were a lot of trolls that cleverly danced on the side line of the rules. These days we might be a bit more relaxed so we can catch some of the people that have been annoying communities.

Here is some trivia for you. Years back Snormy asked "What they hell is concern trolling?". And I was given some brief explanations. I followed by reading up some online. I then reread the report and conversations in thread. I'm not surprised this isn't well understood and I hate the response that users can google it just like staff and everyone else can. Some of us try not to use it and leave it as trolling. Another issue I took with concern trolling is that, sometimes members are just having a conversation and say the first thing that comes to their mind. Social media habits are weird. This can sometimes fall into concern trolling like behaviour. I have seen these play out where members of the forum respond and after a few exchanges will point out that their posts are disruptive and then the user doing it realises and excuses themselves with an apology as it was never their intention. I just try to close these reports. Only if there was a massive shit fight between the start and the end would I consider needing to moderate it. Just write it off as lesson learned etc. That said, it doesn't always go this way. So sometimes the hammer comes down.

I don't expect the examples fit anyone perfectly. I guess I'm just trying to explain that to really elaborate and pin point trolling can be more complicated than one might initially expect. Sometimes we look at something and a snap judgment is enough and then we can read a bit more to make sure, other times not really.

All right. One more. Surely console warring isn't complicated.

Spoiler: "Platform wars" (click to show)(click to hide)

Lets keep this simple. I'm tired.
"Why was banned. How is this wars?"

Sometimes it is time and place. Sometimes it is a pattern of behaviour. Sometimes you're just weirdly defending a company/box from valid criticism or whatever. These are, like everything else, sometimes horribly inconsistent. You say "Mario sucks" and it might be ok in a Smash thread. In a Nintendo thread, in a Sony thread maybe. But then you go post it first post in the sales thread in a month where Mario and God of War or something like that are directly compared in the top spots... Well...

And don't get me wrong. I'm not angry or anything. Obvious to you is like alien science to me sometimes right? There is also the same conversations we had in trolling above. Interpretation vs intention. Reaction and responses. "I'm not warring, I'm just giving my opinion on the games I've played from the list." type stuff.

Again. I don't expect these to be perfect examples. Obviously these are made up and I'm trying to illustrate that sometimes explaining things in words is difficult and for convenience I've painted the console war example in a pretty bad light for my example. No doubt there are more complicated cases so you can imagine that diving into it takes more time and is sometimes harder to explain.

Two more things before I'm done. One is a related idea that I've been entertaining for a long ass time, save it for last. The other is just how I tend to work on these tickets sometimes. Not the process but just... Well, ok maybe more about the process.

Spoiler: "Moderation inquiry" (click to show)(click to hide)

If you don't understand a ban there is a chance I won't understand the ban at a glance. This means I'm going to start reviewing the report. Look for chat logs of moderators, sifting through posts of the thread. I might review your history. Search for other reports that might be related, sometimes multiple posts are reported, we discuss in one but banner on another that is more appropriate and forget to link it back. I am not in the US nor am I consistent in my time commitment any more. The chances of me being familiar with the ban is probably slim, the chances those who worked on it are still online is also pretty slim usually. Any questions sent that way will be some time away. I can either pause here and work on another thing or dive deeper.

The thing is - and this is purely a me thing - at this point I'm a bit invested. I want to know why you were banned both so I can unban your ass and move on and so I can spot it next time. I want to get to the bottom of this. So while I'm waiting for my questions to be answered I continue to look into it most of the time. I am going through the motions of a ban review, maybe even if an small account review. When you say you don't understand the ban. I check and I don't understand the ban. I am almost always switching to review mode. If it doesn't make sense I will try and see the ban lifted. If I can explain it, I will. This procedure makes sense to me. It doesn't always work out and that sucks. For me at least, these can often feel like more work than a ban appeal. Ban appeal generally gives me something to work with. Here I start from 0 and often take a round about way back to doing an appeals style review. In a work stand point, they are not that far apart. I know your intention is entirely different but I'm not ignore it if I've done the work already. If I think its right to I'll try to lift the ban if its wrong, adjust the banner, reduce the ban or sometimes give out a bonus.

I can be one of the harsher mods. We all have blind spots I guess and some of us are more lenient in some areas than others. I think I type things like this a lot "This needs more than a warning." "This needs a longer ban. I'm happy with ___ if we want to be lenient. ___ feels about right." "This user needs an admin review."
I know I can be harsh so when people try to learn I really do want to explain it in a way they can understand. It just isn't always easy. I don't always succeed and that sucks and I'm sorry for the times it doesn't work out. There are probably ways to explain things better, I don't have this skill. There is probably a way for say what I wanted in this post in less than half the words. I don't have that either. Looking at this post, it doesn't really answer any ones question. There is no answer I can give. I can only acknowledge the problem that has existed since the time I've been here. I can talk about some of the things we've done to try and help. I can explain that sometimes when we have less going on we're more on top of it.

The moderation inquiry tickets that live rent free in my head aren't these ones though. It is not the ones that don't understand an issue that I regret the most being unable to answer. It is the ones that understand a greater issue, one that has no good answer if it has any answer at all. I've seen these, I've been in mod meetings about some of them and we have no answer. I never want to close out the tickets because I feel it deserves an answer but really sometimes we just can't fix some of the problems on the internet and the behaviour of others. We can warn and ban, we can try to make space for people to speak about the issues but trying to keep contentious issues from spiraling is a nightmare and not sustainable. Concessions have to be made somewhere and in a way that is manageable by staff. It isn't always balanced, it isn't always fair, it isn't always even practical for us. It doesn't work and sometimes we don't have answers to these questions or tickets.

All right. Thanks for reading. The last thing I wanted to mention is that related to exactly this issue. Members not understanding bans and thus bans are less effective at guiding members to better fit in with the forum. I was floating the idea in some staff channel of doing a series of threads. Probably locked threads so it doesn't get slammed with posts left and right. The purpose is for moderators (who are able to post in locked threads still), to talk about 1 item in moderation per thread. So for example 1. Trolling. It might be different experiences we have since some mods focus more on gaming while others focus more on etc. We might point out things we look for. We might try to dive into the more peculiar ones such as sea lioning, JAQing off, concern trolling, we might have recommendations, we might have explanations. Users could then also send suggestions such as things to include or maybe rewording for clarity or some questions via PM or through reports. This sounds cool yeah? But it also sounds like a massive time sink. I also quickly realised I'm not keen to run this solo because ultimately I only have my own experiences and moderation is a team gig. There are plenty I miss. Plenty I don't know as much of so it isn't just my time but others and we're not exactly in great supply of free time. It obviously also needs more time in the oven, there are a number of concerns that I didn't really get into, this post is 3800+ words right now. If that is the shape of such threads fine but while we're floating the idea it would be good try and shape it to be better.

Also, no. The flopped ticket responses aren't related to me being on break. We ALL do try our best to give a good response when we can. I've used the templates too. I'm not trying to throw other mods under the bus or anything like that. I'm on break. Its easier to be less grumpy I think.

4000+ words. One day I will participate in the monthly writing threads, actually have some fun typing stuff and maybe just as much anxiety thinking about responses.

Firstly I am on break so I can't actually even look at stuff to check anything but I'll weigh in. I don't think I can give an answer anyone really wants because well, I don't really have an answer

Then why the fuck did you replied   also nice admins and mods can get away with trolling but users get banned for it.

[benji]

genuinely though the post where dubs banned noodlesoup is baffling

I've never been a moderator but when you are arguing directly with someone, that's when you absolutely can't ban them, sometimes even if they deserve it

you put yourself in that position to be talking to them, so you need to be extra careful about the power you wield when you get heated

even asking other mods to review the conversation and ban him if necessary would be a bit irresponsible

people need to know they can talk directly to administrators without being on pins and needles

benji you know what to do

Yeah, I see his concern trolling, notice how he's not talking about me just "administrators" in general like we don't know exactly what he's doing.

[Cauliflower Of Love]

[Hap Shaughnessy]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/green-day-announces-dookie-demastered-available-on-game-boy-hit-clips-floppy-disks-and-more-super-limited.1005225/#post-129941283

User banned (1 week): antagonizing other users

chill?

Read more, post less.

[HaughtyFrank]

In the earlier days of moderation we were much stricter about tying things back directly to a rule in the book. And over the course of many years we have relaxed this because there were a lot of trolls that cleverly danced on the side line of the rules. These days we might be a bit more relaxed so we can catch some of the people that have been annoying communities.

Well, at least you admit the rules are meaningless and it's all just cops getting triggered.

I like that "we relaxed the rules a little" here actually means "we'll ban you for not even breaking the rules"

I honestly find it confounding how they think their approach is a good one and then turn around and lament that the user base dislikes them

[Hap Shaughnessy]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/women-claim-they-were-removed-from-spirit-airlines-flight-due-to-wearing-crop-tops.1003356/page-2#post-129878226

User Banned (2 Months): Islamophobic Rhetoric; Prior Ban for the Same

There are Muslim majority countries where this wouldn't even happen lol but in God's country America, of course it does.

[HaughtyFrank]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/women-claim-they-were-removed-from-spirit-airlines-flight-due-to-wearing-crop-tops.1003356/page-2#post-129878226

User Banned (2 Months): Islamophobic Rhetoric; Prior Ban for the Same

There are Muslim majority countries where this wouldn't even happen lol but in God's country America, of course it does.

RE is on a real trip to claim that Muslims aren't religious, huh?

Edit: Muslim majority country approved top of the page 

[AnnoyedCanadian]

Nep

Damn, if only you could read, because I'm not asking for 100% lock step in any candidate.

I'm asking for American liberals to have principles that they will actually materially stand on. Or, if that's too much, to admit the only principle they truly operate on is just keeping Republicans out of the White House.

The reality is they have let us know up front, time and time again, they will always vote for Democrats in the general. That inherently means there is nothing a Democratic candidate could do to actually lose their vote, including genocide. Literally nothing is actually off the table if a Democrat is doing it.

That means if liberals cannot stand against the wholesale erasure of a people, then literally my rights, dignity, and autonomy as a Black person are already negotiable because nothing I'm facing right now is as terrifying as what's going on in the Middle East. Granted, I already knew liberals didn't actually care about Black autonomy. But I'm just hoping white queer people eventually wake up and see that they are on the chopping block too, that their closest allies will cut them off for political or economic convenience.

They only care about a "genocide" when it's a country that is majority Jewish doing it, yet don't care when other countries in the region kill Arabs.

Just come out already and say you agree with Kanye.

[Hap Shaughnessy]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/last-year-epic-games-was-losing-more-than-1-billion-a-year-now-losing-a-bit-more-than-theyre-making-per-tim-sweeney.1002099/page-6#post-129954660

User banned (permanent): Troll account

Lack of moderation means the forums are a bunch of nazis

Translation: I saw something I didn't like, so I'll assume everyone in here is like that. Yay me!!

[benji]

Nep

Damn, if only you could read, because I'm not asking for 100% lock step in any candidate.

I'm asking for American liberals to have principles that they will actually materially stand on. Or, if that's too much, to admit the only principle they truly operate on is just keeping Republicans out of the White House.

The reality is they have let us know up front, time and time again, they will always vote for Democrats in the general. That inherently means there is nothing a Democratic candidate could do to actually lose their vote, including genocide. Literally nothing is actually off the table if a Democrat is doing it.

That means if liberals cannot stand against the wholesale erasure of a people, then literally my rights, dignity, and autonomy as a Black person are already negotiable because nothing I'm facing right now is as terrifying as what's going on in the Middle East. Granted, I already knew liberals didn't actually care about Black autonomy. But I'm just hoping white queer people eventually wake up and see that they are on the chopping block too, that their closest allies will cut them off for political or economic convenience.

                         same thing noodlesoup was banned for?

[Cauliflower Of Love]

This might be the best burka i've ever seen.

[Cauliflower Of Love]

I just liked to like my own post.

[Jansen]

Hey guys I called the police on my neighbor (she's black) because of a domestic disturbance @ 2:00am, did I just commit a hate crime?

Had to call them again. Someone was trying to to break into her apartment while she was home. Dude was going berserk

Don't do drugs with crazy people, kids.

[AnnoyedCanadian]

Brown women are attractive.

Even more attractive when they have full autonomy over their own bodies and aren't being told what to do.

Spoiler:  (click to show)(click to hide)

_thatbritishgirl and Bengaligoddessx

[Potato]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/women-claim-they-were-removed-from-spirit-airlines-flight-due-to-wearing-crop-tops.1003356/page-2#post-129878226

User Banned (2 Months): Islamophobic Rhetoric; Prior Ban for the Same

There are Muslim majority countries where this wouldn't even happen lol but in God's country America, of course it does.

In fact, the conflict was NOT resolved!

[Hap Shaughnessy]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/florida-is-on-alert-as-a-new-tropical-depression-forms-in-the-gulf-just-days-after-hurricane-helene-up-upgraded-to-category-5-hurricane-milton.1001661/page-47#post-130001124

Real talk, where does one even move to experience as little natural disasters as possible? I swear Florida won't exist in a few decades.

Pacific Northwest

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cascadia_subduction_zone

[benji]

Brown women are attractive.

Even more attractive when they have full autonomy over their own bodies and aren't being told what to do.

Not if they're TERFs. Fuck around, find out.

[Boredfrom]

If this doesn't pull the trigger on lesbian Lara and specifically Lara/Sam I will scream.

https://www.resetera.com/threads/all-episodes-of-tomb-raider-the-legend-of-lara-croft-are-now-available-on-us-netflix.1005939/post-129977490

This comment from resident lesbian PB got me thinking... how many modern female main characters are there even in gaming that are just straight? I get the impression they're either not sexual at all or at least Bi. Honestly just keeping Lara straight would almost feel.... bold

Edit: just remembered Bayonetta is straight. (Which also caused like a shit storm)

They backtracked hard with Lara Croft after the first game of the Square/Survivor era. They wrote Sam out of the franchise as hard as they could so tumblerinas didn’t latch on “Lara Croft is a lesbian”

[AnnoyedCanadian]

Booshka

Not enough folks, but especially white folks, have read and internalized something like "Letter from a Birmingham Jail."

Putting a timeline on oppression, and when is the right time to ask for justice, when it's okay to fight for liberation. All that being gatekept by the white moderates, time and time again, showing themselves to be ruled by fear and complacency. A comfortable life on top of the brutalized, bloody and dead folks that get sacrificed to maintain it.

Still calling it a fight for liberation when Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and other groups in the area are TERRORISTS. I legit want to know how retarded you have to be to not realize this

Having the sole view of "America Bad" has rotted these motherfuckers brains out faster than RFK Jr's. Bunch of fucking LARPers that need to legit get the shit kicked out of them for once in their spoiled lives.

Natiko

So it doesn't have to be lockstep, but by voting you just innately support all of a candidate's positions. You must take full accountability for every stance they have. That's what you're asking people to "stand on", no? Or is it only issues that are critical to you that intrinsically cannot be ignored and accountability must exist for but some nebulous, less important matters from your perspective can be bent on? Perhaps I'm simply not understanding your point. It was hard for my feeble brain to understand since I can't read according to you.

He's probably going to get permabanned from Nep. She's such a psycho cunt.

[Nintex]

If this doesn't pull the trigger on lesbian Lara and specifically Lara/Sam I will scream.

https://www.resetera.com/threads/all-episodes-of-tomb-raider-the-legend-of-lara-croft-are-now-available-on-us-netflix.1005939/post-129977490

This comment from resident lesbian PB got me thinking... how many modern female main characters are there even in gaming that are just straight? I get the impression they're either not sexual at all or at least Bi. Honestly just keeping Lara straight would almost feel.... bold

Edit: just remembered Bayonetta is straight. (Which also caused like a shit storm)

They backtracked hard with Lara Croft after the first game of the Square/Survivor era. They wrote Sam out of the franchise as hard as they could so tumblerinas didn’t latch on “Lara Croft is a lesbian”

They put this other guy in as her main "friend zoned for life" ally, what was his name again, Jonah?
He seemed way too fat for any Tomb Raiding in game 3.

We'll probably see the new Lara Croft at the VGAs and I doubt she'll look good. It'll be somewhere between meh and what the fuck is that.

[Boredfrom]

You want to know how we de-colonialize the government?

 


https://www.resetera.com/threads/biden-administration-no-longer-supporting-an-immediate-ceasefire-in-lebanon.1005735/page-6#post-129994656

[Nintex]

Liberals don't even recognize that many of the same people who led and marched during the civil rights protests of the 50s and 60s eventually conceded that voting within a fucking imperial system was not going to actually eliminate imperialism for them or other oppressed peoples, like, less than 15-20 years later after they did all that damn work. MLK said we need to go even further with total economic reform which would've necessitated political systemic reform. Malcolm basically said "fuck the Democrats" the whole time. Kwame Ture said the same as well and that he wants Africa back within full control by African peoples (and so do I). And it goes on.

This shit is a sham if you actually give an iota of a fuck about actually trying to free the world from the deadly consequences of Western capitalism. But if you're just trying to instead carve out a space for yourself within the club that white capital owners have cultivated, to get yours and yours alone, then sure, the stakes of these national elections make sense. But again, be upfront with that. Don't tell me you're an ally but only when it's easy and conditional.

[Potato]

Can someone check on FJ84857596549 and ZeroFriends please?

This is coming close to being an -ism or a -phobic in their world.

[AnnoyedCanadian]

I wonder if Nep is stupid enough to think that only black people live in Africa and she totally ignores North Africa.

Just like the idiot doesn't realize white people live in Brazil too when she's got a fetish for the entire country.

Again, if you don't like the States and have enough money, which she seems to or her family does, fucking move. Get out of the country that you despise so much. Adios bitch

[Taco Bell Tower]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/the-n64-is-much-better-than-i-remembered-it.1004862/
The chat bot

I've been digging into the N64 library of late, thanks to the N64 app on Switch.

I was an N64 fan. I got it at launch, but after a while, I got jealous of PS1 owners. It was just getting more games and more interesting franchises from companies I adored on the NES and Super NES. Specifically Squaresoft, with FFVII of course, Konami with SOTN and MGS1, and Capcom with Resident Evil and the fighting game ports. My little brother eventually got a PS1 and we had both systems.

It was a night and day difference in terms of software droughts. The PS1 basically had no droughts I could remember just game after game. I did adore the Mario 64, OoT, Banjo 1, GoldenEye, and Smash 64.

But the PS1 ended up being my favorite that generation.

Many years later, as I joined online communities, there's a big sentiment that the N64 was trash. I could see it. But replaying many of these N64 games and they age very well. I replayed SM64 via the All Stars Collection. I'm playing Paper Mario, the first one, and it's just a great title. But I missed it. I recently did a run of Wave Rave and that game is just amazing still. Same with F-Zero64.

It definitely doesn't have breadth of PS1, and it was missing some of my favorite genres like JPRGs and fighters, but I'm having a lot of fun playing stuff I missed.

Has the N64 aged better for you?

[Propagandhim]

She can't move, she has to warn everyone and remind people that they're carving out a space granted to them by "white capital".  It's a thankless, ceaseless job, but only she can do it.  She can't leave her post.  🫡

[Besticus Maximus]

If she goes the public might spend their coupons at the pharmacy frivolously 

[benji]

Liberals don't even recognize that many of the same people who led and marched during the civil rights protests of the 50s and 60s eventually conceded that voting within a fucking imperial system was not going to actually eliminate imperialism for them or other oppressed peoples, like, less than 15-20 years later after they did all that damn work. MLK said we need to go even further with total economic reform which would've necessitated political systemic reform. Malcolm basically said "fuck the Democrats" the whole time. Kwame Ture said the same as well and that he wants Africa back within full control by African peoples (and so do I). And it goes on.

MLK and Malcom X were both dead before the 1960's were over. Malcom was dead before the Voting Rights Act was even passed.

MLK rejected socialism. Ture rejected MLK for wanting racial integration. Malcom X recanted on his separatism.

[Snoopy]

[benji]

What's great about that thread is Nepenthe's entire premise is pretending that intersectionality is not a tough cookie to crack and that it will be solved right now. When she's the one who informed us about all this.