Journal of Other Forum Analysis

[benji]

I mean B-Dubs story doesn't add up in any way. This was a forum that had a pinned thread about Palestine for how long and that has how many other "sensitive" threads? But it's this one that needs to be hidden because otherwise it will attract "trolls" and "banned users" to not post in that thread (or their posts and bans would be visible surely) but post all over the forum causing problems. So the Palestine thread attracts them but then they cause havoc all over the forum, examples of which he does not provide and are left entirely to the imagination.

But, as always, please remember the mental strain on the staff.

[Averon]

B-Dubs literally said before that pointing out staff hypocrisy, blatant double standards, and them ignoring TOS "endangers" the staff. Because something something Kiwifarms and "bad actors."

[benji]

Bringing that over from the OG, if someone would like to screenshot it from April 9, 2023 in their Community Feedback thread (can't put the post location any closer sorry) and perhaps any other staff ones that are fun, I know a server that would be glad to host them:

Allow me to try and summarize the sort of tickets we got in the aftermath of announcing our banning of the Harry Potter game:

    random bigotry
    naked pictures of trans people
    targeted bigotry
    generic hateful messages
    random transphobia
    pictures of dead animals
    a veiled threat of physical violence
    And more I'm probably forgetting

The 7 and 8 had me reaching out to MOBA about contacting the FBI if it kept up. Luckily it flamed out immediately afterwards.

The fact is, and I know we've said this before, creating a standardized list of banned personalities opens staff up to harassment from their fanbases and the wider internet. Beyond that, some members of staff are either public with their real life identities or have been doxxed by sites like Kiwifarms or other hate groups. When I was a mod I had asked why we didn't have a formalized list and this was the response I got, now I saw up close that the reasoning had a real point. I hope you can understand that I refuse to put the staff at risk to satiate your curiosity.

Beyond that, it is literally impossible for us to compile a list that covers everything and there are 1000% bad faith actors on the site itself who will use the existence of a formal list against us in the form of "how come you didn't ban x person when you banned y person?"

So no, we will not be making a list of banned sources/content. I hope you can understand the reasoning, but if not then oh well.

The problem is that when there is a disagreement it can escalate and turn into a gigantic shitshow. At that point we either need to give in and ban the person despite us deciding that they haven't actually broken any rules (which would essentially just create mob rule) or ban the reporter who escalated into the gigantic shitshow and anyone else who refuses to let it go (which would create an even bigger shitshow). It's a situation where there is no winning, only losing for everyone involved. That's why we don't send out rejection alerts. They will never go over well, trust me on that because a few of us tried it a few years back and it lasted all of 20 minutes before it started going sideways.

[benji]

Also, just because it was from the same time period, that was when Jessi77 got silenced for standing up against genocide:

Nope. Here's a thought. No gene editing until trans liberation, since if it's an evil and horrid experiment for us to transition then that is beyond the pale.

I'm not against gene editing. But if it happens the immediate benefactor's will be rich white cis conservatives, you know the same people who are trying to genocide us, partly reasoning what we do is horrific self experimentation.

They say we are mutilating ourselves while they go in and get designer genes to save them from diseases and defects that are still going to kill the poor and you can't see why I'd connect the two?

See this is my point and why I said what I said. Trans people are here and we can transition now, yet we are being denied and losing rights and literally being called monsters and sex predators, and this tech is t quite even here yet though close so I say a somewhat silly thing to make a larger point and I get people jumping down my throat and acting like I want people to suffer, but my community is already suffering, and it does it make sense, if it's unethical for us to alter our bodies then this is too.

Trans people are in literal life or death danger in America but me bringing up this hypocrisy is too much, your all fucking hypocrites.

What part of if it's being legislated we cannot modify our bodies no one should be able too. I'm not actually saying "let people suffer" I'm saying trans people right now are on the brink of genocide, and part of the argument Is the body modification which this also is.

Also Caitlyn Jenner is transgender and she is trash that walk us into that camps so that's not a get out of jail free card.

User Threadbanned (Permanently): Derailing a thread across multiple posts

Sounds like the same logic boomers use to justify denying student loan forgiveness.

Really? You don't see the problem with body modification for me but not for thee? You really don't see how trans people are literally turning into an endangered species in this country? Like I said, at best most of era just don't care about us, and lots are transphobic themselves.

But yes, take my flippant statement to point out the hypocrisy to be me actually wanting to hurt people, y'all ain't allies you're complicit. If we do get genocide a lot of posters here who called themselves allies will have just as much blood on their hands.

And what I'm going through and other like me on this site when we are facing genocide and you all still talk down to us and tell us how to act isn't hurtful? This is the exact hypocrisy I'm talking about.

Now you're all just misrepresenting me. And as a medically disabled person calling me abelist is just laughable. It was a flippant remark to make a metaphor, and your continued attacks just show why the trans community keeps leaving. But yeah, pat yourself on the back and call me the problem.

Not long thereafter was the guy silenced for criticizing the forum for being pro-totalitarian, but remember this wasn't someones post hitting Nepenthe (pro-Islamic dictatorships doing genocides) a little too close to home because at least three staff members signed off on this:

User Banned (permanent): inflammatory commentary, account in junior phase

These poll results also include a lot of older Europeans on the right who don't like China. I don't find it surprising that older, right wing Europeans are anti China and pro US considering this is from majority white Europe

The idea that people on the left like China, and only people on the right dislike China is so absurd to me that it makes me wonder what is wrong with this forum. And there's a pattern on this forum, in all threads about China, where people condemning China and the CCP for being a totalitarian and imperialistic country are being banned, while the "usual suspects" are being left alone as the mods look the other way when it comes to the repeated whataboutism and the same bad faith arguments (which are nothing more than CCP propaganda and tactics).

It's so ridiculous to read that if you don't like totalitarian, imperialistic regimes, then you're right wing... I think ResetERA has stopped being a leftist forum, and is instead heading down a more insidious road and it's not difficult to figure out which are the people responsible for this.

If you support a totalitarian government that is determined to build an alternative world order that's friendlier to autocrats (which is exactly what China is doing), a regime that stands against everything the left fights for (LGBT rights, minority rights), then you are not left - you are a tankie and this forum fits the bill: I noticed how in every (every single one, without fail) thread about China, there will be one or more people derailing the discussion with whataboutism about America or or using CCP propaganda catchphrases like "America's lapdogs" (and we have one in this thread, EricTheGamerman) or accusations of sinophobia or even some who 'both sides' and try to equate the Uyghur genocide with the American prison system as if they are the same thing (Thordinson in this thread, but a few others too), or even accusations of American warmongering (have y'all noticed how every time China threatens Taiwan or some other country, the same usual suspects will invariably have a post where they try to blame the crisis on America? even in the thread about China starting military exercises around Taiwan there's one who's using the 'warmongering' rhetoric seemingly blaming forum users and just about everyone except China for it lmao) and the worst part is mods are banning the ones who oppose the Chinese totalitarian government (but this has been happening for a long time, without many people noticing - and if others like me did notice, they didn't seem to talk about it, probably out of fear of retaliation from the mods).

This forum is on a fucked up path. You can follow every thread about China and you'll notice the same tactics (whataboutism, accusations of sinophobia, "america is just as bad as the ccp and russia", or the rhetoric of 'western warmongering' while ignoring China's bullying of literally every single neighbor in the SCS and militarazing artificial islands which the Hague ruled as being ilegally built (not that China ever cared about respecting rules, but what self respecting wumao has time for that amiright?), - literally the same diversions when China is accused of imperialism and jingoism) from the same people and you'll notice a pattern of mods banning the people making posts condemning the totalitarian regime that the CCP is, while not banning the resident wumaos/tankies.

I can't help but notice the irony of this forum being a place for minorities, while the mods seem to protect people with an agenda of shilling for an ethnostate, totalitarian regime that stands against every value ResetERA is supposed to stand for. It's going to be an interesting time to watch this cognitive dissonance and what mental gymnastics will be made to explain it. There was a time a few years ago when comparing the Uyghur genocide with a prison system was a bannable offence. That time is gone, and right now the agenda on this forum seems to be leaning pro-totalitarian regimes. I do wonder though how many of this forum's usual suspects are living (or have lived) in China. For that matter, how many of the mods are minorities and have lived in China. That'd be a great experience for them, I'm sure lol They'll have a taste of that great socialism they crave for and how good old Big Brother (aka the party) treats people who complain and try to fight for rights.

[Averon]

Bringing that over from the OG, if someone would like to screenshot it from April 9, 2023 in their Community Feedback thread (can't put the post location any closer sorry) and perhaps any other staff ones that are fun, I know a server that would be glad to host them:

Allow me to try and summarize the sort of tickets we got in the aftermath of announcing our banning of the Harry Potter game:

    random bigotry
    naked pictures of trans people
    targeted bigotry
    generic hateful messages
    random transphobia
    pictures of dead animals
    a veiled threat of physical violence
    And more I'm probably forgetting

The 7 and 8 had me reaching out to MOBA about contacting the FBI if it kept up. Luckily it flamed out immediately afterwards.

The fact is, and I know we've said this before, creating a standardized list of banned personalities opens staff up to harassment from their fanbases and the wider internet. Beyond that, some members of staff are either public with their real life identities or have been doxxed by sites like Kiwifarms or other hate groups. When I was a mod I had asked why we didn't have a formalized list and this was the response I got, now I saw up close that the reasoning had a real point. I hope you can understand that I refuse to put the staff at risk to satiate your curiosity.

Beyond that, it is literally impossible for us to compile a list that covers everything and there are 1000% bad faith actors on the site itself who will use the existence of a formal list against us in the form of "how come you didn't ban x person when you banned y person?"

So no, we will not be making a list of banned sources/content. I hope you can understand the reasoning, but if not then oh well.

The problem is that when there is a disagreement it can escalate and turn into a gigantic shitshow. At that point we either need to give in and ban the person despite us deciding that they haven't actually broken any rules (which would essentially just create mob rule) or ban the reporter who escalated into the gigantic shitshow and anyone else who refuses to let it go (which would create an even bigger shitshow). It's a situation where there is no winning, only losing for everyone involved. That's why we don't send out rejection alerts. They will never go over well, trust me on that because a few of us tried it a few years back and it lasted all of 20 minutes before it started going sideways.

[Daffy Duck]

lol wow quite a fun read

[Eric Cartman]

C'mon guys, you're making it sound like there's something weird, creepy, or untoward about having a secret non-viewable to the public thread where you can secretly discuss your possible Solutions to the (((colonizers))) without (((Bad Actors))) pushing back on your rhetoric

[Eric Cartman]

I know. The title sounds funny.

I am using Discord since 2020 and I've been in many servers. Some of them are official ones. I even made some friends from those servers but I eventually get banned when I disagree with mod or a friend of mod. I was at popular official (a game studio's) discord server. And a mod is basically banning other members if you slightly disagree with them. He called me clown multiple times and looks like the employees don't care about the server. I really want to stop using Discord because of this but I really like some of the servers. I just wanted to express how I feel.

[Besticus Maximus]

Consequence culture iirc

[Boredfrom]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/racism-in-gaming-video-essay-foreign-man-in-a-foreign-land.790935/

Table of Contents

0:00 Double Dare of Doom
0:55 The State of Play
2:41 In Defense of Gaming
4:50 Everything is Racist
8:04 Battlefront or St**mfront?
10:00 The Rise of Racist Hypothetics
12:45 you know its bad when you out-racist Destiny
13:33 White vs Black Gaming
15:46 The Caribbean Travesty of Assassin's Creed
17:09 The Gatekeepers of Gaming Racism
20:25 The Backlash of "Woke" Gaming
25:00 How Games Groom Gamers
28:35 The Genderfication of Gaming
30:10 The Problem with Gamergate
48:29 How Black Gamers Modded Our Way into Existence

Also, the biggest section is about Gamergate, because of course.

I really wish the conversation of race was not so toxic from both left and right, because it could be interesting without some asshole bitching about how they cannot create their black power fantasy character in the fucking Dark Souls 1 character creator of all things (pro tip: is terrible and you are a ugly zombie for most of the game you dumb fuck) or some 4channer throwing “ironic” racist memes in a serious topic.

Another fantastic and entertaining video essay by Foreign Man In A Foreign Land. Features various collaborators like FD Signifire, Dr Kishonna Gray, The Cursed Judge, and Kalia. If you're not familiar, he's a leftist Youtuber who creates video essays on various pop culture topics, focusing on intersectionalism and leftist politics.

Thanks for the anti recommendations, Messy.

[Snoopy]

"How Games Groom Gamers"

Good to see Visawife's search filter is working as intended

[Hap Shaughnessy]

Hiding the Israel Palestine thread is a tacit admission of antisemitism. The troll strategy of finding and signal boosting antisemitic posts wouldn't work if there were none. B-dubs is Jewish, so maybe he thinks tolerating and then attempting to conceal Era's antisemitism makes him "one of the good ones".

[Boredfrom]

BTW, why is the dude in short shorts in this video? I’m seeing wrong? 

[Besticus Maximus]

I mean B-Dubs story doesn't add up in any way. This was a forum that had a pinned thread about Palestine for how long and that has how many other "sensitive" threads? But it's this one that needs to be hidden because otherwise it will attract "trolls" and "banned users" to not post in that thread (or their posts and bans would be visible surely) but post all over the forum causing problems. So the Palestine thread attracts them but then they cause havoc all over the forum, examples of which he does not provide and are left entirely to the imagination.

But, as always, please remember the mental strain on the staff.

Hiding the Israel Palestine thread is a tacit admission of antisemitism. The troll strategy of finding and signal boosting antisemitic posts wouldn't work if there were none. B-dubs is Jewish, so maybe he thinks tolerating and then attempting to conceal Era's antisemitism makes him "one of the good ones".

You gotta wonder what he's thinking when he reads what's going on here re Nepenthe and co's overt racism. It's easy enough to tell yourself you can ignore the 4chan weirdos or hype it up as being right wing viligtane nonsense but your admin is an antisemite pal, what are you going to do about it? You are the problem, not the invisible chuds

[Snoopy]

Dubs should watch Cop Land. He might gain some valuable insight.

[Hap Shaughnessy]

I think it's really weird that there are people on this forum that refuse to engage with content unless it's been pre-screened as "not problematic" by an echo chamber of strangers on the internet.

You can't watch it and determine for yourself?

https://www.resetera.com/threads/how-good-is-bone-tomahawk-is-it-problematic.790485/page-2#post-115645389

Trying a little too hard to frame asking people their opinion on a movie one hasn't seen yet as some wild act. It's fine that the OP is curious about our feelings on how the movie handled its story about a group of cannibalistic Native Americans.

Asking for opinions on a movie is one thing, asking if the movie is "problematic" is another.
To be fair to OP, the thread title DOES ask if the movie is good, but the content of the post is asking if it features content that could potentially be described by a highly nebulous buzzword with no single accepted definition, as though it's only acceptable to watch the movie if it passes the purity test of a known extremely-politically-left forum first.

I'm not trying to single out this specific OP for this or anything because they're not the only person that does it, but it's real weird that people try to filter their choices through the opinions of an internet forum based on criteria like whether or not something is "problematic" or has the wrong actor in it.

It's like the political equal and opposite of those moms for liberty groups or whatever.

Engage with the content yourself and determine how you feel about it, don't rely on an internet forum to make up your mind for you.

[Boredfrom]

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I think it's really weird that there are people on this forum that refuse to engage with content unless it's been pre-screened as "not problematic" by an echo chamber of strangers on the internet.

You can't watch it and determine for yourself?

https://www.resetera.com/threads/how-good-is-bone-tomahawk-is-it-problematic.790485/page-2#post-115645389

Trying a little too hard to frame asking people their opinion on a movie one hasn't seen yet as some wild act. It's fine that the OP is curious about our feelings on how the movie handled its story about a group of cannibalistic Native Americans.

Asking for opinions on a movie is one thing, asking if the movie is "problematic" is another.
To be fair to OP, the thread title DOES ask if the movie is good, but the content of the post is asking if it features content that could potentially be described by a highly nebulous buzzword with no single accepted definition, as though it's only acceptable to watch the movie if it passes the purity test of a known extremely-politically-left forum first.

I'm not trying to single out this specific OP for this or anything because they're not the only person that does it, but it's real weird that people try to filter their choices through the opinions of an internet forum based on criteria like whether or not something is "problematic" or has the wrong actor in it.

It's like the political equal and opposite of those moms for liberty groups or whatever.

Engage with the content yourself and determine how you feel about it, don't rely on an internet forum to make up your mind for you.

Is funny because the OP is a huge GTA Stan.

[Hap Shaughnessy]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/cdpr-wants-to-break-the-boundaries-of-the-rpg-genre-with-witcher-4.790317/page-5#post-115700055

A lot of talk about cyberpunk in this thread. Yes, the launch was disastrous, but the product we have now broadly speaking lives up to the hype and is one of the most impressive and ambitious games ever made. Not excusing the launch, that better not ever happen again, just saying that they ultimately did deliver so there's no reason to believe they're simply lying about their ambitions with The Witcher 4. I just expect it to be a PS6 game...maybe even a mid gen PS6 game lmao. And CDPR isn't getting benefit of the doubt at launch.
As for what I personally want from The Witcher 4...God I hope they don't want to make a bigger game than TW3. That game was spread so thin and, while I personally liked the gameplay, the RPG systems did not scale to the amount of content the game had and it was ultimately carried by their intense dedication to lore and storytelling in every single quest. I'd much prefer a more dense game than we got with TW3, maybe with more unique environments (I loved TW3 but I really didn't want to spend all that time in Velen of all places).

100%. cyberpunks an incredible game that was released 2 years too early.

 

[kaleidoscopium]

That's the problem with any small community. Sometimes there is an asshole in power. Sometimes the power of mod rights makes people assholes. But also, sometimes you are the asshole.

https://www.resetera.com/threads/discord-servers-are-great-for-talking-about-gaming-but-i-eventually-get-banned-when-i-disagree-with-mod’s-friend.790944/#post-115695150

[BIONIC]

Deriding someone for not buying a specific service (such as Gamepass, PS+ or whatever) should be treated like console warring. Saying you are not interested in a service and don't find it attractive should not result in a horde of console warriors dogpiling you, saying you are doing gaming wrong, insulting your "narrow" taste, calling the post "wild" or "divorced from reality", "bro do you even game" gatekeeping etc.

I saw a lot and I do mean a LOT of posts like that. I didn't report the posts because I'm not sure if it's moderable and I didn't want to spam reports. Should I?

Reminder that this person is in their 40s

[kaleidoscopium]

That’s a former mod too, meaning she would have banned for that reason if given the opportunity in the past 😂

[Hap Shaughnessy]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/discord-servers-are-great-for-talking-about-gaming-but-i-eventually-get-banned-when-i-disagree-with-mod%E2%80%99s-friend.790944/page-2#post-115703319

Discord mods and power trips huh. Can't believe it.

All mods are on a powertrip, it comes with the job

[HaughtyFrank]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/discord-servers-are-great-for-talking-about-gaming-but-i-eventually-get-banned-when-i-disagree-with-mod%E2%80%99s-friend.790944/page-2#post-115703319

Discord mods and power trips huh. Can't believe it.

All mods are on a powertrip, it comes with the job

Would be so fucking hilarious if he gets banned for that.

[Pwnz]

That's the problem with any small community. Sometimes there is an asshole in power. Sometimes the power of mod rights makes people assholes. But also, sometimes you are the asshole.

https://www.resetera.com/threads/discord-servers-are-great-for-talking-about-gaming-but-i-eventually-get-banned-when-i-disagree-with-mod’s-friend.790944/#post-115695150

I haven't had this problem with discord. Like the infrastructure week discord from former poliera only bans for an extremely good reason, I've only seen it happen a couple of times.

Its okay to disagree with people and not have so much righteous anger it turns out.

[Shecky Fragbaum]

"Engaging with content" is what we do with your more notably silly posts, Reseterains. For example, using that specific word vomit to denote watching a goddamned movie (or to avoid watching it, if it's too dangerous) is a good way to ensure your embarassing content is engaged with, mercilessly, on the daily.

[Taco Bell Tower]

I know. The title sounds funny.

I am using Discord since 2020 and I've been in many servers. Some of them are official ones. I even made some friends from those servers but I eventually get banned when I disagree with mod or a friend of mod. I was at popular official (a game studio's) discord server. And a mod is basically banning other members if you slightly disagree with them. He called me clown multiple times and looks like the employees don't care about the server. I really want to stop using Discord because of this but I really like some of the servers. I just wanted to express how I feel.

I can't stand it when other's have a different opinion than me so yeah I always choose to ban them because having that power feels amazing and power tripping is kewl

[Hap Shaughnessy]

Israel / Palestine thread is public again.

[Eric Cartman]

Israel / Palestine thread is public again.

Oh, because of that major thing that happened that made all of bitch-dubs reasons to hide it in the first place now irrelevant, huh?

[Boredfrom]

I used to be interested in what this guy said way back in the early 2010s, but now he's so far removed from his beliefs back then. This dude sold out hard, it's really sad and pathetic to see what he's become.

I'm thankful that there are many other Black activists and thinkers keeping their dignity and sense of self during these times. It's so, so easy to sell out and compromise yourself these days. And I'm sure a lot of bad groups out there are doing everything they can to ensure that more PoC activists will sell out and abandon their causes.

Anyway, Cornel West is bad news. The sooner this guy goes away the better.

The dude sounds so normal and rational until that part. Like people getting money hungry is only something whites and Jews do.

https://www.resetera.com/threads/grifter-and-presidential-candidate-cornel-west-is-broke.791034/

[Nintex]

The truce is over and Arabs have told the Israelis behind closed doors that they want them to finish off Hamas