Change to Racism Rules

[Demonic]

OK Dezmond has moved to our marketing dept, so temporarily I have taken over bang again until I find a replacement. The only real change I am making is to our racism policy. From now on the only word that would invoke a warn/silence will be nigger/nig or any variation that still reads as that, for example n1gger would be considered but n19 for example wouldn't. This is enforced by our server restrictions so we must keep this word here.

The remaining words etc will now be covered on the obscene.txt so you will only be warned/punished if said in a way to intentionally break the obscene.txt -ie. Say j3w instead of Jew to break the obscene.txt

Lets see how this goes, and providing people are not stupid with this, we can make it a perm change and lighten up these rules. Obviously if you have no intention of seeing this, type ?obscene to toggle your filter on and off.


We will also be providing a monthly report on bans available to players, to show reasons for bans on previous month so everyone can see exactly what is happening. Player names/staff names will be blanked out to protect player and staff, however total ban numbers by each staff member will be available.

Any feedback appreciated.

Thanks

Dem

[Morh]

What is the point of this?

[Shaddowknight]

A reminder that this is only for in-game rules. Forum rules will still be the same, as there is no choice to turn ?obscene on for here. I will ask that players (and staff, without a damn good reason- i.e. demonic's mentioning in the OP) cencor themselves when discussing it, or you WILL be warned for it. (As an FYI, first time racism offense carries an automatic 3 day forum ban).

[Exalt]

lol too funny that demonic said the N word on forums, mainly because I'd be banned if I did. I get the point though. Nobody says the other racist words. I got a warning for calling someone a cracker before. It was ridiculous. The point of this is to stop people from being banned/silenced for stupid things. Silencing is the same as being banned in overall methods, because you have to sit and afk forever. You can't speak to your squad or on your chats or do anything other than ?go arena, and so basically what happens is you afk til the silence is up. People log in to chat just as much as to play at this stage, so there is good reasoning to this.

I realize racist words are negative and offensive and evil, and I think most people that say the N word or whatever know this too. It is also a cultural word that can be used either negatively or positively. I dunno... I like the change myself.

[Wormhole Surfer]

You guys know that Jew isn't a slur, right? I'm just trying to wrap my head around the fact that I would actually get warned/silenced by some overzealous mod if I said "I'm a j3w."

[Shaddowknight]

We only deal with "jew" as a slur, when it's exaclt that: a slur. (for example, saying "i got jewed", or "fuck off jew scum"). Saying 'I'm a jew" is fine. It's held in the same manner as "black" in that context is key.

[qan]

We only deal with "jew" as a slur, when it's exaclt that: a slur. (for example, saying "i got jewed", or "fuck off jew scum"). Saying 'I'm a jew" is fine. It's held in the same manner as "black" in that context is key.

Would love to see a move toward context-based racism enforcement. Really, more if someone is offended by it than anything -- if someone is knows someone else is black, for example, and starts making racist jokes ... if they're OK with it, ok, in a way that's anti-racist ... it works toward desensitization, to some extent. In other ways, though, it puts pressure on people who might not be comfortable with such things to "be cool."

I hope that someone who is being harassed for being a certain race, and is not comfortable with the harassment, can still send in a ?cheater call for it. One special case: I've seen seriously racial harassment that doesn't use any of the specific terms found on obscene.

And I've seen personal harassment bordering on the sociopathic ... that has caused players to eventually quit playing, or not feel comfortable playing. We have rules against harassment (in public chats); should these people feel comfortable sending ?cheater calls? Should they be encouraged?

One last one. How about "nigga"? I assume it's on obscene. But in most contexts it's not pejorative.

We will also be providing a monthly report on bans available to players, to show reasons for bans on previous month so everyone can see exactly what is happening. Player names/staff names will be blanked out to protect player and staff, however total ban numbers by each staff member will be available.

Very nice. Strong transparency.

Assume this won't include the time banned, though?

[roxxkatt]

What is the point of this?

they have to have well defined rules about this because of the idiot white 12 year olds trying to be edgy by using racism and pushing boundaries, and when the idiots get punished they whine a lot

[Undercut]

Would love to see a move toward context-based racism enforcement. Really, more if someone is offended by it than anything -- if someone is knows someone else is black, for example, and starts making racist jokes ... if they're OK with it, ok, in a way that's anti-racist ... it works toward desensitization, to some extent. In other ways, though, it puts pressure on people who might not be comfortable with such things to "be cool."

I've been trying to convince the rest of staff to move towards context-based racism enforcement for a while now, no one seemed to agree with me. Glad to see we're finally easing up a bit on our archaic rule set.

[Crescent Seal]

make a thread when i can say ***

[LF]

I probably shouldn't be admitting this but I don't care. Right concept, completely wrong direction. We went from enforcing a long out-dated racism policy to only enforcing racism on 1 particular word as if the word itself is the source of all racism while everything else is just background noise. Beyond stupid, as the fine citizens of our zone have proven that just in the few hours since this has been in effect. So according to the new rules, I can see one of my friends and say "Ayyye my nigga/n1g/etc" and be warned/silenced for being a racist, but I can make a pub macro with "%killed is as worthless as every black man I've ever met", or play a basing game and announce "I'm picking all asians because they make good suicide pilots, and any of them that don't suicide every life will be replaced with another gook...and thats ok? How about we get away from the idea that "nig" or any variation of it it the source of all evil and instead start enforcing the racism policy on ANYBODY that skirts the rules simply by changing the words, even if they didnt say 1 of the "magic words"? Another example: Brown People = Scum should not be a name that is allowed in TW, even if it doesn't have the "N Word" in it. How this much common sense escapes some people absolutely amazes me

Also, since people can now wear swastika banners/squads/etc I assume the titty banners are ok again? [/sarcasm]

[Crescent Seal]

LF that would require staff to actually do something instead of depending on a bot to warn/ban people without understanding the context or situation.

[Wormhole Surfer]

Electric Vagina> Players should not be allowed to call other players "niggers" in any subspace zone.
(Left_Eye)>Please do not use "n*g" or any variation of it. You can use racism all you want besides that.

[Exalt]

[Steadman]

You fking stupid motherfucking idiot ******* are being racist by letting us say only racial slurs that aren't ***/******. All you're really doing is favoring blacks (which makes no sense btw). However, I do think that u fking **** are taking a step in the right direction. Just let us say ***/*** if we want to its not a big deal.

Also I want to say that in the ensuing month or so there's going to be a gigantic spike in ppl saying racial slurs that aren't ***/****** (fking ****, man). Just bear with it and it will decrease in time.

In conclusion everyone who read this is a stupid fat fking ****** *** *** **** river****** ****-**** piece of shit.