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It's Trans Awareness Week! (Nov 13th -19th)
- Thread starter Kyuuji
- Start date
You'd think so, but then why did they just lock THIS thread:
In case it's just dumped into the abyss while we're in lockdown mode (seriously?):
Era has a culture problem. One of the more salient ones is that moderation philosophy largely remains a holdover from pre-nightmare Gaf. Accountability is a lovely sentiment that I appreciate our mods espousing, but with Era's present structure, it's toothless. That's more than a little problem on a forum this large and unwieldy, where personal relationships can only guarantee so much. So, I want to workshop ideas on how to address this issue and make peers of the mods once more. Some of them come from experiences on other (sometimes ancient boards), others are more improvisational:
- Sanction board: per-user thread that collates their history of warnings, bans, why, and the reasoning behind extensions. Don't obfuscate behind a shell account.
- Formal ban appeals: to be attended to not by the mod that instituted the ban, particularly when considering long or permanent bans, as a hedge against cronyism, over-reaction, or plain error. Include appeals to the sanction board.
- Mod nominations: you want better coverage of the forum's corners, more diverse voices, and a less adversarial relationship? Here's a way how. Nominate on a regular cycle such that existing mods can also feel free to step down without shortchanging anyone.
- Mod recalls: because, let's be honest. Sometimes we get some stinkers and that's just mundane reality when it comes to running a place like this. Make nominations for recall anonymous through a bot akin to the Giftbot, and set a percentile threshold to carry the recall or not.
- No blanket staff posts: Append each name individually to an advisory post, not in aggregate. If you want to be regarded as like us, post like us instead of erecting a procedural wall of perfect mod unity (it mostly serves to stifle discussion and cement the perspective that you're not our peers).
- Forget moderation of console warring/port begging/store warz that falls below the point of personal attacks. It's all trivial consumerist faff and coming down on it so hard is a solution in search of a problem. It's busywork, not valuable work.
- Shed the Gaf vestiges: seriously, so much of this crud is just hanging on because of simple inertia. Do we need member castes? Do we need four canonical subforums? Do we need to mandate OTs that expire at 20k posts?
- No more heavy-handed, "This is the last word on that, the united, formless, shapeless, and undivided mod mass decrees it" tosh. Discussions taper off and end. Don't throw weight around just to have the last word.
- More openness: discussion of the site's culture, future, and problems can't solely remain the prerogative of the mod team. Open discussion is the only reasonable way to make things better, work conciliation, and invest the entire forum in better outcomes.
- Proportion: accusations of bigotry can't be simply played off with stonewalling and blanket accusations of a criminal offense committed by the sanctioned member. It's irresponsible, it's insulting, and perfectly underlines the cultural problem that is driving people away and embittering members against a mod team that increasingly looks out of touch and out of hand.
- Conciliation: full and open discussions of crises like this one, including giving the accused and their witnesses the chance to speak for and defend themselves, and full ownership of mistakes, blind-spots, failings (both on the account of the mods and the accused). The social expectation to cop to fuckups should be expected of mods too, and not just as something that is nice to have when it happens.
So, these are just a few things that I've been thinking on, and I'd like to talk about where we go from here. Openly. Because it's overdue.
It's really revealing that they're in damage control mode and have done nothing whatsoever in terms of actual, reasonable approaches to this. That your thread was locked is a good clue that the person or persons locking the threads has no interest in transparency.
Just steal one from another user :v
Saddens me and speaks volumes that I'm now worried they'll see that as an "attack" on them instead of a " we need to be better" thread
I'm sorry. :(
Purple is my favourite colour so I know how you feel.
residentgrigo said:
You're not an ally. Go away.
Reading posts from trans members expressing they don't feel safe is really disheartening. They should feel safe. And the priority should've been to discuss it with the community on ways to make things better/safer for them.
Instead they're here stressed out, thinking of where to go because they've not been offered any sort of relief after a pillar of the community was removed forcefully.
The way I see it, the posts full of fear, anger and confusion are an olive branch. They're calling on the moderation team to do better.
There's a history here of broken trust, and it is not regained by platitudes. It's actions. People are tired of having to contend with micro-aggressions on this website. Of having their identity be trampled on. Please, listen to them! A lot of them are ostracized in their homes and communities and THIS SITE could be the only place that becomes a lifeline. Don't take this from us.
Instead they're here stressed out, thinking of where to go because they've not been offered any sort of relief after a pillar of the community was removed forcefully.
The way I see it, the posts full of fear, anger and confusion are an olive branch. They're calling on the moderation team to do better.
There's a history here of broken trust, and it is not regained by platitudes. It's actions. People are tired of having to contend with micro-aggressions on this website. Of having their identity be trampled on. Please, listen to them! A lot of them are ostracized in their homes and communities and THIS SITE could be the only place that becomes a lifeline. Don't take this from us.
Honestly, the mods have been bad from day 1 - the issues just didn't become obvious until later. I still remember when they said new rules would be decided on by the community and then they just brought over GAF's banned games list without a discussion. Regardless of your thoughts on the list, that was fishy af.
They literally always have reacted as if being attacked. At least since a couple mod rotations into the site.
Oh it's far too late for that. Once that Royalan post got revealed, the shit rightly hit the fan, and that fan is not going to be turned off anytime soon.
Unban KetKat.
Demod and permaban Royalan, the other acephobic mod, Morrigan, and all other staff involved.
Demod and permaban Royalan, the other acephobic mod, Morrigan, and all other staff involved.
If trans people dont feel safe in this forum then we have all failed for not doing this earlier.
There are levels of shit hitting the fan. Royalan being demodded would definitely be a start.
That's exactly what EvilLore and his team did back on GAF, and it was a terrible idea. It takes 10 seconds for someone to come in and say that mistakes have been made, lift the ban, and say they'll have a more detailed write-up later about why this fuckup happened and how they are going to avoid again in the future.
That's what they are probably aiming for with the locks of all other threads pertaining to the issue. Better for the staff to keep it contained to here. It's likely the only reason this thread isn't closed right now.
It really is giving me EvilLore crisis response vibes.
That's never been the moderation style of this forum. Despite initial promises. We are to kowtow to them. Not the other way around.
edit: nvm
All I'll say is I admired Royalan in the past for his steadfastness in the old site by championing inclusivity without capacity for accepting bullshit and I hope that quality wins out in how he handles this situation on a personal level.
All I'll say is I admired Royalan in the past for his steadfastness in the old site by championing inclusivity without capacity for accepting bullshit and I hope that quality wins out in how he handles this situation on a personal level.
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This cannot stand. This wasn't a self requested ban. Un ban yuki you cowards. And step out of the shadows and say something
Nah, doesn't work, shit hitting the fan doesn't feel quite this perpetual. Feels more like shit being flung endlessly through Mt. Neverrest.