What gets me is the mods and admins being mostly silent about this and when they finally did something, it really wasn't anything. I'm neither but is there anything I can do to help you all out?
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We need to have a talk on how we treat sexual assault victims on this site
- Thread starter Xaszatm
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User Banned (1 Week): Hostility across multiple posts
I'm not even going to afford you a nice long post trying to explain to you why you're shit, so I'm just going to tell you to fuck off, you rape apologist. If your dismissal and downplaying of an allegation would get you banned if you were going to bat for a republican, then it should get you a ban if its a dem too. I'm sure you're the exact type of person whose already justified yourself by deciding someone like me calling you out is russian bot or some stupid shit like that. You are exactly why victims are afraid to come forward, because you perpetuate rape culture when you spout victim blaming bullshit like you do. Maybe, just maybe, think about how you harm victims instead of being all 'bitches be lyin' about Biden's history toward women.
User Banned (1 Month): Spreading conspiracy theories regarding moderation
The staff's hands are tied because, by the standards previously set on the forum, defending Biden against his allegations should be a bannable offense, but the staff have also spent years cultivating ERA as a place for liberal (not leftist, liberal) politics and they, like many people, desperately want Trump out of office and are therefore willing to break their previously-established rules to ensure people are allowed to have a "discussion" about the allegations, which they would never afford any other accused, because the alternative is banning like half the forum for voting Biden.
Except nobody has ever suggested that "voting for Biden" should be bannable (unlike some individuals, who have rather transparently been petitioning the staff to make any criticism of Biden a bannable offense for several weeks now, up to and including demanding that ResetEra LLC issue an official endorsement of the candidate), the only things we've asked be bannable are A) attacking or downplaying Biden's accuser and B) telling a person to vote for Biden after said person has expressed reservations about his allegations. That's it.
Except nobody has ever suggested that "voting for Biden" should be bannable (unlike some individuals, who have rather transparently been petitioning the staff to make any criticism of Biden a bannable offense for several weeks now, up to and including demanding that ResetEra LLC issue an official endorsement of the candidate), the only things we've asked be bannable are A) attacking or downplaying Biden's accuser and B) telling a person to vote for Biden after said person has expressed reservations about his allegations. That's it.
Shit like this plants the seeds being able to dismiss anyone's concerns as having a "political agenda" and it's gross.
User Banned (1 Month): Extreme hostility.
The staff are trash for defending ortix, straight up, what a piece of work this guy is. Hey mods who agree with ortix, come show your faces in here and tell us why you think reade is a Russian asset or whatever since you clearly agree with his awful dismissive posts.
Fuck this forum and especially fuck poliera and the staff who condone their bullshit, I'm done staying quiet or talking privately about this shit, I hate those fucks and I want them to know it.
Fuck this forum and especially fuck poliera and the staff who condone their bullshit, I'm done staying quiet or talking privately about this shit, I hate those fucks and I want them to know it.
User Banned (1 week): hostility
Oh, hello. You're giant dickwad.
I hope this is the attention you were looking for.
Its an absolute fucking shame its gotten this bad and my desire to post had gone extremely fucking downhill because of it.
Official Staff Communication
We're processing and reviewing reports and content from this thread. We're temporarily locking until our process is complete.
Official Staff Communication
We're going to break from procedure here a little bit. Normally, we don't go out of our way to comment on individual bans or lack thereof. However, in this case, we do see that there's a general call for clarification, and by doing so, we can hopefully shed some light on our decision.
In regard to Ortix's post, we've seen the reports made against it and have been discussing it. However, we've been stretched thin, staff-wise, due to the pandemic as well as real life situations. This happens, and it's not an easy situation for us to resolve. After spending the afternoon discussing it, we've made a decision, and Ortix will take a two week ban for the post due to some insensitive comments made over sexual assault allegations. Further posts of this nature will incur heavier and heavier bans, as is our policy. A number of individual lines from Ortix included insensitive or inflammatory comments regarding the situation, and are simply unacceptable. Several staff members, including women and abuse survivors, were involved in this decision.
On that note, I'd like to remind everyone that our staff members are not automated machines. We're humans just like you, with real lives, who volunteer on our own time to help moderate this place. We come from a lot of different backgrounds and ethnicities, and we've all got our own histories. This includes some of us being survivors of abuse, be it sexual, physical, or another type. Many of us try to commit as much time as we can, but unfortunately reality does get in the way. The COVID-19 pandemic has made it difficult for many of us to dedicate as much time as we'd like, and the elections, with all of it's controversy and drama, has impacted us just as much as it has you.
We're going to re-open this thread now, as we feel it's a discussion that needs to be had. Sexual assault victims (as well as victims of other types of assault) need to know this is a safe place for them, and that their thoughts and concerns are being heard. However, for that to happen, the discussion needs to remain civil for everyone involved. We cannot have this thread devolving into what it's been for the past few pages, as this leads to issues such as assault victims who have their own disagreements being silenced and bullied themselves. We have observed this repeatedly and have received private complaints about this from members who would like to participate, but are afraid to for fear of being lashed out at, and they have to be considered as well. So, please keep that in mind when you're talking to your fellow members.
In regard to Ortix's post, we've seen the reports made against it and have been discussing it. However, we've been stretched thin, staff-wise, due to the pandemic as well as real life situations. This happens, and it's not an easy situation for us to resolve. After spending the afternoon discussing it, we've made a decision, and Ortix will take a two week ban for the post due to some insensitive comments made over sexual assault allegations. Further posts of this nature will incur heavier and heavier bans, as is our policy. A number of individual lines from Ortix included insensitive or inflammatory comments regarding the situation, and are simply unacceptable. Several staff members, including women and abuse survivors, were involved in this decision.
On that note, I'd like to remind everyone that our staff members are not automated machines. We're humans just like you, with real lives, who volunteer on our own time to help moderate this place. We come from a lot of different backgrounds and ethnicities, and we've all got our own histories. This includes some of us being survivors of abuse, be it sexual, physical, or another type. Many of us try to commit as much time as we can, but unfortunately reality does get in the way. The COVID-19 pandemic has made it difficult for many of us to dedicate as much time as we'd like, and the elections, with all of it's controversy and drama, has impacted us just as much as it has you.
We're going to re-open this thread now, as we feel it's a discussion that needs to be had. Sexual assault victims (as well as victims of other types of assault) need to know this is a safe place for them, and that their thoughts and concerns are being heard. However, for that to happen, the discussion needs to remain civil for everyone involved. We cannot have this thread devolving into what it's been for the past few pages, as this leads to issues such as assault victims who have their own disagreements being silenced and bullied themselves. We have observed this repeatedly and have received private complaints about this from members who would like to participate, but are afraid to for fear of being lashed out at, and they have to be considered as well. So, please keep that in mind when you're talking to your fellow members.
Damn, someone saying a mod post is garbage gets the same length of time or longer as a guy who makes up multiple conspiracy theories about a victim of rape lying because she's a russian shill, for money, or how victims speaking up are just doing it in bad faith.
This is the one that confuses the most though. People are allowed to push back against bigotry all day long, but they can't push back against people peddling conspiracy theories about victims of rape without catching a ban?
I agree. The mods are only human too just like the rest of us. We just got to call it out and report it when we see it.
For the record, Ortix was reported multiple times long ago. The posts from moderators asking people to stop bringing up the accusations and acting like hall monitors were also long ago.
I'm going not shit up the forum by making a protest thread but I will say that I've been posting in this community for 8 years and lurked for many before that and the way that this issue is being handled has been pretty bad. Specifically, the recent trend of posters continuing to hammer away at topics they know have been declared off limits but hiding behind the plausible deniability of a disclaimer is allowed to slide, but people who are trying to cause a stir to get you to pay attention to the problem are met with similar consequences.
After the forum decided to crack down on ageism and abelism irt polticians only once it was the dems and not trump who were the target it should have been clear to me where the motivating factors behind these "principles" are
I guess i expected better
oh well
After the forum decided to crack down on ageism and abelism irt polticians only once it was the dems and not trump who were the target it should have been clear to me where the motivating factors behind these "principles" are
I guess i expected better
oh well
By all accounts, it doesn't make sense. I'd go off like that on someone telling me I'm somehow bad for being pansexual, and I'd hope I wouldn't be actioned for it.
Maybe you all should ask to get, y'know, paid. How much does Cerium make from this little web-sight?
This is not even remotely satisfactory.
And the reason it has "devolved" is because the moderation, in the past, has taken a strong hardline stance on downplaying instances of sexual assault. And now suddenly, that's seemingly not the case.
There are 100% obvious actions you can take to correct this specific situation, and I can tell you right now, that regardless of how "nice" the language or how someone preambles it (we should believe, but...), downplaying accusations of sexual assault, ain't it.
I'll be real, this ban makes no sense to me, and it bothers me because it feels like the mod team is trying to sugar coat what Ortix's post was saying regarding Reade's allegation.
This isn't about having a different opinion, this is about a user openly posting conspiracy theories about why a women finally decided to speak up, instead of believing her, and unfortunately he isn't the only one who has posted conspiracy theories on this site about her.
People are getting 1 week bans in this thread, because of their very understandable frustration in how this whole thing is being handled, and them letting it out is viewed as "hostility," while someone literally arguing why this particular women shouldn't be believed gets only 2 weeks???
edit: and to be clear, I'm not saying this to excuse hostility towards the staff, I think hostility towards the staff is unacceptable, but I fail to see how this particular post, or kilic and fiye's posts are hostility. That feels like someone just venting frustration, and as someone whose blood started to boil reading Ortix's post, I can't blame anyone for being that upset. We're human beings ultimately, and when we do get angry, we can only hold it in for so long before letting it out.
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"User banned (duration pending): inappropriate and inflammatory comparison regarding sexual assault, personal attacks"
So a user makes comments dismissing sexual assault that results in a ban, but when another user compares those comments to a very high-profile case of someone dismissing sexual assault, that's.... also bannable? I don't see how both can stand?
The admin team should also bear in mind that one of the biggest asks that came out of the BHM thread was to not ban BAME users for aggressively pushing back against JAQers and trolls. Those lessons could be taken on board for other vulnerable groups, rather than turning the last page into a graveyard.
I barely ever post on era, but I read this forum every day. I've always found to nice to have a gaming site that can generally handle these types of topics well, and to feel comfortable knowing that terrible behavior is not tolerated.
So from something of an outside perspective, the way this situation has been handled is extremely disheartening. It seems like time and time again, marginalized communities express dissatisfaction at their general lack of safety on era, and the staff and community fail to do anything about it. Over the past several months especially, there have been a handful of high profile cases where users from particular communities complained about how easy it is for others to talk down to and bully the marginalized, as long as they do so with civility and a veneer of plausible deniability. And yet, if one pushes back against these aggressions, one must walk on eggshells, lest they be actioned for "hostility"
To see Ortix receive a 2 week ban, and many who called out their terrible posts get essentially the same punishment (or worse!), sends the same message that has been sent again and again. The chilling effect this will have on survivors of sexual assault in this community can not be understated. The threads regarding the Joe Biden issue have been full of behavior like Ortix's. Maybe not quite so explicit, but it's still there. The problem with Ortix's posts was not just the hostility, but the intent as well. I think it should be obvious with the number of people who fled to this thread for refuge that there is an extremely real problem at play.
I genuinely have to wonder if moderation here is equipped to deal with the problem. They seem incapable or unwilling to read between the lines when cruelty is employed with even a modicum of subtlety, but for the vulnerable people being bullied the subtlety doesn't matter, they feel it all the same. The result is a suffocating feeling for those that are impacted, with a community that doesn't seem to care about them.
I genuinely want to believe this community is better than that, and hopefully with some discussion here progress can be made. It seems counterproductive, though, to leave this thread open to foster an "important discussion" while banning many of the users who have been pushing this discussion in the first place.
So from something of an outside perspective, the way this situation has been handled is extremely disheartening. It seems like time and time again, marginalized communities express dissatisfaction at their general lack of safety on era, and the staff and community fail to do anything about it. Over the past several months especially, there have been a handful of high profile cases where users from particular communities complained about how easy it is for others to talk down to and bully the marginalized, as long as they do so with civility and a veneer of plausible deniability. And yet, if one pushes back against these aggressions, one must walk on eggshells, lest they be actioned for "hostility"
To see Ortix receive a 2 week ban, and many who called out their terrible posts get essentially the same punishment (or worse!), sends the same message that has been sent again and again. The chilling effect this will have on survivors of sexual assault in this community can not be understated. The threads regarding the Joe Biden issue have been full of behavior like Ortix's. Maybe not quite so explicit, but it's still there. The problem with Ortix's posts was not just the hostility, but the intent as well. I think it should be obvious with the number of people who fled to this thread for refuge that there is an extremely real problem at play.
I genuinely have to wonder if moderation here is equipped to deal with the problem. They seem incapable or unwilling to read between the lines when cruelty is employed with even a modicum of subtlety, but for the vulnerable people being bullied the subtlety doesn't matter, they feel it all the same. The result is a suffocating feeling for those that are impacted, with a community that doesn't seem to care about them.
I genuinely want to believe this community is better than that, and hopefully with some discussion here progress can be made. It seems counterproductive, though, to leave this thread open to foster an "important discussion" while banning many of the users who have been pushing this discussion in the first place.
I think the 'hostility' was warranted. The line seemed to stop at the fact that they were pissed and not really WHY they were pissed. Of course people are pissed at those posts, especially after
If nothing seemed to come from that, that's kinda how it leads into this. I get being stretched thin and all but, come on. When someone gets reported for something, especially regarding this subject matter, expecting people to sit and play nice with them as they stoke that fire isn't realistic.
What in name of fuck is the era staff doing banning the victim's for?They're going a through a lot of shit and you're doing this?!
100%
When you refuse to take out the trash, this is what happens. Don't blame people for getting "hostile".
This is the sort of thing I meant when talking about "working the refs" by the way. I do not find this acceptable behavior.
If that's the case then yeah put that on the spotlight. Especially with this subject in mind.
It's a genuine question. When the Kavanaugh hearings were going on, there were people who would pop into the threads about it and start talking about how they believe Kavanaugh, and his accuser is lying. People would tell them to fuck off, or get bent, or anything else, and go unactioned. If someone goes into a thread about trans people and says "Transwomen are men" and people tear into them for it, the people tearing into them do not get actioned. The same happens with people who are being racist.
Why does this one differ? Why are people creating conspiracy theories about victims to discredit them just given "Inflammatory comparisons" while any victims who are you know rightfully pissed at someone making up conspiracy theories get hit with a hammer harder than the person who instigated it all?
isn't that what you are doing? who else would be determining what constitutes acceptable behavior on this site?
certainly not any one of us
i see we have reached the point where Ketkat asking two questions is "working the ref"
Era is not your fiefdom. Mods work for the entirety of the site and engage with everyone. Maybe try and do the same.
User Banned (Permanent): Comparing staff to domestic abusers. Long history of hostility against members and staff.
I'm not even surprised at this point. They're like an abusive partner who keeps promising to be better.
lol omg please tell me you actually believe this
Genuine question since it's kind of hard to follow the different narratives through all these threads, what would you like to see as the site policy for discussing Biden?
Please do not accuse me of JAQ, I apologize if this question is in any way offensive, I sincerely am asking from genuine curiosity.
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Pretty much.
Making vote-shaming and conspiracy theories off-limits, for starters.
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