Race as a classificatory device is an arbitrary and socially-defined system with no basis in biology or genetics. This is an entirely uncontroversial notion in contemporary anthropology, including physical anthropology.
I'll bite.
Care to elaborate on this? - because that's quite the statement without providing further explanation and sources and reeks of "the science is settled", which is, of course, not true at all.
This seems to be a backwards takeaway from what I know about genetics, human history, and biological sciences in general, including physical anthropology. Call it what you want, geneticists and anthropologists still use terms like "ancestry", "ethnicity", and "distinct populations", perhaps out of fear or some sense of PC, perhaps to more accurately describe what's really going on while simultaneously rejecting the baggage that comes along with the term "race" - I don't know. I'm curious what you mean by "uncontroversial notion" as well, as far as I can tell, there seems to be a lot of controversy in that statement - consensus means nothing. This is politically motivated double-think at worst, and a misrepresentation of the science at best.
For example, here we use the understanding that 52% of alleles are not shared between Polar Bears and Brown Bears as proof they are different species: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23125409
And yet, we reject the understanding that 53.3% of alleles are not shared across humans as proof we are different? https://web.stanford.edu/group/rosenberglab/papers/popstruct.pdf
In bears, the genetic difference is enough that we consider them separate species/sub-species. But in humans, it's not? Maybe its a failure of taxonomical classification systems altogether? More work needs to be done.
We know that humans share somewhere between 96-99% of our DNA with monkeys, and yet we know that we are not in fact monkeys. So the differences percentage-wise are small, but the expressed differences are large and observable.
Using the Out-of-Africa migration model, we also track human populations' geographical movements over time. Haplogroup L3, largely migrated out of Sub-Saharan Africa some 70k years ago or earlier, populating North+South America, Australia, Europe, and Asia. These groups evolved in isolation from each other due to the massive distances, geographical/environmental challenges, and lack of high-speed transportation, etc. East Asians and Europeans originated as identifiable groups ~10k years ago. First Nations, Native N/S American, or American Indian peoples migrated to the Americas up to the end of the last Ice Age ~12.8k years ago, of which also caused dramatic ocean-level rise (over 400ft) in a short span of time, "stranding" Australian Aborigines, and other Pacific Islanders.
(Image removed from quote.)
From this point - until VERY recently - these groups of humans were subject to natural selection separately, in isolation from each other in their respective regions. We understand that these groups are a product of their environment and developed skills and traits most useful to survival in those environments - social, genetic, cultural, what have you. The relatively minute genetic differences between humans is actually quite "large" if you exclude the 98.6% of the human genome that we share with all other primates. This doesn't even consider other genetic markers nor the blending of human and neanderthal DNA in those of European and Asian descent, but not African ( https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4687076/ )
Further, it is understood that we can make a prediction of any particular human's classification into a distinct population or "race" using genetic markers with near 100% accuracy, despite the fact that genetic difference between 2 members of the same distinct population can be greater than between 2 members of different distinct populations: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1893020/
This speaks more to just how much observable variance there is in the numerically negligible percentages of genetic differences between any living things on Earth.
We are different. None are superior to the other. Just different. I value my individuality and uniqueness, and we all should. And I reject the notion that acknowledging those differences is a racist endeavour.
--
With that being said, there is absolutely a clear problem in certain cultures with regards to whitewashing. Going around bullying people without some semblance of empathy educates no one and only creates further misunderstanding and division between people who may have a different experience than your own. The cultural context and lens that we interpret art does matter, and skewing representation by means of altering character design can certainly harm minorities, or, at the very least, reinforce minorities' negative sense of self-worth. We should strive to increase representation in art and media, which, in my opinion, won't happen if we don't firstly acknowledge and understand represented groups' uniquity -celebrate it- and through that, realize that in spite of those differences we are all in fact 99.99% the same.
Okay, Bizarro JordanN
His polar bear / brown bear comparison doesn’t work because we use a lot more than just allele differences to determine speciation. The abstract of the study linked doesn’t even claim what he is saying it does. That’s as far as I got before giving up.
What would be some other factors we’d use? This is really interesting. Related at all to the question below?
So, because you fine chaps started posting about me and I was made aware, here is the Audioboxer dossier none of you will actually read. A novel that attempts to politely state my feelings, offer some feedback to Resetera higher ups and be a complete waste of nearly 40 minutes.
Yes, I left of my own choosing. After the 2-week ban was upgraded to a month. At 2 weeks I’d probably have returned again but 15 mins later being upgraded to a month made it clear an admin or admins would rather I didn’t come back. Not entirely sure how they go from putting a 2-week ban, to minutes later upgrading it to a month. So, whoever bumped me to a month essentially killed me off. I asked Hecht on Discord to delete my account, he asked for me to contact Resetera. Sent a normal polite message, account deleted. No one asked why someone with like 14,000 posts from the start was bailing, but I didn’t really expect them to. As much as you lot seem like conspiracy nuts at times, there probably is inner lists of posters staff don't like.
As for why I would have gone back? No problem saying the concept of Era, like GAF originally, was a good one. Have a discussion and keep total nutjobs off the community. There are good people on the site and as much as they unfairly get mocked as a collective, they are a big gaming forum where you can indulge in lots of topics with lots of people. Whether you guys like your shitposting or not, which most of you clearly do dunking on Era in a dedicated topic, much of the internet is a cesspool and no, I don’t want to be around non-stop abuse/nonsense. Hey, I like some laughter myself, goodness knows that goes down like a brick in the ocean on Era at times (most of the time) due to how problematic all comedy/mild trolling is (yes I got banned for a week for a double rick-roll), but no, I’m not really out to get personal with any individual people or snipe them from afar where they cannot respond. I mean many here moan about being banned from Era, or if still posting on Era still moan here (Hi Dennis, I see you). Whatever shit is said, everyone has some draw to the place like GAF before it.
Is Era predominantly left-leaning? Sure, but so am I. I vote for the SNP, a centre-left democratic socialist party. I’m an atheist, I’m down with whatever equality acts you want to list at me, I think trans men and women are men and women. I think non-binary and other gender identities are real and not all just "Tumblr trends". Abortion is a legal right for women. Systematic racism is real and Governments are directly responsible for impoverishing certain demographics/communities. Healthcare should be a human right in a wealthy country. I’m a man of science and reason and I only care what is true and has evidence to back it. I’m an individualist through and through, with that meaning I can self-reflect and critique things related to "my side" and I can talk to people with different views/political holdings. Etc, etc, etc. That is probably the kryptonite for some on Era. They paint you as something you are not, then get mad when you share your deeply held beliefs and it’s not what they expected. It gets them annoyed they can’t get you banned for what you’re saying, so instead they say out loud they know what you are actually thinking – You saw as much in that Cyberpunk topic where a poster I was talking to kept dropping hints they wanted moderation to ban posters they felt were problematic but “knew how to skirt the lines”. That does get annoying because I’ve never once had the intent to do that to another poster nor ever would. It’s totally unfair and it’s calculated and tactical. I prefer to just talk to people myself. Not constantly ask for intervention and moderation. I’m not interested in getting people banned to “defeat them”. It’s a conversation on a forum, not the fucking hunger games.
I did once report Kirblar for PMing me saying the mistakes of the Iraq War were comparable to the mistakes of Era redesigning their forum layout, but cmon bro, even as a WTF that was worth reporting just to see if PM’s were actionable. Hint, they are, lmao. Ignore my bad grammar below I was replying in haste whilst thinking the fuck?!
(Image removed from quote.)
(No, I don't hate Kirblar either, but that PM was just funny. No, I'm not sharing anymore PM's from Resetera, and I can't see old ones anyway)
Sadly, like NeoGAF at historic times, I think that’s just the environment owners sometimes want to cultivate whether the intention is good or not. If it’s genuinely thinking they need half their community living in fear of being banned or being wiped out at the push of a button, or a stereotype is true that many who navigate towards wanting to moderate forums/websites have streaks in their personality that gets a rise off of bans/bullying others. Way past the point of clean-up duty or protecting their forum from genuine assholes and into having some sort of fun or some sort of obsession with bans/authority. Like it’s a sport. It would be pure speculation to say so with certainty and a bit ironic given I always suggest people to be wary of speculation, but from the types of ban messages that get written to just how many bans get handed out daily on this forum, correct or not, the owner of Resetera has to accept many people will get the impressions they do for a reason. But if you actually want to cultivate those impressions and that is not seen as a negative by ownership, a user just has to accept that for what it is. Users are visitors to forums, not owners or moderators. Either agree to those terms/culture or move on if it’s just not working.
Anyway, speaking of bans, because I’ve seen some people incorrectly say what I was junior’d for (couldn’t create topics), yes, it was being reactionary to a poster stating Dark Souls is transphobic. So, I did a call out topic in a bit of a dickish way and was told if I hadn’t removed the posters name I was calling out I would have been perm’d. Fair enough, I fucked up. One of the times on Era you’re not going to have me saying I did nothing wrong. But none of this was anything to do with having a problem with trans people. I’m a huge Souls fanboy and overreacted to something I felt seemed a bit extreme for a game that in my view handles identity pretty well. Should have just been like okay, that’s a way to view this, and moved on. But we all get jimmies rustled at times when it was best just to shut the fuck up. It’s okay to admit I’m human sometimes isn’t it or at least I would hope so.
I’m well aware of the amount of shit trans people get on Era, some of it very personal if not outright harassment. It is very cruel at times, aimed at people who are obviously struggling in life getting treated as if they are a circus show. There are people behind avatars. Yes, Era does seem to have a disproportionately high trans userbase, but can you blame some of them when it is true other sites online are the wild-wild west and you go on them as a trans person and probably have 25 trap/you’re a man jokes facing you within minutes? Yes, without a doubt, some posters "get away" with being incredibly hostile, aggressive or ban-baiting with almost mod-approved results. I get the trans users on Era, almost as a collective, being very defensive and suspicious and grouping together/asking mods to give them more attention.
But me debating with a trans person, even if I might be wrong about something or deserve to be challenged back, does not mean I dislike you as a trans person. It doesn’t even mean I dislike you at all. It means… what it might mean for me talking to anyone, I’m struggling to see the evidence for a claim you might have made and want to speak to you. I’m trying to do my best to articulate my feelings and that’s it. The concept of staying in your lane has never meant to me never leaving your lane. Simply trying to be wise/decent about when you might choose to sit something out/listen because you are ignorant or from another background. But I think on Era at times they adhere more to you should never leave your lane. You’re a bad person if you leave your lane. Cement yourself in your lane and shut the fuck up. To me that’s just not how life/human interaction will ever work, that kind of rigidity.
Tldr, it felt like those on Resetera with the power would rather I leave, so I did. Life goes on. Yeah, it’s shitty that there will be some posters right now thinking they got rid of someone hateful, but why let that get to you when you are a decent person and hold none of the views some very polarized individuals that barely know you almost want you to hold just to call you a piece of shit/demand you get banned. That’s the part of Resetera that is frustrating and ultimately what causes some to snap/get banned trying to defend themselves. All the constant suspicion and accusing that goes on simply for a forum being used as… a forum. As I said, the bump to a month was probably a collective “we don’t really want you here, take the hint”. One poster, me, leaving an internet forum really doesn’t matter when the forum has like 40,000 users and many more desperate to sign-up. But sure, cheers, pint raised to anyone who enjoyed talking with me or anyone who didn’t agree with me on things but enjoyed the debate.
And as for sticking around in this topic, genuinely not to antagonize any of you, because I recognize some poster names and did appreciate some reasonable/kind words around my ban, the best thing to do is move on from Era. No point in really sticking around to mock anyone. It’s not really my thing anyway, he says after writing a 2000-word no1care lolumad gitgud manifesto. They can do what they want, I’ll go off and do my thing. I didn’t even leave NeoGAF with posting scat porn, saying stupid shit or being a mad cunt abusing everyone and anyone because the fear of a ban didn’t matter anymore. I just left at that time because others I knew left *shrug*.
Post your no1cares gifs, but remember, you fuckers asked me to come here.
I've seen that pisstake about inmates and an asylum a few times and besides it being a joke, I'd be a party pooper and still say it's wrong. The owner and the moderation are always in charge. If you have any issues with the way a forum is going it's always a reflection of them first. But that is the great divide for Resetera, half the forum thinks there aren't enough bans and there are still lots of secret evil people, the other half is constantly moaning that moderation is unreasonable and too quick to act. So who does the owner try and placate in order to keep making money?
This is true that moderation is largely what drives culture, but that doesn't mean it represents a majority or even a plurality of the userbases' feelings on the subject.
With Era, there's reason to believe the hyper progressive voices that give zero room for nuance in anything are an extreme minority, representing maybe 500-1000 posters if not a lot less. You can see it in the way specific polls go, or how many contentious topics have the same people arguing. And yet, this small fraction of the userbase at large is what the moderation caters to. That isn't how a healthy forum should evolve, which isn't to say the marginalized voices of the minority shouldn't be protected, but protected and given special treatment are two very different things. It lets bitterness among the majority set in and WILL lead to issues down the line. It already has with several industry people seeing the place for the den of aggressive lunatics that it is, including many legit influencers as well as the ones Era likes including Giant Bomb.
And sure, the "inmates running the asylum" thing is offensive, but it kind of shows us a much more sinister side of the whole thing; people with mental health issues stuck in an echo chamber. It's not a safe space to vent, it's a place to reinforce an incredibly hostile worldview that will prevent any kind of reasonable progress in the real world. I have no doubt that a lot of these people that have therapists have been outright told to get off forums, but they don't listen.
My single day of careposting is almost up, but I'll take Pogi's mantle one last time before going to sleep. This is it, the plane is hitting the landing strip and the journey is ending. This story has no happy ending, so fuck off now if you want a Hollywood conclusion.
I wouldn't personally call it hyper-progressive voices, because I see myself as progressive, so that would suggest what some posters were doing is just because they're trying to make others more progressive. I'm of the opinion it's simply more like my high school analogy where one group bands together and then will want to bully every other group into submission. When your group has "leaders in high places" that can skew any small group in a wider community to be dominant, so while the larger community exists, they essentially exist under the tyranny of the minority. Yeah, it’s mildly funny when a poll happens on Era and it doesn't go the way some want it to, but that's often just passed off as everyone who voted differently is a terrible person. No nuance as to how left-wing voices could say they're buying this ONE game in a THQ poll, they must just be full of hate and ready to suffocate a homeless person. Ultimately, it doesn't actually matter how progressive you are 99.9% of the time, a disagreement over a single subject or topic where any ordinary person would concede there is room for manoeuvre or nuance becomes a battleground for winning. The small group of powerful voices never want to feel like they've lost, so what is supposed to just be a forum and discussions are always battles.
Not winning in the sense of presenting a better argument (maybe some evidence instead of just assumptions!!!) or arguing in good faith and both parties leaving a debate still certain in their ways but with no hard feelings. Winning by any means necessary. Which on a forum that cultivates quick bannings means ban baiting by exerting pressure you know you can get away with or hitting the report button and possibly a mod seeing a report come in from a poster they are friends with. Getting a bit into assumption territory here as I don't know if a report on Resetera tells you who it's from, but IIRC I did hear staff could find out who is sending reports in order to make sure the report system isn't abused. Ironically, I would say a legit case for "abuse" could be posters that immediately hit report every time they are challenged or it's a poster they don't like, but that probably just becomes part of the culture of Resetera, hence all the locking of some very normal topics due to a "high volume of reports". Any topic with a bit of activity or some posters going at it, but within reasonable limits, still ends up locked for review. It's live or die, or in Era's case, cross your fingers you don't get the "User was banned" prompt. Even at times where you might be thinking, "I'm being hard here, but reasonable ~ No swearing at someone or calling them names, just some of the debate pressure you're supposed to be equipped for, for debate class in high-school".
I mean, has there been a single hot issue topic where the mods have locked a topic and then just re-opened it saying "Everything's fine, argue your points yourselves, we aren't here to babysit you"?. Of course not, the culture that has been cultivated means mods doing that would be writing their own death sentence. The forum already turns on the moderators over the stupidest shit, ready to basically accuse them of being horrible people themselves if they don't placate the piranhas swirling below. It's one hell of a toxic environment where mods hate their roles, the users pretend to like the mods but are just using them to get other users banned and there is basically no fun, no community spirit, just resentment and ticking time bombs for whoever slips first. I said multiple times to the Era mods in feedback topics their role was running an adult daycare centre and I knew it was hard for them at times. I stand by that. I don't envy anyone having to look after this Resetera community, but I also can't help say you don't help yourselves at times nuking reasonable people without a second of reflection and always placating those who'd turn on you with more venom than anyone else on the forum. Moderators are no hivemind, but when they all come together to discuss the forum with the owner, you'd have to hope reasonable voices/opinions would float up.
I think in total I probably reported 8~10 posts and most of that was at the beginning due to the novelty factor of having a report button coming from GAF. As I said earlier most of the time I would just argue with people or try and find ways to be somewhat sarcastic/dismissive to stupid shit, but in a way that didn't result in a no fun allowed ban. My one week ban for a double rick-roll was still a highlight. https://resetera.com/posts/14181171/ And that wasn't even me trying to push buttons in an argument, it was just a bit of mild trolling around one of the most anticipated games of the generation.
It's a testament to a truly failed social experiment on a forum that the silly saying of "Add all these well-known posters to your ignore list if you don't want to get banned" ends up being more than a meme. I could never do it, I like talking to everyone, and that is essentially what led heavily to me becoming a "problematic poster". If you talk to the people who throw shit at you, misrepresent you, call you things you aren't and threaten you with getting banned, all it does is presumably wind them up more leading to an increase in your chances of being catapulted into the jail cell. Discussion, eh?
As for the offensive side of "inmates running the asylum", well, the only way I can approach that is reminding Resetera when a shooting happens and someone brings up mental health, everyone is quick to say "lots of us have mental health issues and don't shoot people". I would turn that back around and also remind some of them, millions in America live with depression/anxiety disorders for large parts of their life and they aren't all complete assholes to everyone they speak to *shrug*. Bitterness most definitely fuels that burning hatred of just about everyone not part of the in-group for some on Resetera, and for whatever combination of reasons many of the forum personalities that seem to be in control of any topic that could be exciting for debate, end up being so incredibly bitter and quick to report everything/ask for mods to ban everyone.
As much as I'd like to carry on my tradition of talking to every cunt, please stop responding to me so I don't feel bad about ignoring you and having to carepost ever again.
Just want to thank you for these two great posts 
They were pretty good, weren't they?
These posts really made me think while browsing on mobile.
I wondered why there were 30 or so pages to catch up on. Then I saw all this stuff
Oh, and why does Amirox's race read as "Unknown"?
Possibly we don’t know what % of alleles he shares in common with which races? I’m hoping marrec can shed some light on this, as with the brown bear/polar bear thing above.
Race as a classificatory device is an arbitrary and socially-defined system with no basis in biology or genetics. This is an entirely uncontroversial notion in contemporary anthropology, including physical anthropology.
I'll bite.
Care to elaborate on this? - because that's quite the statement without providing further explanation and sources and reeks of "the science is settled", which is, of course, not true at all.
This seems to be a backwards takeaway from what I know about genetics, human history, and biological sciences in general, including physical anthropology. Call it what you want, geneticists and anthropologists still use terms like "ancestry", "ethnicity", and "distinct populations", perhaps out of fear or some sense of PC, perhaps to more accurately describe what's really going on while simultaneously rejecting the baggage that comes along with the term "race" - I don't know. I'm curious what you mean by "uncontroversial notion" as well, as far as I can tell, there seems to be a lot of controversy in that statement - consensus means nothing. This is politically motivated double-think at worst, and a misrepresentation of the science at best.
For example, here we use the understanding that 52% of alleles are not shared between Polar Bears and Brown Bears as proof they are different species: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23125409
And yet, we reject the understanding that 53.3% of alleles are not shared across humans as proof we are different? https://web.stanford.edu/group/rosenberglab/papers/popstruct.pdf
In bears, the genetic difference is enough that we consider them separate species/sub-species. But in humans, it's not? Maybe its a failure of taxonomical classification systems altogether? More work needs to be done.
We know that humans share somewhere between 96-99% of our DNA with monkeys, and yet we know that we are not in fact monkeys. So the differences percentage-wise are small, but the expressed differences are large and observable.
Using the Out-of-Africa migration model, we also track human populations' geographical movements over time. Haplogroup L3, largely migrated out of Sub-Saharan Africa some 70k years ago or earlier, populating North+South America, Australia, Europe, and Asia. These groups evolved in isolation from each other due to the massive distances, geographical/environmental challenges, and lack of high-speed transportation, etc. East Asians and Europeans originated as identifiable groups ~10k years ago. First Nations, Native N/S American, or American Indian peoples migrated to the Americas up to the end of the last Ice Age ~12.8k years ago, of which also caused dramatic ocean-level rise (over 400ft) in a short span of time, "stranding" Australian Aborigines, and other Pacific Islanders.
(Image removed from quote.)
From this point - until VERY recently - these groups of humans were subject to natural selection separately, in isolation from each other in their respective regions. We understand that these groups are a product of their environment and developed skills and traits most useful to survival in those environments - social, genetic, cultural, what have you. The relatively minute genetic differences between humans is actually quite "large" if you exclude the 98.6% of the human genome that we share with all other primates. This doesn't even consider other genetic markers nor the blending of human and neanderthal DNA in those of European and Asian descent, but not African ( https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4687076/ )
Further, it is understood that we can make a prediction of any particular human's classification into a distinct population or "race" using genetic markers with near 100% accuracy, despite the fact that genetic difference between 2 members of the same distinct population can be greater than between 2 members of different distinct populations: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1893020/
This speaks more to just how much observable variance there is in the numerically negligible percentages of genetic differences between any living things on Earth.
We are different. None are superior to the other. Just different. I value my individuality and uniqueness, and we all should. And I reject the notion that acknowledging those differences is a racist endeavour.
--
With that being said, there is absolutely a clear problem in certain cultures with regards to whitewashing. Going around bullying people without some semblance of empathy educates no one and only creates further misunderstanding and division between people who may have a different experience than your own. The cultural context and lens that we interpret art does matter, and skewing representation by means of altering character design can certainly harm minorities, or, at the very least, reinforce minorities' negative sense of self-worth. We should strive to increase representation in art and media, which, in my opinion, won't happen if we don't firstly acknowledge and understand represented groups' uniquity -celebrate it- and through that, realize that in spite of those differences we are all in fact 99.99% the same.
Okay, Bizarro JordanN
His polar bear / brown bear comparison doesn’t work because we use a lot more than just allele differences to determine speciation. The abstract of the study linked doesn’t even claim what he is saying it does. That’s as far as I got before giving up.
What would be some other factors we’d use? This is really interesting. Related at all to the question below?
So, because you fine chaps started posting about me and I was made aware, here is the Audioboxer dossier none of you will actually read. A novel that attempts to politely state my feelings, offer some feedback to Resetera higher ups and be a complete waste of nearly 40 minutes.
Yes, I left of my own choosing. After the 2-week ban was upgraded to a month. At 2 weeks I’d probably have returned again but 15 mins later being upgraded to a month made it clear an admin or admins would rather I didn’t come back. Not entirely sure how they go from putting a 2-week ban, to minutes later upgrading it to a month. So, whoever bumped me to a month essentially killed me off. I asked Hecht on Discord to delete my account, he asked for me to contact Resetera. Sent a normal polite message, account deleted. No one asked why someone with like 14,000 posts from the start was bailing, but I didn’t really expect them to. As much as you lot seem like conspiracy nuts at times, there probably is inner lists of posters staff don't like.
As for why I would have gone back? No problem saying the concept of Era, like GAF originally, was a good one. Have a discussion and keep total nutjobs off the community. There are good people on the site and as much as they unfairly get mocked as a collective, they are a big gaming forum where you can indulge in lots of topics with lots of people. Whether you guys like your shitposting or not, which most of you clearly do dunking on Era in a dedicated topic, much of the internet is a cesspool and no, I don’t want to be around non-stop abuse/nonsense. Hey, I like some laughter myself, goodness knows that goes down like a brick in the ocean on Era at times (most of the time) due to how problematic all comedy/mild trolling is (yes I got banned for a week for a double rick-roll), but no, I’m not really out to get personal with any individual people or snipe them from afar where they cannot respond. I mean many here moan about being banned from Era, or if still posting on Era still moan here (Hi Dennis, I see you). Whatever shit is said, everyone has some draw to the place like GAF before it.
Is Era predominantly left-leaning? Sure, but so am I. I vote for the SNP, a centre-left democratic socialist party. I’m an atheist, I’m down with whatever equality acts you want to list at me, I think trans men and women are men and women. I think non-binary and other gender identities are real and not all just "Tumblr trends". Abortion is a legal right for women. Systematic racism is real and Governments are directly responsible for impoverishing certain demographics/communities. Healthcare should be a human right in a wealthy country. I’m a man of science and reason and I only care what is true and has evidence to back it. I’m an individualist through and through, with that meaning I can self-reflect and critique things related to "my side" and I can talk to people with different views/political holdings. Etc, etc, etc. That is probably the kryptonite for some on Era. They paint you as something you are not, then get mad when you share your deeply held beliefs and it’s not what they expected. It gets them annoyed they can’t get you banned for what you’re saying, so instead they say out loud they know what you are actually thinking – You saw as much in that Cyberpunk topic where a poster I was talking to kept dropping hints they wanted moderation to ban posters they felt were problematic but “knew how to skirt the lines”. That does get annoying because I’ve never once had the intent to do that to another poster nor ever would. It’s totally unfair and it’s calculated and tactical. I prefer to just talk to people myself. Not constantly ask for intervention and moderation. I’m not interested in getting people banned to “defeat them”. It’s a conversation on a forum, not the fucking hunger games.
I did once report Kirblar for PMing me saying the mistakes of the Iraq War were comparable to the mistakes of Era redesigning their forum layout, but cmon bro, even as a WTF that was worth reporting just to see if PM’s were actionable. Hint, they are, lmao. Ignore my bad grammar below I was replying in haste whilst thinking the fuck?!
(Image removed from quote.)
(No, I don't hate Kirblar either, but that PM was just funny. No, I'm not sharing anymore PM's from Resetera, and I can't see old ones anyway)
Sadly, like NeoGAF at historic times, I think that’s just the environment owners sometimes want to cultivate whether the intention is good or not. If it’s genuinely thinking they need half their community living in fear of being banned or being wiped out at the push of a button, or a stereotype is true that many who navigate towards wanting to moderate forums/websites have streaks in their personality that gets a rise off of bans/bullying others. Way past the point of clean-up duty or protecting their forum from genuine assholes and into having some sort of fun or some sort of obsession with bans/authority. Like it’s a sport. It would be pure speculation to say so with certainty and a bit ironic given I always suggest people to be wary of speculation, but from the types of ban messages that get written to just how many bans get handed out daily on this forum, correct or not, the owner of Resetera has to accept many people will get the impressions they do for a reason. But if you actually want to cultivate those impressions and that is not seen as a negative by ownership, a user just has to accept that for what it is. Users are visitors to forums, not owners or moderators. Either agree to those terms/culture or move on if it’s just not working.
Anyway, speaking of bans, because I’ve seen some people incorrectly say what I was junior’d for (couldn’t create topics), yes, it was being reactionary to a poster stating Dark Souls is transphobic. So, I did a call out topic in a bit of a dickish way and was told if I hadn’t removed the posters name I was calling out I would have been perm’d. Fair enough, I fucked up. One of the times on Era you’re not going to have me saying I did nothing wrong. But none of this was anything to do with having a problem with trans people. I’m a huge Souls fanboy and overreacted to something I felt seemed a bit extreme for a game that in my view handles identity pretty well. Should have just been like okay, that’s a way to view this, and moved on. But we all get jimmies rustled at times when it was best just to shut the fuck up. It’s okay to admit I’m human sometimes isn’t it or at least I would hope so.
I’m well aware of the amount of shit trans people get on Era, some of it very personal if not outright harassment. It is very cruel at times, aimed at people who are obviously struggling in life getting treated as if they are a circus show. There are people behind avatars. Yes, Era does seem to have a disproportionately high trans userbase, but can you blame some of them when it is true other sites online are the wild-wild west and you go on them as a trans person and probably have 25 trap/you’re a man jokes facing you within minutes? Yes, without a doubt, some posters "get away" with being incredibly hostile, aggressive or ban-baiting with almost mod-approved results. I get the trans users on Era, almost as a collective, being very defensive and suspicious and grouping together/asking mods to give them more attention.
But me debating with a trans person, even if I might be wrong about something or deserve to be challenged back, does not mean I dislike you as a trans person. It doesn’t even mean I dislike you at all. It means… what it might mean for me talking to anyone, I’m struggling to see the evidence for a claim you might have made and want to speak to you. I’m trying to do my best to articulate my feelings and that’s it. The concept of staying in your lane has never meant to me never leaving your lane. Simply trying to be wise/decent about when you might choose to sit something out/listen because you are ignorant or from another background. But I think on Era at times they adhere more to you should never leave your lane. You’re a bad person if you leave your lane. Cement yourself in your lane and shut the fuck up. To me that’s just not how life/human interaction will ever work, that kind of rigidity.
Tldr, it felt like those on Resetera with the power would rather I leave, so I did. Life goes on. Yeah, it’s shitty that there will be some posters right now thinking they got rid of someone hateful, but why let that get to you when you are a decent person and hold none of the views some very polarized individuals that barely know you almost want you to hold just to call you a piece of shit/demand you get banned. That’s the part of Resetera that is frustrating and ultimately what causes some to snap/get banned trying to defend themselves. All the constant suspicion and accusing that goes on simply for a forum being used as… a forum. As I said, the bump to a month was probably a collective “we don’t really want you here, take the hint”. One poster, me, leaving an internet forum really doesn’t matter when the forum has like 40,000 users and many more desperate to sign-up. But sure, cheers, pint raised to anyone who enjoyed talking with me or anyone who didn’t agree with me on things but enjoyed the debate.
And as for sticking around in this topic, genuinely not to antagonize any of you, because I recognize some poster names and did appreciate some reasonable/kind words around my ban, the best thing to do is move on from Era. No point in really sticking around to mock anyone. It’s not really my thing anyway, he says after writing a 2000-word no1care lolumad gitgud manifesto. They can do what they want, I’ll go off and do my thing. I didn’t even leave NeoGAF with posting scat porn, saying stupid shit or being a mad cunt abusing everyone and anyone because the fear of a ban didn’t matter anymore. I just left at that time because others I knew left *shrug*.
Post your no1cares gifs, but remember, you fuckers asked me to come here.
I've seen that pisstake about inmates and an asylum a few times and besides it being a joke, I'd be a party pooper and still say it's wrong. The owner and the moderation are always in charge. If you have any issues with the way a forum is going it's always a reflection of them first. But that is the great divide for Resetera, half the forum thinks there aren't enough bans and there are still lots of secret evil people, the other half is constantly moaning that moderation is unreasonable and too quick to act. So who does the owner try and placate in order to keep making money?
This is true that moderation is largely what drives culture, but that doesn't mean it represents a majority or even a plurality of the userbases' feelings on the subject.
With Era, there's reason to believe the hyper progressive voices that give zero room for nuance in anything are an extreme minority, representing maybe 500-1000 posters if not a lot less. You can see it in the way specific polls go, or how many contentious topics have the same people arguing. And yet, this small fraction of the userbase at large is what the moderation caters to. That isn't how a healthy forum should evolve, which isn't to say the marginalized voices of the minority shouldn't be protected, but protected and given special treatment are two very different things. It lets bitterness among the majority set in and WILL lead to issues down the line. It already has with several industry people seeing the place for the den of aggressive lunatics that it is, including many legit influencers as well as the ones Era likes including Giant Bomb.
And sure, the "inmates running the asylum" thing is offensive, but it kind of shows us a much more sinister side of the whole thing; people with mental health issues stuck in an echo chamber. It's not a safe space to vent, it's a place to reinforce an incredibly hostile worldview that will prevent any kind of reasonable progress in the real world. I have no doubt that a lot of these people that have therapists have been outright told to get off forums, but they don't listen.
My single day of careposting is almost up, but I'll take Pogi's mantle one last time before going to sleep. This is it, the plane is hitting the landing strip and the journey is ending. This story has no happy ending, so fuck off now if you want a Hollywood conclusion.
I wouldn't personally call it hyper-progressive voices, because I see myself as progressive, so that would suggest what some posters were doing is just because they're trying to make others more progressive. I'm of the opinion it's simply more like my high school analogy where one group bands together and then will want to bully every other group into submission. When your group has "leaders in high places" that can skew any small group in a wider community to be dominant, so while the larger community exists, they essentially exist under the tyranny of the minority. Yeah, it’s mildly funny when a poll happens on Era and it doesn't go the way some want it to, but that's often just passed off as everyone who voted differently is a terrible person. No nuance as to how left-wing voices could say they're buying this ONE game in a THQ poll, they must just be full of hate and ready to suffocate a homeless person. Ultimately, it doesn't actually matter how progressive you are 99.9% of the time, a disagreement over a single subject or topic where any ordinary person would concede there is room for manoeuvre or nuance becomes a battleground for winning. The small group of powerful voices never want to feel like they've lost, so what is supposed to just be a forum and discussions are always battles.
Not winning in the sense of presenting a better argument (maybe some evidence instead of just assumptions!!!) or arguing in good faith and both parties leaving a debate still certain in their ways but with no hard feelings. Winning by any means necessary. Which on a forum that cultivates quick bannings means ban baiting by exerting pressure you know you can get away with or hitting the report button and possibly a mod seeing a report come in from a poster they are friends with. Getting a bit into assumption territory here as I don't know if a report on Resetera tells you who it's from, but IIRC I did hear staff could find out who is sending reports in order to make sure the report system isn't abused. Ironically, I would say a legit case for "abuse" could be posters that immediately hit report every time they are challenged or it's a poster they don't like, but that probably just becomes part of the culture of Resetera, hence all the locking of some very normal topics due to a "high volume of reports". Any topic with a bit of activity or some posters going at it, but within reasonable limits, still ends up locked for review. It's live or die, or in Era's case, cross your fingers you don't get the "User was banned" prompt. Even at times where you might be thinking, "I'm being hard here, but reasonable ~ No swearing at someone or calling them names, just some of the debate pressure you're supposed to be equipped for, for debate class in high-school".
I mean, has there been a single hot issue topic where the mods have locked a topic and then just re-opened it saying "Everything's fine, argue your points yourselves, we aren't here to babysit you"?. Of course not, the culture that has been cultivated means mods doing that would be writing their own death sentence. The forum already turns on the moderators over the stupidest shit, ready to basically accuse them of being horrible people themselves if they don't placate the piranhas swirling below. It's one hell of a toxic environment where mods hate their roles, the users pretend to like the mods but are just using them to get other users banned and there is basically no fun, no community spirit, just resentment and ticking time bombs for whoever slips first. I said multiple times to the Era mods in feedback topics their role was running an adult daycare centre and I knew it was hard for them at times. I stand by that. I don't envy anyone having to look after this Resetera community, but I also can't help say you don't help yourselves at times nuking reasonable people without a second of reflection and always placating those who'd turn on you with more venom than anyone else on the forum. Moderators are no hivemind, but when they all come together to discuss the forum with the owner, you'd have to hope reasonable voices/opinions would float up.
I think in total I probably reported 8~10 posts and most of that was at the beginning due to the novelty factor of having a report button coming from GAF. As I said earlier most of the time I would just argue with people or try and find ways to be somewhat sarcastic/dismissive to stupid shit, but in a way that didn't result in a no fun allowed ban. My one week ban for a double rick-roll was still a highlight. https://resetera.com/posts/14181171/ And that wasn't even me trying to push buttons in an argument, it was just a bit of mild trolling around one of the most anticipated games of the generation.
It's a testament to a truly failed social experiment on a forum that the silly saying of "Add all these well-known posters to your ignore list if you don't want to get banned" ends up being more than a meme. I could never do it, I like talking to everyone, and that is essentially what led heavily to me becoming a "problematic poster". If you talk to the people who throw shit at you, misrepresent you, call you things you aren't and threaten you with getting banned, all it does is presumably wind them up more leading to an increase in your chances of being catapulted into the jail cell. Discussion, eh?
As for the offensive side of "inmates running the asylum", well, the only way I can approach that is reminding Resetera when a shooting happens and someone brings up mental health, everyone is quick to say "lots of us have mental health issues and don't shoot people". I would turn that back around and also remind some of them, millions in America live with depression/anxiety disorders for large parts of their life and they aren't all complete assholes to everyone they speak to *shrug*. Bitterness most definitely fuels that burning hatred of just about everyone not part of the in-group for some on Resetera, and for whatever combination of reasons many of the forum personalities that seem to be in control of any topic that could be exciting for debate, end up being so incredibly bitter and quick to report everything/ask for mods to ban everyone.
As much as I'd like to carry on my tradition of talking to every cunt, please stop responding to me so I don't feel bad about ignoring you and having to carepost ever again.
Just want to thank you for these two great posts
They were pretty good, weren't they?
These posts really made me think while browsing on mobile.
I wondered why there were 30 or so pages to catch up on. Then I saw all this stuff
Oh, and why does Amirox's race read as "Unknown"?
Possibly we don’t know what % of alleles he shares in common with which races? I’m hoping marrec can shed some light on this, as with the brown bear/polar bear thing above.
Glen is right, this is a fascinating topic. I echo his sentiments in hoping that marrec puts out an explainer on alleles and other phenotypes are used to determine speciation.
Allow me to attempt to satisfy both of you and your curiosities:
While difference in alleles can be supportive evidence in an argument for speciation, these differences alone are not enough to categorize or claim new species. Instead scientists use things like geographical isolation (Allopatric Speciation), sexual isolation (Sympatric Speciation), habitat isolation (Parapatric Speciation), and rapid or sudden speciation (Quantum Speciation). For example, the brown bear and polar bear can be traced back to a common ancestor which shared a habitat, geographical space, and sexual reproduction, but at some point split into the two extant species we see today like to due to a combination of Parapatric Speciation and Allopatric Speciation.
Modern humans have not had the kind of selective pressure necessary to induce speciation, and while there have been other human species in the past, we have since proved so mobile and willing to fuck anything that it would be difficult to imagine a future in which there could be human speciation. Despite the alleged allele differences noted in the post above, there is no other evidence which would point to there being distinct "races" of humans alive today. While there are identifiable differences between geographic populations of humans, we can easily interbreed and share a bold and distinct ancestry with clear genetic markers.
I hope this answers your questions.
