Somebody want to go dig in the hidden constructive community thread? There's a former mod apparently talking about all the crying and lost sleep the staff have suffered due to the ungrateful members of ResetERA.com.
all I can see that you would be talking about from a former mod is Windrunner who was posting during the Morrigan thing on the 25th
Another forum blowup and yet again this community shows a startling lack of introspection and self-awareness.
Those of you who participate in these moderator dog-piles, please ask yourself what you get out of it and what it says about you: you lament the dark corners of the internet, who treat human beings like sport to be chased down and eviscerated only to behave in much the same way. Sure, you might not be doxxing or throwing slurs around but it's still the same behaviour at its core.
Think about how you would feel in their position, to have dozens of people baying for your blood, mischaracterising you as a bigot or a villain, coordinating privately to take you down. You wouldn't like this if it were done to you, so why do you do it to others? You're not a righteous force, you're just a pack of bullies who would never stand up to scrutiny if a light was shone on you individually: a pack of cowards trying to get their licks in because you have the strength of numbers.
Any of you who participated in the hounding of cvxfreak and Morrigan and the fake outrage over a 1 day ban and some eminently sensible posting guidelines, are frankly not good people nor are you rational or mature. The bleating over some Discord banter taken out of context is particularly transparent, given you lot say far worse about the moderators all the time. Good luck founding your own communities, I mean it sincerely when I say that you deserve each other.
sensui tomo doesn't like this post, and coincidentally is banned, but not for this post
An ex mod attacking people (which isn't a good idea because there is a bias unfortunately that you may or may not have due to being a mod, especially during the time Asian era had their fallout) . I thought the point of this thread was for constructive criticism. This is exactly the problems the site has. This US VS THEM mentality.
And its highly likely that none of the users here on this discussion would be ones who directly attacked a mod/admin. As people who sent those horrible messages were likely and rightfully banned (the ones who sent transphobic as fuck shit) and/or probably don't know this thread exists.
Glio also didn't like it, and Windrunner responded
Generalizing to all the people who criticize the moderators' actions with those horrible racist, transphobic and misogynistic people only adds to the current "us vs them" tribalism that has caused that. Users no longer trust moderation and vice versa.
Moderation is unfairly attacked by horrible people but that is no excuse to view anyone who disagrees with them as such horrible people.
It's not just mild criticism though is it? If it was just that then this website wouldn't go through moderators like socks and it's not a coincidence that it's typically the female and minority staff who have had to endure the most.
As for not wanting to be compared to people from certain websites, the times the staff have been under the greatest amount of stress, depression and anxiety has been when the attacks have come at the hands of this site's members. We're talking adults being reduced to tears and insomnia because this community has been so beastly. I find it difficult to word just how much damage has been wrought to the mental health of these glorified volunteer janitors who only took up this role because they believed in the website's mission statement and genuinely loved the community.
If you don't like what you see, don't blame me; I am merely holding up the mirror.
also just after there was this
When ResetEra started (oh my god I've been here for almost four years), we were quite a bit less stringent on bans. We figured people were excited about a new start, and apart from the fact that we knew trolls were looking to get in, we didn't deal with a lot of aggressive/warz-y posts. However, as the world continued to go into the shitter, attitudes on the internet (and by extension, ResetEra) shifted.
Side note: whenever people go "welp that's just Era being Era," I just gesture wildly towards the rest of the internet. The default stance is to assume the worst of whomever you're disagreeing with (and before anyone decides to say so, no, of course I'm not talking about things like racism or anything severe like that. The fact that I have to explicitly say this is kind of my point). I don't know how to solve a problem like that that is just so prevalent...well, everywhere.
"everyone always assumes the worst of everyone else so we just decided to do it too, completely uncritically and without introspection"
the entirety of Hecht's post (still the 25th)
spoiler (click to show/hide)
When ResetEra started (oh my god I've been here for almost four years), we were quite a bit less stringent on bans. We figured people were excited about a new start, and apart from the fact that we knew trolls were looking to get in, we didn't deal with a lot of aggressive/warz-y posts. However, as the world continued to go into the shitter, attitudes on the internet (and by extension, ResetEra) shifted.
Side note: whenever people go "welp that's just Era being Era," I just gesture wildly towards the rest of the internet. The default stance is to assume the worst of whomever you're disagreeing with (and before anyone decides to say so, no, of course I'm not talking about things like racism or anything severe like that. The fact that I have to explicitly say this is kind of my point). I don't know how to solve a problem like that that is just so prevalent...well, everywhere.
Anyway, due to all of this, we started taking a harder stance on a lot of things due to two major factors - users not being happy with repeat offenders, and us ultimately realizing that "no, apparently a good amount of people are incapable of changing their behavior." So, longer and more severe bans were implemented for more severe infractions. We still take time to deliberate unless it's something incredibly obvious, and we still have rules in place that longer bans require admin approval (apart from the aforementioned obvious ones).
Like I said in my previous post, the majority of our reports are just people being aggressive or platform wars. For the former, if someone feels justified in their argument and decides that they MUST prove the other person wrong, that just compounds the issue on our end. Do we ban both people? Just one? Even if the one person is right, are they being too much of a shithead? If we ban person X, is there going to be a glut of tickets, reports, posts, and/or threads that we are then going to have to spend hours trying to deal with, because if that one person is slighted, then clearly we have a bone to pick with an entire group of people? More importantly, how dumb of an argument is this? Is it vitriol being thrown around because someone doesn't like the graphics of a game? WHY?
These are questions we ask all. the. time. This shit stresses me out. And I'm generally someone that doesn't get stressed out all that much. And it stresses others out. And all over a gaming forum. This shouldn't be that difficult to just sit down and talk about games and other topics. Trolls don't need a response. Disagreements don't inherently mean some sort of personal attack is happening. Everyone is allowed to have the opinion of "I don't know."
It's funny when I see "volunteer forum janitors" because later I came across this thread on Twitter which I'd like to share. Sure, it's directly talking about social justice, but I think the general sentiment is relevant (It's the pictures in the tweet, not the thread itself).
https://twitter.com/Tercicatrix/status/1376210092492791809
Moving on. I can't promise anyone on staff won't make a mistake. I've rescinded plenty of bans due to either misunderstanding the post or receiving an appeal that further explains and/or apologizes for the post. That sort of thing is going to happen and expecting that it will go away is not realistic. As for anyone on staff saying something emotionally charged, it's something that will occasionally crop up from time to time. We're human. Hell, I even wrote a guide for staff about a year ago called "How Not to Put Your Foot in Your Mouth," but things are still going to happen here and there. We'd like to participate in the communities as well - engage in banter, talk about whatever the community is focused on, and enjoy our time there. It also helps us understand the community better. Those of us in communities may get comfortable and possibly lax and fuck up. It happens, and hopefully it doesn't become a pattern.
All we're asking is to not assume that an instance out of sorts means we are literally Hitler.
On the flipside, if we issue a warning or something like a one-day ban, it doesn't mean you automatically go on some sort of "this user is dogshit" list. It's just a "hey, don't do that again." We do have plenty of users that realize that. And if it's something we overturn later, so much the better. If you go into Nintendo threads saying "Sony is better," you'll get one of those. Don't do it again? Great. Continue over and over? Ok, well clearly this isn't working out. It's not you, it's me.
In my previous post I outlined some things we're going to try with respect to communities, and I hope those pan out as far as dealing with any large-scale blowups. We're also working to rewrite the FAQ, but those discussions are going to take some time.
then after more Morrigan fallout there were NFTs, not sure if posted earlier
on the 30th subpar spatula was simping for the mods and cerium by supporting NFT
The reboot of that NFT thread is ridiculous. NFTs are, at best, problematic for a variety of reasons, and just because someone made a topic for show and tell doesn't mean that thread should be free of criticism. Just complete head in assery. Positive only discussions of crypto adjacent topics should be quarantined to the Crypto OT.
NFTs are here to stay, though, same with Bitcoin. People will buy into it. People will buy into the Stock Market. People will gamble at casinos. People will play the lottery. There isn't much criticism going on but "lol look at my ms paint el barto picture nft guyzz".
other members really not having it
I'll put this as nicely as possible - if staff are going to openly go to bat for a scam like NFTs and shut down folks bringing up the very real problems with them, I want nothing to do with this site, and I simply can't take it seriously.
Yeah I have a big issue with that NFT thread and the side the staff has decided to take. I see threads shut down all the time for "nothing productive will come from this" but that thread is allowed to continue. smdh
The Adder also simps for cerium
Make an OT criticizing NFTs. They're bullshit and should be criticized. But don't go into a dude's "for collectors" topic to talk shit about their interests. That's basic courtesy. This is dumb bullshit that people buy into of their own volition. Let them have a place to mind their own business. At the very least it's effective quarantine.
That's not the standard applied to stuff like Blizzard threads or anything. People don't generally get to have self-contained threads free of criticism. Avoid personal insults and don't harass people over choosing to engage in these things, but people should be able to fairly criticize the issues with NFTs in a thread like that.
Equating these two things is silly on its face.
Chapelle whine yesterday:
I know this is not likely to lead to much, but I’m very uncomfortable with the fact that people are still making hype threads for Dave Chapelle content. He’s a disgusting bitter old tired bigot and if it was anyone else in the world people would be warned and banned for openly supporting him.
I don’t think people should be banned retroactively, but I think a thread about his content should be treated as any other bigot. A place to talk about the person or how sad it is that they’ve turned out to be a transphobic sack of shit, but not a place for hundreds of “Omg so hype! The GOAT returns!” posts. It’s disgusting, it’s hurtful to our trans community, and it reflects extremely poorly on our forum.
I’ve always thought that this is a place where bigotry is outright rejected, but it seems that most groups are more worthy of protection than our trans members. Is there a reason for this? Is there a tier list so we can clearly see where everyone stands and consider our posts accordingly? Because it seems like a group that is constantly under vicious attack worldwide, even in fairly liberal regions, is being told to suck it up.
Would hype or appreciation threads about Michael Richards, Shane Gillis, or Andrew Dice Clay be protected here as well? How about J.K. Rowling? This is not rhetorical, I would honestly like to know. This is not a situation where he made some dumb jokes and then apologized. Most of his comments on the trans community cannot even be classed as jokes, they’re just hurtful comments for bigots to laugh at. He has continued his attacks, his bigoted fan base has rallied behind it, and there is no reason at this moment to believe that he has changed his mind.
Anyway, rant over. If this is allowed because he is an “artist” (lmao 🤮) then I do think the policy should be applied fairly, even on gaming side. I believe it’s a slippery slope if that is the new normal, but if this is the environment that higher ups want to foster, I’m not gonna keep harping on it. Probably.
