From constructive, Nepenthe explains how the staff gave the users EVERY POSSIBLE ADVANTAGE in having those threads, but the forum simply cannot cope with the awesome responsibility of talking about The Slap:
I disagree. Her post was well put, as they usually are, but locking the thread was unnecessary. Logged back in to see it shut down and am disappointed. Can't say I'm shocked...par for the course with heated topics.
On the surface it's just two famous and obscenely wealthy dudes being assholes to one another. Then we peel back layers and it opens up other conversations. Perhaps uncomfortable conversations. As contentious as things can get I don't mind it. I welcome thoughts that challenge my own. That thread was rife with topics to work through but people are so quick to report anything they find disagreeable. It seems the mods get overwhelmed or fed up and just ultimately lock the shit. I hate that.
In this instance, y'all had twice to get it together, and both times the threads went to shit just of their own accord.
Half of the responsibility for threads going one way or another is on members to not rush into a thread with ridiculous hot takes and dog whistling. No one is obligated to post any and every emotionally-fraught take that comes into their head on any subject. But people decided to make "two famous and obscenely wealthy dudes being assholes to one another" out into a ridiculous sociopolitical battleground of domestic abuse, toxic masculinity, Will being the poster child of the entire Black community, how "dangerous" he is now, how stage entertainers are now marginalized. It was a fucking ridiculous example of people being way too terminally online. Like, the fact that Chris isn't even pressing charges should tell you everything.
Some stuff Era can handle. Some stuff, Era just can't. And no one can sit here and pose like staff were at fault for the discussion going downhill. We allowed plenty of leeway to criticize all parties involved, allowed two threads to exist on it, and did our best to both monitor it live and hit the reports on the backend. It was unsalvageable.
It's this weird thing of she's not wrong--Era's userbase is incapable of not turning everything up to 11 to make it some kind of earth-shattering test of some kind of allyship.
But goddamn, even a minor amount of perspective should make her realize how much gasoline she's putting on the eternal resetera tire fire. People
couldn't just treat it like a funny thing between two rich guys who are both going to be totally fine after, because it was constantly reframed as a sexist/racist/ableist issue and everything anyone said about it needed to be analyzed from 50 directions for perceived wrongthink. "people" do that because it's how Era works, and it's how Era works because of years of staff cultivating it and participating in it.
