It's kind of odd that an unaltered photo of someone would troll them after they posted it (and several others like it) in a public WF forum.
See, here's the interesting thing... I never identified that the person in my avatar was Tasvir. But you and several other people did. Oops. Anyway, you make a compelling case. I'm about to catch a plane but I promise to update my avatar when I'm back. Everyone can enjoy it for the next two days.
If Whatsisname were working somewhere like Cold Stone Creamery where he got a paycheck, and his antics were seen as reflecting negatively on the company like that idiot woman who tweeted about assassination, this nonsense might get him in trouble. But controversy does not have an adverse effect on a freelancer's career. If it did, Harlan Ellison wouldn't be a household name. A lot of people don't understand that. I remember an exchange with Petey (well, not an exchange really; it was the typical: I'm posting something he doesn't like, so he's following me around neg-repping me) where he was so OUTRAGED!! he threatened to "tell your editors what you post on WF." This is another guy who styled himself a writer. His understanding of the Way Things Work was only slightly less daft than skin's.
At least a third of this board is bigotted against muslims. A behaviour you have happily ignored over the years. I find it utterly preposterous that you now take the moral high ground over it regarding WAB's avatar. WAB's AV may have a tint of bigotry against it, but were he to remove it you think that all traces of bigotry will be removed from the board? There are so many layers of ignorance among some here regarding muslims and/or those from countries with high muslim populations, that bigotry and racism is frequently on display - the worst example of which is the cabal of twats who insist that muslims are a great bbig "them" who are all islamic fundementlist terrorists. I won't even start on the subtle racism the likes of Muad & co direct towards black people. So what is your solution for this? You think new members can't read? Removing an avatar is token at best. The real problem is the one you happily ignore. More evidence of your double standard bullshit. Laughable. Abolsutely fucking laughable.
The thing with this, and with John Castle's little rants, is that if you post pictures of yourself in the Green Room, you know the rules and you know it may compound your privacy. That's self inflicted I'm afraid. Just like John Castle and his pics. On Facebook and on here you will find virtually no information for me that isn't at least 2-3 years old. I leanred the hard way, don't reveal it, can't be trolled with it. It's that simply. You posted your pics. They are out there. The damage is done. Just laugh it off and protect the rest. It's either that or act like a mentall ill butthead and spam up Facebook.
Btw, on a seperate note, I see visionrazor has now gone and deleting all of his spam comments from Facebook. Shame that half of them were saved here, including the one in which he slanders 14th Doctor.
That's actually a good point. What's worse and going to turn people off more, the ugly picture that Megatron posted and got doctored or posts regarding muslims from Midnight Funeral, Black Dove or Apostle83 that have been going on forever? How about Megatron's "NIGGER" posts, I'm sure that will put registry over the top.
Give me a break. My anti-muslim posts have nothing to do with race or ethnicity and everything to do with dogma and ideology. And lest you forget, I am equally anti-christian ideology as well. Besides, if my comments chase new members away, then they are the types of members we don't want here. This is Wordforge! Grow a thick skin or stay the hell out!
I think we have similar views on religion, you and I, all I'm saying is that they might turn off new members which is apparently a concern right now for management.
It might be more convincing if you didn't operate on the basis that every single person who lives in or around the Islamic world is part of one great big single minded terrorist juggernaut. I haven't seen you once recognising any concepts such as moderate muslims, Christians and Jews living in Muslim countries (such as Arab Christians and Persian Jews) and ethnic athiests/agnostics from the Middle East, Indonesia, North Africa, etc. I mean, why go to all the trouble of recognising this when you can just say "turn the Middle East into glass and be done with them". Curiously you don't say "turn the mid-west into glass" when you are ranting about Christianity. Your feigned innocence is bullshit. My view on the concept of religion is exactly the same as yours. But I don't operate out of ignorance about the Islamic world.
The picture is something people will see before they even post here...there is no context or anything to the photo. I haven't done anything over the years because it's the nature of the Red Room and the owners decide all that. Hmm.
Why does having a free speech zone mean that racism and bigotry is necessary? It's like saying, I have a jar of jalapenos in my fridge so I ust use the entire jar on my hotdog, just because it's there. Just because you can do a thing doesn't mean you must do it, does it?
Because Christianity is currently not engaged in barbaric, brutal violence against all non-believers like the followers of Islam. And while you occasionally have idiots like Dayton who feels it's perfectly alright to denigrate their women, Muslims overall treatment of women is beyond horrific, to the point where it needs to be stamped out of existence. The bullshit is yours, my friend. I'm not the one turning a blind eye to muslim violence and oppression.
That isn't freedom of speech. True freedom of speech entails not trying to stifle those opinions you may find abhorrent.
In many enlightened European countries they have criminalized libel (instead of just making it a civil action) and criminalized racism or anti religious speech. It's really quite barbaric.
There is always the option of making the Red Room a hidden, joinable room, thus hiding it from general scrutiny and making the other forums the draw for the place. The people only people who join, knowing what they will be getting into will be in there and people who don't like it, don't even have to see it.
Does anyone besides El Chup feel like the Red Room needs to be altered a bit? Do we need to censor racist and bigoted posts?
This is something Async hit on. I'm sure I'll lose something by summing it up in less than 5k words, but: The Red Room was about impassioned free wheeling debate. Since it is a fine line between a well placed zinger and trolling, we decided to err on the side of caution. However it seems that some people take the ability to troll in the Red Room as a requirement, or worse the sole purpose. In other words just b/c you CAN be a ginormous ignorant douchenozzle doesn't mean you SHOULD be one.
I'm content just to have them all followed by a flood of negreps. (Yes, I know they don't do anything numerically, but seeing "Xxxx disagrees!" after every post of that nature sends a perfectly good message to visitors that they don't speak for the majority.) Or followed by mocking in the body of the thread; that works too. I mean, anybody who reads WF threads for more than five minutes will tumble pretty quickly to the fact that nobody takes, say, Midnight Funeral seriously.
No. But I think we should work to improve other parts of the board and to actively encourage (as members, not policy or anything) more debate and discussion and less trolling in the Red Room. That said, this is probably a particularly bad time as everyone is burned out on politics due to the election.
Who is talking about stifling? I believe my comment amounts to it being a case of just because you can talk like a tit, doesn't mean you have to talk like a tit. There's no law against me walking up to a fat women and callling her a lard arse. But do I need to do so just because I can? Nobody's talking about censoring the Red Room. People should not need rules to tell them that racism, religious hatred and homophobia are for the small minded. They should be capable of their own judgement.
How is that materially different from censoring avatars? And what would be the parameters? All racism, all religious bigotry? By whose criteria?
Erm, I am not advocating any form of censorship. Nice way to play the straw (wo)man Tamar. This the latest, eh? Telling lies about people's opinions? Not. Fit. To. Lead. I am simply saying that just because the Red Room rules allows a person to say what they like, why do they feel they have to be intentionally racist, et al.
Save that on here Islamic bigotry and racism against blacks often attracts pos reps from the same tiresome individuals. To be honest, I don't think there is much you can do about it, which is why Tamar's righteousness over WAB's AV is bullshit. If new members come then we would have to hope that they would use their judgment to tell racists and bigots to fuck of.
There is this bizarre mentality - as expressed by at least $corp and skinofwhatever, though the way others behave suggests they believe it - that because you can act a certain way in the RR, you must. It's as if there's a hidden rule that says "Act like an asshole, all ye who enter here." Given the proponents' usual reaction to being told what to do, this mindset makes no sense whatsoever.
I'm sorry...did you not just make remarks about me "not doing anything about it" when it happens? That certainly implies a desire for a change in the rules...because that is the only way I could "do anything about it".
