Suggestion Should we ban religious / LGBT / political threads?

[MadMageKefka]

This started as a status message, but it sparked some interesting discussion, so at the advice of someone on my status, I made a thread to see what everyone else thinks.

Now, its not my place to decide the rules of this site, nor am I the kind of person to usually censor what people talk about. However, I am seeing more and more of these threads every day, and its getting out of hand. They always, without fail, devolve into bigotry and arguing. With this being a video game website, and these sorts of threads causing so much drama, maybe it would be for the best?

An example I would like to give is the thread from the other day about the Afghanistan bombing. After several pages it devolved into several people saying how gays should be executed. The thread was deleted shortly after. My question is, why aren't those people being punished and having their comments deleted? Why was the entire thread removed? Some of that conversation was legit discussion. I have a feeling the staff here is tired of the crap too (please correct me if I am wrong).

So what do you all think? I don't wanna censor people really, but at the same time I think it would make the site a more friendly, enjoyable experience for everyone. Maybe another option would be to create a separate forum for this stuff, so at least it doesn't appear on the front page? Please, let me know how you all feel too.

EDIT: At this point, after discussing this for so many hours, my opinion on the matter is that outright banning this sort of thing is not the answer. I do, however, feel that off-topic discussions of this nature don't belong on the front page of a gaming / hacking forum. A lot of people are tired of seeing it and it just plain makes us looks bad as a community when 4 out of the 10 topics on the front page are off-topic shit shows of bigotry and hate. This is obviously not too often the case, but it does seem to be happening more frequently.

 

[mikefor20]

Well I woundn't really say I'm insecure. I'm quite happy with myself. (Except my wrists are a little small, it kind of bugs me)
As for this normal stuff. You're right no one is normal. We are all unique, but just because I want to act normal doesn't mean I'm being controlled by the media. If we are to going to be honest, today's media has been pushing for things that were not "normal" several years ago. And this desire to act normal? Yes I want to be normal, but I'd rather be able to "function" in society. It was REALLY hard for me growing up because of Aspbergers.
You mention wanting your ideas to be seen. People like to be heard. We are social creatures after all.

Wow I'm so lost in this post I don't know what to say

Stephano I wasn't really calling you insecure. I meant tempers need to put their insecurities aside and stop trying to strive for acceptance. Stop trying to put yourself out there and bear your soul and expect applause. A lot of people out there demand to be accepted by doing things in front of other people that they know will piss them off or makes them uncomfortable and then plead acceptance. Please. You need to accept yourself. Others don't need to accept you. It isn't reasonable to expect that everyone should respond to you the way you want. It's even more unreasonable to keep repeating the behavior and expecting different results. That's insane! If you want to put yourself out there good for you, don't be upset if the people you upset say something. You are causing the disturbance in their life. For you ego. Selfishly. Not appropriate in most settings. It's fair. As fair as it gets. Don't expect people to change for you anymore than you will for them That being said I do not change my stance. I don't think these topics belong on the temp. Someone will get butt hurt. So avoid the whole issue and talk about gaming. Like everyone came here to do. Not your bullshit that mostly nobody cares about but you and are bound to upset someone with. Why are you so special?

 

[MadMageKefka]

But that is still subjective as not all communities feel the same.

The word doesn't apply to any specific communities, it applies to the company you are currently in. Seeing as people from this site are from all over the globe with a variety of beliefs, I would say this is a controversial topic, yes. Past threads on the topic speak for themselves.

Can't see how LGBT is controversial but okay. But if it comes down to banning all or none, I say ban all of it.

See my above post. Its not that its wrong or anything, its that its controversial; likely to cause a heated argument.

 

[Viri]

Nobody is holding a gun to your head, and making you view the threads. Just move the posts to the EOF, and let people flame each other if they wanna. If you don't like it, don't open the thread.

 

[DeoNaught]

ummmm.... if its a discussion maybe, but I think they should watched more, maybe.

 

[MadMageKefka]

Nobody is holding a gun to your head, and making you view the threads. Just move the posts to the EOF, and let people flame each other if they wanna. If you don't like it, don't open the thread.

It still gives us a bad image when new people come here to browse for info on games and hacks, and half of the recent threads on the front page are shit like that. This thread isn't about me being butthurt, believe me. That's not an easy thing to do to me online.

 

[viral777]

Can we ban furries too?

 

[Stephano]

Stephano I wasn't really calling you insecure. I meant tempers need to put their insecurities aside and stop trying to strive for acceptance. Stop trying to put yourself out there and bear your soul and expect applause. A lot of people out there demand to be accepted by doing things in front of other people that they know will piss them off or makes them uncomfortable and then plead acceptance. Please. You need to accept yourself. Others don't need to accept you. It isn't reasonable to expect that everyone should respond to you the way you want. It's even more unreasonable to keep repeating the behavior and expecting different results. That's insane! If you want to put yourself out there good for you, don't be upset if the people you upset say something. You are causing the disturbance in their life. For you ego. Selfishly. Not appropriate in most settings. It's fair. As fair as it gets. Don't expect people to change for you anymore than you will for them That being said I do not change my stance. I don't think these topics belong on the temp. Someone will get butt hurt. So avoid the whole issue and talk about gaming. Like everyone came here to do. Not your bullshit that mostly nobody cares about but you and are bound to upset someone with. Why are you so special?

Well on here, I'm nothing special. I'm just your average joe from Arkansas really. I never asked people to change for me IRL. I don't really know a lot of people actually. I don't believe I've been spouting any BS, I think I've been quite reasonable these past few hours. I mean I agree with you man, this website should be for gaming. I never once thought otherwise. I take one look at NeoGaf and I don't want the temp to end up like that.
If I've made you mad, I'm sorry. I'm not disagreeing with you. And I'm sorry you and Issac had a bit of a fus. People on this site are very reasonable and I don't y'all mean any ill will in the long run. These conversations do bring out the worst in many, but they also highlight who is childish and can't handle a petty interwebs post. Gbatemp should be for gaming. If you want politics, go to NeoGaf.

Are we good? Did we miss anything?

 

[mikefor20]

I like some EOF stuff, hate to lose it on my feed. how about a new politics+ section(sensitive section, whatever you call it that nobody will cry). Then you can have your own section for all this stuff and don't have it on the recent posts as a default but the option to add. Make the sex related discussions age restricted maybe? Then you could have all the freedom you want and not bother anyone. That's fair. All sexual posts,not just LGBT+WTF. I have seen some fucked up stuff here. Do you really want a blog about my dick on the front page all the time? That would mostly be a bad thing.. mostly..

 

[MadMageKefka]

Can we ban furries too?

lmao, no. But maybe people posting furry related content..... I don't think we should ban anyone for what they are into sexually, whether I agree with it or not, just as long as they aren't posting porn (or anything close to) I don't really care. Mods have already laid down the law on that sort of stuff, though.

Well on here, I'm nothing special. I'm just your average joe from Arkansas really. I never asked people to change for me IRL. I don't really know a lot of people actually. I don't believe I've been spouting any BS, I think I've been quite reasonable these past few hours. I mean I agree with you man, this website should be for gaming. I never once thought otherwise. I take one look at NeoGaf and I don't want the temp to end up like that.
If I've made you mad, I'm sorry. I'm not disagreeing with you. And I'm sorry you and Issac had a bit of a fus. People on this site are very reasonable and I don't y'all mean any ill will in the long run. These conversations do bring out the worst in many, but they also highlight who is childish and can't handle a petty interwebs post. Gbatemp should be for gaming. If you want politics, go to NeoGaf.

Are we good? Did we miss anything?

Well said, sir. Well said.

 

[smileyhead]

* * * Y E S .* * *
This is a gaming forum. Shit like that has no place here.

 

[916253]

Why is this ongoing? The staff have already weighed in, no need for continued back and forth.

 

[MadMageKefka]

Why is this ongoing? The staff have already weighed in, no need for continued back and forth.

Only Isaac commented, and he said he didn't speak for the entire staff.

 

[mikefor20]

Ironically enough this thread is about "censorship" isnt that politics related?

Well i mean a option to hide "Sensitive" content i guess, but then we end up like youtube huh? Yeah true this is more of a gaming forum, but off topic thread exist so is a matter of opinion. I see plenty of this stuff here and i just ignore it, you NEVER see me post anything there cause i choose not to. People sometimes just can't help themself but be that way, I can ignore things. Banning is just a way of enforcing specific things that by popular demand or more high tier power deem unfit for the environment. People should learn to endure the kind of stuff that show up here or ignore it. Though i do admit that it does attract attention way more than even actual game discussions do and even more troll problems, is a matter of people lacking means of how to deal with it or just proper cope with it.

Then make a place for it and keep it there. Still dont see why a video game board needs these discussions all the time. Put it out of the way. Give it its own spot and keep it away from the rest of us.

Well on here, I'm nothing special. I'm just your average joe from Arkansas really. I never asked people to change for me IRL. I don't really know a lot of people actually. I don't believe I've been spouting any BS, I think I've been quite reasonable these past few hours. I mean I agree with you man, this website should be for gaming. I never once thought otherwise. I take one look at NeoGaf and I don't want the temp to end up like that.
If I've made you mad, I'm sorry. I'm not disagreeing with you. And I'm sorry you and Issac had a bit of a fus. People on this site are very reasonable and I don't y'all mean any ill will in the long run. These conversations do bring out the worst in many, but they also highlight who is childish and can't handle a petty interwebs post. Gbatemp should be for gaming. If you want politics, go to NeoGaf.

Are we good? Did we miss anything?

We were always good Stephano. No worries. I was never upset and you did nothing wrong. Just trying to defend my position and explain how I feel about the subject. And yes NeoGaf sucks. It would be a shame to turn the temp in to that shit. And I do think furies fall in to controversial and should be an opt in thing not a you can opt out. Avatars are fine but lets do gaming you guys.

Put the reply in the quote lol.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Just to make sure you see, yes Stefano we are good, never an issue

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Just to make sure you see, yes Stefano we are good, never an issue

 

[Stephano]

Put the reply in the quote lol.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Just to make sure you see, yes Stefano we are good, never an issue

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Just to make sure you see, yes Stefano we are good, never an issue

Cool, just making sure.

 

[rad3ds]

I mostly just look at the front page for stuff that catches my eye, and then I look at a couple subforums. Has this even been a major problem here?
Video games as a medium can touch on a lot of topics. Even one of my favorites Fire Emblem Fates comes to mind. There was a bit of buzz around LGBT topics on that because of the gay relationship options they made available. A game could maybe invoke politics, there are video games that portray actual political figures as satire.

It would be a shame if we as a site were too immature to even discuss those kinds of things, I think.

This thread inspired me to actually scroll all the way down and check if there's an off-topic subforum and there is one! Are political threads some kind of major problem there? Honestly I couldn't care less what happens in the off topic area. If LGBT or politics are somehow relevant to a topic that belongs in a gaming thread, due to the game's content or something then so be it. Sometimes there's gay characters in a game, whatever. Sometimes you're throwing silly ragdoll characters in the way of people trying to shoot Donald Trump, whatever. Those can be gaming topics.

 

[VinsCool]

It would be a shame if we as a site were too immature to even discuss those kinds of things, I think.

Exactly that. We have a lot of children (and sometimes, manchild).
Many, and sometimes, too many of them get the opportunity of flaming other disagreeing with their opinion, and take it to a personal level, up to the point of insulting everyone. This part specifically bugs me. Any grown up adult wouldn't usually act that way.

 

[MadMageKefka]

I mostly just look at the front page for stuff that catches my eye, and then I look at a couple subforums. Has this even been a major problem here?
Video games as a medium can touch on a lot of topics. Even one of my favorites Fire Emblem Fates comes to mind. There was a bit of buzz around LGBT topics on that because of the gay relationship options they made available. A game could maybe invoke politics, there are video games that portray actual political figures as satire.

It would be a shame if we as a site were too immature to even discuss those kinds of things, I think.

This thread inspired me to actually scroll all the way down and check if there's an off-topic subforum and there is one! Are political threads some kind of major problem there? Honestly I couldn't care less what happens in the off topic area. If LGBT or politics are somehow relevant to a topic that belongs in a gaming thread, due to the game's content or something then so be it. Sometimes there's gay characters in a game, whatever. Sometimes you're throwing silly ragdoll characters in the way of people trying to shoot Donald Trump, whatever. Those can be gaming topics.

You raise a good point. What about when games mix with these topics? It does happen quite often to be fair. Personally, I would be much more ok with those sorts of topics being here, if they are game-related. That is still "on-topic" for this site.

EDIT: I do like the idea of keeping these threads as blogs, though. I don't wish to prevent anyone here from saying what's on their mind, I'm just tired of seeing trash threads on the front page of a gaming forum.

 

[rad3ds]

You raise a good point. What about when games mix with these topics? It does happen quite often to be fair. Personally, I would be much more ok with those sorts of topics being here, if they are game-related. That is still "on-topic" for this site.

Super often the more I'm thinking about it. All sorts of games about actual wars and nazis and stuff exist. Another favorite of mine, Final Fantasy Tactics has all sorts of religious imagery in it, and the plot can even be reasoned to be a very anti-church anti-christianity message. Meta discussion about video games getting demonized in the news, I don't see a real problem with allowing people to react to like anti-gaming news stories as long as it's kept civil.

That said you could also reason that it would be pretty miserable if gbatemp was like some pit of unending outrage over gaming journalism controversy or something, don't even want to say the word, lol. I don't really see that happening on the parts of the site I browse though.

Just seems like there's a middle ground for common sense here, and a totally hard and fast "no political seeming stuff ever, no matter what" rule would not be in that middle ground. I'm imagining some kind of silly alternate reality with people trolling reports against a wolfenstein thread or something because nazism is too risque for the sensitive boys and girls of gbatemp.

 

[angelus kun]

Its little funny how everyone tries to have the best opinión but always we can ignore these threads

 

[MadMageKefka]

Super often the more I'm thinking about it. All sorts of games about actual wars and nazis and stuff exist. Another favorite of mine, Final Fantasy Tactics has all sorts of religious imagery in it, and the plot can even be reasoned to be a very anti-church anti-christianity message. Meta discussion about video games getting demonized in the news, I don't see a real problem with allowing people to react to like anti-gaming news stories as long as it's kept civil.

That said you could also reason that it would be pretty miserable if gbatemp was like some pit of unending outrage over gaming journalism controversy or something, don't even want to say the word, lol. I don't really see that happening on the parts of the site I browse though.

Just seems like there's a middle ground for common sense here, and a totally hard and fast "no political seeming stuff ever, no matter what" rule would not be in that middle ground. I'm imagining some kind of silly alternate reality with people trolling reports against a wolfenstein thread or something because nazism is too risque for the sensitive boys and girls of gbatemp.

I mostly agree with you at this point. Since starting this thread and discussing it for so many hours, I have long since changed my vote from yes, to no, but keep it off the front page. Outright banning it is not the answer, just maybe off-topic content of that nature doesn't belong on the front page of a gaming / hacking forum? On top of the fact that I'm tired of seeing it, it just plain makes us look bad as a community.