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.

 

[rad3ds]

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.

Certainly. As a pretty casual user of the site myself, the front page is a pretty big part of how I interact with this site in general. I'm not really an expert on how this site works to be honest. Do threads from the "Other Discussions" subforum group get posted to the recent content feed on the front page? Honestly I would just prefer to not have threads from there on the front page at all, controversy aside I don't really care to see totally off topic threads about "Books, Music, TV and Movies" either. That entire section of the forum seems the least front page relevant to me at least.

 

[MadMageKefka]

Certainly. As a pretty casual user of the site myself, the front page is a pretty big part of how I interact with this site in general. I'm not really an expert on how this site works to be honest. Do threads from the "Other Discussions" subforum group get posted to the recent content feed on the front page? Honestly I would just prefer to not have threads from there on the front page at all, controversy aside I don't really care to see totally off topic threads about "Books, Music, TV and Movies" either. That entire section of the forum seems the least front page relevant to me at least.

Yes. If you click the little diamond next to where it says "recent content" you can filter what does and doesn't show up. Two of the options are edge of the forum and blogs. One of those would be best for this sort of discussion, I think. Probably blogs.

 

[EmanueleBGN]

Stupid LGBT theories yes, we should

 

[rad3ds]

Yes. If you click the little diamond next to where it says "recent content" you can filter what does and doesn't show up. Two of the options are edge of the forum and blogs. One of those would be best for this sort of discussion, I think. Probably blogs.

That's good to know. Again, super causal participant here, I always forget the blog functions of this site even exist, lol. Anyways, thanks for being cool about this discussion, I just figured I'd say my bit on how the topics mentioned in the OP can be pretty deeply ingrained in vidya. I'm overall pretty happy with gbatemp and voted no based on the stuff we talked about. Not that I want those topics to get out of hand or anything.

Stupid LGBT theories yes, we should

Does mario is gay?

 

[MadMageKefka]

That's good to know. Again, super causal participant here, I always forget the blog functions of this site even exist, lol. Anyways, thanks for being cool about this discussion, I just figured I'd say my bit on how the topics mentioned in the OP can be pretty deeply ingrained in vidya. I'm overall pretty happy with gbatemp and voted no based on the stuff we talked about. Not that I want those topics to get out of hand or anything.

Yea, I don't expect anything to come of this anyway, more just hear other people's opinions and possibly give the staff and other users some insight to how the community feels about this sort of thing. I'm still impressed we've gone 16 pages now without a flame war.

 

[jimbo13]

Please read more than just the thread title. I said in the OP that I don't wish to censor anyone, but numbers don't lie. 65% of people that voted so far think that this is a problem, and should be dealt with in some way.

Actually the numbers do lie, you provided one unified option for banning threads while splitting support for not banning 3 ways.

No and telling you to shut up is beating Yes.

Way too much cry here, Controversial threads are nothing more than small talk when nothing substantive in gaming is happening. When gaming/scene news is busy those topics are scarce.

Is inability to not read a thread you dislike an autistic thing or something real question. I am entirely able to filter out anything posted by someone with a furry or MLP AV like they don't exist.

 

[MadMageKefka]

Actually the numbers do lie, you provided one unified option for banning threads while splitting support for not banning 3 ways.

No and telling you to shut up is beating Yes.

Way too much cry here, Controversial threads are nothing more than small talk when nothing substantive in gaming is happening. When gaming/scene news is busy those topics are scarce.

Is inability to not read a thread you dislike an autistic thing or something real question. I am entirely able to filter out anything posted by someone with a furry or MLP AV like they don't exist.

Cool story bro. I think you missed the part where I said my vote was for "no, but keep them off the front page." lol. That option, and yes, would be in the same category that SOMETHING should be done about it, where no and shut up would be for doing nothing. What other options should I have included for the "yes" category, as you see it?

 

[Jayro]

No, just keep them on the Edge of the Forum, or in General off-topic chat.

 

[Boured]

Not really, people have the right to do that in my opinion.

That and it's easy to avoid if you don't want salt.



It's also ironic how this is a thread asking if we should ban them, yet that makes it a thread talking about it

 

[MadMageKefka]

That and it's easy to avoid if you don't want salt.

It's also ironic how this is a thread asking if we should ban them, yet that makes it a thread talking about it

People aren't protesting in the streets about this or killing each other over it. I see what you mean, but I can't agree that they are the same.

 

[The Catboy]

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.


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

It's funny because neither us are right nor wrong on this. By disagreeing, you still prove my point that it's subjective, thus subjective to the community and people part of it. We are all part of the GBATemp/gaming community, but we are not all the same. Each one of us are still part of other communities, believes, ideologies, political movements, etc.
Like I said, within my communities (outside of the Temp) most of us are extremely open with our lives. Most of us don't see believe there needs to be taboo around these topics. This is obviously not going to be the same for everyone else and nor would I believe everyone should/is the same. But I am also not oppose to expressing my views if someone asks.
My point is, the term holds different meaning depending on who you ask and thus saying "remove controversial subjects" is just too vague a concept.

 

[mikefor20]

It's a video game forum. Get a grip. Political,religious and sexuality was too specific now controversial is too vague. It's just semantics. Everyone here knows what topics are being referred to here. Anything else is just twisting words and a whole bunch of attempts to circumvent the issue. Complication for no reason except to confuse the issue and baffle us with bullshit until we give up and you win by default. Wag the dog. Anything that an adult wouldn't want a kid to see maybe you should think twice. If you are the social conscious p.c. police some of you think you are you would agree and do your thing in your own area instead of in public and respect the children in the room. It's a video game board. Not a venue for social change and crusades. You should be ashamed.

 

[MadMageKefka]

It's a video game forum. Get a grip. Political,religious and sexuality was too specific now controversial is too vague. It's just semantics. Everyone here knows what topics are being referred to here. Anything else is just twisting words and a whole bunch of attempts to circumvent the issue. Complication for no reason except to confuse the issue and baffle us with bullshit until we give up and you win by default. Wag the dog. Anything that an adult wouldn't want a kid to see maybe you should think twice. If you are the social conscious p.c. police some of you think you are you would agree and do your thing in your own area instead of in public and respect the children in the room. It's a video game board. Not a venue for social change and crusades. You should be ashamed.

This is what I meant when I said you were being hateful before. I want to hear your opinions on this matter, but there's no need to tell anyone that they should be ashamed. The point of this threads isn't to attack people, its to hear their opinions and get a better idea of how the community feels as a whole. We may not agree with her opinion on the matter, and we can disagree, but there's no need to attack her over it. If I didn't want to also hear how she feels about it, then this thread would be pointless.

 

[Greymane]

Anything that an adult wouldn't want a kid to see maybe you should think twice

You do realize that under that we can put everything, even video games.
Since there are adults that don't want kids playing video games.

 

[ov3rkill]

I think the fastest way to resolve these kinds of stuff is to get some keywords, auto-flag the shit out into oblivion. haha

 

[mikefor20]

Not hateful, just not nice. Not hateful. I have no obligation to someone's feelings.I never attacked. You need to grow a thicker skin if my typing tone is too brash. I don't really care. People assume all sorts of stuff about me. Offensive things are said. I don't care. I am secure and don't need approval. I worry about the children around here. And I think anyone who comes to the temp to talk about god,politics, and weird sex stuff is the one with a problem. Go back to reddit and leave our board alone. I miss the days when it was all video games. Its a a scene forum but its not a forum to cause a scene. Let's hack something.

 

[Greymane]

I never attacked.

Would depend on what you mean with attack.
The part of people needing to

You should be ashamed.

can be interpreted as an attack on ones behavior.
Since according to you, even the act of talking/debating something not based on video games on this forum is wrong/bad.
And by that extension the people to otherwise they wouldn't need to feel shame, since the feeling is reserved for doing something wrong/bad.

 

[MadMageKefka]

Not hateful, just not nice. Not hateful. I have no obligation to someone's feelings.I never attacked. You need to grow a thicker skin if my typing tone is too brash. I don't really care. People assume all sorts of stuff about me. Offensive things are said. I don't care. I am secure and don't need approval. I worry about the children around here. And I think anyone who comes to the temp to talk about god,politics, and weird sex stuff is the one with a problem. Go back to reddit and leave our board alone. I miss the days when it was all video games. Its a a scene forum but its not a forum to cause a scene. Let's hack something.

You keep saying it's for the children, or think about what adults wouldn't want children to see, but I know some parents irl that didn't care in the least about their children being around say, a transexual, or a crossdresser, or any other category. Not everyone feels the same way about everything.

 

[Veho]

.aaaand the topic on whether we should allow religious, political and LGBT issue topics has become all three at once. Never change, Temp, never change.

Yeah the debates can get pretty heated but in other areas of the forum people throw bitch fits and start flamewars over children's video games. If we're going to ban all topics that are likely to result in a fight because the members aren't mature enough to handle them, we might as well shut down the whole forum.

 

[s157]

I've already thrown in my two cents for the vote of "no" as within almost every flame war shitstorm there's some good debatable points. Using the poll as a way to say more people vote on yes is fallacious. The options should have been a mere "Yes" and "no". Or "yes" should have been split with another option "yes but only for certain topics and at a certain point" if you want to be more specific.