Board 8 > Fandom bans politics on GameFAQs (outside of Current Events)

(+) Yeah! (+)

I feel like "I haven't seen new users come to b8 in a decade" is an angle of approach that might have some risk of backfiring >_>

Wanglicious posted...

worse than that Reg, CE is at the forefront of this issue because that's where a lot of are the mods come and where a lot of things get modded, partially because it's where a lot of people went to after the politics boards were killed.

Yeah, let me rephrase this a bit.

I think that if the board had literally any other name, it wouldn't be hit with the intersection of "This is where the politics goes" and "we're quarantining it". And I also get the feeling that, without the politics aspect, it probably wouldn't get the quarantine either. Though maybe I am wrong about that last part.

UltimaterializerX posted...

"political discussion does not make sense as a core driver of conversations on a site dedicated to video games and gameplay"

This is true, and people keep ignoring that forums and such that ban this stuff get less toxic overnight by default. I don't want GameFAQs turning into Twitter. There's a reason I come here and not there.

this place hasnt been Twitter for the last 20 years, why would it start now?

be in the lookout for Non-Political Americans Rushmore and Least Horny Video Games Rushmore, happening this week

MoogleKupo141 posted...

this place hasnt been Twitter for the last 20 years, why would it start now?

It's like an alcoholic getting mad at you for having a bottle of bourbon on your shelf because you're tempting them to break their sobriety

ZenOfThunder posted...

be in the lookout for Non-Political Americans Rushmore and Least Horny Video Games Rushmore, happening this week

Lmao

TimmyQuivy posted... I understand a sticking point is that we have a forum thread for feedback for changes weve made and will not be revisiting. I will take responsibility for not explicitly framing our intentions in that initial announcement for the feedback thread - the thread is to allow a place to, yes, voice your frustration, as well as ask clarifying questions and remove ambiguity where possible.

The question was asked how the CE change makes the community safer specifically. There are, unfortunately, individual direct threats and doxxing weve seen throughout our time overseeing this site. Those inevitably have a direct line to a political conversation that becomes heated. But safety is also about creating a safe environment broadly - Even if not directly attacked, there are members of this community who may feel generally unsafe witnessing some of the broad, negative, and/or generalistic statements that have been posted here. Also, if a new user comes to the site and sees vitriolic, out of control conversations, they are likely to leave and go elsewhere.

As the owner of this site, we view fostering a safe and reasonably welcoming environment as a critical priority. We viewed the decision we came to after internal discussion as the most reasonable compromise - addressing some long-standing concerns that were raised to us in a way that still creates an area for discussion users have requested. I understand that by its nature compromise doesnt make anyone 100% happy. To be upset by this decision is still understandable. My responses have been simply to add context and clarification for the record. I do not fault anyone with an opposing viewpoint to our decision.

lol. lmao

AriaOfBolo posted...

I understand a sticking point is that we have a forum thread for feedback for changes weve made and will not be revisiting.

At least he's honest lol

Nah this dude isn't honest at all.

Hell even here its "we wont make any changes to a policy we haven't even outlined properly".

Fuck fandom.

people will doxx you for liking xbox or playstation too much. i don't think politics is the primary factor here

I don't get why they even care. How do you inherit something so old (which you didn't even ask for and it just came bundled with the thing that you actually wanted to buy) and your first thought isn't "do the bare minimum required to keep it alive but otherwise don't bother with it"? They don't want to actually do anything new with GameFAQs, this is pointless.

Dedf1sh posted...

I don't get why they even care. How do you inherit something so old (which you didn't even ask for and it just came bundled with the thing that you actually wanted to buy) and your first thought isn't "do the bare minimum required to keep it alive but otherwise don't bother with it"? They don't want to actually do anything new with GameFAQs, this is pointless.

They want to cut whatever they can out of us to minimize risk to the rest of their properties.

gfaqs is actually useful to them because of our longstanding positions with the google algorithm.

But they dont give two fucks about our community.

Only thing they care about is search hits and controlling web traffic.

AriaOfBolo posted...

I understand that by its nature compromise doesnt make anyone 100% happy

except this isn't a compromise, it's a demand.
know the difference between a complete ban and the allowance of it on CE? zero. absolute zero difference between that one board, a board people actively refuse to go to, and everywhere else.

those are not terms of a compromise, those are the terms of a go fuck yourself.

The way these quotes are being displayed makes AriaOfBolo look terrible

my brother-in-law works for GameSpot and he told me all the Fandom people are very nice in the company Slack

he says it's better than the Red Ventures people so ?????

I am gonna assume that Fandom is a shit company with good people working for it which is why my only protest here is making two ironic Rushmore topics. I don't think there's any way to fight the changing tides

ps ZenOfThunder will always be horny

ZenOfThunder posted...

I don't think there's any way to fight the changing tides

this is almost certainly correct but I'm tired of rollin over for stuff and this is about the closest thing to a home I've got

Wanglicious posted...

know the difference between a complete ban and the allowance of it on CE? zero. absolute zero difference between that one board, a board people actively refuse to go to, and everywhere else.

Gotta love confining it to a single board while ALSO restricting that board at the same time. Really giving people all the options to post where they want.

AriaOfBolo posted...

this is almost certainly correct but I'm tired of rollin over for stuff and this is about the closest thing to a home I've got

love you Bolo, we will always be e-roomates who run topic series way too long-running and overly complicated for our own good

ZenOfThunder posted...

love you Bolo, we will always be e-roomates who run topic series way too long-running and overly complicated for our own good

heck yeeeeaaaaaaa

TimmyQuivy posted...

I will answer with a few thoughts:

For consistency, Fandom's Community Creation Policy states that we do not permit communities "whose main purpose is to represent a political party, advocate for or against a political ideology, or generally opine regarding political issues". I think the key word is "advocate". In CE in particular, "News event happened" conveys a very different message to start a conversation than "Political Party was Right Because News Event" happened.

I understand that there is still some ambiguity in that definition. As alluded to by many, "politics" these days is a terminology that is could be extended to many sorts of conversation in every day life. I don't think it's possible (or reasonable) to try to sit here and think of an all-encompossing definition.

But it's also good to be clear about what politics is not:

DToast and now myself endorse one of the moderator's (Uta) example on something that is not inherently political - (original: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/11-team-gamefaqs/80747428/979919729):

"If a game has political theming it's of course fine to talk about that. I don't think anyone is going to be moderated for talking about the anti-capitalist themes of Final Fantasy VII. I don't think anyone is going to get moderated for talking about Wolfenstein either. As for that second comment. Anything that's say, a basic human right or even just a basic fact about reality? That's not political. Just because one particular group likes to make science and social denial their political points doesn't mean those things actually are politics. We're not going to go around moderating people for being Trans or talking about Trans issues "

To broaden it a little - Politics is not discussing political messages directly relating to video game gameplay/design, discussing how a video game incorporated a member of a tradtionally underrepresented group into the game, discussing how an element of your identity is or is not properly represented in a game. Our intention is to use a stringent definition of politics that covers clear trolling and flame wars, and not a loose definition to simply police speech.

Obviously, there is still intepretation in some of these definitions and examples, but common sense can be readily applied for 99% of the things not covered thus.

Well, I got some clarification on what constitutes politics, though tbh this raises more questions than it answers.

but how horny am I allowed to be

ZenOfThunder posted...

but how horny am I allowed to be

As horny as you want to be

As long as you don't post about it

Is it still April fools?

Kenri posted...

In CE in particular, "News event happened" conveys a very different message to start a conversation than "Political Party was Right Because News Event" happened.

that's just framing.
if you ban the latter the former will have it be implied so uh... doesn't matter.

Kenri posted...

I don't think it's possible (or reasonable) to try to sit here and think of an all-encompossing definition.

if you can't find a possible or reasonable definition then maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place because nobody knows what the fuck you mean.

even the idea of a "basic human right" isn't clear to everyone. some places consider water to be it, others don't. the US considers free speech the cornerstone of basic human rights, most of the world doesn't. as a result, both are political. there is no way to do this without policing speech. i don't get what's complicated.

ZenOfThunder posted...

I don't think there's any way to fight the changing tides

brother, I have like 7500 karma to burn

If this is the final act, I can have some fun before the curtain falls

Kenri posted...

I don't think anyone is going to be moderated for talking about the anti-capitalist themes of Final Fantasy VII.

Maybe he should be a bit more certain when making statements like this lol.

But yes I too echo Bolo's statement about this place being a digital home.

Neo (Moderator)3/11/2024 1:13:17 PM
#4
undefined posted...

Is simply mentioning lgbt considered political?

In an opening post like this one: Yes.

Posts like this do not inspire confidence or 'trust' btw.

lmao what

Yes, we are literally worst case scenario with enforcement here.

Not just no discussion, no mention of even factual material or reference to the subjects.

timmyjab dude needs to stop posting

You could tell DToast was just starting to collapse at the end there and was about to start saying things he shouldn't, and Timmy came in to play defense.

And then made it all worse.

i mean i can't blame him for starting to collapse if he's actually engaging with people because it's an untenable position. even by its own framework, definitions purposefully don't exist and explanations, unfortunately, keep the parts people are talking about vague and with unknown standards. you can't actually argue for the rule when the rule doesn't actually exist in any clear way and is admitted to having no reasonable definition that can apply, you can only shove it through. argument and conversation demand reason, the new rule explicitly lacks it.

Dancedreamer posted...

Neo (Moderator)3/11/2024 1:13:17 PM
#4

In an opening post like this one: Yes.

Posts like this do not inspire confidence or 'trust' btw.

What is the context of this response...?

My favorite part of the whole thing was everytime someone brought up all the other non gaming boards the response was "well if you think another board should be shutdown we'll make sure to bring it up for review".

Like literally the opposite of the point they were trying to make.

I don't have the energy to read the now closed Topic 2 atm but reading some of the excerpts you guys have posted here it sounds like something like our Containment Topic which is really more of a "post about news that happened - with maybe some editorializing so it's not just like a bot reposting AP articles" should have been okay but it still got locked so idk

UshiromiyaEva posted...

My favorite part of the whole thing was everytime someone brought up all the other non gaming boards the response was "well if you think another board should be shutdown we'll make sure to bring it up for review".

First they came for the graphing calculator board, and I did not speak out because I don't own a graphing calculator.

I was looking for something in my attic this weekend and I opened a box and found my ti-83+

I then immediately forgot what I was looking for and scrounged up 4 batteries so I couldn't play with it for two hours

Dedf1sh posted...

What is the context of this response...?

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/10-ask-the-mods/80718723

UshiromiyaEva posted...

My favorite part of the whole thing was everytime someone brought up all the other non gaming boards the response was "well if you think another board should be shutdown we'll make sure to bring it up for review".

Like literally the opposite of the point they were trying to make.

I almost brought up another non-gaming board, then I realized that I might be inadvertently narc-ing them out if theyve just flown under these guys radar

UshiromiyaEva posted...

My favorite part of the whole thing was everytime someone brought up all the other non gaming boards the response was "well if you think another board should be shutdown we'll make sure to bring it up for review".

I really hope I didn't inadvertently get any of those other boards closed. That definitely wasn't my goal, and when I saw the response I was horrified.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

My favorite part of the whole thing was everytime someone brought up all the other non gaming boards the response was "well if you think another board should be shutdown we'll make sure to bring it up for review".

Wait, what? Which post was this

XIII_Rocks posted...

Wait, what? Which post was this

It was stated by Toast at least twice in 2 different responses in the second topic.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

My favorite part of the whole thing was everytime someone brought up all the other non gaming boards the response was "well if you think another board should be shutdown we'll make sure to bring it up for review".

jfc

Is Saudi Arabia considered political?

Given the context it can be. As you opened the post tying it with LGBT, it is considered political in this case.

i mean unsurprising but now let's go a step further with this logic: Saudi Arabia wants to host the World Cup. let's say they succeed.

if somebody's asking how safe it is to go to that country because they're gay, this is no longer allowed. that is explicitly tying Saudi Arabia and their position on gay people.

also the answer is yes, let them "investigate if they should shut down the boards." either rip the band-aid or call the bluff.

agesboy posted...

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/10-ask-the-mods/80718723

If you wish to discuss Saudi Arabia's views regarding the LGBT community, you will need to use a general social board.

Did they not just say earlier in the topic that discussing a country's views on gender is considered a political topic? So therefore it would be banned everywhere except CE? But they're telling the user to post it on a regular board?

Incredible that the one mod response in the Ask Mod thread is even someone who bothered to put their pronouns in their signature, but then they say that any intersection of lgbtq identity and political application in the real world is crossing the line into politics. And this can be inferred that it would not be allowed now.

So yeah sure, you can exist and "be celebrated" by Fandom, but don't exist with nuance or make too much noise when you're persecuted. That would be political and uncomfy for the advertisers.