Forum - View topicRacist comments in community forum and the mods response
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ikillchicken
 Posts: 7272 Location: Vancouver |
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So recently there was a big argument in the community forum between me and Blood and this another user who I'm not going to mention by name since it was the private community forum. If they want to come forward it is up to them. Here is the link (although it will only work for subscribers). What happened was this user posted an anecdote, part of which was really rather racist. The relevant portion is as follows.
I'm not here to debate whether that's racist because A) It obviously is. I don't even think it requires debate and B) The user subsequently admitted that...
So yeah...There's that. In response both me and Blood posted calling him out on being racist. Now, Blood suggested that he was a member of the KKK which may have been a little excessive (although he was obviously being facetious). Anyway though, I'll let Blood chime in about his comment if he wants. All I said though was something to the effect of..."Gee, for once I check the community forum to see what's happening and it turns out to be weirdly casual racism". When I checked back the next day though, both my and Blood's posts had been deleted. No warning. No explanation. Both just get deleted outright. And at the same time, not a thing was said or done about the original racist post. Because of this I posted again asking what was going on. Of course, that raised the issue again and this time the other used responded and turned it into a back and forth argument about their post. Anyway, this went on for a bit and then PJ popped up to pick a fight with Blood over something completely unrelated and it turned into a whole big mess. Finally, at this point (a couple days after the original post) Keonyn finally stepped in to comment. He insisted that we should have taken this up in the feedback forum instead of derailing the current thread. So fine. That's what he wants, so that's what I'm doing. There are three main points I want to make here: 1) If you're gonna remove people's comments with no warning you really ought to just remove the comment but leave the post itself. Or at least make a post of your own explaining why you've removed the posts. Don't just disappear it like nothing happened. And if you do, I hardly think it is unreasonable for me to post there again asking what happened. I mean, should I really have to create a topic in the feedback forum just to get an initial explanation of why my post was deleted? 2) I'm still not at all clear on why my initial post was removed. Keonyn said that "the posts were initially removed because obviously implying someone is a member of, or associated with, an organization that is responsible for major hate crimes, genocidal messages, murder, and so on is not going to be tolerated. If someone had said, "gee, that's sort of racist" or something then so be it, but no that wasn't enough"...Except it was in my case. That's pretty much exactly what I did. Like I said, I'll let Blood fight his own battles on the KKK thing but my comment wasn't even slightly offensive or rude beyond stating that the user in question was being racist. Which he was. 3) I can understand wanting to shut this whole discussion down. It was obviously gonna turn into a big old mess. But why on earth does Keonyn continue to ignore the original offensive post that started all this? You remove the posts complaining about the racist comments and leave the racist comment that started all this? That's just absurd. If you want to leave that comment then at least let me respond to point out how racist it is. Or remove everything. I can accept that as well. But pick one or the other though. 4) In conclusion I just want to say that I find Keonyn's whole attitude just unbelievable. I am genuinely astounded here. I find it absolutely disgusting that a moderator seems to be bending over backwards to defend this racist poster and is now getting all pissed at me and threatening to ban me without even a warning if this should happen again. Is this the kind of environment ANN is? Where people can post blatantly racist stuff and then when someone points out that they're being racist, its them that gets censored and/or threatened with a ban? I'm pretty sure it isn't which is why I'm shocked at how this situation was handled. |
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Zac
ANN Executive Editor
 Posts: 7912 Location: Anime News Network Technodrome |
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Er, I find that shocking myself. I'll speak to Keonyn myself. I apologize for the way this was handled.
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Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 23742 |
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I can completely back ikillchicken up on this. You can read the original post that ikc quotes from yourself. When I first read it I was appalled as I think any half-decent human being would be. The poster didn't identify the organization that was holding the charity event, so I wrote:
Nice little racist story, bro. I assume the organization was the KKK? Wow, they must be getting more creative in their fundraising these days. ikc posted after me something along the lines of: I haven't been in this forum for a while so I thought I'd drop by and see what's going on. Apparently, some weirdly casual racism. Which I thought was an absolutely perfect description of the original post. That's what really got me too: the completely offhanded nature of it. So yeah, both posts zapped, no explanation. I'm pretty disgusted. |
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Dessa
 Posts: 4438 |
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A question separate but related to this:
Does ANN flat-out delete posts, are are they split from the thread and moved to a separate "removed" archive? I'm asking because, in a situation like this, if the posts in question are flat-out deleted, then it's a he-said/she-said situation, with the user and the mod each claiming the post contained content different from the other's version. But if they're archived somewhere, then the moderators and administrators can look at the actual posts, to see if the removal was justified. |
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ikillchicken
Posts: 7272 Location: Vancouver |
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Thanks Zac, I appreciate that. |
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Tony K.
 SubscriberModerator  Posts: 11293 Location: Frisco, TX |
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Any deleted posts used to be deleted into oblivion. But ever since my tyraid of deletions in the "FUNimation Sues Animeland" thread where I got carried away trashing over-quoted posts and one inflammatory piece of libel that was reported, I also accidentally deleted the response to the libelous post from someone else in the industry, but the response was supposed to have been held as "legally binding and/or proof to save face" or something, and so I created this big scene behind the scenes and had a lotta' apologizing to do for inadvertently insulting "everyone" when I only meant the people who can't learn to not freakin' over-quote. And so, a new system was implemented where any deleted post is now archived into its own sub-forum (Locked/Deleted) of the Staff forum. So anything you say, now, can and will be used against you in the Mad King's Courtroom that is the Internet. As for deletions, if a post is reported and has a clear reason to not be there (as in being offensive, flamebait, absolutely pointless/redundant, or just mean-spirited in general), then I will delete it and every post related to it, thereafter. So if some punk goes on to a Talkback thread calling people "morons" just for the heck of it and 3 or 6 people end up quoting that original post in question, then I'll delete the reported post ('cause he obviously has nothing constructive to say). And in addition, I will delete every post related to it. On the other hand, if a post containing said offensive quote has replies addressed to other users/posts, I will simply delete the bad parts and leave the rest of it be. I call this approach "now you see it [the problem post], and now you don't [with any other relevant discussions/comments intact]." If I were the one that deleted the racist comments, then you wouldn't see any traces of it (the origin post, none of Blood's, and none of ikc's relating to said incident). I think I gleamed over the reported posts yesterday, but it was around 2AM, and I wanted to sleep, so I didn't take any action at that exact moment. Looking at the rest of the thread, now, there seems to be a lot of residual argument that branched off of the original comments. But since I didn't have any involvement, I'll let the rest of the involved settle things out. |
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