Journal of Other Forum Analysis (Volume II, Issue 2)

[benji]

Is rape more or less particularly heinous than genocide?

[Lonewulfeus]

Character is a rapist towards real life celebrity figures (that they hate) = "wowie, I guess that's Baki for you, teehee   "

Yup. Not to mention that like, rape is a particularly heinous act. It's not "just" violence, rape is unique in just how particularly bad it is. Guys who reduce it to a joke or simple shock value, or act like it's on the same level as something like murder are totally missing the point, either out of ignorance or, unfortunately, often very willingly.

I’m gonna say this and it’s gonna sound ironic but hear me out.  At least after you’re murdered you aren’t suffering anymore.  I mean yea you’re dead and that sucks don’t get me wrong.  But yea I’d probably rate murder as slightly less heinous than rape.  Kind of like the logic that the death penalty lets people escape the far shittier option of life in prison with no parole and the suffering that can entail.

[Jansen]

but I thought Reset is the place for polite discussion with lots of developers, and not for drive-by posting and personal attack.

[simiansmarts]

RE on threads about games they like:     
 
RE on threads about AI, Gen Z male politics and transgenders: 

[Potato]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/%E2%80%98both-parties-kind-of-get-it-wrong%E2%80%99-the-young-men-who-may-swing-the-midterms.1532593/page-2#post-155535313

When you live in a system where your value as a person is directly proportional to your ability to bring in income

But it's not? This is just your own projection?

At the end of the day, everyone deserves a dignified way of life regardless.

What is this even supposed to mean?

Leftist philosophy so often boils down to, "I want what they have but I don't want to work for it."

[BananaBlast]

caught this earlier and i again must state my complete and total disdain for marvel rivals and how it treats women
https://www.reddit.com/r/marvelrivals/comments/1tqgrd3/new_black_cat_skin_model_comparison/

they're just making female characters have varying breast and ass sizes between skins and some of them are getting to absurd

https://www.resetera.com/threads/why-women-criticise-sexualised-character-designs-ot3-make-her-look-more-corpulent-more-stuffed-where-the-eyes-cant-escape.275780/post-155547904

Ironically I had that same exact reddit link tabbed to the side  Losers crying about a skin for black cat having a bigger ass, oh no the horror!  

Absurd? Have you seen Kim Kardashian?

Nope, they'll never acknowledge real life women with huge badonks, especially not the BBL demons. They have to keep reinforcing their cognitive dissonance to ensure the hivemind doesn't immediately fall apart.

[Jansen]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/mans-penis-badly-burnt-in-airline-coffee-spill-bbc.1533142/#post-155550433
👀

[Uncle]

Character is a rapist towards real life celebrity figures (that they hate) = "wowie, I guess that's Baki for you, teehee   "

Yup. Not to mention that like, rape is a particularly heinous act. It's not "just" violence, rape is unique in just how particularly bad it is. Guys who reduce it to a joke or simple shock value, or act like it's on the same level as something like murder are totally missing the point, either out of ignorance or, unfortunately, often very willingly.

I’m gonna say this and it’s gonna sound ironic but hear me out.  At least after you’re murdered you aren’t suffering anymore.  I mean yea you’re dead and that sucks don’t get me wrong.  But yea I’d probably rate murder as slightly less heinous than rape.  Kind of like the logic that the death penalty lets people escape the far shittier option of life in prison with no parole and the suffering that can entail.

I have no idea how I ended up on this video about canaries earlier but I freaked the fuck out when I saw this dude was advocating for rape   

   

[Lonewulfeus]

Yup. Not to mention that like, rape is a particularly heinous act. It's not "just" violence, rape is unique in just how particularly bad it is. Guys who reduce it to a joke or simple shock value, or act like it's on the same level as something like murder are totally missing the point, either out of ignorance or, unfortunately, often very willingly.

I’m gonna say this and it’s gonna sound ironic but hear me out.  At least after you’re murdered you aren’t suffering anymore.  I mean yea you’re dead and that sucks don’t get me wrong.  But yea I’d probably rate murder as slightly less heinous than rape.  Kind of like the logic that the death penalty lets people escape the far shittier option of life in prison with no parole and the suffering that can entail.

I have no idea how I ended up on this video about canaries earlier but I freaked the fuck out when I saw this dude was advocating for rape   

Why doesn’t he put seed after rape when he does for lin

[benji]

I have no idea how I ended up on this video about canaries earlier but I freaked the fuck out when I saw this dude was advocating for rape   

And yet people still deny that YouTube deliberately sends people alt-right incel propaganda.

[Taco Bell Tower]

caught this earlier and i again must state my complete and total disdain for marvel rivals and how it treats women
https://www.reddit.com/r/marvelrivals/comments/1tqgrd3/new_black_cat_skin_model_comparison/

they're just making female characters have varying breast and ass sizes between skins and some of them are getting to absurd

https://www.resetera.com/threads/why-women-criticise-sexualised-character-designs-ot3-make-her-look-more-corpulent-more-stuffed-where-the-eyes-cant-escape.275780/post-155547904

Absurd? Have you seen Kim Kardashian?

No wonder they're angry  

User banned (Two weeks): Boys rhetorical club

[BIONIC]

Guys, I'm going to be real: just attack the argument and not the poster. It's not that hard. Who cares if they post in a gacha thread? Or if their name/avatar is from a specific gacha game? That doesn't make their argument wrong. Keep in mind, I am not saying their argument was right, just that what people were doing did literally nothing to disprove what they were saying. Instead of actually having a discussion, actually going "You're wrong because...," people went straight for the personal attacks. This thread did not need to turn out the way it did, we shouldn't have needed to do anything, but because people, for some reason, couldn't have an actual conversation, we had to step in, lock it, and toss a bunch of people.

Just have the conversation next time. It's an internet forum, presumably we're all here to talk about stuff, so talk about stuff instead of just insulting each other. This isn't a big ask.

Sure thing, boss.

——

Where is the proper channel to inquire about a warning?
Thanks

Submit a Ticket

Thanks, i wasn't sure if I was doing it right.

The thing is, I already submitted a ticket and they rejected it and closed but no word. 😭
Idk maybe they are busy, but I was being polite, feels it's not the right way to treat the community.

If we cannot learn what we did wrong, it's not easy to be better. Feels one sided.

——

I didn't realize that users in that thread were stalking OP out and then pointing each other to this thread like "get a load of this". I have this thread set to an alert so I automatically get notified when new posts are made and figured others had the same thing in place. But yeah, I can't believe somebody thought it was a good idea to encourage others to follow OP around like that.

This two-faced cunt

——

also wrt the common refrain of “if you want the site to be less depressing, make more fun threads!” why would i even risk making a thread (never mind putting effort into it, i imagine that first post took a while to research/write) when there’s a chance i might get eviscerated by the angry mob

I know it's been a few thread pages but I just wanted to say here that you will very much not be eviscerated by a mob for making fun threads. I can tell you from first hand experience as someone who pretty much does nothing but make very strongly opinionated threads that are sometimes controversial, the "worst thing" that often happens is everyone just ignores your thread, which is just the way the internet is.

And if someone does come into a thread and either attack you or troll, which has happened in some threads I've made, if you or others use the report function the trash IS firmly taken out. It may not happen instantly, because the mod team is unpaid, has lives and also needs to discuss the angle they want to take, but they do action in cases where people have clearly crossed the line and pretty much always have whenever I've made a report.

The truly hardest part of making a thread on this forum is when people are purposefully trying to get it closed, but that doesn't happen to fun threads here, mostly threads that are clearly ruffling some feathers or are getting brigaded by a subset of people.

As long as the OP "puts in the work" on their thread by posting in it and not abandoning it after the OP, engaging with people responding to them, using thread marks (if needed) and keeping the thread up to date (if applicable), the moderation team always does their best to step in and ensure bullshit doesn't happen.

It's when an OP posts something and then ghosts or was clearly trolling that threads like I describe often result in a shit storm. The key to posting a thread is to remember (especially if it's a serious thread) is that the OP is responsible for framing the thread, and framing the thread (title, OP, supporting media) is everything and often determines the post quality for the rest of the thread.

But fun threads? You are more than fine.

——

That is correct. I was actually preparing to answer some questions in that thread and then I saw those and decided that it was not worth the effort. Didn't come back yesterday because I NEED TO BREATHE.



The things is. I used this name during the period when the story of said characters appeared. I chose it because it means any Google search would not be able to locate my real life identity. Its OPSEC in this increasingly dangerous internet.



This is true. I tried engaging the first few posters. Went to sleep because there is time difference (yes, I live on the other side of the world).

Then I woke up to a shit storm.

It was clear by that point there is a significant number of posters in the thread who are not willing to engage in the "article that I did research on" and instead prefer to talk about the ZZZ incident that should be the topic of another thread, or drive by post that are just variations of "AI bad" that has nothing to do with the article itself. It was just not worth it. I have a job and life. The article probably took me 3 hours to properly find all the sources alone. If further reply would just bring more of hate, what is the point?

I am glad I have anti-depressant with me when I saw the replies.

[simiansmarts]

caught this earlier and i again must state my complete and total disdain for marvel rivals and how it treats women
https://www.reddit.com/r/marvelrivals/comments/1tqgrd3/new_black_cat_skin_model_comparison/

they're just making female characters have varying breast and ass sizes between skins and some of them are getting to absurd

https://www.resetera.com/threads/why-women-criticise-sexualised-character-designs-ot3-make-her-look-more-corpulent-more-stuffed-where-the-eyes-cant-escape.275780/post-155547904

Absurd? Have you seen Kim Kardashian?

No wonder they're angry  

User banned (Two weeks): Boys rhetorical club

The only real issue with these Marvel Rivals skins are you can't tell which character it is half the time. That's Black Cat but if I didn't read the title I would've immediately assumed it was Sue Storm or Rogue. The features on the skin that points to Black Cat are the white hair and black pants which hardly narrows things down.
 

[Hap Shaughnessy]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/trump%E2%80%99s-approval-plunges-among-his-white-working-class-base.1533175/#post-155553079

If you're part of the working class and you support Trump, honestly, you should just go and hang yourself. I'm being serious. I respect an honest enemy more than a traitor. I may not have any sympathy for the oligarchs and plutocrats but at least I can acknowledge they're looking out for their own interests like I look out for mine, those just happen to be diametrically opposed.

[Hap Shaughnessy]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/the-misinformation-regarding-mihoyos-ai-usage-is-insane.1531216/page-4#post-155495317

 User Banned (2 weeks): Hostility to other users in multiple recent threads, history of similar behavior

going to bat for gacha slop to defend gen ai usage, is peak pathethic behavior, I'm impressed

[Hap Shaughnessy]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/star-fox-announced-releasing-june-25-switch-2.1512472/page-52#post-154740955

 User Banned (Permanently): Misogynistic Rhetoric; History of the Same

At least there's room for the multiplayer to solve that a bit.
It's baffling that the cancelled Star Fox 2 is much better in that regard.
For Kat, it's the only female character so that magnifies the issue tenfold.
Otherwise I kinda like what they did with her design, it's unappealing as hell but I like that they went in that direction.
Star Wolf is majestic, the redesigns are just perfect.
Pigma is the absolute highlight, I couldn't imagine a better design for that character.

Im not a huge fan, Katts personality was basically Faye Valentine, they could have gone more that way. She also doesnt look neither like a cat, nor an engineer like some people are trying to sell, because and engineer wouldnt have used Homer's make up shot gun in whore mode. And from the dialogue they had showed, it seems that her old personality is also out the window, at least i hope she still flirts with Falco, because that dynamic between both was fun.

She is not playable in multiplayer btw, only star fox and star wolf are, so if they are not hidding unlockable surprises for multi...

I do like a lot the star wolf redesigns, they do look like they should, even andrew, that looks like a super pro, once he opens his mouth and animtes, its still a nepo baby and now, but has like im too cool and rich for this shit face facade now.

If they really wanted to introduce Star Fox to a new generation I think a better decision would've been to have made a complete reboot that brings the female characters from 2 and Krystal into the mix from the start. Going back to it only being dudes is a disappointment when the series has branched out already. It's also 2026 video games are not just for boys, give the girls some furry characters to see themselves in!

What's the plan if this game sells well? We know they won't remake Adventures, are we just going to get a Star Fox 2 that has Krystal or are they planning on retconning Krystal entirely?

The discourse on Zero is pedantry. The people arguing know what people mean when they say Zero is a rehash they just want to argue for the sake of it. "errm ackchually..."

Yep, that would have been great. May and Fiyu also have the best female designs of the series.
In some positive news, during the direct, the only mention of more star fox games was only adventure, assalut and command werent even mentioned, they may have something cooking with adventures (would love not for a remake, but a reimagining of that game)

[Orange Juice Box]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/the-art-pub-show-off-your-work-help-each-other-out.3018/page-57#post-155477449

A few old paintings of mine too


[/spoiler]

I kind of like this one, Bob. 



So Nepenthe has debates with her dog?  Is it telling her what to do?

"I suppose you make a good point that licking your balls is will never be appreciated in our lifetimes without organizing.  I will bring this up at the next mutual aid community gathering/HOA meeting" 



And leave her alone.  She's simply ascertained that "dialectical," is the best word to use.  Even when talking about raising a dog. 

[HardcoreRetro]

I’m gonna say this and it’s gonna sound ironic but hear me out.  At least after you’re murdered you aren’t suffering anymore.  I mean yea you’re dead and that sucks don’t get me wrong.  But yea I’d probably rate murder as slightly less heinous than rape.  Kind of like the logic that the death penalty lets people escape the far shittier option of life in prison with no parole and the suffering that can entail.

I have no idea how I ended up on this video about canaries earlier but I freaked the fuck out when I saw this dude was advocating for rape   

Why doesn’t he put seed after rape when he does for lin

Wait, it was seed!?

I watched that video without the sound on and now my canary is dead. 

[Besticus Maximus]

My dog says Nepenthe is a famous cunt

[jooseloose]

It almost feels like Planetsmasher somehow got more retarded over the past few days. Almost every post from him is worse than usual. 

I've never seen him talk about playing Destiny before but the cunt is suddenly all over the numerous threads in the past few days about Bungie offering his boring as fuck opinion about everything. Dude just tries to dominate threads with his negativity.

[HeavenIsAPlaceOnEarth]

Wait, it was seed!?

I watched that video without the sound on and now my canary is dead. 

[kaleidoscopium]

You know what would be cool?

If instead of calling him an ugly fuck, the official Democrat Twitter quote tweeted Miller and defended trans people.

Feel free to end that tweet by calling him an ugly fuck, which is a factual statement, but this is performative nonsense if Dems aren't actually fighting back and defending the people who he is attacking.

I mean, quote tweeting Miller would also literally be performative as well. Actual change is not going to happen on Twitter dot com.

Not if they're using the opportunity to stand up for human rights.

They obviously then need to back that up with further actions but it's a major step up from the ignoring of trans people that the party has been doing and certainly more impactful than "lol ur ugly."

https://www.resetera.com/threads/democrats-official-twitter-account-to-steven-miller-“shut-up-you-ugly-fuck”.1532596/page-5#post-155555251

They really haven’t figured out why they lost in 2024  , Plenty more examples in that thread

[Uncle]

went to look at mina the hollower steam discussions

always like seeing a bunch of normal topics, one or two replies, but then out of nowhere...

   

   

[Chudder Barbarity]

I'd give my rapeseed to Neppy if you know what I mean 

Spoiler:  (click to show)(click to hide)

To plant in the community garden of course. Take a rape, leave a rape

[HaughtyFrank]

You know what would be cool?

If instead of calling him an ugly fuck, the official Democrat Twitter quote tweeted Miller and defended trans people.

Feel free to end that tweet by calling him an ugly fuck, which is a factual statement, but this is performative nonsense if Dems aren't actually fighting back and defending the people who he is attacking.

I mean, quote tweeting Miller would also literally be performative as well. Actual change is not going to happen on Twitter dot com.

Not if they're using the opportunity to stand up for human rights.

They obviously then need to back that up with further actions but it's a major step up from the ignoring of trans people that the party has been doing and certainly more impactful than "lol ur ugly."

https://www.resetera.com/threads/democrats-official-twitter-account-to-steven-miller-“shut-up-you-ugly-fuck”.1532596/page-5#post-155555251

They really haven’t figured out why they lost in 2024  , Plenty more examples in that thread

Zeo? The guy who spends all days tweeting "you're an ugly fuck" at chuds on twitter is scolds Democrats for being performative by tweeting "you're an ugly fuck?"

[kaleidoscopium]

You know what would be cool?

If instead of calling him an ugly fuck, the official Democrat Twitter quote tweeted Miller and defended trans people.

Feel free to end that tweet by calling him an ugly fuck, which is a factual statement, but this is performative nonsense if Dems aren't actually fighting back and defending the people who he is attacking.

I mean, quote tweeting Miller would also literally be performative as well. Actual change is not going to happen on Twitter dot com.

Not if they're using the opportunity to stand up for human rights.

They obviously then need to back that up with further actions but it's a major step up from the ignoring of trans people that the party has been doing and certainly more impactful than "lol ur ugly."

https://www.resetera.com/threads/democrats-official-twitter-account-to-steven-miller-“shut-up-you-ugly-fuck”.1532596/page-5#post-155555251

They really haven’t figured out why they lost in 2024  , Plenty more examples in that thread

Zeo? The guy who spends all days tweeting "you're an ugly fuck" at chuds on twitter is scolds Democrats for tweeting "you're an ugly fuck?"

Zeo does it right, he says “trans rights are human rights, you ugly fascist fuck”

[Boredfrom]

You know what would be cool?

If instead of calling him an ugly fuck, the official Democrat Twitter quote tweeted Miller and defended trans people.

Feel free to end that tweet by calling him an ugly fuck, which is a factual statement, but this is performative nonsense if Dems aren't actually fighting back and defending the people who he is attacking.

I mean, quote tweeting Miller would also literally be performative as well. Actual change is not going to happen on Twitter dot com.

Not if they're using the opportunity to stand up for human rights.

They obviously then need to back that up with further actions but it's a major step up from the ignoring of trans people that the party has been doing and certainly more impactful than "lol ur ugly."

https://www.resetera.com/threads/democrats-official-twitter-account-to-steven-miller-“shut-up-you-ugly-fuck”.1532596/page-5#post-155555251

They really haven’t figured out why they lost in 2024  , Plenty more examples in that thread

I also doubt the other side won because fucking Stephen Miller.

[BIONIC]

I think a lot of people just want to be aggressive/bully others and are looking for any "morally correct" reason to do so. The reason why (AI in this case) isn't the main concern, it's just an excuse for the behaviour some want to engage in.

It's an internet issue overall but seems more pronounced here.

We've gone over this before in this topic and I keep coming back to it. The reason why may not be the main concern, but the fact is there's a subsection of Era who has decided that AI is the Big Bad of Everything and when AI is mentioned, you are allowed to bully. Even in this very thread, whenever someone brings up that fact, we get some people coming up with replies in the likes of "the community has decided we hate AI" or "that's how we do things here". Which is not only quite the self-fulfilling prophecy when people with even a moderate stance on AI get driven out or told they need to shut up, it's also hypocritical as fuck when people are hiding behind arguments like ecological impact and job loss but at the same time when topics come up about destructive industries like industrial agriculture or Temu/AliExpress the reaction ranges from open defiance against changing behavior to laissez-faire.

Personally I find this hypocritical behavior not entirely out of line with how Era as a broad group mainly rallies around anti-USA politics. You'll get a 30 page thread on Trump's muslim travel ban and then scroll further and see a thread championing China, who is actively putting Muslims in labor and reeducation camps. In the US-Iran war, you'll have people openly cheer for Iran because if Iran wins, Trump loses, conveniently ignoring that Iran does everything Trump does time two.

I'm not saying this to downplay AI or Trump, it is to illustrate that instead of having even halfway decent discussions on how to navigate an increasingly complicated world where it's always ever more challenging to live a moral, ethical life while doing no harm while still trying to actually live your life, provide and care for your loved ones and generally just managing to survive, Era has evolved in a place where being progressive is reduced to being a fashion statement, and if you're not saying whatever is 'in vogue' right now, you're out. And if you're out, you're obviously trash and allowed to be bullied.

I guess my question would be, what people actually want here. Obviously over the line posts should be moderated. But mods can't force people to like a terrible thread.

All they can do is lock the thread when it becomes clear it's turning into a dogpille but me being the 432 person to disagree and say the thread is bad cannot be grounds for moderation. Again unless my post crosses a line.

You can appeal to users to not do that sure, and you can lament people ignoring that appeal but really there's not much more to it.

Just shaking your head and clicking away is somehow inconceivable? Why do you need to be the 432th person to disagree. If you have nothing to add, just shut up. It's ironic that bots are banned (rightfully so) but users posting bot-quality posts would not be grounds for moderation.

Like, I understand that from a mod perspective, it's just unfeasible to put in that sort of time. But in abstract terms, yes, people should be discouraged from doing so.

Regarding your point on "progressive is reduced to being a fashion statement", coincidentally, the famous transgender YouTuber Natalie Wynn recently caused a shitstorm on the "online left" after she did interviews with a few podcasts, in which she criticized the online left for caring more about purity than actually enacting changes. (Not exactly quote but this is the idea.)

[



While I disagree with Ms Wynn regarding policy position such as that on Palestine, I can respect she has came to a different conclusion based on her education and experience. Such nuance, of course, is not popular online and you can easily find response videos from "the left" in which commentators who used to be friendly towards Ms Wynn are suddenly very hostile because she said something that is considered "wrong".

When presented with a choice between "left wing", "liberal", "progressive" community; and "right wing", "conservative", "reactive" community, an argument I used to heard a lot about why we should choose the left instead of the right is the following:

Liberals are diverse vs Conservatives are homogeneous
Liberals are inclusive vs Conservatives are exclusive
Liberals care about facts vs Conservatives care about rhetoric
Liberals use concrete arguments vs Conservatives use arguments that fit their world views
etc, etc....

Yet, when you look at the now closed thread, have we seen inclusivity? diverse opinion? concrete arguments?

Instead, the thread look like it could have came straight from Gamergate.

I am old enough to remember what happened with Anita Sarkeesian and Zoe Quinn, when they have to defend against accusations that are complete bollocks. This incident really shattered some of my naive imagination of the "liberals".

You dun fucked up now. Contra is excommunicado motherfucker

Oh, and one more thing.
I am forever grateful for the support from the Hoyo community on Era.

After the incident, I have received multiple DMs from different members asking if I am okay, and that they understand my point, and that it is not worth it to try to discuss gachas in the main board. I will stick to their advice for now.

It’s so heartwarming when the pedo community support and uplift each other

[simiansmarts]

Honestly this really can't be overstated, I think. Having a mode to play in where it feels like you're making progress and not just being slammed up against online players who DO NOT CARE how inexperienced you are is a huge boon for new players.

Like, yeah, the low-level WT battles are so easy they borderline feel like jokes for anyone who knows how to do a QCF. But that's a lot more bearable than online matchmaking for someone who doesn't even know the fundamentals yet, and Training Mode isn't really a good substitute.

 
 
I’d pay good money to watch PSmasher play online ranked in Street Fighter and lose his shit

[Jansen]

I think Tygre was equating liking the ZZZ characters with defending loli? Honestly, I feel like some of the responses in the thread to the loli post were more about that user being a ZZZ fan than the loli-ness of it all, but some absolutely honed in on the implications instead.



It definitely got weirdly personal. And then OP not actually responding to the attempts at discussion re:misinformation stirred it up further.



I'm not sure this is limited to Era, though. I know I've really pulled back on my social media usage in part to the intense negativity across various platforms. Twitter is nothing but fury (whether it's chuds or not). Threads feels like a lot of passive aggression with anger simmering right below the surface. Tumblr's gotten way smaller than it used to be, and Bluesky is the only one where things can feel ok, but it still has a lot of sniping from what I can see. Negativity and hyperbole have always been common—I remember being particularly sensitive to it even as far back as when Jason Schreier still worked at Kotaku—but it's just gotten worse and worse with how the algorithms prioritize hot takes and things like that (to say nothing of the state of the world lol).



I'm not sure how we can even begin to combat that.

That is correct. I was actually preparing to answer some questions in that thread and then I saw those and decided that it was not worth the effort. Didn't come back yesterday because I NEED TO BREATHE.







The things is. I used this name during the period when the story of said characters appeared. I chose it because it means any Google search would not be able to locate my real life identity. Its OPSEC in this increasingly dangerous internet.







This is true. I tried engaging the first few posters. Went to sleep because there is time difference (yes, I live on the other side of the world).



Then I woke up to a shit storm.



It was clear by that point there is a significant number of posters in the thread who are not willing to engage in the "article that I did research on" and instead prefer to talk about the ZZZ incident that should be the topic of another thread, or drive by post that are just variations of "AI bad" that has nothing to do with the article itself. It was just not worth it. I have a job and life. The article probably took me 3 hours to properly find all the sources alone. If further reply would just bring more of hate, what is the point?



I am glad I have anti-depressant with me when I saw the replies.

Spot on! It's not just what you say it's how you say it. More so on a text based medium like a forum. Like the saying goes you may be right but you're an arsehole. Work on the being less of an arsehole part. Take a moment before you post

But there wasnt really any discussion why people think its a terrible thread, but I feel 80% of that was dogpiling at one point instead of discussing why the GI.biz article is still correct / not wrong and the OP just put more nuances into it.



Its clear that quite a few people didnt want to engage with the actual OP and research/sources and just want to driveby "oof" or "Gacha bad" or "AI bad".

I want to make it clear that I'm not here to go "more dogpilling yay" but that I think in practical terms it's impossible to prevent other than by locking the thread.



Asking people to read every post in a x pages long thread to see if anybody has already made an argument that's similar to what you're about to say is not realistic. 50% of the people here don't even read the op lol



And at what point is it considered dogpilling. Let's say a mod comes in on page 5 and says okay folks, no more dogpilling. What does that mean in practice? I can't come in and say "I disagree with this?". Obviously not, but then at what point is it considered adding to the dogpille. Are we asking mods to judge some arbitrary level of quality from this point on? If I come in with a well thought out argument and OP just ignores it, well then what. Why should I bother next time? What about when the OP is already inflammatory. Like you know, calling something insane misinformation while never showing that misinformation or saying "but I guess people can't be bothered to read these days".



It's good to say "moderate dogpilling more" but putting that into actually enforceable rules is way harder.







That's fair but again, what are mods supposed to do here. I would actually disagree that 80% of the posters there did that but ignoring that, actual drive-by posts are already moderated and I'm not sure what else you can do.

I mean just looking at page 3.



"OP doesnt have any information" - It is a long OP with tons of information and 11 linked sources.

Next post is a response to the username and loli group just saying "THis aint it".

Next post is an image response to the same.

Next one is on topic.

Next one is on topic.

Next one is just another reaction image unsure what its about.

Next one another response to the loli post.

Next one on topic but just bsky posts.

After that how Mihoyo treated VAs (which btw. wasnt Mihoyo but Formosa and the actors strike)

Another response to the loli post.

Some driveby post about E33.

A response to the "OP doesnt have any information post".

A fry gif.



And so on. More loli responses, responses that makes it clear people didnt read the OP, just responses about the "thread backfire" etc.



Ceerious post is a great rebuttal to the thread and giving more information.



In the whole 50 posts, I would argue there are mostly just a fraction of posts, be it 7 or 8 posts actually rebutting the OP.  And the drive-by posts dont really seem to have been moderated (at least in that thread, not sure if anyone reported them though).

It may not be a realistic goal, but it's never been an excuse depending on the thread. It's just that normally it's not a big deal because the only time you really have to worry about consequences for it (beyond risking getting mocked anyways) is if it's a sensitive thread topic, or if a mod post was clearly made beforehand.



That said, you don't need to read through a thread fully to understand the universally good advice of "think before you post".

Let's go over it point by point.



1. It's not impossible to prevent other than by locking the thread. The community is formed by the people posting. Moderation influences how people post.

2. No one is asking people to read every post in an x pages long thread. But it's not difficult to at least read what you're reacting too, like OP or at least the current last page of a thread.

3. "I can't come in and say "I disagree with this?". --> No. Frankly, this random ass statement is worthless and nobody cares. It's a waste of my scroll wheel. How about trying "I disagree with this BECAUSE..." and add to the conversation.

4. "f I come in with a well thought out argument and OP just ignores it, well then what. Why should I bother next time?" If your argument is well thought out, it's a valuable post and others may react to it. Why would you bother posting "I disagree with this." if you even question you should post a well thought argument if the OP wouldn't react to it. Do you think they would react to "I disagree with this."? That's the definition of dogpiling.

5. "What about when the OP is already inflammatory." --> Report it.

honestly if people understood how much is reportable (and how it's like…not always trying to get people banned) and reported things or just ignored stuff instead of posting the vibe around here would be a lot better lol

It's easy to not personally partake in GenAI, and therefore easy to feel morally superior about, I suppose. Definitely agree that I don't see the same energy being directed at other immensely harmful industries here, probably because a lot of people here do participate in them and don't want to have to confront the fact that maybe they aren't paragons of virtue after all. Which is fine, none of us are, it's not really possible to go through life without being "harmful" in some ways to the planet and/or others, but having to confront anything problematic about oneself is just too much for some people, better off externalising it and finding problematic shit in other people instead.



And yeah, it's impossible to have serious discussions on how we as individuals can try to decrease our carbon footprint and such when we're too busy performatively trying to one up each other and find any tiny excuse possible to paint someone as a "bad" person so they can be mocked, shunned, have accusations thrown their way, etc. etc.





I think this is doubly true in our current global climate, where people are repressing pent up emotions just to get by day to day. There isn't really much we can do as individuals to affect things on a large scale, but we can misdirect our anger at other individuals and get a high on feeling some small sense of power, I guess.



We can't do anything about tech bros and corpos constantly pumping money into GenAI and shoving it in all our faces, but we can be a complete asshole to someone that isn't 100% against AI, or just takes a more nuanced/not entirely negative stance on it, and throw wild accusations at them and try to belittle them as much as possible.



I'm not going to pretend like I'm not guilty of being an asshole online (and offline) at times either, but having pleasant exchanges and discussions with people always feels a lot better overall, and is longer lasting, than the brief high of lashing out at someone, so while they may take more "effort" to seek out and engage with, they're always more worthwhile to do so.



Point is, we can all do with remembering to be a bit kinder to one another. We don't need any more dividing and conquering than we already have. That's not to say we should tolerate actual assholes or bigots obviously, but maybe we shouldn't assume the absolute worst of someone for having differing stances and opinions, or simply being factually wrong about something (since one too many occasions here where people will dogpile someone to correct them, even after they've already acknowledged and/or corrected their mistake/inaccurate info).





I'm glad to hear that, sub-communities and OTs here tend to be a lot less hostile in my experience.

1. I've been asking this entire time what people expect from moderation

2. Literally the person I was responding to brought that up as a suggestion

3. It is frankly entirely irrelevant what you personally consider to be a worthwhile post

4. No, writing something an OP won't react to is not the definition of dogpiling and it proves my point that you can't even define it what dogpiling is. Why do people bother posting what you consider "worthless posts"? Because it takes a second and because they want to. It's a forum about video games. Feel free to bemoan that people are wasting your precious scroll wheel all you want but 99% are here to casually talk about games and nothing more.

5. Report the posts you dislike then

TBH by the end of that thread, there was also a weird vibe of people encouraging each other to report the thread to get it locked and/or mocking OP by saying that they should request a lock for their own thread because it wasn't worth a serious discussion and it was their own fault they got piled on, even though OP didn't actually break any rules themselves.



There's a point where the dogpiling turned into willful sabotage while victim blaming the OP, and that thread definitely reached it.

I want to make a note here, we do actively ban people harshly for being dismissive of the crimes against humanity that Iran/China engage in.

There's been an AI OT for quite some time and I really don't understand why people cannot just continue to discuss the future and/or their positive viewpoints of AI there. The solution exists and the forum has functioned and can continue to function without "moderate" AI talking points, which is effectively just a trojan horse to get all AI discussion into everyday discussion. People have exactly what they want with the AI OT. We see people constantly trying to sneak AI discussion past the goalie on the gaming and general sides and then we see the opportunity to debate it pop up in the Community Discussion thread over and over.



All of that to say, once again, there's an AI OT that serves as a solution to this problem.

This idea that AI advocacy can sit alongside progressive politics is just plain horseshit. It's not a coincidence or some "hypocrisy", on the contrary, its the only logical conclusion from an entire school of politic centered around human rights.

Not this "bullying victim needs to stand up and explain their points" bullshit again please.

Every single online guide against hate speech recommend just blocking and move on, which is why I initially asked for account deletion. The fact that some people stalked me to this page justified my initial decision to use a handle that cannot be Googled.



Center for Countering Digital Hate:

https://counterhate.com/research/dont-feed-the-trolls/



Resist the urge to respond.

When a troll targets you for abuse, block them immediately; this will ensure that they cannot tweet at you ever again, and removes mentions of them from your notifications.



I am now blocking you for the good of my mental health.

The United Nations disagrees.

https://unric.org/en/building-an-accessible-future-for-all-ai-and-the-inclusion-of-persons-with-disabilities/



Heba Hagrass, the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities, underscored the importance of accessible innovation:







It is really disheartening to see people so uninformed about the topic, yet are so sure about their own superiority that they forgot about the underprivileged.



Somehow I am still trying to provide additional information and add context to the discussion, this is probably a mistake....

Yes, sorry, I didn't want to imply people don't get banned when they say something like "I don't care about the Uyghurs as long as I get my iPhone". Recently, there was someone claiming the latest Iran protests was a CIA-job and they got swiftly removed. That's not really what I was talking about.





I don't want to derail the conversation we're having to AI because this isn't about that. But the same can be said about any of my examples. It's easy to hide behind calling it whataboutism or the "oh so you partake in society" meme because then you don't need to engage but the fact remains that plenty of people on Era are fine with destructive behavior if it benefits them. There is infinitely more understanding on Era for people claiming they 'need' to eat meat every day or having a knockoff product made by modern slaves halfway across the world for 99 cents than there is for a poster who used an LLM to automate an Excel report they used to spend 2 hours per week on.



Maybe, and this is just a crazy idea, just maybe things would be more better here if we stopped measuring and judging each other's progressiveness on the random metric du jour, accept that we're all trying to do our best within the confines of our own existence and capabilities, and actually helped each other navigate the fucking minefield that is current society so that we can all do better. You know, actual progressivism.

This idea that AI advocacy can sit alongside progressive politics is just plain horseshit. It's not a coincidence or some "hypocrisy", on the contrary, its the only logical conclusion from an entire school of politic centered around human rights.

I know Bionic posted some of this but I've already quoted it all so fuck off