'xenophobia' would be a more appropriate word when it's countries, not races involved, but this is still a stupid argument.
Anti-americanism?
That brings to mind several Dave Chappelle skits.
My average yearly consumption of chicken and watermelon can easily contest the most stereotypical joke about black people and their like for such but still I chuckle if someone gets a go ... a joke about that cliche.
Unfortunately, you live in a world where some people use exactly that argument to defend very offensive racist and xenophobic material - stuff that is used to try and spread an extreme political agenda to the more innocent and naive among us - think school children etc.
"Hey don't worry, it's just a joke" is no excuse, never has been, and never will be.
There is never a clear boundary between what is acceptable and what is not. One comedian may tackle the subject in a way that is really subverting the idea of racist humour, and having a laugh at societies need for 'political correctness' eg. Ricky Gervais... while another may be just a fat old bigot spreading thinly disguised National Front propaganda. unfortunately, for any humour to be funny, it has to be edgy, so it is difficult to make a set of rules that specify what is OK and what is not. And of course, even if its 'funny' it doesn't mean it's acceptable in a modern multi-cultural society.
Anyhow, IMO this forum just is not the right kind of arena to discuss this topic in a sensible way. It doesn't have the gravity required to deal with issues like this at a level where it is possible to give them the respect they deserve.
Col
What he said ^^
I construe that specific Estonian/German/Russian joke as being more about the history of Estonia, not Russians per se.
As Tommy Tiernan says, "The Irish still don't know whether we're racist or just having a laugh", "I'm not racist; I hate everyone equally" 
Personally, I think being extra nice to different races is racism. From Chambers dictionary:
Therefore, doesn't that mean treating anybody from a different race differently from a member of another race is racism? There was a case in our town a few months back, where a polish guy went into a restaurant to apply for a job. The manager said to him that they weren't hiring at the moment, but if he left a CV she would contact him when something came up, which is perfectly acceptable standard practice. He then said to her she was being racist because he was polish. She then hired him on the spot. To me, that's racism.
Personally, I think being extra nice to different races is racism. From Chambers dictionary:
Therefore, doesn't that mean treating anybody from a different race differently from a member of another race is racism? There was a case in our town a few months back, where a polish guy went into a restaurant to apply for a job. The manager said to him that they weren't hiring at the moment, but if he left a CV she would contact him when something came up, which is perfectly acceptable standard practice. He then said to her she was being racist because he was polish. She then hired him on the spot. To me, that's racism.
I only have one thing to say as a general comment about moderating forums in this day and age and that's this:
The legal situation in the UK is such that forums are now places where statements made by individuals fall under the laws of the UK (given that this forum is hosted in the UK presumably), and that would include being open to being charged with such offenses such as:
a) Deformation of character and libel.
b) Incitement to racial hatred, (and all other incitement laws)
c) Harrasment
etc
In such cases both the individual and the forum owners are liable. So it would do the forum owners very well to ensure that their moderators are very hot on such issues.
Also, as individual contributors we have to be very careful about what we say on line. As everyone should be aware by now that you are perfectly traceable over the internet and many people have already been arrested and convicted because they naively believed they were anonymous on the net.
It's also people from the ethnic "minorities" (which in places are hardly minorities anyway, but that's something entirely seperate) abusing the racism card to swing things in their favour. To me, that's worse than racism. I wouldn't consider what the manager did racist, rather they had been threatened with racism accusations that would have been damaging were they carried out and inevitably supported by the anti-racism bunch.
I'd rather think they were just idiots for doing whatever they did in the process. If something is suddenly OK because you won't get caught for doing it, then you have already admitted to yourself that you shouldn't be doing it, and are well aware that it is wrong. Only just they should suffer the consequences.
I haven't seen the "joke" in question, but I doubt it's worse than JTbo's homophobic ranting a few weeks back. He didn't get banned.
I think bans are the wrong way to go anyway. You won't change someone's attitudes by ignoring them.
I think bans are the wrong way to go anyway. You won't change someone's attitudes by ignoring them.
Good to see Scawen backing up his mods, really important that the chain of command works as one.
/me praises Scawen.
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It would seem like you guys need a simple logged event system, where you type the infraction type and then 'post it' to the log. It would then show you the date of the log (based on the user's own timezone and settings) and it would also then show the information on the infraction. I think Vic should be able to wip that up for a plugin.
/me praises Scawen.
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It would seem like you guys need a simple logged event system, where you type the infraction type and then 'post it' to the log. It would then show you the date of the log (based on the user's own timezone and settings) and it would also then show the information on the infraction. I think Vic should be able to wip that up for a plugin.
I'm not at all convinced there needs to be any change made to the way things are now. It ain't broke, there's nothing to fix. The actions of the moderators are logged in the moderation subforum, and any actions can be (and occasionally are) challenged by the other mods or by the devs.
Actions against individuals, when they are necessary, are as public as they need to be. Occasionally very public, occasionally not so public, but always the action is taken when deemed necessary by the devs, or by the moderators they have appointed.
The forum is not in a state of malfunction. No changes are necessary.
Actions against individuals, when they are necessary, are as public as they need to be. Occasionally very public, occasionally not so public, but always the action is taken when deemed necessary by the devs, or by the moderators they have appointed.
The forum is not in a state of malfunction. No changes are necessary.
+1 Keep it up. Thanks.
Well, yeah but can you really change someone's attitude on a forum anyways? Ban is just a punishment for not obeying the rules, not a remedy or cure for wrong thoughts.
They're also sometimes an opportunity for the forum to take a break from extremely abusive or offensive individuals, and can help to restore faith for other forum goers that there are boundaries that cannot be crossed without action being taken. Occasionally you can hear a collective "yesssss!" after a ban, from people who have been subjected to or have witnessed and been infuriated by direct abuse or harassment.
The mods do a great job of sorting out reported stuff IMO. Not everything that is reported deserves a ban.
If I report a thread, i'll leave it on my firefox tab and 10 minutes later i'd go back to it and refresh, about 90% of the time to find a moderator acting accordingly. No changes are needed, to be honest.
If I report a thread, i'll leave it on my firefox tab and 10 minutes later i'd go back to it and refresh, about 90% of the time to find a moderator acting accordingly. No changes are needed, to be honest.
Oi don't blame me for that joke, it was my mum that sent it to me!
Incidently for as long as I can remember she has been affectionately know as shorty
If you can't occassionally laugh at yourself and the world around you, how miserable life would be...I definately feel that political correctness has gone full circle at times and now is just scary at times, initiating the type of responses from people that it originally was trying to stop
Here's Kalev's joke, which was ... leted as it isn't racist. I didn't see Luke's one.
ROFLMAO! Like the paddy irishman/scotsman/englishman jokes
Can i just say something after this is am ending involvement with this thread but people who are a different race can be as racist as they want towards someone who is not coloured but if you say something back they go to the police and then you get arrested for being racist when they were racist to you so basically they can get away scot free while we get prosicuted for saying things about them.
Luke, this is a commonly held misconception.. i.e. it's a myth. An urban myth. It's actually not true.. it just gets repeated under peoples' breath so often that it takes on the illusion of being true.. but it isn't at all.
i suppose it is abit of an old wives tale. But someone i know was verbily abused by someone who was born in pakistan and when he said something back to the guy he pulled out his phone and reported him to the police there and then so my mate got done by the police and fined £600 for responding to the verbil abuse.
Luke.. DID that actually happen as you describe? What is the name of the person he abused? What was the crime number? What was the court date? What did he actually SAY to him? Or is it actually just something someone told you, to back up their chatting utter shite?
He is the one that told me although i don't 100% believe him. We since had a massive fight and ended up hating each other. I never really believed him though he is know for talking shite.
Anyway i thought about it and i would like to extend an apology to all the people affected by my posts for the last couple of weeks i have been under some stress due to exams and have lashed out on more than one occasion towards people i am close to. I hope that my apology is accepted and hope that i can change your view towards me to a positive one. Amp88 i am sorry for my racist remarks i didn't know people would be affected by it. I hope we can start afresh.
Anyway i thought about it and i would like to extend an apology to all the people affected by my posts for the last couple of weeks i have been under some stress due to exams and have lashed out on more than one occasion towards people i am close to. I hope that my apology is accepted and hope that i can change your view towards me to a positive one. Amp88 i am sorry for my racist remarks i didn't know people would be affected by it. I hope we can start afresh.
OK, thanks for your last post.
I think that's all that needs to be said on the subject so I'll close the thread now.
I think that's all that needs to be said on the subject so I'll close the thread now.
This thread is closed
Very Disappointed With The Inaction Of The Mod Team
(75 posts, closed, started )
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