Code of Conduct Changes - Do better at least for optics

I was only active after the Blizzard debacle and my boycott of Diablo 3 which followed. I got into POE and enjoyed it immensely, but got a bit bored after 200-300 hours, and discovered OT around the time of trying to cure myself from alt-holism.

At first I was impressed by how clever people sounded, how articulate they were, in a mere OT of a video game forum ;) Not to say that vidya gamers cannot sound articulate, it's just that in most places they don't from experience (See Steam forums for instance).

After some debating, I realised some people really really cared about OT and how people perceive them on here. This coupled with the amount of time posters were spending defending their positions, meant unfortunately that there were casualties to GGG's laissez-faire code of conduct and rules and allowance of political discussions - and I don't just mean the moderators.

I welcome these changes, and I hope that some of the most active posters can rehabilitate themselves in other venues/places and not fall into the same pitfalls as they did here.

This code of conduct is now more inline with others (including solely private american companies with no Chinese interests, like STeam) and I don't see anything wrong with that. References to tanks and squares seem a tad over-the-top, I don't agree at all.

The internet gives us plenty of echo chambers to discuss politics, and even some level playing field chambers for those in the know, where both sides are represented fairly equally.

All the best, see you out there and good(better) mental health for all!

So YouTube announced a major censorship purge today. I don't think that's coincidence. Whatever is twisting YouTube's arm is strong enough to twist GGG/Tencent as well.

From the YouTube announcement:

"

Today we're… specifically prohibiting videos alleging that a group is superior in order to justify discrimination.

So if you're a particular kind of racist — the kind who advocates for institutional racism to ensure equality of outcome in racial averages — that's fine. YouTube will censor you if you're one kind of racist, but if you're the politically correct kind of racist, you get a pass.

All my yikes.

"

ScrotieMcB wrote:

So YouTube announced a major censorship purge today. I don't think that's coincidence. Whatever is twisting YouTube's arm is strong enough to twist GGG/Tencent as well.

From the YouTube announcement:

"

Today we're… specifically prohibiting videos alleging that a group is superior in order to justify discrimination.

So if you're a particular kind of racist — the kind who advocates for institutional racism to ensure equality of outcome in racial averages — that's fine. YouTube will censor you if you're one kind of racist, but if you're the politically correct kind of racist, you get a pass.

All my yikes.

This isnt the end, just beginning. Its alarming. but there is only one outcome possible.

For anyone that's ever dealt with an opossum in a room / garage you know what happens when the animal is backed into a corner, and has nowhere else to go.

The once passive, retreating, scared animal turns into a vicious, nasty, fucker once it finally recognizes the only way forward is through you.

Sooner or later the one getting pushed says fuck this. Who knows who will win, but there will be a fight at some point, no doubt. History tells you all the stories you need to know.

"

Boem wrote:

Thank god we are still able to discus cultural dogma's, social structural developments of thought that contributed to the development of humans to who we are in this day and age and spirituality.

[Removed by Support]

The good way to get to know members of your community is to routinely bite your tongue when asked a pertinent question about a topic you care for.

How are my optics, did i succeed?

Peace,

-Boem-

Simply brilliant.

Peace,

-Boem-

edit :

"

DarthSki44 wrote:

I was going to say something similar, but was debating whether it was too inflammatory, and didnt want to risk the rest of my post, just to poke the bear with a dose of reality.

I guess you got your answer.

"

How it ends:

Spoiler

Good overcomes evil

Ah yes, clearly the winner is always good. This post actually says a lot about you.

"

How it ends:

Spoiler

Good overcomes evil

Even a villain sees themselves as the hero of their story.

"

AldarisGrave wrote:

"

How it ends:

Spoiler

Good overcomes evil

Even a villain sees themselves as the hero of their story.

"

We have absolutely no intention of curbing constructive and friendly discussions just for the sake of it - but also, we don't think Path of Exile (the forums or the game chat) is the most appropriate place to be having these passionate and in-depth debates that tend to arise from certain inflammatory subjects. These discussions also have a tendency to make other players unwilling to participate or engage with the forums or in-game chat at all, and this is the opposite of what we want.

I've seen this claim from other companies, but I've yet to see any evidence that this is true. It's a very strong claim to make without evidence. It feels much more like a gut feeling, to be honest.

Couldn't the opposite be true? That banning discussion of arbitrary topics will lead to disengagement? Shouldn't that also be avoided?

"

There's a large number of more appropriate places online to hold these discussions. Regardless of the stance that is being taken on a touchy subject, someone is always going to disagree. We can't fix that (we wouldn't even want to), but we can ask that you take those moral, religious, and political dilemmas to another platform.

You'd be surprised. Clamping down on speech is absolutely endemic on the web. There's no crime in following the fashionable wave of anti-speech pragmatism, but it's morally abhorrent.

Nothing requires GGG to stand behind its community and admit that they're not "bad people with inflammatory ideas", though it is telling that y'all feel that this is so generically true that the CoC must pre-emptively target topics instead of specific bad actors.

"

Another key factor we discussed at length regarding this change is the effect these kinds of topics have on our staff. Forum and game moderation is no easy task and while many players do abide by our Code of Conduct, there are also many players that do not. There are a significant number of really horrible chat and forum postings our team deals with on a daily basis. We hope to significantly reduce the strain on our staff for the benefit of their mental well-being.

It's just words. More than one previous forum moderator of this forum are posting in this thread, so it's not like we don't know what you're talking about.

Some people can say mean things, but it's ultimately just a bunch of powerless whinging at best. And toucans, I guess. I hope for your staff's mental health that they are able to come to the same realization in time.

---

At any rate, thanks for responding. I completely disagree with the change, but I'll try to abide it to the best of my ability.

I'm definitely not convinced that this new authority won't be used inappropriately given such shaky rationale.