Yes, I'm replying to myself: I just want to add, that younger people often do not know what words mean and the weight attached to them. I may have said this somewhere else, but once again: I have students who are young, smart speakers of English as a second language. I heard them referring to someone as a douche and asked them if they knew what it meant. They said, "A douche is a bad person." "Actually," I said, "A douche is a woman's sanitary device for her girl places. Look it up." You can see how deep misogyny runs in the culture when devices for cleaning your vagina became synonymous with an evil or stupid person. There's a word in Spanish that is used to mean a timewaster or a useless person. The literal translation is someone who performs cunnilingus -- hardly a waste of time in my world. More evidence of a cultural misogyny.
As one of a few people on this site who can summarily remove any post I want, I wouldn't hesitate to simply delete a post that said "Do it, N-word," and I wouldn't feel the need to consult anyone about it. I would, just do it, so to speak. And I might PM the person who wrote it to ask them not to behave that way. But I didn't think of removing (and apparently none of the collaborators on here did either) that lame motto. I just kind of ignored, and I can't really say why. It's an offensive word to many people, and is also offensive to civil society generally. But clearly there's something less bothersome about it, because I, nor anyone else, deleted it. I'm at a loss. Should it have been removed? thenewgreen, insomniasexx, what do you think about this topic? We've been fortunate not to have to deal with a lot of abusive language here, but it's never a bad idea to try ruminate on what an appropriate response might be. On a lighter note, I'm super curious about the Spanish word now! What an odd insult. Certainly not a waste of time, either, in my humble opinion.
That's interesting that a few of you have the power to summarily remove a post. Of course you prefer if the community speaks up hushes, mutes, whatever offensive people. coffeesp00ns said she'd delete the picture herself if anyone found it offensive. I found it offensive, but I'm glad she wrote a coherent explanation of why she posted it. If it had been deleted summarily, I never would have had a chance to hear that. It builds respect of one another, I think. Of course, she wasn't the original poster but she is someone I follow so I called her to account. kb had already responded to the main charges.
I don't know. I hate both the word "faggot" and "nigger". I hate when they are used in jest or as if the word has no meaning/power (ie: "just do it, faggot"). I hate when they are used with power (harsh, directed insults aimed at a person, a group of people, etc). However, removing comments opens a big door into moderation and that's a door I prefer to leaved closed. I don't think any of the people who run this site have not arbitrarily or unarbitrarily (not a word, I know) moderated/deleted comments/posts and it's nice that way. It allows users to make their own decisions about what they want to see and what they don't. In the cases of spam we have introduced targeted features to prevent further spam attacks rather than simply deleting the spam. Examples include the auto-global ignore and limiting number of PMs new users can send. This is much more productive and helps Hubski grow in the long run rather than just putting a bandaid on the issue and hoping the issue doesn't get bigger over time. Some sites will automatically change selected words to other words but it usually ends up being a toy to play with rather than a meaningful way to halt the problem. People try to get around the barrier, people play with the changed words, etc. Back when I played Neopets (I was like 7!) they would change "thong" to "longjohns." You know how much more I wanted to say "thong" after I found that out? 4chan did the same for a while, with n words and f words turning into brightly colored gibberish. The other issue is that people can say incredibly hateful and derogatory things without using specific words. Is that better or worse than an off-handed comment using one of those words? I don't know but it's something we should consider if we want to set up guidelines for this type of stuff. I say let the community shame them and don't make me log in as admin. I don't want to moderate - I want to add to the community and help it grow.
I think the only time we ever went on a deleting rampage was back before you had admin powers. mk or I (I can't remember who) found a picture of an adorable baby buffalo, and we changed some porn pictures to that image. We thought it was pretty funny at the time. I can't remember if we deleted any comments off hand, but we certainly spent a few days in mod mode; I can't say I enjoyed it.
However, removing comments opens a big door into moderation and that's a door I prefer to leaved closed
-Agreed. That said, reaching out to the person posting it and asking their intent couldn't do harm, right? But yeah, I'm pretty much against using any "mod" powers unless the intent is clearly something Hubski and the greater community would be upset about if we didn't remove. -Regarding such things, we know them when we see them.
I don't use those "powers" you speak of unless the intent is crystal clear. Post a picture of a woman getting screwed by a horse...? yeah, I'm gonna remove that immediately and wash my eyes out. But the OP's intent was not clear to me. It wasn't directed at anyone but him/herself. There's a "self" hatred in the comment that could mean a lot of things. My point is, I don't think it was black/white. Intent means a lot to me in such things. That said, I didn't write the user either and should have.