dezdimona - STRIKE #1

[buddah]

Posting a flame bait topic, with the intent and encouragement of pitting member against member. When threats of physical violence were mentioned, they thanked the member for it.

 

Buddah

[Dark0ne]

I am augmenting Buddah's explanation with a further clarifying statement of my own for this strike since some people seem willing to pester my admins/moderators, saying down right pathetic things, without being able to step back and realise that there are, of course, always two sides to a story.

 

This issue is, of course, a touchy and personal subject and has to be handled with care but also fairly, taking in to account the rules we have and the things that have been discussed in private; the things that you all can't see and ergo blindly think that we know nothing of and haven't given out warnings for in private already.

 

If you've been here a while though you'll know that I'm not great on the whole tact and diplomacy side; I like to say what I mean directly, and often bluntly, because in this topsy turvy world of radical interpretations you never know how people are going to mis-react to something you've said or done. So I say it forward, I say it direct.

 

Let me reiterate again for all the newcomers that on these forums everyone is treated as equals by the staff here. It doesn't matter if you're black, yellow, white, green or purple, we really don't care. It doesn't matter if you like guys, if you like girls, you like both or you like animals. We don't care if you have 4 legs, 2 heads and 9 arms, this is a gaming forum to talk about games, and sometimes the wider world, but who you are in real life isn't of any importance here. People might like to talk about who they are, what they do, what they like, what they don't like, how they feel etc. but they do so as part of their own perogative and not because they have to, being fully aware that this is a discussion forum and perhaps if something is personal they might not want to share with a group of strangers that may or may not judge, and be vocal about it...

 

In regards to Dezdimona the staff were made aware, respectfully, over a year ago about Dezdimona as part of a wider problem regarding alledged stealing of assets between two parties that are unimportant now. At the time both parties were told to not bring any issues from other forums or sites on to this site. We have a relatively strict policy when it comes to cross-site posting; our job doesn't involve crawling through the various gaming forums out there for misdemeanours our some 1.25 million members commit on other sites. As always there are some exceptions, but such exceptions don't apply here. So we make it simple; we don't care who you do or don't like on other forums, when you come here, you're civil and you abide by our rules or you get shown the door. Both parties were told this and the matter was settled with no reprecussions.

 

Since that time Dezi has become a fond member of this community; a regular helpful poster. Things have been fine, until Dezi's post:

 

I've been persecuted and hounded for almost two years...tired of running,tired of living in fear from this individual. many know the truth,now you should all know it. I am what I am and proud of it and can't and won't hide any more.

personal profile statement:

 

Trans-gender and damn proud of who and what I am. Love and accept me for me or move on.

you no longer keep me in fear,nor hiding.I am what god intended me to be, so Here I am...now what?

 

While the initial post wasn't anything too bad (calling out another member not withstanding), slightly flame-baity/flame-stoking, the subsequent posts invoked threats of a physical nature, the profile statement referenced another member who has done nothing wrong here, and it then went in to talking about where the problem had originated; another forum. As per our rules we don't want discussion about problems on other sites, it's not our problem, it's not our jurisdiction, and it's not for us to go to that site to try and sort out a problem which isn't on this site and is personal to each individual. "But Dark0ne, that's so narrow-minded/short sighted/unfair/against free speech/unsupportive" (Delete as appropriate). Perhaps so, but we want to keep the peace here, we don't want to take sides and we want to keep things running smoothly. We can't and won't do that by sorting out personal disputes between members that are old enough to sort it out between themselves.

 

We similarly won't allow what I like to call "army building", that is, building up a group of friends or supporters to go attack someone on another site. Now Dezi's post made no mention of it, but it was obvious where it was going and the thread and subsequent other threads made by disillusioned friends and fans of Dezi had to be locked to prevent it.

 

The problem is this, noone had done anything wrong on this site. If Dezi has been having problems here then she hasn't been reporting it to us and we can't do anything to help her if she doesn't tell us. While Dezi's will to come out with her information was an admirable and strong act, it wasn't done right; she was obviously upset that someone had been saying nasty things about her on other forums and wanted to tell other people how unhappy she was with this.

 

You might not like my stance and you might not agree with it, but that is my stance and if you don't like it then there is an easy option; don't post here. If you feel strongly about it then you should contact me, not the staff here, as this is my policy. People who treat the volunteers badly here will be shown the door very, very quickly. You have absolutely no idea how we operate, what we know, who we've spoken to now and in the past and how much work goes in to keeping the peace on a forum that sees 1,500 new faces and 1,500 new posts each and every day.

 

But let me wrap this all up and put it in to some pespective; Dezi has been given a single-strike. An official warning. Whether she believes this is because of her personally or whether she can see that this has absolutely nothing to do with who she is in real-life I cannot say (as I haven't spoken to her), but I hope she comes back to post here knowing full well that from our end it'll be no questions asked.

 

I will close by quoting something Buddha has said a few times on free speech: you have an absolute right to it, but we're under no obligation to provide you a platform to express it. Please remember that when you decide to write me a lengthy private message detailing how your inalienable rights are being impeeched by my small section of the internet.