Clarification On FANDOM's Terms of Use

[TimmyQuivy]

I would like to add an additional post regarding some of the recent user blocks we have performed, blocks based upon certain terms users have utilized on this wiki. FANDOM's senior members of the Community Support staff have been talking about toxicity and permitted language recently in preparation for a broader community discussion. I'd like to share some decisions and set some very very clear guidelines about what is not permissable on any wiki including this one.

Our Terms of Use specifically states you may not:

• Abuse, harass, threaten or intimidate other FANDOM users;
• Post or transmit any content that is obscene, pornographic, abusive, offensive, profane, or otherwise violates any law or right of any third party, or content that contains homophobia, ethnic slurs, religious intolerance, or encourages criminal conduct

Regarding the second statement, we do not permit users to use abusive language towards each other - it is important that all users are welcome and safe on our platform. You may wonder if insulting a user is okay if they insulted you first or damaged the wiki - it is not. Vandals and trolls should be blocked and ignored. This is a common internet policy called Don't feed the trolls. Cases where users do this consistently and are extremely profane (utilizing curse words, for example) will likely lead to a global ban. Remember, the stronger the language you use, the more you could hurt or affect someone. No matter how upset you are, there is no justification for using words to hurt someone else.

I also would like to encourage you to remember the audience of the wiki you are contributing to. This wiki has topics that naturally attract minors, users between 13 and 18. While this community is free to create, or not create, additional policies about what language is not acceptable on this wiki, it is important to remember that just because you are okay with certain words, many others aren't. Many others, because of their age, shouldn't be subjected to adult language.

Finally, I want to talk about some very specific words we absolutely will not allow. These are words due to their history, context, and target have clear, well understood meanings behind them that are considered very hateful to significant sections of society. These words have, on occasion, been used freely on this wiki. I will not directly state these words, nor will we permit anyone to use variations/misspellings of these words to get around using them.

The words on this wiki I want to make explicitly clear we will not permit are:

• A word that starts with N that is racial in nature.
• A word that starts with C that originated as a crass term on female genitalia
• A word that starts with F that refers to someone of a specific sexual orientation.
• A word that starts with C that is often used to insult men who support feminism

These are not the only words we will find offensive - remember the Terms of Use states we will ban users based upon words that slur any number of classes of people. These are just four specific ones we have seen used in the past here I want to address head on. Any verifiable use of these words on this wiki will result in a global ban, end of story. Even if you are just quoting someone else or not directing the word towards someone else. It will result in a ban. Directing it specifically toward another user will result in a longer global ban.

To that end, we have decided to not ban any additional users for things that were said (and were being reported to us) from months ago. If you posted anything you think should not be on this wiki, we encourage you to go back, locate it, and remove it.

 

[Megamangohan]

oh my

 

[Uninown]

woah

im speechless.

 

[Assaltwaffle]

OK even though I have retired I have to pitch in here, since it is relevant to why I did so and I was linked this by a friend of mine.

A lot of this, while I disagree with it, makes sense. While I believe the rampant censorship that FANDOM is taking part of is an absolute negative to online communities, you do have the right to censor what you deem inappropriate. However, your reasons for why they aren't allowed need to actually be legitimate.

Saying "a word has history and is therefore never OK", while stupid, is a genuine reason. However, part of this is not.

"These are words due to their history, context, and target have clear, well understood meanings behind them that are considered very hateful to significant sections of society."

There is a LOT wrong with this excerpt, but let me point out some of the big flaws.

"...their history, context, and target..." OK. I don't know who told you that a word in and of itself can have context and a target, but it can't. A word can have history; that much is fair. However, a word cannot, under any circumstances in and of itself, have a context or a target. The context and target of the word are determined by the used sentence. If the sentence is "Alex is an idiot" (if anyone on the team is named Alex it is a complete coincidence), the word you'd compare to one of the "forbidden words" is "idiot". Idiot has a history and meaning, obviously, but outside of a sentence it has no context or target, just like every other word. In my example sentence, the target of the word "idiot" is "Alex". The context is "describing Alex as an idiot". Both of these (target and context) are given by the sentence the word is used and and by literally nothing else. The target of a quote, for example, stays the same, but the context of it changes. The only thing that is a constant is the word's history, but even then history will change over time (although in no notable amount to effect the use of the word in the short-term).

There is more but this is all I'm covering.

Saying "a word can never be used, not even in a quote" or "context doesn't matter" is dumb enough. Please actually have the reasons for why this isn't allowed be relevant and not just more hogwash.

 

[Antvasima]

Well, as I mentioned earlier, I think that the best solution to this is to install an abuse filter so nobody in this wiki can write any terms that are ban-worthy anymore, and as such also cannot be banned for them.

 

[Antvasima]

I will also move this thread to the news & announcements forum, if that is okay?

 

[FateAlbane]

I particularly feel like, if the intention wasn't to insult anyone (as in the aforementioned quote and context example) and there was no party as in a person or actual target directly offended, the community as a whole could benefit of something like, giving a warning beforehand and banning if they slip again in any manner whatsoever.

As the person may ultimately have just sliped once, or didn't assume that quoting or something to that effect would translate to them being labeled as the very thing they would be exemplifying.

Because you know, IRL people actually quote these things to explain to others what was said in a given situation or exemplify something.

I wouldn't be surprised if even someone who read the Terms would somehow be new to the system and end up believing they *could* quote something if only to report someone else or to exemplify a point they're making, only to suddenly end up labeled as the very thing they are trying to prevent.

Buuuut I've dealt enough with this kind of situation in my life to be relatively sure I'm throwing words to the wind with this reply.

 

[Antvasima]

Look, no matter how much we disagree about banning people for disapproving quotes in rule-violation reports, we do not decide the terms of use, so ultimately there is nothing that we can do about this other than try to adapt, search the wiki for any past mentions of the slurs to delete them, be thankful that the Fandom staff ignored the Discord group's efforts to get more people than currently banned, and install an abuse filter to avoid that situations like this happen again in the future.

I will highlight and then close this thread for comments, as it will almost certainly get out of hand otherwise.

 

[FateAlbane]

I'm not disagreeing, nor would I expect any reply here to change anything.

I'm merely stating my opinion and by no means I translate that to fact. At least that much I assume is Freedom of Speech.

I fully understand what you just said and what was said in the OP, of course.