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An important warning to the community

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Antvasima

Antvasima

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Hello.

Given that Kepekley23 and CursedGentleman were both banned from our community quickly after each other for quoting others using offensive slur words, I want to extend an extremely important warning to our community, especially the staff, to never ever mention such terms themselves while visiting this site, or we risk to have this wiki gradually lose our important and productive members.

To clarify what we can and cannot say, I asked Fandom for input yesterday. Here is what they replied:

"Distributing any slur words on our network - ones that are known to be used to spread hate towards groups of people based on their racial, religious, or sexual orientation identities - will result in a global block. End of story - there is no context we permit these words to be used in conversation.

Curse words are at the discretion of the local wiki admins and their policies. Since the wiki in question is targeted toward minors, I would strongly encourage you to try to remove the f-word at a minimum from conversation as well, but that is again at the discretion of the community admins."

As Sera Loveheart mentioned in her news & announcements thread, no matter how much we disagree about a policy that doesn't care about context or if it was a simple unthinking mistake made in 0.01% or less of somebody's edits, we still have to do our utmost to adapt or our community will greatly suffer from it, and I definitely don't want to lose any more staff or other productive members of this wiki.

I have also updated the front page rules to reflect this warning:

https://vsbattles.fandom.com/wiki/VS_Battles_Wiki#Wiki_Rules

NOTE: STAFF ONLY (So we avoid as much drama as possible in this thread)
 
I know I´m not an admin, but I would like to hear some input on this:

We could just move the wiki to some other place so it can have it´s own rules?
 
Sadly, Saikou is right.

We'll just have to deal with the policy. It's unfortunate that Fandom has that kind of stance but there's nothing to do but abide by it and hope that they'll change a bit and revise the policy a little. EX: At least give some kind of warning before moving to ban. But there's little point of trying to hold our collective breaths waiting for something that may never come.

Those are the breaks.
 
Yes, having a constant figurative headsman's axe over our heads isn't fun at all, but I am regrettably not able to do anything about it.
 
Sad to say but this is a practice as old as the internet. Always censor stuff if you're going to quote it. Even back in the days of admin-ing a lot lesser sites, this sort of stuff had to be snipped and left to the imagination, or risk a lot worse of a penalty.

Sad to see Kep and Cursed go for something that ultimately was far from their fault, but the rule exists, even if context should be considered.
 
@Monarch Laciel

There is the terms of use page, but it doesn't mention the words themselves:

https://www.wikia.com/Terms_of_use

In any case, Fandom seems to be extremely vigilant in enforcing these rules, so it is likely best to avoid any potentially offensive terms specifically related to racial, religious, or sexual orientation whatsoever.
 
My only thing about this (sorry, non-staff but need to ask) is what if there comes times where trolls, sockpuppets or disbehaving members use slurs of their own and don't get taken care of?

How are we supposed to report them of their behavior if all that happens is the reporter gets insta banned themselves for pointing out a wrong?
 
You can still report them, you just need to take screenshots and host them on other websites then link to those screenshots. You can't directly quote, or upload screenshots of it here.
 
In response to the removed posts, despite much preferring to maintain a polite and respectful environment, I definitely don't like this context doesn't matter policy any more than anyone else, but complaining will not do any good whatsoever.
 
I agree with the OP, and hopefully, both of them will be unbanned eventually; but back to the main point. One should not ever use those slur words out load. Additionally, I noticed both of them for got to include quotation marks. Always remember that punctuation saves lives. But it's even better if we simply paraphrase them without actually saying the words to be on the safe side.

I also agree with what Saikou said a not too long ago. Fandom may have its flaws, but they aren't all bad. For one, their technology and security system is stronger than other Wiki creator tools. And source mode editing is actually fairly simple to use once you get used to it. So, migrating to a new website is a really bad idea. Not only would it take a long time, we'd have to start from square one, and this wiki might be given to someone else; possibly someone unfit or untrustworthy. Which would also be chaotic.

Speaking of which, there are websites even more strict than fandom, and there's also communities that aren't strict enough. Google for example has a ton of people get away with all sorts of horrendous cyberbully attacks and harassment. So, it's better to stay here, work together, and be extra careful when it comes to addressing/reporting trouble makers.
 
I agree with Medeus. Fandom has consistently been very helpful to me and this community in other regards. We just have to be extremely careful in this specific area from now onwards.
 
Saikou The Lewd King said:
Hey Wikia's the ones who let me edit it to this in the first place. It's their own damn fault.
Click to expand...
To be fair Wikia also let, or rather ignored, users here using slurs before being immediately globally banned.

Just saying that stuff that was allowed before may not be allowed here anymore now and we shouldnt take a risk with it no matter how stupid it is.
 
There is clearly no fair judgement on this domain if someone can get banned for something like a simple misunderstanding. A simple warning telling the person to not do it again is a much better judgement then banning him. If the guy who banned Kepekley23 and CursedGentleman was in their shoes, i'm sure he would have been angry for being banned for something this small.
 
Well, again, I have extensively tried to reason with Fandom about this, and they are completely dedicated to this course of action, so the only thing that we can reasonably do is try to adapt.
 
I agree with Saikou and Medeus.

I also have issues with Fandom after what happened to Kepekley and Cursed Gentleman. But this is the best option we have for now. Google+ is a toxic wasteland of xenophobia and cyber-bullying. And hosting our own wiki along the lines of Halopedia is simply not a practical option.

Nothing changes the fact that the Fandom staff have been nothing but helpful otherwise and are doing a good job of dealing with so much shit and handling so much content.

Once again I must say: This is the best option we have right now.

Bobsican said:
By the way, you should likely remove the F-word from your profile description.
Click to expand...
Use of swear words which are not in any way xenophobic is up to the admins of the respective wikia. I somewhat regularly use the f-word and have never gotten in trouble. I just have never used the f-word in an argument or to insult someone.
 
I agree with Soldier Blue. I may also have figured out a solution. Fandom could simply install an abuse filter that prevents us from writing any of the words that they consider ban-worthy. That way we would not have to second-guess what is and isn't allowed anymore, and would also avoid any mistakes that lead to sudden bans.
 
Antvasima said:
I agree with Soldier Blue. I may also have figured out a solution. Fandom could simply install an abuse filter that prevents us from writing any of the words that they consider ban-worthy. That way we would not have to second-guess what is and isn't allowed anymore, and would also avoid any mistakes that lead to sudden bans.
Click to expand...
^This. Like if someone tried a racial slur we all know, the word wouldnt even be allowed to be posted.

I completely agree with this and I honestly believe this suggestion should be sent to Fandom immediately ASAP. It may not unban the people gone already but if implemented it would severely help in protecting more users from getting affected by this.
 
I have already asked Timothy at Fandom if this would be possible to apply.
 
You know, I don't mean to spread any more hate or just unnecessary negative feelings here, what with considering the recent bucket loads of that we've gotten over all the stuff that's been happening, but...Christ, are the Wikia staff legitimately toddlers?

Like seriously, don't they know that the majority of these supposed fragile younglings learn every swear word in the book before they've even learnt the alphabet? Don't they know that, by being so bull-headed and overly strict with these regulations, they're not only violating free speech but also contributing to conversion of these words back into "power" words?

I would put the iDubbbz Tana Whtas-her-face Content Cop here, but now I'm afaraid that'll get me banned.
 
@Crabwhale

Well, the staff of this wiki does ban people who use the n-word as a slur ourselves. Our problem with this policy is that even people who simply report slur usage or otherwise quote them in a disapproving manner get banned by Fandom. That said, it doesn't matter what we think. We don't decide the terms of use.
 
@ Antvasima

That's what I was trying to justify in my comment. Make no mistake, I entirely agree that regulations should be stricter here on FANDOM to prevent it (or any other website for that matter) becoming another YouTube or Facebook (even if I think that perma-banning over a single word is a bit extreme, but that's a discussion for a whole other time).

However, by waging such a fear mongering campaign against these words, where you're even willing to perma-ban staff members on respected Wikis...yeah, no. These actions are inexcusable. You're not only lowering yourself in the eyes of your community, you're lowering the community in the eyes of outsiders and newcomers.
 
Well, again, there is nothing that we can do about the rules themselves, but I hope that Fandom will accept my suggested solution.
 
I agree that we should avoid any drama, and that complaining won't do any good.
 
Yes, I realize I'm kicking up dust for absolutely nothing. You're right, I guess I just needed to vent. Sorry.
 
No problem.
 
I was initially very angered when I first heard of this, but after thinking about this for a while, I now kinda agree with the OP. Now first of all, I am very saddened about what happened to Kepekley and Cursed (especially Cursed since he was a fellow Jojo fan), but I mean, FANDOM is the one running this site and they make the rules. And the they have to be followed no matter how authoritarian and unfair you think it is because if rules were allowed to be broken, then there's no point in making them in the first place. So the only thing we need to do right now is to just try to adapt and abide.

Also, because of this, I've now learned my lesson of reading the Terms of Use before joining something.
 
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