To be fair we don't have a rules topic anywhere to my knowledge.

to be fair, I don't care.

How about sending him a PM rather than derailing a topic and swearing at him?

how about we actually call people out when they need to be called out, and stop making up dumb excuses to justify their behavior?

Especially since he's just come back and that doesn't create the most welcoming forum atmosphere.

I really don't care too much.

Maybe the "salt world q&a" topic is so important to you that it can't possibly be polluted by one or two posts to make someone aware of the fact we've outgrown the use of slurs—any use—and that there's no exceptions or excuses. But let me be absolutely 100% clear to you right now: when someone uses slurs or any other totally unacceptable language, it's no problem to temporarily interrupt a topic to set that straight. If you don't like that, goodbye. And if you think that someone's complaint isn't helpful, just say that, but don't complain that someone's "derailing a topic" by talking about something else when you're doing exactly the same thing.

We now return to your regularly scheduled dumb Salt World forum topic.

How about instead of always coming across as sarcastic assholes, we talk to each other normally? Just because we disagree doesn't mean I should have to wade through your snide tones.

You're a massive hypocrite. And if you'd stop thinking about yourself for just one minute, you'd see there are more important things in order here.

Maybe we should actually use the warning system for this, three strikes you're out. Not really being facetious here. It's not terribly fun seeing the snide bandwagon roll in whenever somebody steps out of line. It's probably better for the atmosphere of this place if we just handle that administratively than keep going down this road, since it IS more or less a rule of the forum now that people are actually getting banned over. I don't think it's going to create the most agreeable environment long term having unwritten rules that can get you thrown out of the community.

I mean, there is some goofy juvenile shame of having a WARNING SYSTEM, but I think people probably want to get along with everybody else, and it would be a way to make those rules clear without necessitating a fight over it, which has begun happening with some frequency. A warning would probably be enough to make people aware of how their behavior is viewed, make necessary corrections so as not to offend others.

I see this as not really a matter of rules, more like a matter of generally being decent. Okay, so not everybody understands that not using slurs is one basic aspect of that, fine—so we tell them. But what I don't understand is why everyone's so surprised when someone who's personally offended by this type of thing, like Geodude just now, could make an emotive response. Tell me, why is that worth this kind of massive consternation? So maybe what he said wasn't helpful—fine. So someone else, like Vellfire just now, can supplement by explaining that we just don't do this kind of thing anymore. That ought to be the end of it. But now you're asking me to make a rule saying you can't respond emotively anymore when you see something you personally disagree with.

The point is, you shouldn't be so surprised that people can respond in an irrational fashion when they feel personally attacked, particularly in response to what they perceive to be a homophobic slur. If you want to call that a "snide bandwagon", you're not in reality. I might agree with you if every single post was unhelpful, but that's not the case. It's literally just one post. The others seem perfectly sensible and legitimate to me, particularly the one where Vellfire says we don't do slurs anymore and Geodude who says you don't get to personally decide what is and what isn't offensive. Maybe you and Afura think the gays are getting too uppity, or that a couple of posts just to bring up an important issue of forum policy is too much to have to go through, but I don't. For the record, I don't think we ought to be having a debate on this at all. We ought to just immediately accept someone's plea for not using a slur, end of story. It's only because of the sudden consternation over having to witness a reaction to a disagreeable post that we're even talking about this.

Well, if that's how it has to be, that's fine. I'll just make a topic outlining what's officially off-limits. But you can't expect me to police people's reactions to these things. And the idea of someone getting mad over seeing something that personally offends them really should not be so foreign to anyone unless you live in another universe.

I hope that clears things up a little!!!

This shouldn't be a derail, it should literally be "someone says a slur --> person gets told not to do that --> they apologize then don't do it again".

The derail was pretty much over, because exactly this occurred. The point was made, I don't think there was going to be an argument after that. Then the topic really got derailed when Afura started complaining about others derailing the topic.

Since we're already talking about this now, let me just add this. It's not that I particularly like these kinds of posts about what is and isn't acceptable. It's actually pretty annoying. Still, I think it's probably necessary. If anyone wants to talk about setting some kind of (different) policy for this, feel free to make a topic about it or talk to me about it. But seriously, don't dump it in this topic and then complain about all this awful derailing that people are engaging in.

Maybe I'm being too harsh here, idk. I don't want to be nasty or mean to Afura or anyone else, really I don't. It's just that I'm a little tired of this idea that we can't be a little confrontational about things that matter to some people.