Permabanned for Sexism this time - A Hamish goodbye message

[iRobot]

While he has a point, I wouldn't agree that sexism is on the same level as racism.

The cotton wool is out in force. While I don't know what was said in Hamish's ban, so I'm not referring to that, people really need to stop getting so hurt by things said on the internet.

The rules seem to fluctuate based on who is on the admin staff at the time. Now we have a female on the admin team, sexism is suddenly a rulebreak. It's a little over protective. When I say 'suddenly a rulebreak', I refer to the fact that "What's worse, a woman driving or a woman shooting?" was a sentinel bind not so long ago. Do we need a homosexual on the admin team to make that a rule break too?

If someone is shooting their mouth, and you disagree, you can mute them yourself in the communications tab, or if it's borderline, then you can admin mute. I think banning for such comments is OTT. The mute function seems to be often neglected.

[Azarael]

Hey guys. I think there's something wrong in your way of thinking. Not about Hamish but about your categories of judgment. Azarael wrote "Harass someone based on their gender and you're out". Gender doesn't mean "sex", it also means gender orientation or sexual orientation. Neverthless, even when you admins strictly forbid racism and sexism, homophobia is not only tolerated but nearly encouraged by few of you with mockeries like "gay" or "fagg", or "homo". I don't really see a difference between race discrimination, sex discrimination and gender discrimination. Maybe you do. But for me this is the same shit.

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I tried to ban that and was met with opposition. I agree with iRobot here in his comments that homophobic comments would be banned if there were pressure within the admin staff from an admin to do so. However, sexism has been on the ban list for a long time and the boobs bind was removed after that was pointed out.

[iRobot]

As an additional note, I see the logic in bans for things that affect gameplay, such as, but not limited to;

-Teamkilling
-Teamswitching/Balancer Abuse
-Cheating
-Glitching
-Hampering

But as we have a mute function, I'm confused as to why it's neglected and instead it jumps straight to 3 day ban for comments only, which have no impact to gameplay, and little or no impact on other people.

Surely muting such people would a) prevent any further offenses of the same category, b) send the message out to watch your mouth, and c) not damage the playerbase while maintaining the rules.

Sure, this fellow might be sexist or whatever, but does anyone really care if they no longer [have the ability to] show it? We all lead different lives out of the game, and that's our own business. In game, one player is the same as the next.

[Azarael]

You make a convincing argument.

[Coucounet]

Sry but this last argument doesn't make sense to me. It's not because a comment doesn't impact the gameplay that it's not punishable. Racism and sexism don't impact the gameplay. Are we supposed to simply mute the guys who's spaming "heil hitler" or "lick my balls dirty gay" just because these comments don't prevent us from driving ? Maybe that kind of behaviour doesn't impact the gameplay but it clearly affect the game experience. Lastly and again, I don't see any difference between racism and sexism. Irobot, you wrote "I wouldn't agree that sexism is on the same level as racism". Actually, race discrimination, class discrimination and sex/gender discrimination are not treated on a hierarchical basis, they are just articulated. Sexism/homophobia is not a lesser offence than racism.

[Azarael]

On the one hand, a mute will prevent reoffending, but on the other, we have to consider whether the kind of player who promotes racism, sexism, Nazism or similar is somebody we want to have playing on the servers.

[iRobot]

Actually, race discrimination, class discrimination and sex/gender discrimination are not treated on a hierarchical basis, they are just articulated. Sexism/homophobia is not a lesser offence than racism.

Strongly disagree here. Sexism, and to a lesser extent, homophobia, are often used in social media/comedy as a driving force for humour/conversation. The same is rarely, if ever, said for racism except for obscure black comedies.

[Socio]

We simply need to look at the context in which it was used and if its in the boundries of acceptance, as it was stated before "whats up my ni**a" being a greeting and "that was gay" to sum up a misfortune that happened to us while playing (falling of a track due to bug/lag, some nut ramming our vehicle of the track etc.), could be solved with a mute.

[giZmo]

Mutes are for slight issues like talking in a foreign language, insults or spamming chat and not for things like racism, sexism etc.

[Azarael]

Actually, race discrimination, class discrimination and sex/gender discrimination are not treated on a hierarchical basis, they are just articulated. Sexism/homophobia is not a lesser offence than racism.

Strongly disagree here. Sexism, and to a lesser extent, homophobia, are often used in social media/comedy as a driving force for humour/conversation. The same is rarely, if ever, said for racism except for obscure black comedies.

I wonder where we'll be in ten or twenty years.