I saw another thread here about moving away from Roll 20, and the number 1 criteria for the replacement is not woke/red. Is there an issue with Roll 20 being woke/fascist/oppressive? Or are the two (seeking an alternate, and not Red on the Woke Meter) not related?
Roll20 is on the red list in That One Thread, and there's reasoning for it in there. The do all the BLM stuff, but there was also this set of allegations, a good write up of which is here:
https://blog.homoeoteleuton.com/the-end-of-silence-and-roll20/
Less allegation-y, they also have this type of statement. This type of thing is enough for me to want to stay away.
https://blog.roll20.net/posts/black-lives-matter/
Anyway this just seems like an outgrowth of the TTRPG guide thread.
I believe it might have to do with them blending services with DTRPG, but as I don't use Roll 20, I am likely not aware of the exact reasoning behind the other thread.
On top of the apparent racism for choosing their streaming partners, they've been intense assholes in general. For years they've been pretty infamous for squashing any criticism on their forum, and they also put their own employees in positions to mod the roll20 subreddit, in violation of reddit policies. It came to a head when, back in 2018, they got called out on it and everything exploded in their faces for a while: https://www.newsweek.com/roll20-reddit-nolant-jones-apostleo-apostleoftruth-dungeons-and-dragons-ban-1142706
All of the above is incredibly sketchy on the part of Roll20 and a good reason to leave or stay away as a matter of principle.
I would say though that if you are literally just there to use it as a platform for a group of friends you know to play rpgs it's perfectly serviceable. E.g I haven't once been on the forums and was only vaguely aware of these issues.
The main incident that really cut me off Roll20 was the one with Taking20 and the other "white dudes". Nolan Jones and co are free to run their business and represent it in the way they want to, of course, but I, as a customer, am also free to look elsewhere. They've made it clear that their personal politics and prejudices play a part in how they run their business. Heaven forbid I tread on some toes and something happens to my account.
Quote from: Visitor Q on August 04, 2022, 05:28:48 PMI would say though that if you are literally there to use it as a platform for a group of friends you know to play rpgs it's perfectly serviceable.
I didn't even know there WERE forums, or that it was used to groupfind. While I have always had some beef with a few of the technical choices that it has, I recognize that's just going to be an issue with most VTTs for a while. The reason I made that thread over there is that I was hoping I could find a replacement because it bothers me that every dollar I give to them is used to fund political action that is universally harmful, and worse, since they are a business, they can probably take any dollar they have and use it as collateral for a loan or something to do even more damage. I don't believe the woke actually go broke (at least not in the short term)- most of them seem to walk around with the goal of burning investor money for the sole purpose of doing whatever damage that they can. Nor do I believe that boycotts are generally effective.
But if I can make my fifteen dollars a month not fund a raging torrent of hatred and malice, then I'd like to do that, especially if it just involves learning some new software. They hate me, why should I be funding them, if I can avoid it?
But yea, I didn't have any technical issues with them or whatever.
Quote from: Visitor Q on August 04, 2022, 05:28:48 PM
All of the above is incredibly sketchy on the part of Roll20 and a good reason to leave or stay away as a matter or principle.
I would say though that if you are literally there to use it as a platform for a group of friends you know to play rpgs it's perfectly serviceable. E.g I haven't once been on the forums and was only vaguely aware of these issues.
Yes. They are assholes, but if you avoid their forums, this does not impinge too much. The Marketplace & adverts always pushing the Wokest drek (Thirsty Sword Lesbians et al) over actually popular stuff does get annoying. If you can put up with that and just use the VTT, it's ok.
I have a lot of sunk costs in Roll20 so I stick with it, but try not to give them much money. Eg I only intermittently subscribe when I need to upload stuff or use the Transmogfrifier to import stuff to a campaign.
Thanks for your help. I had no idea.