RPGnet's decay (TBP madness)

[Darrin Kelley]

I have to ask: Why did you put up with it for so long?

I got used to the abuse. Much like how I endured my abusive childhood.

[Abbo1993]

I really don't understand why people keep posting there, aside from the assholes who run the place, I really didn't find anything worth reading in there and constructive conversation about potentially interesting topics get constantly shut down by the nazis running the place , really it's only some token posts about mainstream games who then quickly take a tangent towards circle jerking navel gazing between mental cases with delusions of virtue, really there is no quality content to be found in that shithole.

[Ghostmaker]

It can be hard to extricate yourself from an abusive relationship. But take heart, Mr. Kelley, now you are free.

I admit, your ban message (written by hyper-retard Dawgstar) was particularly amusing in its egotism:

You need no longer fear the mines, for we are sending you to the realms of Solitaire.

That is some honest to God arrogance on their part. Well, they're welcome to it. They can believe themselves the 'pure' if they like. Fuck 'em.

Welcome to the mosh pit.

[Darrin Kelley]

Honestly? I didn't really pay attention to their ban message. I was fed up with their pontificating before I skimmed it. I've read too many of their infractions that were just so full of ego and self-righteousness. I was done.

I'm letting their ban remain permanent. I am not going to appeal it in six months. They are not going to make me crawl or beg. I'm done.

[David Johansen]

The problem is that they have a large, diverse community and that has its uses.  For a long time it was the epic Where I Read X-Men thread that kept me coming back.  I guess you can't really discuss X-Men anymore because it's a minority rights minefield.  I got banned for comparing them to other fictional groups like the The Elders of Zion and billionaires.  I can't believe I forgot to use the Illuminati.

The solution is to work on making other spaces more interesting and inviting.  In the early days rpg.net moderation was upset that the culture it had created was mean and uninviting and not well respected elsewhere.  They wanted to clean up everyone's act except their own.

Even so, the solution is to talk about games and gaming more and dial back attacks on games that suck.  I got to be an anti-D&D troll because I was sick of people coming on every GURPS And Rolemaster thread to declare how much they hated the games I liked.  I got my first ban for saying that D&D had more players and as a result had more "cat piss men" heh remember cat piss men?  Saying that's a banning offense now.

Never the less, the road to making rpgnet a fairy tale about the rise of fascism to scare children is to be more interesting and talk more about games and less about the politicisation of games and build better, friendlier communities.

[Abbo1993]

I'm actually curious as to how many of the original founders and mods remain on the site.

[Valatar]

Just pull up an old thread and look at the body count.  You'll see banned user after banned user.

[Trond]

Just pull up an old thread and look at the body count.  You'll see banned user after banned user.

Both the left and the right, when they become extreme enough, turn actively anti-human.

[GeekyBugle]

The problem is that they have a large, diverse community and that has its uses.  For a long time it was the epic Where I Read X-Men thread that kept me coming back.  I guess you can't really discuss X-Men anymore because it's a minority rights minefield.  I got banned for comparing them to other fictional groups like the The Elders of Zion and billionaires.  I can't believe I forgot to use the Illuminati.

The solution is to work on making other spaces more interesting and inviting.  In the early days rpg.net moderation was upset that the culture it had created was mean and uninviting and not well respected elsewhere.  They wanted to clean up everyone's act except their own.

Even so, the solution is to talk about games and gaming more and dial back attacks on games that suck.  I got to be an anti-D&D troll because I was sick of people coming on every GURPS And Rolemaster thread to declare how much they hated the games I liked.  I got my first ban for saying that D&D had more players and as a result had more "cat piss men" heh remember cat piss men?  Saying that's a banning offense now.

Never the less, the road to making rpgnet a fairy tale about the rise of fascism to scare children is to be more interesting and talk more about games and less about the politicisation of games and build better, friendlier communities.

You can have a "safe, "Diverse", welcoming & Inviting" Communiteh or you can have a free (as in freedom) forum, you can't have both.

In this same forum we have "liberals", socialists, commies, "progressives" and right wingers, Christians, Jews, Pagans, Atheists, etc. we used to have nazis but they couldn't stop spewing antisemitism so they got banned along with a few leftists (disregarding that nazis ARE leftist) who ALSO vomited antisemitism. IMHO you don't get more diverse than that.

So, if all those types of people can and do post here I claim this forum to be more "inclusive", "diverse, and inviting than any other forum out there.

The problem with moderation is that the type of people who WANT to be moderators shouldn't, I got banned from a Linux forum for posting offtopic stuff... On the offtopic subforum!

[wmarshal]

I don't recall any Nazis on this board who identified themselves as such, until people grokked that that was where their anti-semitism was coming from. I recall one case where it seemed the guy sounded like he was having some kind of mental health breakdown. There seems to be some overlap between some instances of mental illness and anti-semitism. At the end of the day, I'm not a therapist (nor is this forum) and I give up on making a huge distinction on where the anti-semitism is coming from.

[David Johansen]

You can have a "safe, "Diverse", welcoming & Inviting" Communiteh or you can have a free (as in freedom) forum, you can't have both.

Who said anything about "safe" 

Really, I'm not even sure I'm talking about this forum in particular or even the rpgpub which is safe from everything but geese and thread derails.  Therpgsite is a war room.  I'm honestly not sure it can grow beyond that.  The pub is a bunker, it's safe and even friendly enough but you have to dance around political issues like a highland dancing ballerina, fast footwork, flexibility, and high leaps.

Even so, a friendly and welcoming forum would be more likely to grow to rival or unseat rpg.net.

[GeekyBugle]

You can have a "safe, "Diverse", welcoming & Inviting" Communiteh or you can have a free (as in freedom) forum, you can't have both.

Who said anything about "safe" 

Really, I'm not even sure I'm talking about this forum in particular or even the rpgpub which is safe from everything but geese and thread derails.  Therpgsite is a war room.  I'm honestly not sure it can grow beyond that.  The pub is a bunker, it's safe and even friendly enough but you have to dance around political issues like a highland dancing ballerina, fast footwork, flexibility, and high leaps.

Even so, a friendly and welcoming forum would be more likely to grow to rival or unseat rpg.net.

So you think an unsafe site can be "inviting, welcoming and friendly"? I posit it can't. Except to freedom loving istophobes.

[David Johansen]

I guess it depends what you mean by "safe" these days.  If you mean the absence of any negative stimulus or shocks I suppose you might be right.  But then one always gets into the question of safe from what and who?  Is rpg.net "safe" I think not, it's a minefield.  Is therpgsite "safe" not at all.  Is the rpgpub "safe" not really though it is fairly friendly and there is some good gaming discussion there.  Not really enough depth and diversity of interests yet.

But yes, I think "safe" as it is used these days in the sense of "safe spaces" is anything but friendly and inviting.

[SHARK]

Greetings!

The RPG site is somehow "Not Safe?" The RPG Site is not friendly?

I have always felt that TheRPGSite has been friendly to me. Furthermore, I have made it a point to always be welcoming and friendly to new members here.

How are regular members here supposed to be friendly and welcoming?

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

[David Johansen]

It's a rough and tumble place and prone to explosions of hostility.  It's not that these things aren't virtues in their own right (I wouldn't post here at all if I didn't think they were) but they haven't produced a community to rival rpg.net over all these years and they won't.  I think the hardest thing would be handling the pearl clutching lunatics of the woke movement.  If allowed to work their usual methods they will overrun any forum as surely as they have rpg.net and so many others.  I think ruthless banning would probably be most effective.  "You don't like orcs?  GTFO"  Is that friendly enough I wonder?  There's a reason I'm not a mod anywhere.