Current Events > PSA about the "hornypost" ban.

(+) Yeah! (+)

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]


"They" being Fandom. Many of the mods are just as confused and annoyed as we are. They may be mods, but they're also posters that have been here for years and years. We're all in the same sinking boat.

itcheyness posted...

Apparently any topic involving pictures of people is considered objectifying and thus "hornyposting".

I would like to thank the mod who let me know this and deleted my topic about modestly dressed women.

I didn't see this topic of yours and this is probably pointless to ask but I'll ask anyway.

Was your topic actually a modest picture of a woman talking about something innocent. Or was it a topic with a picture of woman with the topic trying to be coy in what the objective was like, "let's talk about her personality *winks*.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]


My bad for assuming. Apologies.

LightningThief posted...

I didn't see this topic of yours and this is probably pointless to ask but I'll ask anyway.

Was your topic actually a modest picture of a woman talking about something innocent. Or was it a topic with a picture of woman with the topic trying to be coy in what the objective was like, "let's talk about her personality *winks*.

It was a topic filled with pictures of modestly dressed women, but it was def for shits and giggles in response to the new rule.

LightningThief posted...

I didn't see this topic of yours and this is probably pointless to ask but I'll ask anyway.

Was your topic actually a modest picture of a woman talking about something innocent. Or was it a topic with a picture of woman with the topic trying to be coy in what the objective was like, "let's talk about her personality *winks*.

It was a photo of a woman in a niqab.

You can maybe argue he was snarky as fuck but that wasn't even close to a "tiptoe around the limits" topic.

Tyranthraxus posted...

It was a photo of a woman in a niqab.

You can maybe argue he was snarky as fuck but that wasn't even close to a "tiptoe around the limits" topic.

Yeah.

I would have understood if the topic got modded for trolling. There would have been some logic to that, because it was snarky and provocative.

But it got actually modded for "offensive material" because it was "objectiving people".

The content/images got modded, not the topic itself.

It was trolling to be sure. I know what the intent was. The fact that it remains undisputed kind of reinforces that in my opinion. I still wouldn't have moderated it. It was relatively harmless and nothing that required our intervention at this time, hence my recommendation to dispute.

It's a pretty significant change. Anyone with even a hint of community insight would know how this was going to play out in the beginning. That said, I would still caution trying to intentionally toe the line and becoming disruptive.

Citrik posted...

Anyone with even a hint of community insight would know how this was going to play out in the beginning.

I think that's just a symptom of Fandom itself rather than lack of community insight judging by the several videos I saw documenting how they handle their wikis. Even when whoever is handling the community knows how to do their job, it's always the exact same MO. Implement a change with little to no warning and then act like the community is at fault for pushing back.

Citrik posted...

It's a pretty significant change. Anyone with even a hint of community insight would know how this was going to play out in the beginning. That said, I would still caution trying to intentionally toe the line and becoming disruptive.

That's my issue, this simply feels intentional.

You could not shut down activity on this board faster than that. The combination of "unclear rules" + "strict enforcement" + "capital punishment" is simply the best approach to make the community stop on their own.

Our posting behaviour gets restricted by fear of an unknown and unwriten rule, combined with perma exil.

And we, as the community, have not a single way out of this Catch22.

At the same time, we hear things like "no, these changes won't kill CE", "there are 68k Users having access to CE" and "if CE dies, it's your fault", but we have to tiptoe about everything, because if we cross the line, we are getting the boot.

Tyranthraxus posted...

It was a photo of a woman in a niqab.

You can maybe argue he was snarky as fuck but that wasn't even close to a "tiptoe around the limits" topic.

If this is true, than ya, Fandom needs to clearly define what "hornyposting" is.

Because what he did sounds like maybe trolling since he was trying to get a reaction out of the mods, but he was instead modded for "hornyposting."

R_Jackal posted...

I've been here since the site launched, made an account a good bit later though, and I have to say this seems like a clown show to the point I'm considering moving on. This site was already kinda on life support but I loved it anyway, the one thing I can't understand is giving one of the most popular boards a hotshot of cyanide through privating it and complete failure of communication on an epic scale.

And then they (both Timmy and DToast) blame US for "acting/posting in bad faith" when we react negatively to said complete failure of communication, to the point of deciding that they don't want to interact with us or take our feedback, anymore.

Hey, newsflash, Admins of fandom: When you leave people desperate for answers in the dark, they will start to come up with their own theories, which are likely to be negative. This is just human nature -- sociology 101. If, in addition, you leave the mods/leaders of the community in the dark, this will foster distrust and make those connected dots manifest into something far more negative, including but not limited to a tribalist reaction (an us-vs-them view of Fandom Inc vs the Gamefaqs community). Responding by accusing your customers/contributors of reacting "in bad faith" then withdrawing from further interaction only exacerbates the problem further. As a for-profit company, this is something that you should already know -- it's an essential part of PR.

Hyena_Of_Ice posted...

customers

We're not the customers though. We're the product they sell to advertising companies. So we just need to be good cattle and keep our mouths shut in their eyes.

I don't understand why Fandom even cares this much about what happens on this site. They know how little traffic it gets, and surely they realize that trying to snuff out the site's most popular board isn't going to do them any favors.

For the record, despite all the chaos this is causing here, it is generating ZERO buzz on social media. I just did a thorough search, and I found precisely ONE tweet directly referencing the rule change, and another vaguely alluding to it while talking about something else.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

I love it when users can get along like this. I hope you two can be friends.

Not to take anything away from the extreme ridiculousness of that moderator's notes - I sincerely hope this board keeps on trucking for awhile, because that's just the kind of blunder that will rightfully get made fun of for years and become an indelible part of CE history - but the line between 'decent' and 'obscene' when it comes to any kind of sexual content is something that authority figures will never stop embarrassing themselves trying to arbitrate fairly and consistently.

I mean, an actual Supreme Court Justice wasn't able to express his opinions in any manner more descriptive and consistent than "I know it when I see it." How well could you possibly expect a handful of message board moderators to tackle the issue in a way that's uniformly enforced?

Again, not trying to defend the site over this. I'm just expressing that general incompetence on this particular issue is a given on pretty much every level of authority. It's always going to be a case of a particular authority figure on a particular day simply not liking what they see, and reacting accordingly. They can try and cite laws / ToS to back up their actions after the fact until they're blue in the face (hence why justifications like that moderator's note too often end up being so laughably off-base), but it's always going to boil down to a single person's knee-jerk reaction to viewing content they don't like, and possessing the authority to remove it.

I've disputed it!

Mostly to see if I can get some clarification of the rule.

I originally wasn't going to because I didn't lose any karma or get a Warning or anything, so I didn't really care that much.

itcheyness posted...

I've disputed it!

Mostly to see if I can get some clarification of the rule.

I originally wasn't going to because I didn't lose any karma or get a Warning or anything, so I didn't really care that much.

Nice! Keep us posted

Karovorak posted...

Yeah.

I would have understood if the topic got modded for trolling. There would have been some logic to that, because it was snarky and provocative.

But it got actually modded for "offensive material" because it was "objectiving people".

The content/images got modded, not the topic itself.

Historically "the moderation reason is wrong" has never been valid but ok fine. That's not what happened. The mod went out of their way to make a statement about policy in the moderation.

I wonder if they cracked down on all those fucking awful horny shitpost ads.

What if it's just a picture of feet, with no person showing.

Citrik seems legit.

There will be more questions coming down the road though.

Mad-Dogg posted...

......would I get put in time out if I posted the EU x-blades boxart even though a picture of the game exists in gamefaq's video game box art images?

I want to post it, but I don't know if I can anymore lol.

Man, remember when Gamefaqs had screenshots of hentai games? I think some of them were direct links to some other websight. That was a long ass time ago.

-Crissaegrim- posted...

I wonder if they cracked down on all those fucking awful horny shitpost ads.

Seems like a pretty big oversight to be honest.

Tyranthraxus posted...

Historically "the moderation reason is wrong" has never been valid but ok fine. That's not what happened. The mod went out of their way to make a statement about policy in the moderation.

TBH, the lack of back and forth communication is really frustrating. That's part of why we've been encouraging people to ask questions about their moderations on AtM before they dispute if they're confused about something. I'll try to send it up the line to highlight it when the guidelines get updated.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/10-ask-the-mods

One thing I really ended up disagreeing with Allen and Devin on was getting rid of mod responses to disputes. People can't ask why anymore.

itcheyness posted...

I've disputed it!

Mostly to see if I can get some clarification of the rule.
I originally wasn't going to because I didn't lose any karma or get a Warning or anything, so I didn't really care that much.

Wait, how is that possible? I thought that Offensive posting came with a mandatory karma loss.

Alright boys, it's back to text pictures, let's see if I can still do this...

...O...
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Baphometa posted...

TBH, the lack of back and forth communication is really frustrating. That's part of why we've been encouraging people to ask questions about their moderations on AtM before they dispute if they're confused about something. I'll try to send it up the line to highlight it when the guidelines get updated.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/10-ask-the-mods

There are currently FIVE unanswered questions there regarding the new rules. Ask the Mods is completely useless for this.

"If the users are hornyposting, nobody will hornydownload our hornygames! They won't hornyclick our hornyads! You gotta put a stop to the hornyposting, or you're gonna have a bad hornytime."

Tyranthraxus posted...

What'd you think of the video?

Excellent. A good follow up to the previous one from the other channel that he mentioned. They were once upon a time discussing their wiki's, but now those same poor vague rules and communication, inconsistency is bleeding into here.

and since Fandom owns GameSpot too, I wouldn't be surprised if they picked a angry editor who would give Stellar Blade a 1/10 because "grrrr sexual!". Do a IGN collab while you're at it ^_^

I miss the CNET owners.

pokedude900 posted...

There are currently FIVE unanswered questions there regarding the new rules. Ask the Mods is completely useless for this.

I think at least some of that is likely due to the mods trying to figure it out amongst themselves on their own private board atm

My topic has been restored, but no direct response to my dispute.

Exit: so far anyway.

itcheyness posted...

My topic has been restored, but no direct response to my dispute.

Exit: so far anyway.

We dont have the ability to respond to disputes regardless of their status.

Citrik posted...

We dont have the ability to respond to disputes regardless of their status.

I remember we used to get responses back in the day, I haven't had a moderation to dispute in a while.

Hyena_Of_Ice posted...

Wait, how is that possible? I thought that Offensive posting came with a mandatory karma loss.

The 3KL hasn't been a thing for many years now

Yeah I really think you guys should propose bringing back moderation dispute responses. I mean, if it matters in the grand scheme of things.

itcheyness posted...

I remember we used to get responses back in the day, I haven't had a moderation to dispute in a while.

This is true. My first ever mod I responded/was responded to. Guess that's not done much anymore. Sometimes you need to explain things to dispute but these days it's more a one and done; "not up for debate" parent style of denial.

Citrik posted...

That said, I would still caution trying to intentionally toe the line and becoming disruptive.

Which again, wouldn't be a problem if we had clear rules instead of, like I said, nothing but horrible, completely arbitrary misinterpretations of supposed, meaningless rules.

paerarru posted...

Which again, wouldn't be a problem if we had clear rules instead of, like I said, nothing but horrible, completely arbitrary misinterpretations of supposed, meaningless rules.

"Don't toe the line."

"Lovely. I will do that, just as soon as you actually paint it.""

Modsnodnt have the ability to respond to disputes anymore? Holy shit I might actually look at my moderations now.

SauI_Goodman posted...

Modsnodnt have the ability to respond to disputes anymore? Holy shit I might actually look at my moderations now.

That's been the case for over a year.

Closer to four years now I think.