I don't know why you think that.
Call it a hunch. I've been on a lot of forums over the years, and a few people here have started to rub me up the wrong way. Let's hope none of them are moderators!
I come here to write and talk about videogames
So did I! But if I see something ideological in a video game or any other piece of entertainment media,
which is undeniably happening (any disagreement on this is simple rejection of reality – the past 10 years have been insanely, provably political, especially in the video game space), and I dislike it... then, yeah, I actually
am going to discuss it on the forum. If you don't like that I'm going to do that,
permaban me.
I dare you. You won't, of course, because I'm a well-spoken, well-valued member of the community who's absence would most likely be missed.
I, and most people who aren't trolls, aren't going to use horrible slurs or aggressive personal insults, but we might voice opinions which may disagree with those of, say, a social media-poisoned, hardcore-left-wing manic-depressive suddenly given a position of "power" on an internet forum.
If and when that happens, I don't want to see a moderator shutting down legitimate conversation by saying something like: "ugh, if you guys think this game is "woke", you're just a bunch of weird chuds, and
if you keep saying it I'll ban you." (Or, god forbid, just ban them or remove their posts outright with zero warning.)
If it breaks the rules – the rules that have been listed, and that are clearly visible – that's fine. Remove the post, and, if necessary, ban the user. But you, me, and everyone else reading this knows that, a lot of times,
that's not what's happening. We're all adults, here – we can discuss touchy or controversial topics, which are undeniably present in modern video gaming, without losing our minds.
But some moderators can't do that – they feel like they're saving the world by de-listing conversation that offends them personally, so they use their "power" to harm the community.
That's what I have a problem with. In addition to being demonstrably false, as anyone with even the slightest knowledge of post-2024 international geopolitics can realize, it
destroys conversation.
It makes a forum – like, say RGT – into every other stupid internet video game board, where the same bland, milquetoast opinions and the same bland, milquetoast memes are posted again and again, forever, because no one wants to get on the wrong side of a mod who's just seen a headline about Donald Trump winning again. If that's what this forum is turning into – and I certainly hope it isn't, but I may be wrong – then, again, it really isn't worth my time. Incidentally, I've just passed the 2,000 reaction score mark, so what I write must carry at least some weight with the community.
xKai (I'm sorry, man, your name is really hard to tag) and
@Clippy , that goes for what you two are saying, too.
As I've said before:
I don't want Retro Game Talk to become like everywhere else. No, we certainly don't have to entertain threats, targeted harassment, or slurs, as listed in the rules – but we
should entertain dissenting opinions, even political ones, because
that makes for good discussion. What's the worst that could happen
– your opponent will convince someone?
Again, I'm not saying that this is what's currently happening on the forum.
But it easily is something that could happen, and I want to establish precedent immediately before it does.
And just so we're all clear: I'm not targeting Waffles, nor am I saying that he's guilty of anything I've mentioned above at all. I think he's a really cool, nice guy! I don't know how much I feel that way about the other mods. But, really, my opinion
should hold weight regardless of our personal differences, because it applies to discussion on the website as a whole, not my individual vendettas or lack thereof.
