Nah, biting in the face is Theodore's job. When he's not carrying the world that is.

He wants people to harass people he doesn't like off the forum, plain and simple.

What's plain and simple is this. I don't like you. But I haven't written you off as a rampant homophobe. So when a member vomits a homophobic manifesto into the forum – one that in my opinion does warrant an instant ban – and even attacks a member directly with it, I would expect you to voice just a little bit of protest. But you can't. Because you think you have to keep your mouth shut tight as you're working towards the same greater goal. You wouldn't associate with the guy, certainly, it just becomes a topic that you're tiptoeing around, attacking other members for other reasons, and therewith you implicitly approve of it.

There is no "greater goal" though.

The forum rules should be precise enough to address homophobia as a bannable offense directly. We've been over this hump. Long, long over this hump, for decades. The stupid culture wars have made homophobia en vogue again. Speaking out against homophobia is "taking a stand" again. It shouldn't even be. It should be completely normal.

I don't have any obligation to defend anyone, nor any obligation to convince someone of something or or shame them into accepting it. You can make and believe any number of reasons about why I don't feel like I am obligated, as you already have, but the truth remains that I simply don't come on here to talk about the said issue (or really, any ''gender / orientation is fake / disease'' type issues).

I don't even know how you bent what I've said on these forums inside your head; but any skimming of what I've posted and what Lin545 has posted would clearly show that we are at odds and don't have the same ''greater goal''.

Also don't think anything is an excuse for the fact that you want a forum atmosphere where people attack others for disagreeing with them, despite all of your supposed support of anti-harassment and anti-bullying. Especially to the level of eating into the hands of a vague as hell ''rule'' that gives all power to the moderators to remove and even misquote what they do not like. That could be certainly be interpreted as wanting zero accountability from those in the position of power as long as they agree with you.

*sigh*

Can we just not have this "discussion" at all and simply ban people who post homophobic manifestos? Here's to hoping.

lol do you know what ad hominem even is?

ad hominem
adverb & adjective
adverb: ad hominem; adjective: ad hominem
1. (of an argument or reaction) directed against a person rather than the position they are maintaining.
"an ad hominem response"
2. relating to or associated with a particular person.
"the office was created ad hominem for Fenton"


I was saying that I don't talk about homophobia and such, not making personal attacks. Read my post history if you want. I stopped talking about gender issues and similar things quite a long time ago.

Also, no mention of free speech at all in my post, and I didn't even have it in mind when I typed it out.

Also, if you're referring to Lin's reply to dtgreene, I don't even know if its an attack as opposed to an assertion since I don't know what gender dtgreene is, or most people on this forum for that matter.

"Quite a long time ago" = four days ago, when the gamergate thread was closed. From the final day of the gamergate thread, e.g. this:

I have no problem with you voluntarily shutting up about gender issues. You know absolutely nothing about the topic anyway, probably even less.

Selectively ignoring the abject hate adjacent to your own, however, that won't sit right with me.

Seeing that this is a privately owned forum, the moderation staff ALREADY has all the power to remove what they don't like. It's a popular myth among nettizens that the simple act of visiting or posting on a forum makes them entitled to "hold those in the position of power accountable". That's not how it works. Forum owners generally want to make an effort to listen to forum members as a matter of fairness, but in the end, they're not accountable to them.

If the GOG management determine that permitting homophobic rants on their community forums is in their best interests, there's little any member can do against it except make a case that they're wrong about it in an attempt to change their minds.

Likewise if the GOG management determine that keeping homophobic rants out of their community forums is in their best interests, they can delete those posts without the obligation to justify that decision to the members.

The accountability you talk about is a mirage.

I was specifically referring to transphobia / transexuality and homo phobia / sexuality and the discussion around whether they're real / diseases / evil / killing society, etc and how valid each position is / isn't. If you expected me to stop talking about gaming issues that happen to involve gender, then sad news for you.

Didn't know you considered knowing the facts important to forming an opinion. Am touched.

Sorry to add to the off-topic, but the thing that kinda bothers me the most is that if someone trolls the forum (among other things) bad enough, then GOG can permanently ban them from the website. How does said individual buy games here, then? I mean... trolls still buy games don't they? :p

Forum and Store are two different privileges. One can lose the forum privileges while retaining the store one, as has been done in the past. Not sure if we had any store bans yet though.