[Suggeston] Gay words

also if u ban gay ur not aloud to have best friends of the same gender as you

 

what?

 

let the child have his moment it'll make his day better

 

Yeah, but what message do you think the hypothetical approval of this suggestion sends? It's sends a message saying that it's okay to say "gay" in global channels - And even then, let's say there's no announcement in public of the approval of this suggestion: Players are just going to assume it's okay regardless as staff won't warn for it anymore. And that will just give trolls another tool to troll with.

Again, there's absolutely no reason to be getting that personal in public on a minecraft server. Hell, people rarely get this personal IRL. It's simply something that should be banned, not legalized.

 

if we want to be a server that promotes equality, saying "straight" should be the same as saying "gay" -- it should just be normal chat word

 

Si, +1 to this.. Along as it isn't used in a derogatory manner.
Also, gay doesn't only have one meaning?

Gay,

1. 1a : happily excited : merry <in a gay mood>b : keenly alive and exuberant : having or inducing high spirits <a bird's gay spring song>
2. 2a : bright, lively <gay sunny meadows>b : brilliant in color

Trolls will be trolls regardless.

 

+1 Only when used in an appropriate manner.

 

I personally feel the the moderation needs to try to keep up and just warn when it is used negatively/to discriminate and we don't have to make BOTH "gay", "straight" or any term used to describe someone's sexuality a bad word. Not being able to talk about it even in passing is silly and actually causes a lot of this problem.

It's causing it to be an uncomfortable thing. Rarely is there a time we really need to talk about someone's sexuality on minecraft but discussing your sexuality isn't as simple as bleating "I'm gay" or not, human sexuality is an emotional thing that touches every part of our lives and to make saying words used to describe someone's orientation into "not allowed bad words" is actually not only morally flawed, it doesn't address the issue in any way.

 

I wanted to weigh in on this one, because the use of the word "gay" or uglier words of the same type in a derogatory manner is a serious problem. Now, I do think that the staff do a phenomenal job of addressing this when they see it. That being said, @Obblebobble has points in his favor, but the existing rule has a major point in its favor. @Obblebobble is right that "gay" is not a logical word to ban entirely, but the existing rule has the benefit of being a bright line rule. You see, one of the favorite arguments of teenage boys who like to throw around words like "gay" and other words like it as insults, is to argue that they meant "merry," or "a cigarette."

This, we can all agree, is utter h****sh**. I mean, no living human being on earth, including English professors and Pulitzer-winning playwrights, ever uses the word "gay" to mean merry any more, or has ever done so since something like 1987. Literally 100 percent of all people on earth referring to that definition of "gay" are people trying to cover for the fact that using the word "gay" as an insult is precisely what they intended to do.

However, under the previous rule, and even under the current one, well-intentioned staff doing their very best to address this problem ended up stuck in endless debates with little [very bad word]s who just want to be [equally bad word]s in global. The bright line rule eliminates this hassle for them, at the cost of being just a wee bit of overkill. Because it is simpler to administer. This is the cost of bright line rules sometimes -- they solve the problem with less hassle, at the cost of being a little inequitable.

And lest we forget that this is not merely an academic issue for some players on here, I'm going to repost something I wrote last year, because I don't want to necro the thread, but it bears repeating. Some of you will never truly be aware of how hurtful some words can be, because you were born Caucasian, heterosexual males (not that there's anything wrong with that). But there aren't any words like this that apply to you - words whose original purpose was to dehumanize the person described. Some of you, on the other hand, know all too well what this is like, it's just that you hear different words, and they're not what this particular thread is about.

This is from a post I wrote on May 31, 2015:

Friends:

I want to make an observation about something I've noticed a little too often lately. "Anyone who doesn't lotto is gay," "you're gay, dude," and various other uses of the word "gay" as an insult -- or the word "fag." (sorry, mods, this won't make sense unless I include that word.) Many of the players on here are young, and I think many of you haven't yet learned how damaging that kind of thing can be.

Life can be very difficult for young gays/lesbians, because many are brought up in homes or communities where they are taught that who they are is wrong or worthless. They didn't choose to be who they are, and there is still a higher rate of suicide and depression among gay youth than the general population. Often, for a kid coming to terms with who he or she is, and living in an unkind home or community or part of the country or world, having a safe place to escape to is so important to their well-being. More important than you can quite grasp. It can be a little spark of brightness in a hostile world.

A kid who feels that way about this server could be anyone you are playing with, or anyone listening to any chat channel. A kid who is scared at home, or bullied at school, or just plain depressed -- but they can come on here and stack little blocks or play sg or mine and feel that they belong, that they're among friends, that they are in a safe place. They're not going to complain when they hear someone called a "fag" or something like that -- they're just going to hurt, and they're going to feel unwelcome, and you'll never know that you did that to them. Because they're not going to tell you, and they might not come back. And you don't know what the rest of their life is like, and maybe you just broke something for them in a way you'll never understand.

When you want to throw out an insult in good fun, find a different one. It's not like this server isn't full of players creatively insulting each other all the time, and it is fun. We have a million ways to make fun of each other -- use the other 999,999.

Thank you for reading.

@Nicit6 @ClarinetPhoenix @oreo1227 @Smorezs @idkhowtoplay @Imaginex @pokemon9508 @314

 

Unfortunately, though it is the year 2016 the whole concept of homosexuality is taboo for some people and therefore it's inherently funny or offensive to them. I don't know if an actual warning by a staff member prompted @Obblebobble to make his original post or what. Using the word gay in an insulting or joking way is clearly inappropriate. It seems to be an issue of asking the staff to be mindful when they decide whether somebody is trolling by using the word gay or not, rather than making a blanket ban of the word. I would suggest we don't add it to the "bad word" list in the optional filter whenever it gets implemented. Once the filter is on and the new swearing rules are in effect, I don't think there should be warnings given for just saying the word gay in the appropriate context anyway. If the topic in global starts to veer toward politics or graphic depictions of sex of any orientation, then that's when it becomes a "touchy subject" and some staff intervention would be needed.

 

Unless you're using the word gay for the meaning "lighthearted and carefree" or straight for the meaning of 180 degrees, you shouldn't say anything that has to do with someone's sexuality.

+1

 

Yeah, the misuse is covered by existing rules.

Try to imagine:

User One: "oh well my boyfriend says...."

User Two: "oh I never realized you were a girl"

User One: "nah, I am gay"

Moderator: "STOP that's a bad word please needlessly pussyfoot around a part of your life and identity next time just because, you know, otherwise I might have to read chat for context next time cuz trolls are hard tysm "

If that was me I'd nope out of the server with my paypal account info so fast and hard that andrewkm would wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat not knowing what happened but only feeling the distant ache of lost revenue.

It's intolerant to ban the words gay or straight just at face value.

 

(I'll start off by saying +1.) It is ridiculous that a large group of people are being discriminated because of there sexuality (something they are born with and cannot change). It is also ridiculous that this is happening on our server and in our community! The fact that I can say I am heterosexual in chat but someone of a different sexuality cannot say theirs is simply disgusting. Either ban all words related to sexuality or rewrite the rule!

 

yeah yesterday i got warned for "trolling" after saying gay

 

I don't disagree; words about someone's sexuality shouldn't even be said in any context on this server.