Is slack a private social club and other issues my sorry ass has landed itself in

[SteelCurtain]

You were put on pause from slack. You weren't banned permanently. The very fact that you'd compare fresa or boujee to the n word is telling.

It's not the forum. It absolutely is a private club where there are different guidelines. I'm not sure why you'd expect it to be under some proprietorship of the forum itself. It isn't.

The way to get into our elitist club is:
1) Be a member of the forum for 60 days.
2) Don't have been a dick.
3) Don't be a dick.
4) Don't be a creep.

The only people who have been removed from slack permanently are those that have requested their accounts disabled, and those who violated one of the above (stringent and elitist as they are) rules.

I didn't respond to your PM because I am recused from making any decisions. If you want to have a discussion with the rest of staff about the length of your Slack pause, make a QFS thread.

[Angrboda]

Saying fresa is not a slur of any kind in the same way as me calling you a whiny titty baby isn’t a slur. Sure it’s an insult, but it was never used in systematically oppressing an entire group of people.

Nor was it used in that manner here, either, a point you seem to want to ignore.

And again, this appears, at least in your case, to be an example of political correctness run amok, that specific words, regardless of how they are used, are simply too offensive to be allowed.

---

You were put on pause from slack. You weren't banned permanently. The very fact that you'd compare fresa or boujee to the n word is telling.

It's not the forum. It absolutely is a private club where there are different guidelines. I'm not sure why you'd expect it to be under some proprietorship of the forum itself. It isn't.

The way to get into our elitist club is:
1) Be a member of the forum for 60 days.
2) Don't have been a dick.
3) Don't be a dick.
4) Don't be a creep.

The only people who have been removed from slack permanently are those that have requested their accounts disabled, and those who violated one of the above (stringent and elitist as they are) rules.

I didn't respond to your PM because I am recused from making any decisions. If you want to have a discussion with the rest of staff about the length of your Slack pause, make a QFS thread.

Thank you, Steel. I appreciate your response, and I will do as you suggest, but in the meantime I have raised issues which I think are germane to the forum as a whole. I understand that you are recused from the matter, but I'm not asking for an official opinion on the matter, I just want to understand how and why you viewed it as something that required such action. I am still at a loss as to understanding your specific reasons and given your silence on the matter can only speculate and suggest that my banning was a result of a misunderstanding.

(ETA: There will be a delay in my opening that thread as I've been at this for a substantial part of the morning and am going to turn my attention away from such matters for a while. Your response to me may be private if you wish. I won't consider it official.)

(ETA2: If it is indeed a private, elitist club which is only available to select members, then I would suggest that it is inappropriate to use forum resources to promote it. If y'all want to form private social clubs, you can do that through PM, just as Catholic_lady and the theists essentially did prior to their departure. I find this use of resources highly questionable, and it puts your contention that it is or has been used as such in doubt. Obviously it has not been promoted as such, for very obvious reasons. If that is all it is, then I request that all references to it be removed from AF, and perhaps that Tiberius, you, and other interested parties want to form a private social club, that the slack channels as such are irreparably stained by this misuse, and that it should be shut down and the lot of you who are so interested can create your social clubs independently, through PM or whatever.)

[Lemon Curry]

Saying fresa is not a slur of any kind in the same way as me calling you a whiny titty baby isn’t a slur. Sure it’s an insult, but it was never used in systematically oppressing an entire group of people.

Nor was it used in that manner here, either, a point you seem to want to ignore.

And again, this appears, at least in your case, to be an example of political correctness run amok, that specific words, regardless of how they are used, are simply too offensive to be allowed.

I've put as my religious views: Shirt Lifter.

It isn't meant to be an insult.  It was meant as a support for Boru when he signed his name N***** Boru, which, itself, was a response to a dumb-ass comment from that tit end of the first water, drich.

Also, I may well be a shift lifter.  You don't know.

Where's the line for all this PC nonsense to be drawn?

[LadyForCamus]

Jorm, I appreciate your apology, and I will take you at your word that you meant no offense. Thank you.  That being said, I’m getting really sick of white people, in general, making excuses and rationalizations for saying the N-word. Just fucking stop. Every adult on this forum should know better. The fact that this word is even a topic of debate right now is lending it power and attention that it doesn’t deserve. It needs to die out of our vocabulary. Full stop. On what grounds could anyone possibly argue otherwise? I can’t imagine how it must feel to be a black person watching a bunch of white folks debate what circumstances are “appropriate” for them to use the N-word. How fucking belittling.

I’m not saying I’m perfect. As a white girl from the burbs, I’m sure I’ve said some racially insensitive stuff along the way without realizing. And, I realize I’m not absolved of responsibility here. I’m participating as much as anyone else, but can’t we raise the bar a bit higher than this? This conversation is the type of thing that white people will never have to suffer. I sympathize with Steel that he has to witness this kind of crap play out in a place he probably considers as much of a home as his own.

And no, sorry. Black people using that word with each other is not the same. They re-claimed it, and gave it a new meaning. The two scenarios are not equivalent. They couldn’t be more different, actually. One scenario represents using a word to control and dehumanize a group of people, and the other represents that dehumanized group of people attempting to liberate themselves in some small way, from the power and dehumanizing effects of that word. It’s the least we can do, giving them that. Perhaps I’m overly sensitive, but that’s my position on the subject. Take it as you will.

As far as Slack goes, the chat is open to anyone. Maybe we need a more concrete set of rules, but generally speaking, if you not a dick most of the time, things will probably work out. I’m not calling you a dick, Jorm. I’m just generalizing how the admins choose to run the joint.

[robvalue]

I would say that trying to stop people saying a word, and attaching significance to a word regardless of context, actually creates a vicious circle. If instead society stopped caring about individual words and trying to police them, they’d all lose their power.

People use such words because they know they’ll get a reaction; take away the reaction, and you take away the incentive.

[Angrboda]

I'll have to read your reply later, Camoo. I need to get to the gym, but I just wanted to make one other comment.

As some of you may know, a sister forum, atheistdiscussion.org, has as its primary rule, "Don't be a dick." The inadequacy and subjectivity and potential abuse of such a criterion has been criticized by several on this forum as likely to result in unjust and unfair abuses by the staff of that forum. I do not see how such criticisms would not apply here. Tiberius has been good about doing what he can to eliminate subjectivity from interpretation and enforcement of the rules, instead of depending upon subjective interpretations of intent, or whatever. I don't know that Steelcurtain's summary of the criteria is accurate or not, but to my eye it incorporates a lot of the practice, if not any letter of the law. I would ask that Tiberius clarify if these are indeed the criteria being employed, and if so, why he considers such subjective criteria wise when applied to slack, but not when applied to the forum as a whole.

[Foxaèr]

I'll have to read your reply later, Camoo.  I need to get to the gym, but I just wanted to make one other comment.

As some of you may know, a sister forum, atheistdiscussion.org, has as its primarily rule, "Don't be a dick."  The inadequacy and subjectivity and potential abuse of such a criterion has been criticized by several on this forum as likely to result in unjust and unfair abuses by the staff of that forum.  I do not see how such criticisms would not apply here.  Tiberius has been good about doing what he can to eliminate subjectivity from interpretation and enforcement of the rules, instead of depending upon subjective interpretations of intent, or whatever.  I don't know that Steelcurtain's summary of the criteria is accurate or not, but to my eye it incorporates a lot of the practice, if not any letter of the law.  I would ask that Tiberius clarify if these are indeed the criteria being employed, and if so, why he considers such subjective criteria wise when applied to slack, but not when applied to the forum as a whole.

My one concern with equating atheistdiscussion.org with AF is that here we have actual theistic interactions, even if it is mostly from trolls (they can be fun). AD.org is just a coffee house forum.

[SteelCurtain]

You always know you're right when you quote the dictionary.

[Foxaèr]

You always know you're right when you quote the dictionary.

[brewer]

Slippery slope.

(sorry asian people)