@Anonymous #760A
This kind of ‘refining the edge’ is really, in my opinion at least, one of the reasons that things are happening the way they are on other sites today.
When you have a volunteer run fan site, it’s important that the rules are flexible, yet simple enough, that you don’t have to spend staff time debating whether or not a rule applies to a particular image.
Like with Derpibooru a couple of years ago, when people were trying to ‘find the line’ with Rule #5 foalcon, and were uploading images that effectively were human children wearing fursuit-like onesies “to see if these are ok or not”. You can end up with your volunteers spending more time trying to figure out how to handle 1 or 2 images than they spend time on anything else on the site, while a handful of individuals try to figure out ‘just how much loli is ok?’. At the time, DB went with ‘none is ok. Just none’. And that really helped staff be able to get back to just managing the site.
But DB is effectively in the same spot today - they’re spending all their time trying to figure out ‘what is too nazi’. There’s only so much a volunteer staff can handle in an hour or two after work, and if you spend all your time debating whether two nearly identical images do or do not represent some sort of line, day after day, then that becomes what you are doing and little else gets done. For me, it is emotionally and even physically exhausting, and people burn out. It can really shut down the site’s ability to respond to the normal noise of daily existence.
It’s easier to just say; “Please stop speculating. Please stop trying to ‘refine the line’.”
Having a very simple “content that promotes nazi ideals, and content that promotes hatred and/or discrimination against others based on race, gender, or sexuality” keeps it simple, and manageable without having to staff up the site just to handle one theme of images (which isn’t even the site’s speciality), or spend hours debating speculative (or actual) images just to precisely define one rule that isn’t even the site’s speciality.
This actually reminds me of how Rooster Chicken clarified their stance in the Red Vs Blue episode “Red Vs Red” (season 15 episode 19) where literally everyone in the enemy base was some kind of a horrible bigot or fascist.
Red: Ease up, broseph. Just say, “Don’t knock it till you try it.”
Blue: Personally, I don’t see what the big deal is.
Red: They’re baaaby seeals. See, that’s why it’s so funny when you bash their brains in. Personally, I put on some Nickelback, do a few dozen at a time… Brrrup! [Chuckles]
Blue: Yeah, yeah, I mean, I guess that’s kind of funny.
Red: Fine, Judge Judy, the heck do you do for fun?
Blue: Oh, you know, normal stuff. I like pushing small children down wells… I like hunting endangered animals… I like driving around without ever using my turn signals!
Red: Hahaha, nice.
Blue: Yeah, you know lately, I’ve really been into defending Hitler on the internet.
Red: Heeeell yeah. Pretty much every Red on this seal site is a casual racist AND a Holocaust denier!
Blue: Haha, same with the Blues. We also agree that all women are sluts.
Obviously, the plot purpose of this was setting up a scene where it was ok for the heroes to run in and kill every single one of the
motherfuckers at the enemy base in the most extreme and humiliating ways possible without having to carry a ton of spear or do more than the most simple exposition, and without the heroes of the show looking like horrible
bastards who just murdered a ton of people but the audience wasn’t even sure if they were really the bad guys or just some part timers who got hired to stand in front of the enemy base.
But aside from the work it did for the story line, it also sent a clear message to Rooster Teeth’s online community. Sure, the example is harsh and extreme. But that sure makes it simple doesn’t it? Anyone who wasn’t sure whether Rooster Chicken secretly loved fascists got their answer.
So, maybe don’t upload images of nazis here, regardless of the theme. There’s lots of sites where that will be fine and even welcomed, and people will respond to your uploads with glowing praise.
Like with lolicon - if you’re not sure if it’s lolicon or not, then that means it might be lolicon. So please don’t upload it.
And it’s exactly the same as racist jokes. If you have to preface your joke with “This is probably racist, but”, then stop there. Because it’s probably racist. So just stop.
If you really want to upload those images that you’re describing somewhere, then there’s sites that would love to host them. Log onto one of them, put on some Nickelback, and upload a dozen of those ‘not sure if too nazi or not’ images to those other sites if you would like. Maybe there’ll be lots of people there who want to analyze those images to debate whether they are ‘too nazi’ or ‘not nazi enough’. Maybe those people will spend weeks or even months talking with you about it.
But maybe let’s not do that here, ok?
And if exploring the precise nature of a rule, or narrowing down the specifics to precise details based on speculative images is fun for you, or really clicks a button that helps you deal with stress, then there’s lots of stuff here that should be equally fascinating and satisfying for you. Like how should characters with scales be tagged? What is ‘too scaly’? What is ‘not scaly enough’?
Those kinds of questions seem much more like the kind of thing a furry fansite would love to talk about, and might actually get into in great detail and enjoy it.
Personally, I would rather do neither, but at least the ‘scaly’ discussion would have something to do with the core purpose of this site.
2LDR: If you don’t care, that’s perfect. Don’t care. Relax. Find something you do care about, and have fun with it.
Because if you’re not having fun, then it just isn’t any fun.
