*wields modhammer... Pay no attention to me, I'm just going to be sorting out and deleting a bunch of stuff from this thread for the next few minutes...
And what Agge said. Knock it off. If I see any more accusations of racism (or racism, for that matter) being bandied around, I'm going to be unhappy. If you have a problem with someone's post, report it, and a moderator will take a look at it. And if you get modded, don't get all mad. Things have clearly gone too far, and I'm simply reducing the noise level in here.
There, done! I've nuked around two and a half pages worth of posts. Again, if your post got nuked it's not because I hate you or you're in any imminent danger of getting banned, it's probably because since a bunch of others were nuked above it, it's now out of context.
So let me quickly summarize the situation. Some people think that some other people have been posting things that are racist. Fair enough; I've seen posts that I feel are racist, and I take appropriate action when I think someone's gone over the line. Other people think that some people are too sensitive and don't want this forum to become a PC nightmare. Again, fair enough, which is why we don't moderate every post that gets reported if we feel that it's not really skirting the line of racism. We try to strike a fair balance between letting people have open discussions and not offending the crap out of people, and in my opinion, our moderators do a pretty durn good job.
Please be aware that sometimes people here will say stuff that rubs you the wrong way. Please also be aware that there are lines you shouldn't cross, that we are not SomethingAwful or 4chan where just about anything goes. No one person here on these forums speaks for the entire community or the Titan Network, and I frequently personally disagree with posters but almost never moderate their posts (unless something like...this...happens). I'm not worried about someone judging SaveCoH or the Titan Network or our community because someone sees a post that someone might construe as vindictive, racist, or otherwise negative, because that would put the unreasonable onus on us to only allow posts that fit in our world view, which is most emphatically not one of our objectives.
And I'll remind everyone yet again that we're all on the same team here, and just like every good team, we have multiple goals and multiple strategies in play to achieve those goals. You don't have to agree with all of them, and no one (at least, that I know of) is asking for anyone to be a mindless cheerleader for everything that gets put forward here. But please, I highly encourage you to focus on supporting actions and attitudes that you find favorable instead of trying to tear down actions and attitudes you find unfavorable. Not only will it be more effective, but you're very unlikely to change anyone's mind who is set in their ways.
All of that having been said, I'll remind everyone again that if you see a post you find objectionable enough that you think it hurts our image or is offensive or dangerous, report it. Even if we don't act on it, it will make our radar to see patterns and trends and take action later if necessary. But also, keep in mind that "I don't agree with this" isn't really a good reason to report posts. That patterns and trends thing can work against you if you convey the impression that you're oversensitive, so for minor stuff, please just let it go, as most of our moderators do have day jobs and stay pretty busy on other CoH-related stuff as well.
Okay, unlocking the thread now, let's see how well this works...
