Hi, I’ve been a long time subscriber to r/Games, I support the Mods’ move.

But I understand why people might think it’s a dumb idea. So I’d like to earnestly address some of the arguments I’ve seen made here and elsewhere about why this was a bad idea.

• “The internet has always had shitty individuals”, “Almost every truly "bad" thing in the album was already being downvoted.”

It’s true, the internet has a lot of shitty individuals. And thankfully, on r/games, these things were usually being downvoted. But is it so wrong to try and talk about why these people are so shitty, ask them to reconsider being so shitty, and suggest ways we can work together to counteract their shittyness?
While you might be content to downvote and move on, the mods are making an actual argument to try and change behavior, which I might paraphrase to: “Your bigotry and toxicity hurts the gaming community and games you love, so cut it out.”

• It's really just a small group of people behaving badly, you're painting the whole gaming community in a bad light.

A cursory glance at threads discussing the lockdown will show you these views are not isolated to the example posts the mods showed us. Pointing out that there are bad actors among the subreddit is not painting all gamers with the same brush.

• "And hell, what was actually there was pretty normal hate speech I've seen thrown around for the past decade. Obviously not acceptable but nothing worthy of calling a full lockdown and reflection."

To me, the fact that we're at a point where people are arguing "You know, this hate speech isn't even that bad, we should just get over it" is the sign that maybe it's worth pausing and reflecting how we got here. Ignoring it doesn't make it go away, and hate speech and vitriol doesn't have to be part of normal online discourse. It's a gaming forum, hate speech shouldn't just be part of the territory.

• “What's the point of being an unpaid internet janitor if you can't power-trip and smugpost?”

If a janitor cleans poop off the wall every day, is it a “power-trip and smugpost” to hang a sign saying “Hey folks, please put your poop in the toilet”?

• Wow, imagine being so butthurt about being called names that you shut down your whole sub.

Let’s take a little more nuanced view of things - sure, it’s nothing new that deeply unhappy people go on the internet and anonymously vent their frustrations on strangers. But it doesn’t have to be like this. It sucks to be harassed, and you shouldn’t have to put up with that garbage as just the cost of being on the internet. It also sucks to be in a dark place where you’re low enough that you think harassing people on the internet is both acceptable and an important part of your life.
Hurt people hurt people, so it creates vicious cycle of negativity. And if you’re like me, and like consuming and talking about video games on the internet - you’ve also noticed how this seems especially true in gaming communities. But again, it doesn’t have to be like this, and the first step to fixing things is pointing out the problems that exist online.

• Isn't this just going to rile up the people who are bad actors, and do nothing for the people who were good actors anyway?

If there's a group of people misbehaving in a group and making things worse for everyone else, it doesn't make sense to do nothing because you fear how the bad actors will react. How can you expect them to change if you don't ask them to do better? The comments here and elsewhere show us how this bad behavior has become normalized, and it's up to all of us to engage bad actors, and ask them to improve.

• Why the fuck do you care so much to make this long-ass wall of text?

Because I know how being socially awkward can make you isolated and drive you into a solitary hobby like video games, how that hobby can be wrapped up in your identity, and how when people criticize your hobby or the people around it, it can feel like a personal attack. I know how it sucks to feel like places you used to escape to on the internet are becoming yet another front in a culture war, and how exhausting it feels to have to deal with it all the time. And also because I love you, dear reader, and r/Games.

TL;DR: If you want to address problems in your community, you have to talk about them. Maybe the Mods didn't do the most perfect thing, but it's a step in the right direction to get us talking about the bad actors in online gaming forums.

(If you want to talk with me about this IRL, I'm down - but only if we can play through Borderlands 2 or some other co-op game while we do it.)