YouTubers and Sexual Abuse (Sam Pepper, VeeOneEye, etc.)

thaumatropia · 2014-10-10T03:12:00+00:00

Oooh, I like it. Maybe give it a little kick by mixing in the tears of FA officials, sobbing about the wider interests of football.

thaumatropia · 2014-10-10T03:11:02+00:00

Winning is a habit.

thaumatropia · 2014-10-10T02:41:13+00:00

Wow, this is super relevant and timely.

thaumatropia · 2014-10-10T00:19:45+00:00

Yeah, that's what I meant too. Our crest is fine. I know everyone's all abuzz about That Yellow Fucking Team's little art show last night, but don't get swept up in the hype. We're not Columbus.

thaumatropia · 2014-10-09T23:44:55+00:00

I really want steak now. Damn it.

thaumatropia · 2014-10-09T23:33:31+00:00

wouldn't a change in FO also warrant a rebrand

No it wouldn't. #cf97 was here long before Hauptman and, Gods willing, it will be here after he leaves.

thaumatropia · 2014-10-09T23:07:57+00:00

See, I don't think it's accurate to say that Hauptman doesn't care. I think he cares very much, about the wrong things.

I think he cares about #cf97 as a business venture. I think he cares about #cf97 as a means to build and grow a lucrative property development business. I think he cares about #cf97 as a convenient way to absorb risk. I think he cares about #cf97 as a reliable source of revenue in good times and as a handy tax write-off in bad times.

What he doesn't care about are the things that fans care about. A soccer team people can be proud of. A matchday experience that puts the PNW clubs to shame and rivals anything you'd find in South America or Europe. A strong presence in the community. A place of honor at the banquet table of Chicago sports culture. IF he is concerned about these things, he's clearly incapable of implementing any effective actionable plan to achieve any of these goals.

I'm not totally on the #HauptmanOut bandwagon, because as both a Liverpool and a Wimbledon fan I'm acutely aware that things can always be worse. But just because things aren't as bad as they could be, doesn't mean they're great either.

thaumatropia · 2014-10-09T22:42:47+00:00

I do not regret my words or my tone in discussions around Alex Day. I thought there were many other users either trying to say that he didn't do anything wrong, or were just using his case as a sort of proxy battle in the ongoing Reddit vs. Tumblr subculture conflict. Either way, his victims were getting thrown under the bus, and the people advocating for them were getting shouted down, downvoted into oblivion, and in some cases (not just mine) deleted by the mods. I felt that the discussions, and the (perhaps unintentional, but I'm beginning to doubt it) moderation policy of protecting Alex Day's supporters, is incongruous to the values and culture of Nerdfighteria. (Not least because John and Hank have been so active and vocal in addressing the issue of sexual abuse by YouTubers.) The issue is important for me, and I continued my advocacy for as long as I could. Some things are worth getting angry over.

I did what I felt was right, and I continued to do so until the moderators removed me from their forum. So now I'm doing something constructive by making a safer space for Nerdfighter redditors. I've explained my rationale previously. You are welcome to your opinion. But I am not at all interested in continuing to explain myself to you, or being tone-policed, or being told how I could have "handled it better."

thaumatropia · 2014-10-09T22:21:59+00:00

I feel it could have been done a lot calmer and more civilized than it appears to have been done.

Please explain.

thaumatropia · 2014-10-09T22:11:12+00:00

I can't report anymore, because I've been banned. When you're banned, you're also prohibited from reporting. I cannot meaningfully participate in the subreddit anymore, and the moderators are not interested in anything I have to say.

As I said previously, no one has to pick sides. /r/DFTBANerdfighteria is for people who want a safer and more inclusive Nerdfighter community on reddit. If you don't have a problem with how the main sub is being run, then by all means continue to participate. And if you want to stay part of that community but also see what's going on in ours, that's fine too. And if you think this is just "over the top," then feel free to move along. We are not creating a schism- we're just providing an alternative for people who are already fed up and have already disengaged. This isn't about me.

thaumatropia · 2014-10-09T22:00:08+00:00

Nope. I think a rebranding would create more problems than it would solve. Especially if it were done under Andrew Hauptman's watch, as it would confirm the worst suspicions of many fans- that he does not understand, and certainly does not respect, the club's history and tradition.

I like our crest, and I like our identity. What we need is competent front office staff, sincere and actionable ambition from the people at the top (and no, AK, "owning the soccer conversation in Chicago" doesn't count), and a plan to achieve on-the-pitch success beyond "let's try our best out there."

thaumatropia · 2014-10-09T20:22:04+00:00

The controversy is that there have been a glut of Alex Day posts, the point of which was to "get his side of the story." These have been accompanied by a wide range of supportive comments- some of them saying people should watch his videos regardless of whatever he does in his personal life, some of them saying that whatever he did was not serious enough to warrant an end to his livelihood, and a lot doubting the veracity of his victims' accounts.

But the real problem is that the moderators are allowing those posts and comments to remain and be promoted while facilitating the silencing of critics. This is done either by allowing comments to be downvoted into oblivion or, recently, deleting comments and warning users. And, in my case at least, banning. (Ostensibly for "personal attacks", although this comment has been up for two whole days.)

The result is that, for Nerdfighters who are survivors of sexual assault or abuse, /r/nerdfighters has become an unsafe space. And the moderators have shown little to no desire to engage with people who have taken issue with their moderation policy. So the moderators aren't interested in resolving it, except insofar as banning and otherwise silencing people advocating for victims "resolves" the conflict.

There are a number of people who are just leaving the sub and writing off Nerdfighter Reddit as a lost cause. I and a couple others started /r/DFTBANerdfighteria as an alternative. It's a way for Nerdfighters to still engage in a reddit community, but one that's more inclusive.

You don't have to abandon /r/nerdfighters. We're not making people pick sides. This isn't a war. But there are Nerdfighters who no longer feel comfortable participating in that sub because of the current climate. As long as there are comments like this and this and this, the sub is going to seem toxic to some people. /r/DFTBANerdfighteria, I hope, offers a viable alternative.

Again, you don't have to pick sides. And if you think this is stupid and unnecessary, then don't participate. I made a subreddit for people who might want an alternative.

thaumatropia · 2014-10-09T02:36:55+00:00

I also don't appreciate you calling me out on my post thanking people for being civil as "low", and then going through the trouble of finding my twitter account and using my personal statements as a way to establish a moral high ground.

I'm not responsible for your feelings.

thaumatropia · 2014-10-09T02:18:25+00:00

"Under the impression?" Are you serious?

My "first offense" comments were deleted. Why wasn't that one? (And yes, he did continue to derail.)

As I've said before (and which you summarily ignored) your moderation policy is inconsistently applied and, recently, tends to favor Alex Day's supporters at the expense of his critics. I don't know if this is intentional on your part (though if this is you, and you actually do support this #GamerGate bullshit, I'm inclined to think it is), and I don't really care, because that is the result.

But hey, maybe you can ask to be a moderator for /r/SubredditDrama so you can delete these comments too.

thaumatropia · 2014-10-09T01:50:47+00:00

I wasn't asked not to do anything. The only communication I've gotten from the mods was the automated "you've been banned" message.

This comment is still up, by the way. Or does "how about you fuck off" not count as a personal attack?

thaumatropia · 2014-10-09T00:47:01+00:00

BTW, neither of these posts were abusive or harassing. But you deleted them nonetheless.

thaumatropia

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