2009-07-21, 04:52 PM
Quantact Wrote:The problem with one certain forum is that it is very difficult to make an objective and complete analysis of it in such a way that does not sound like mocking. While Nazi Germany is a more extreme example, how do you outline its broad list of transgressions and curtailment of rights without it sounding like "mocking?" You have an admin that appoints women as mods in exchange for naked pictures of themselves and attempts to thought-police people, you have warnings that sound like authority pissing down on the people, special treatment of certain users, arbitrary punishment of other users, banning for mentioning other forums or even names of individuals, and more recently you even have admin-condoned intellectual property theft. How in God's name do you talk about that in a way that does not sound pejorative?
You would talk about it the same way hundreds of historians have done - from an objective point of view. I can easily write 100 pages about Nazi Germany in a non-mocking or condescending tone. I could write about some of the positive things that Nazi Germany did (it wasn't all bad).
The point of all this is that we're better than talking down to other forums and insulting them. There is no point in doing it. There is a strong difference between talking about something and flaming it.
As far as the word of caution, I do understand what you're saying. This is not a new rule to clean up the site. This stand that I have about forum bashing has been around for as long as I can remember. It's only now that I'm deciding to attribute infraction points to it rather than just locking/deleting topics.