Anime-Planet's stance on harassment

mussolini said:
I mean that I do not much like these posts:

More properly, some part of the sentiment that they represent (deliberately or not) strikes me as not quite on the mark, so to speak. If you would like me to further elaborate, perhaps this conversation would be better continued in private (and that is an open invitation, not just one to the old man).
Click to expand...

While I am more on the side of people like you and Gin on this issue, we shouldn't turn this thread into part 2 of this.
 
I would believe some of this stems from dumb users who interrupt the harmony of anime planet's openness and generally maturity (that's I've always noted was waaaay above other communities).

I can't remember the name of all of them, but a few users here lately were trolling/flamebaiting or just making groups of people so fucking angry (I know because I am in AP chat) in the anime forums. I think if you allow people to act like idiots, there's going to be a clash with intelligent people, because they do not work together.

I don't get along with stupid people either, but I generally just disregard them. I'm not saying innocent people weren't bullied, but I think the bulk of people receiving it are clashing with AP's general tone (which is intelligence and maturity).

The question is, what are you going to do about it?

I've been on forums where a new member joins and he just gets attacked for no reason at all. This place isn't like that, we have a nice intro forum and we welcome new comers. I can't say much more, since I haven't seen these harassing comments in user reviews myself. But it probably stemmed from the forum first.

It isn't just a question of the act itself, it's important to ask the question why. Without understanding the motivations behind the act, you are powerless.
 
''If you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything at all.''

This could be considered the basis of what you need to know in order to be mildly nice. What is so difficult about that? I do not know, but apparently it is just too great of a task for some people. Quite sad if you ask me.
 
Raven said:
I would believe some of this stems from dumb users who interrupt the harmony of anime planet's openness and generally maturity (that's I've always noted was waaaay above other communities).

I can't remember the name of all of them, but a few users here lately were trolling/flamebaiting or just making groups of people so fucking angry (I know because I am in AP chat) in the anime forums. I think if you allow people to act like idiots, there's going to be a clash with intelligent people, because they do not work together.

I don't get along with stupid people either, but I generally just disregard them. I'm not saying innocent people weren't bullied, but I think the bulk of people receiving it are clashing with AP's general tone (which is intelligence and maturity).
Click to expand...

It's not "dumb" users that disrupt the forum/whatever, it's assholes. These terms are not interchangeable. It's really annoying and elitist when the nerd community (all of it, not just you) uses "stupid" or similar as insults because spoiler alert: people that are less intelligent than you (by whatever arbitrary standards) aren't worth less as people, and have just as much right to the community. Furthermore, "stupid people" are usually just the result of not having access to the same high-quality education (due to socioeconomic class, or whatever) that most nerd-types do, since nerd-types tend to be overwhelmingly upper-middle class.
Cut it out.

Sorry for the mini-rant, this is a pet peeve of mine.
 
PinkyIvan said:
This was made before rori got banned since this is about him as all of you must know. How it was on the other forums and stuff.
2. Rorico's Podcasts (Planet Tyro - June 2012, part1) - YouTube
Click to expand...

I like how he skirts responsibility for his actions by blaming the users for his bans, then he claims it's because of people under 20 that gets him banned, and after which he bullshits any reason any admin has given him as to the reason for his bans.

That's just frustrating. The simple fact of the matter is he has been banned from 3 of the major anime forums now, and I implore anyone to look up the publicly posted reasons for his bans, as opposed to listening to him lie about it. The fact he envisions himself as a shounen hero as a result is absurd.
 
I listened to a bit of that video just to see what he had to say. And I mean, I can get behind someone willing to talk about the negative sides of an anime. However, the only thing I ever saw him do was come back week after week to talk down about the anime. He showed no respect for people trying to enjoy a given show. Any explanation you might have given him against his statements were disregarded as if what you had to say had no value.

I was never aware of any "group harassment" that he was involved in, but I felt like discussions in the anime discussion threads lost a lot of quality whenever he came around. That's where my biggest complaint came from. And because of that, I stopped frequenting the discussion forum for a while because I knew what I'd find.

Anyway, there's a sarcastic saying that the "Internet is serious business." Of course, people don't feel a personal responsibility when being disrespectful to someone. That's the big problem here. Such a cynical person came around and disrupted our community. I'm wondering if it's necessary to revamp the community guidelines...
 
vernanonix said:
I listened to a bit of that video just to see what he had to say. And I mean, I can get behind someone willing to talk about the negative sides of an anime. However, the only thing I ever saw him do was come back week after week to talk down about the anime. He showed no respect for people trying to enjoy a given show. Any explanation you might have given him against his statements were disregarded as if what you had to say had no value.

I was never aware of any "group harassment" that he was involved in, but I felt like discussions in the anime discussion threads lost a lot of quality whenever he came around. That's where my biggest complaint came from. And because of that, I stopped frequenting the discussion forum for a while because I knew what I'd find.

Anyway, there's a sarcastic saying that the "Internet is serious business." Of course, people don't feel a personal responsibility when being disrespectful to someone. That's the big problem here. Such a cynical person came around and disrupted our community. I'm wondering if it's necessary to revamp the community guidelines...
Click to expand...
Funny how I feel there were more discussions when he was around, you can't see that now because a big part of his posts and the discussions they started were removed as flame bates and troll posts but that's another story. I agree on the part he should have shown more respect.
 
true there were more discussions ....but a lot of them were centered on what a jerk he was being...and had little to do with the anime being discussed before the disruption....i hate seeing anyone banned because i'm a big softy and would give endless chances...but sothis can't be too lenient......as it is her responsibility to make anime planet the kind of place we now have...i don't think many would want this to degreade into a standard web site were flame wars and insults are the norm....
 
PinkyIvan said:
Funny how I feel there were more discussions when he was around, you can't see that now because a big part of his posts and the discussions they started were removed as flame bates and troll posts but that's another story. I agree on the part he should have shown more respect.
Click to expand...

Anime thread discussion activity actually decreased heavily during his stint here as a direct result of his posts. It was the opposite of what you are thinking. Multiple users quit discussing series entirely because they did not want to see his trolling. He was detrimental to this community.

There's a site for monitoring Forum activity, even down to singular threads. Thus it's recorded.
 
AirCommodore said:
It's not "dumb" users that disrupt the forum/whatever, it's assholes. These terms are not interchangeable. It's really annoying and elitist when the nerd community (all of it, not just you) uses "stupid" or similar as insults because spoiler alert: people that are less intelligent than you (by whatever arbitrary standards) aren't worth less as people, and have just as much right to the community. Furthermore, "stupid people" are usually just the result of not having access to the same high-quality education (due to socioeconomic class, or whatever) that most nerd-types do, since nerd-types tend to be overwhelmingly upper-middle class.
Cut it out.

Sorry for the mini-rant, this is a pet peeve of mine.
Click to expand...

Wait...was it some sort of meta-joke here that "stupid/dumb" and "nerd" could be used interchangeably? Because if it is, that's brilliant. I typed up that entire boring thing down there before I even noticed it...does that make me stupid? :troll:

------------------------------
I'm guilty of this all the time and I know it probably reads elitist but fully describing just what people do wrong every single time would be exhausting. For instance, let's say I disagreed with you and didn't think that disrupting a forum or website made you an asshole. Let's say I felt it makes you more of a dick. Yet another user disagrees with us and says it probably makes you more of a cunt. Then another person chimes in and says it probably just makes you stupid. I don't like any of those terms, and if we're completely honest, disrupting a forum or website probably only makes you a person who disrupts forums or websites. Everything else is subjective.

Furthermore, here is a case of what you mean vs what you say. If I call someone stupid, I can mean multiple things. I can be saying that they are behaving wrongly, belligerently, sarcastically, annoyingly, or any number of ways.

This has nothing to do with feeling superior to others. "Stupid People," when I call them such, are just a faceless entity that have come to signify all the flaws I find in my fellow human-beings.

I understand you don't like the word "stupid" being used as a substitute. I have no problem with it because I don't feel "stupid" people actually exist. I don't give the word that power. I don't think there are really people in this world who would score a zero (If life could be graded) at every single thing you get a chance to do while alive. Nor do I believe in a hierarchy of intelligence. We can all learn something from anybody else. Education or not.
 
vernanonix said:
I listened to a bit of that video just to see what he had to say. And I mean, I can get behind someone willing to talk about the negative sides of an anime. However, the only thing I ever saw him do was come back week after week to talk down about the anime. He showed no respect for people trying to enjoy a given show. Any explanation you might have given him against his statements were disregarded as if what you had to say had no value.

I was never aware of any "group harassment" that he was involved in, but I felt like discussions in the anime discussion threads lost a lot of quality whenever he came around. That's where my biggest complaint came from. And because of that, I stopped frequenting the discussion forum for a while because I knew what I'd find.

Anyway, there's a sarcastic saying that the "Internet is serious business." Of course, people don't feel a personal responsibility when being disrespectful to someone. That's the big problem here. Such a cynical person came around and disrupted our community. I'm wondering if it's necessary to revamp the community guidelines...
Click to expand...

Oh he had a gang, believe me..and I am not going to out them as they know who they are. My best theory is they will tow the company line from here on out and should not be an issue going forward.

And yes, it is one thing to discuss an aspect of a series faults, I do it all the time in context of what I am enjoying about a series. It's called balance. I only fell into the "OMGTHISSUX" trap once and I think everyone else was of the same mind (Blood C)..but you know, if you hate a series that someone else is enjoying immensely, then drop the freaking thing and let it go. Don't continue pouring gas on a fire and not expect to lose a set of eyebrows.

I applaud this action, I commend Sothis for finally pulling the trigger. I know me and her had a go around once, but that's why grownups are grownups..we can be mature and settle site/board related issues like gentlemen and women. Bravo boss!
 
Right on, Though I've been guilty of doing it before I certainly don't make a habit of it and I am glad to see we share stance on harassment.
 
I have to say that the AP community has the least disruptive people I've ever seen on an Internet forum. And I'm not exaggerating this. I've only seen one argument occur between several members, and I can't even remember who they were, but it wasn't even anything severe.
 
I do unfortunately not visit this site as much as I once did, but the community has always been the strength of Anime Planet. Way back when this was still a Direct Connect only community (I still have a bunch of logs from those days), this place was recognized as having a great and friendly userbase. I mean - we even had to different users with name Niceguy here!!

We did of course have the few occasional trolls that dropped by on IRC, but they were dealt with swiftly by Sothis and her merry gang of admins.

Things are however a bit different when it comes to administrating forums. In IRC and realtime chats, misunderstandings and "training" in proper conduct can be taken care of almost instantly. In forums - not so much. When misunderstandings and trolling is allowed to take place, a the foundation of a community - even as old and stabile as Anime Planets - may crumble pretty quickly. This has happened to a number of other old communities, and it would be a crying shame if something like that happened to APN.

This is the great thing about this site and its admins - they have generally always shown restrain and handled misconduct in a very forgiving way. So there is very littly - if none - public outcry when an admin actually go as far as banning a user. There is a fine balance between being lenient and dictatoric - but this is something I believe has (almost) always been handled in the best way in APN.

So to summarize - good going guys! I hope you all will stick around for a long time to come, and ensure APN will keep its community and spirit!
 
AirCommodore said:
people that are less intelligent than you (by whatever arbitrary standards) aren't worth less as people,
Click to expand...
Yes they are.

AirCommodore said:
Furthermore, "stupid people" are usually just the result of not having access to the same high-quality education (due to socioeconomic class, or whatever) that most nerd-types do, since nerd-types tend to be overwhelmingly upper-middle class.
Click to expand...
Bullshit.
Plenty of poor/uneducated people are clever, and plenty of stupid people are rich/well-educated.
 
There are different kinds of intelligence and you can't write someone off as stupid because they use poor grammar, arguments you disagree with etc.

Certain people with a high amount of general knowledge turn to arrogance and start feeling superior only to bully those they consider inferior. Even if a person is what you'd call "intelligent" it doesn't really make any difference if he fails to achieve the maturity not to insult people of different opinions. Different people like different things; anyone who doesn't have pretension in his blood can appreciate guilty pleasures; some fiction is made more enjoyable by nostalgia; some of the users who receive hateful comment because they gave famous Shounen 10/10 are in their early teens. The elitists on most online communities I've been to take pride in their self-proclaimed intelligence. Whilst I could congratulate them for their knowledge I'd rather point out that they have some issues with social intelligence to work out before it's even significant.

Absolutely irrelevant point: I usually disagree with things Roricon say in his reviews. He's seen a lot of anime and knows a lot about it; he's not some divine anime martyr with the authority to troll people.
 
Raven said:
The question is, what are you going to do about it?
Click to expand...
A feature I have requested before, but which went without any reply, is for there to be an "Ignore Member/User" option on the main site. And ideally, this ignore option would filter out the ignored members/users reviews, comments and recommendations from being visible by the other person.

Most of the arguments and bad sentiments I see on this site (and other anime sites) seems to be caused directly by the clash between people who are often termed as fan boy/girls, but who I will label 'anime fans' for politeness. And another group of people who, for want of a better/proper description, I will label 'anime critics'. Now anime critics like anime equally as much (if not more) as anime fans do, but they are far more critical regarding the flaws and shortcomings almost all (or indeed all) anime have, and are also unwilling to overlook those flaws and shortcomings when it comes to expressing their opinions, and/or when judging anime. For example when writing reviews.

And the basic problem as I see it is that anime fans do not want to hear criticism of their favourite animes. Likewise, anime critics do not want to hear the (often obsessive) opinions of anime fans who refuse to accept or even acknowledge the (perceived) flaws being pointed out to them (by anime critics). With people from both sides often being equally stubborn and unyielding in defence of their position and opinion.

Now in a perfect world both anime fans and anime critics would live happily side-by-side in mutual respect for the other persons difference of opinion. And while there are certainly people from both sides who can do that, there are always going to be people from both sides who can't do that, or even won't do that. Which in the world of the internet leads to trolling, flaming and at the end of the day, problems.

But if anime fans were able to ignore the anime critics whose opinions they so often and vehemently disagreed with, and anime critics were able to ignore the opinions of anime fans whose (often obsessive) opinions they were tired of hearing. Then that would remove a lot of the volatile interactions between the more extreme critics, and the more obsessive fans. (which IMO is what causes the bulk of the problems in every anime community I have come across)

To be honest, I simply don't understand why there isn't an ignore feature on the main site. Maybe there is a very good reason for it, but if there is, then I'm afraid is has escaped both my attention and my comprehension of logic. And if there is a good reason, then I'd be appreciative of being educated regarding what it is.


And on a personal note, I have grown extremely tired of the amount of time I have wasted on this site (and other anime sites) reading reviews and recommendations from members who, while they quite obviously love anime, also have a default review/rec stance of...

"I loved this anime because I love anime"

... which to me pretty much invalidates that persons opinion on anything regarding anime due to their extreme bias towards anime in general.

Personally I only want to spend my time reading good objective reviews, but right now it is impossible to easily identify those reviews in advance, and it's only after I've read the review, and checked out the reviewers profile, recs and other reviews (they might have written), am I finally able to establish some idea regarding whether or not that person will have written a good objective review. Or whether they were more likely to have written the review through several pairs of rose tinted spectacles.

Again, an ignore option would allow people to filter out reviews and recommendations by other people if they have decided they are not someone whose reviews and recomendations they want to know about, or to be presented with for consideration (for whatever reason).


If this idea (an ignore feature) is simply too hard to implement then that is understandable. But if it is not, then I would be interested in hearing how it would not benefit the site overall, and what (if any) downsides it would have. As to me it seems like a feature that would both solve a lot of potential problems (as explained above), while also improving the site for many of its users (again explained above, by helping users like me not having their time wasted by reading reviews from people who they would rather not have read reviews by)

(apologies for the wall-of-text nature of my post)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top