In bad taste...

[The Godchild]

...I'm referring to people who seem to think any name relating to the present pandemic the world is facing is funny or even appropriate. I have noticed over the last few days that there have been several names on Everlasting relating to said pandemic and I'm kinda disgusted that people think its not inappropriate in the slightest 'until' someone says something or more often quits the team because the name in question triggers them due to a family member suffering at this time. These aren't old characters created months ago either I might add...these are brand new alts, made within the last couple of weeks or even more recently in the case of a rando I came across last night (not even a week old) who blatantly had "COVID" (full caps on it too) as the first part of his name.

 

Giving the situation with everything in the world right now, I really do feel like people using names relating to said situation should be reprimanded...its not a laughing or joking matter to some people and its in terrible taste to bring it into a game where people are just trying to have fun and NOT think about the world falling apart right now :/ Yes, we have plenty of memes floating around about it and we're all having a giggle over some of them...but there's still lines people should not cross with their jokes.

 

...that's my 2 cents on the matter anyway, since its been bugging me all night and I had to say something at least :/

 

Edited March 18, 2020 by The Godchild

[Snarky]

Train wreck.  Name for a redside death metal dominator

 

oh wait. Some people would find the concept of naming a character after such a thing bad

 

we should have the homecomin team scrub the servers of all potentially disturbing names

 

i will suggest one first. Godchild.  An be offensive to some people

 

anyone want to pick the next?

[The Godchild]

Name checks out, thanks for your input.

[Dreamboat]

17 minutes ago, Snarky said:

anyone want to pick the next?

I think it's pretty pointless to do this kind of comparative "well, what about..." thing in these discussions. I'm actually pretty glad Godchild said something, because I play on Everlasting too and not only are a lot of these characters and jokes in pretty poor taste, I saw one player take offense at them because they had just lost their father to COVID-19, and people still tried to drag them for speaking up! Disgusting behaviour.

[MrNotorion]

Bad taste?  No problem.  This game has been chock full of REALLY bad taste names since I started playing again a year ago and names in bad taste related to the current world pandemic are surely no exception.  Bad taste is not the same thing as downright OFFENSIVE.  Bad taste is EVERYWHERE in character names.  I'd suggest you're not paying attention if you think bad taste is only just becoming a problem.

 

Now, if you think a name is downright OFFENSIVE - report it.  If Homecoming GM's agree I'm sure the character will be generic'd or the account suspended and that'll be that.

[Nemu]

Freedom of speech is one thing. Poor taste is another. You have every right to pick vulgar names that you think is funny and I have every right to judge you for your poor taste.

 

Princess Spinaroonie Vs Golden shower

 

One is fun and lighthearted and the other is not. You are free to use whatever name you want but that doesn't mean I have to respect you or your decision to use that name.

[Neiska]

Taste can vary person to person, such is the nature of things.

 

Is it against terms of game use? I don't believe so. Is it in poor form? I believe that many would see it that way. But to play devils advociate here, technically they are only doing something morally questionable, not legally. Personally I don't support or seek to supress people, either their form of taste is different from mine, or they are trolling, and in both cases its best to just ignore then and move on with my own fun.

 

I do hope this doesnt extend to all forms of medical terminology though, as some of the terms in the medical fields acutally make pretty kick butt names. I have one myself, she's called Biotoxia, a spines/bio scrapper. Rp wise shes sort of a sentient living plague sort of character. But getting off topic here.

 

I am more concerned if we open the doors to "reprimand any act that anyone finds in poor judgement" well, then nothing would be safe, and it would be abused by the same such trolls. Such is whats going on with another popular video hosting site as we speak, where everyone is flagging every video they dont like for copyrighted content, even if the "reporter" isnt the one holding such copyright's.

 

Just remember, any rules, tools, or functions available to "good" people, are also open and available to the "bad" people out there too. So be careful what you wish for.

[The Godchild]

1 minute ago, Neiska said:

Taste can vary person to person, such is the nature of things.

------

Just remember, any rules, tools, or functions available to "good" people, are also open and available to the "bad" people out there too. So be careful what you wish for.

 

Constructive, and I do agree. Part of me was venting but it had to be said either way and I knew I was opening more then a few worm cans. Oh well, I said what I wanted to...people are free to interpret it as they please.

[Dispari]

It's not a "free speech" issue, and the team already cracks down on reprehensible content, so nobody is asking for anything radical or new here. Offensive and copyrighted names are already disallowed. We're not one of those "totally free" servers where every name is a racial slur. The only question is if this current issue meets that criteria, which I would say it does, considering lots of people have died and will die.

[fitzsimmons]

Comedy is subjective and should not be put under a lens.  This is the problem with cancel culture.  Can people joke about aids?  Cancer?  Diabetes?  People die from those and are still dying from those ailments.

 

it might be “too soon” but it all remains subjective.

[Neiska]

@Dispari -I dont agree or disagree with their forms of taste, and you are correct that reprehensible content I believe is monitored, but i think you may have missed my point.

 

What about names with "bullets" or "guns" in them? Those cause people to die too. Should we disallow all disease/virus/plague like names as well just to be fair, factual or fictional ones? What about any and all medical terms entirely just to be safe?

 

I am not disagreeing that a line should be drawn, I am more worried about where the line might be drawn, and if it might be moved. What is happening is horrible I agree, and people have a right to be upset about it. But once we start forbidding certian things based on current trends, then where does it end?

[Redlynne]

35 minutes ago, Snarky said:

we should have the homecomin team scrub the servers of all potentially disturbing names

So you're volunteering the Homecoming volunteers to manually review 100,000+ (if not a million at this point) character names?

 

At a rate of 1 second per name manually reviewed ... 100,000 names would take almost 28 man-hours to complete ... and 1 million names would take 11.6 man-DAYS to complete ... and it's not like no new characters will be made while the review is underway.

 

I'm thinking there might be at least 1 or 2 better uses of the finite resource of TIME the Homecoming team has available to them.

[Neiska]

@Redlynne- i believe Snarky was being sarcastic in their post Red, not actually suggesting such actions. They cite the OP's name as a first suggestion, so I think it was a "Tongue in cheek" post.

[Redlynne]

Just now, Neiska said:

@Redlynne- i believe Snarky was being sarcastic in their post Red, not actually suggesting such actions. They cite the OP's name as a first suggestion, so I think it was a "Tongue in cheek" post.

They may have been.  But it's also important to point out what happens when suggestions get taken "seriously" and the implications of what is suggested.

 

It is absurdly EASY to simply write "just scrub the servers" when you aren't going to have to do it yourself.

Actually DOING that is a far more complex and involved process than simply writing 4 words in a forum post.  Doing that would require an investment of time, energy and attention span in order to do it properly/right without resorting to an automated Tumblr-ish style of One Size Fits No One™ action.

 

My point being that just because it's easy to say/post doesn't mean that it's easy to DO, from a logistical and policy implementation standpoint.

 

 

 

A far more reasonable/reliable "solution" to the issue would be to in-game report offenders for review.  THAT would be a far more actionable course to take, where the community assists the Homecoming team with "policing names" as is being proposed.

[Blastit]

16 minutes ago, fitzsimmons said:

Comedy is subjective and should not be put under a lens.  This is the problem with cancel culture.  Can people joke about aids?  Cancer?  Diabetes?  People die from those and are still dying from those ailments.

 

it might be “too soon” but it all remains subjective.

People can indeed joke about aids, cancer, diabetes etc etc. There's just a difference between the punchline being the disease itself and the punchline being something about the experience of the disease.

 

 

Additionally we can, as adults, determine that something is off-limits due to the current context.

[Slithershot]

There's a time and place to joke about things. You post something in broadcast/help/lfg that you think is funny. Fine, whatever, people are free to ignore you and move on with their day. You make a character and jump around in peoples faces as <insert powersets here> named "Coronavirus" or some juvenile joke/pun relating to it... you've become a straight up troll. There was thought and time put into it, rather than simply making a comment. Is it worth the laugh you might get from one or two people? No, not really. But that never stopped anyone in the history of ever. 

 

To be honest, this all just boils down to "Common sense aint that common". Trolls don't typically use nor care about common sense. They thrive on upsetting other people. 

 

You can't fix a troll. It's in their blood. Next topic.  

[The Godchild]

Just now, Pizzamurai said:

To be honest, this all just boils down to "Common sense aint that common". Trolls don't typically use nor care about common sense. They thrive on upsetting other people. 

 

...I was quite literally about to type that exact same quote when the reply notice came up, good show :3

[Heraclea]

The human capacity for gallows humor is one of the things that gives me hope for its future. 

 

[Shred Monkey]

Joking about pandemics and a virus that is killing people worldwide = bad taste

 

            ... I totally agree, but...

 

Joking about the world running out of toilet paper = hilarious

 

Funny how this stuff works, isn't it?

[Snarky]

34 minutes ago, Neiska said:

@Redlynne- i believe Snarky was being sarcastic in their post Red, not actually suggesting such actions. They cite the OP's name as a first suggestion, so I think it was a "Tongue in cheek" post.

Me sarcastic?  What does this word mean?

[DougGraves]

3 minutes ago, Snarky said:

Me sarcastic?  What does this word mean?

a synonym for "sarcastic" is "snarky"

 

And I don't like political names, but I just use the block user function and then I don't see them in chat. 

[MunkiLord]

2 hours ago, The Godchild said:

...I'm referring to people who seem to think any name relating to the present pandemic the world is facing is funny or even appropriate. I have noticed over the last few days that there have been several names on Everlasting relating to said pandemic and I'm kinda disgusted that people think its not inappropriate in the slightest 'until' someone says something or more often quits the team because the name in question triggers them due to a family member suffering at this time. These aren't old characters created months ago either I might add...these are brand new alts, made within the last couple of weeks or even more recently in the case of a rando I came across last night (not even a week old) who blatantly had "COVID" (full caps on it too) as the first part of his name.

 

Giving the situation with everything in the world right now, I really do feel like people using names relating to said situation should be reprimanded...its not a laughing or joking matter to some people and its in terrible taste to bring it into a game where people are just trying to have fun and NOT think about the world falling apart right now 😕 Yes, we have plenty of memes floating around about it and we're all having a giggle over some of them...but there's still lines people should not cross with their jokes.

 

...that's my 2 cents on the matter anyway, since its been bugging me all night and I had to say something at least 😕

 

@Jimmy addressed this when it came up in another thread:

 

 

[Yomo Kimyata]

My therapist friends say that certain behaviors are natural reactions to anxiety and fear of the unknown.  To put a name on something that scares you and then use that to fight Hellions?  Totally understandable.

 

Then again, some people just want to cheese off the squares.

[TungstenShark]

It's no different than when the game came back and people rushed to make up as many gay or homosexual names as possible. My first day back in the game and I had to get teamed with "Pillow-Biter." 🙄 The game is gone for seven years, it comes back with one of the most robust character creators in any game and yet...gays are still funny, hurr, hurr.

 

Regarding the pandemic...I am a proponent of gallows humor as a way to cope and lessen the emotional burden. It does seem in very poor taste to mention COVID in your character at the moment, but to each his own. As someone else said, you are free to make your own names and I am free to judge you for it.

 

I still remember back on Live (waaaay back, when the game was literally just a month or two old) and I teamed up with a Spines Scrapper named "Spina Bifida." I asked him if he knew what the condition was. Short answer...no he did not, when he found out, he found the name even funnier. Classy.

[roleki]

35 minutes ago, fitzsimmons said:

Comedy is subjective and should not be put under a lens.  This is the problem with cancel culture.  Can people joke about aids?  Cancer?  Diabetes?  People die from those and are still dying from those ailments.

 

it might be “too soon” but it all remains subjective.

Low-hanging fruit is a necessary evil in a society that encourages freedom of expression.  It used to be that a childish joke did not warrant a childish response, but now it's all "Someone take The Bad Thing away!  Someone!  Someone!" and the whole world stops until The Bad Thing is properly scuttled.  

 

Thank God Mel Brooks peaked in the 70s, you people would have had him executed.