A Note on Hate Speech and Criticker's Abuse Policy

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mpowell
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Re: A Note on Hate Speech and Criticker's Abuse Policy

Post by mpowell »

Hey all, I'm locking this post, so that we can move on. I'm just not going to get too much into justifying any specific action, because that is a rabbit hole.

Criticker has long dealt with very virulent, propaganda-type forum posts from a very specific worldview. Every time we've tried moderating it in the past decade, we've immediately been called out for being evil censors. And every time we "censored" someone, it would die down for a month or two, then start right back up.

We've really had enough. Here's the thing -- all of the posts we've ever "censored" have come from a handful of accounts. Like less than five. As soon as I saw a post about the "Great Reawokening", I rolled my eyes and braced for it. And soon enough, lovely quotes like this started to appear:
* "woke" motherfuckers
* chopping children's dicks off
* child sex slaves
* insane thug [basketball] player

Criticker is a MOVIE website, for the love of God. We want our forums to be a place where movies can be discussed. And guess what? We're pretty much okay with "controversial" views. I think the past 15 years have proven that we are fine with just about all types of speech. But at some point, it gets to be too much.

It's important to understand -- and I think it's being missed -- that this was not just an isolated incident. We didn't just ban anyone because of this one, latest post. And we're not going to start banning anyone else unless there is sustained, or egregiously intolerant language.

That's all. Continue doing what you do, and enjoy this forum as a space to discuss films. If any overtly political posts come across, they are going to raise our eyes for sure. But if you're talking about movies -- and why would you be here for any other reason -- there is no reason to be concerned.

Locked