Discrimination....?

discrimination
dɪˌskrɪmɪˈneɪʃ(ə)n/
noun

1. 1.
   the unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people, especially on the grounds of race, age, sex, or sexual orientation.

So... I was playing on your network today, as I have been for quite some time now.... and I wrote the word "gay" in chat in a conversation I was having with one of my friends. It was not said in an offensive manor, and the conversation we were having was entirely PG....However the word was filtered out as *****. Whilst I appreciate that out of context the word gay can be used in a derogatory way, that can also be said for virtually any word. The word "straight" is not filtered out, yet the words "gay" and "lesbian" are classed as swear words...

I find this extremely unsettling. The internet is normally a place that promotes equality and inclusion. Children are taught from a very young age these days that being straight, gay, bisexual, or transgender is completey okay, and to just be themselves.... Yet its been decided that the words that to some would be empowering ways of describing who they are as a person, are classed as swear words on your servers?

Words used to describe someones race, are not banned, words used to describe someones age, are not banned, words used to describe someones sex/gender are not banned, yet words used to describe someones sexuality (if it is anything other than "straight" are banned......)

If someone can explain to me the reason for this, then I am more than happy to listen. The moderator on the server I was on was... less than helpful shall we say...

 

I'll take a shot at this. This is mostly conjecture, and I'd still wait for some higher up response, but I'll assuage you're worries, if I can.


MineYourMind is a family friendly network, so their is certain things that make this server's needs/setup different.

It needs to cater to different ages, and the younger generation/younger players have been known to use words such as "Gay", and "Lesbian", as words to insult each other, and to cause discord.


It's a stigma attached to the word instead of the word itself, that some people view the word "Gay" as a derogatory slur, and it's taken on that meaning on major online networks, such as Facebook, Twitter, etc.

I understand what you are attempting to say, but the recent generation has shaped this word into something else then it's base meaning, and it runs prevalent.

I myself, wouldn't want people joining the server, saying "Gay", being rehashed, and replying, "It's not a slur". It's all about context, and in order to cover all the bases, it's banned.


I as a player on the network, don't see it as saying being "Gay" is wrong, but that the context it is used in by a prevalent amount of players is.

 

Which I entirely get, however, actively policing the chat and dealing with people who use the word as a slur, which is also a blatent breach of the rules, would then still allow the use of the word in a more positive way.

If someone is gay, how are they supposed to express that they are who they are when the one word that would be most commonly used to describe that persons sexuality is taken away from them?

 

You've been frank with me, and I'll be frank with you. I don't see what a persons sexuality has to do with a game. If they want to disclose that to people fine, their are other ways to do so, other phrases that describe such, but in most cases, they at least know the people their disclosing this information too, and have other means of contact.

Also, on the chat policement, it's not easy as it sounds, a server this size, Moderators spend a large amount of time, monitoring players, dealing with tickets, doing paperwork, etc.

A large amount of the Mod force does police chat, GamrMom, and Valkarri spring to mind as prime examples.

 

Players are generally also quite happy to police the chat themselves, having owned 2 large networks, I am aware of how much work is involved, and the community are normally more than happy to chirp up and tell someone to watch their language if something entirely inappropriate or offensive has been said.

If I choose to talk about my sexuality in open chat, It should not come as any sort of shock or surprise. Are you saying that the chat in game is only to discuss minecraft and nothing else? Do players not have lives outside of the virtual world, where they are actual people? Maybe its just the servers that I have played on here on MyM....Seems most of the players are happy to talk about themselves and what they are upto outside of just building with blocks....

My intention was not to spark some sort of political debate, I just think its odd that in 2016 a network the size of MyM, for whatever reason (as you say, it may just be administrative) have filtered out those 2 words in particular. Yes there are probably other ways of conveying the same thing, but does someone who is not gay/lesbian have to also find such convoluted ways of saying that they are straight?... I will just await an official reply from MyM on the matter.

 

Simply put, no we are not discriminating nor is there any intent to ever come to such a thing on this network. I can see your point of the argument and I can agree to some extent if we were discussing this about filtering "gay" and "lesbian" in the real world. However, we're talking about a game. Minecraft is well known to have many different types of people that play it. People all across the world play on our servers. That's one thing to keep in mind when speaking to this situation.

My counter argument and an argument I'll hold onto strongly whenever issues of filters and or inappropriate language is that:

• For one, age of the players on the network. Most are fairly young and have parents and/or relatives that keep a check on them. They do pay attention to such things from time to time.
• Even though as you said
  
  Yes, quite true...what's also true is that there are many people who are malicious and think it is funny to use someones sexuality, look, gender, name, etc. etc. to their own benefit in trolling and verbally bullying others.
• I honestly do not see the need to publicly be stating anything along the lines of "race, age, sex, or sexual orientation" on a server that is filled with many strangers. Keep it private.
• Filter is there to work when mods are away as we are strictly voulenteers and do take time to deal with our own issues and life. We do always try to police the chat and servers when able to but we can't always be there to keep an eye on hundreds of players every single day.

It also seems like you have the issue with the word "straight", which yes it is used to describe those who are heterosexual. . .however this word is much more used in common situations that have nothing to do with it describing or defining sexuality.

All in all, we welcome all sorts of people here and are always friendly and try to provide the best possible gaming experience.

 

It's $CURRENT_YEAR! why haven't we progressed like it's $CURRENT_YEAR + 1!
sorry, now that i got that out of my system

Why would you talk about your sexuality in chat? People don't like it when people just run up to them and say "I'M GAY!" or "I'M LESBIAN!", also, there's been other threads about this in the past, search forums and find your official response from @Slind

 

My parents and/or relatives would not have had an issue with me playing a video game and someone openly stating their sexual orientation, im a bit confused as to what your point is here?

I have no issue with the word at all, and yes it is used in more common situations that have noting to do with defining sexuality. However the word gay is used much more commonly these days in a positive way to define ones sexuality, and less and less as a slur.

So are all players who ask other players their age, race or gender, or all players who disclose such information going to be told to keep this information private? If so then maybe it should be a rule of the network that no personal information is to be disclosed in open chat?

Again, Im not sure why its an issue to have a discussion with a friend in open chat about this. I could either be using the term gay directly, or simply discussing my weekend plans with my boyfriend, I am not running up to anyone and shouting, im gay im gay.

 

Let me underline and bold a defining word in that answer. Your parents and/or relatives. You do understand not every single person in the world has people like your parents/relatives? Not everyone is as understanding or is fine with whatever situation it may be not just pertaining this topic.

 

I'm not sure why you would be in the first place in open chat, why not use something else?

I am legitimately not sure now wether or not you understand the rules of the internet, the first rule is never attach your real name to your in game name, as that makes it easy for identity theft among other things

Yhea yhea, it's still used as a slur, and often so, but this is not really the most relevant thing, and yes, the filter needs to be fixed on some words ("hell" is a filtered word, i know, it's stupid, we have been complaining for months about this)

It's more of people really just don't CARE on the internet, why would they?

 

You can discuss what you want, but I just want to remind you, this is a friendly swear-free, no hatred environment first, and foremost, and it contains young players. In order to keep this young players virtually safe, words are filtered.

In real life, they have more useful, realistic meanings, words like "Gay", and "Lesbian", but on the internet they don't, and as MyM caters to several ages, it's safer if it's banned. TS is an option.

 

There are lots of people yes, who are not as understanding, or as liberal etc, but that does not mean that the world should bend to fit people who are narrow minded. I do however appreciate your honesty on the matter and will take what you have said into consideration.

I do not disagree with that whatsoever, but the word gay is not a swear word. It would be much easier to have just had a rule that stated no discussions in open chat about race, religion, politics, or sexuality. Thats pretty much a blanket that covers most inappropriate topics. I was genuinely just surprised that whilst it was not a rule to not discuss sexuality, the word that one would use was banned.

 

As Draven has said, I don't see a need to be discussing sexuality among strangers, you might, but while you, and three others might use the word in mature discussion, hundreds don't.


Also, with multiple age groups, people like to push buttons, so the chat filter stops people from pushing the rules concerning swearing.

 

so you would be A-Ok if someone came into chat spamming N***** nonstop? seriously, think for a minute there

Of course, which is why it's censored so that it's open to people of all minds, as people have a nice thing called intelligence that allows them to fill in gaps

 

Nope, but the current rule clearly sates no racial or sexual slurs. And that would quite clearly contradict the rule.... Think for a minute

 

To whomever finds this thread on the futare:

While there are many reasons why a specific word, group of words might or might not be banned in chat, it really boils down to a few things:

This is a family friendly server. This means that we cater to all ages. I've played with people as young as 6 to people older then me. This means we deal with the lowest age and mental range.

While I've known some mature children, I've also known some very immature ones also. As such, we have to police chat. Since we can't afford to higher a staff member for every server to solely read chat and enforce a "Be nice to others" policy, we use chat filters and plugins.

We don't allow swearing, discrimination or bullying, and so filter out the most common words used to do so. Is it perfect? No. But it is the best we have.

I would be more then happy to fully remove the filter, but as I said we can't afford the personnel.

If you feel a word is filtered, and is not commonly used, at any age range, to pick on others then I'm more then happy to have either a convoy here, on TeamSpeak or in a pm about modifying the list. The same holds true for adding words.

 

Gay is often used as a sexual slur, so you just quoted the rule that shuts down your suggestion,

 

If the word N**** was not filtered, then it would be a breach of the rules if someone said it, and so they would be punished accordingly. If the word G** was not filtered, and was used in a derogatory term, then they player would be punished accordingly. However, it would be quite easy to see if someone was using the word gay in a manor that was not a slur.

 

someone can make this argument for both words, but booker basically just finished this thread, i see no point in continuing

 

Please see my post.