Pretty sure Liam has said that hate isn't allowed quite a few times @Kidfried & in some of the TloU2 commemts threads the rest of the staff did say that too from what I remember.
I don't think it's tolerance for bigotry myself moreso that the is site is FAR too big and popular with the staff being stretched out as it is. We also don't have an active mod like Tasuki (Ninty life has like seven or so from what I remember)
I wasn't here long enough to really get any sense of Tasuki's... "reign" so to speak but the comments were a lot less wild westy then they are now @mookysam.
I was never gonna share this but, seeing how things have progressed (or rather not) since The Last of Us, Part II came out, here's a message I sent a specific member of staff earlier in the year. Full disclosure, the offending comment I referred to was partially edited the next day, and I received a reply thanking me, but not from the individual I addressed.
It was treated like a one-off, isolated bit of admin housekeeping when it very obviously was not, and is not, so I feel it beneficial to add to this discussion.
I'm no flag-waiver, but I have to express my deepest disappointment with your reaction to the first user comment beneath [the article in question].
Journalists and site staff aren't thought police, and I appreciate that you've chosen to take a more open and tolerant stance towards free speech around here, but you literally have a comment advocating that "homosexuality... is something [that] must be out of [the] games community" and went on to categorise homosexuality as "no sense stuff". This isn't just a different opinion; this is homophobic hate speech.
If I had written a comment saying that Miles Morales had no business being the protagonist of the upcoming Spider-Man game because of his ethnicity, or complained that there were too many female protagonists in gaming, I'd expect to be temporarily banned. At the very least, I'd want a PushSquare staff member to strongly and publicly condemn what I'd said. Why should it be different for gay people? Especially considering that LGBTQ+ people happen to make up a surprisingly high number of your regular community members; probably because PushSquare had (and I hope still has) a reputation for being one of the kinder, more accepting and tolerant corners of the internet.
For you to simply say that you didn't like where the discussion was heading, and then to give them a friendly "no worries" later on, is turning a blind eye towards naked homophobia and, these days, that's tantamount to agreeing with it. Nothing was "heading" towards being offensive; it was already there. I appreciate that most comment sections beneath The Last of Us, Part II stories have descended into a broader type of chaotic argument of late, and that you had to make a blanket appeal for calm regardless, but in doing so you brushed over a very hurtful statement and then, worse, appeared to tacitly endorse it.
Again, I'm no flag-waiver, which is why I'm sending this message behind-the-scenes, but you only have to look at what's happening to Facebook right now to notice that widespread change is happening. Websites have to be responsible, at least in part, for what their users are posting on them.
Given how toxic the gaming community can be, and how these kinds of issues will only become more frequent as progress is made towards diversity equality, I think it's time PushSquare made a definitive public statement regarding its stance on hate speech, and enacted it by condemning examples of it made in comments and on the forums. This would make a world of difference to those affected by such hate speech, irrespective of whatever disciplinary action you wish to take against individual users (if any).
Anyway, that's just my two pence, and it's your website; I just felt I had to say something, s'all. Thanks for taking the time to read this and, the above notwithstanding, keep up the great work.
I've edited it to remove names, as I'm not here to burn the place down. On its best days, PushSquare remains a great place to hang out, and the forums are still pretty safe. I just hope it can remember that as it obviously grows and caters to a larger audience (particularly in the wake of the official PlayStation forums closing down recently) otherwise it's gonna lose people, and that'd be a real shame.
"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."
@JohnnyShoulder I do when I see them, although tend to largely stay away from article comments. It's sad that @RogerRoger's email made not the slightest bit of difference. The impression I got was that users posting spoilers for The Last of Us Part II were dealt with extremely harshly, but users making homophobic statements was just something to shrug at and brush under the carpet. It's also difficult to discount the notion that articles that draw controversy get more clicks.
Perhaps better moderation would help @Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy, although Nintendo Life is even more toxic despite a larger moderating team. I agree with @Kidfried and @nessisonett that there perhaps needs to be some sort of statement and then deal with hateful comments appropriately, such as bans. I appreciate the site has grown a lot in the past year, but it's something that needs action.
@JohnnyShoulder I report regularly. But aside from deleting those posts hardly anything is done. I feel like moderators delete these posts when reported to be done with it. But those persons aren't banned, they don't receive any feedback from the mods either.
Homophobia isn't even in the community rules as something that's forbidden, but you can't say "fucck". Priorities, right?
And that's the thing. Priorities. The team just doesn't prioritize standing up against hate. Sure @Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy more mods are needed, but they aren't here. There haven't been any applications for it. And no systems have been put in place to stop hate on this site.
They're not doing enough, and that's the same as tolerating.
@JohnnyShoulder To be fair, as much as I reported one that was truly terrible, it was at an obscene hour that I wouldn’t expect the team to be up at. It’s just a bit disappointing to see it remain up several hours afterwards.
Actually, never mind, they still have comments up. Of course it’s a burner account, created only to stir up trouble as they have no other comments than ones on those two articles. They still have 20 upvotes on one of their comments though!
I read aloud the Cyberpunk 2077 system requirements and my old fat OG PS4 has heard all.
Now its vent is spinning at full speed even if the console is turned off. Any help?
@JohnnyShoulder Talking seriously, do we already know if playing a PS4 game installed on the PS5 SSD will grant any benefit in terms of framerate and general performance? My old console turned off automatically two times lately while playing TLOU2 and I fear CP2077 will definitely kill it.
@andreoni79 Yeah ps4 games will get a boost when playing on ps5. Developers can then do further improvements with patches, some are free (Cyberpunk) whilst others are not (Control). My ps4 has had the blue light of death a couple times, the only way to save it is to turn off the power at the mains.
@andreoni79 We've yet to see the game run on a console at all. Which is quite worrying. CPDR are usually very transparent about this kind of stuff. I guess not.
@Arugula You're really impressed by it aren't you? And this is the very beginning of the generation, the mind boggles on how good looking the games will be in a couple of years time.
Life is more fun when you help people succeed, instead of wishing them to fail.
Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.
As for having a toggle for who can see info, that would be easy enough so that only logged in users can see it. I've made a note of that and will implement shortly.
This week's imported lunch is "Napolitan", a Japanese twist on Spaghetti, that I believe usually forgoes tomato sauce for a ketchup base. I've heard a lot about it over the years, but it's my first time having it myself.
It came in a bowl that easily allows you to drain the water after cooking, and featured Ramen style noodles with packets of parmesan cheese & a "spicy" ketchup sauce to mix in. It definitely had a different flavor profile to your typical instant noodles, and I really enjoyed it. I didn't find it all that spicy myself, but the spice did give it a good twist to the flavor.
Currently Playing:
Switch - Blade Strangers
PS4 - Kingdom Hearts III, Tetris Effect (VR)
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