to be specific, the reporting and punishing system of current game forums, with some words from me

after this big paragraph rant i have here, i promise that there's something worth looking at in the end.
i have something i want to say to game forum owners.
i have my own wishes.
i have my opinions that i developed from experience
there's a lot in this, sorry, but because i have so much trouble word dumping out loud, sometimes i have to use the blog to learn how to speak.

for this entry i just want to talk about the report and punishment process.

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starting off with what i feel like is the biggest flaw in the game forum community right now--people overreact and the rules have gone too far.
I took a recent look at some popular game forums and was shocked how strictly the rules were implemented.
I share two flaws that i recognize

Flaw 1: overreacting, overthinking, overpunishing, overeverything.
For example, in Xarcade, a user was reported for this post: (no hate to xarcade, i have no afflications with that forum whatsoever, but it is just an example that was pointed out to me)
because it's apparently triggering
people were labelling it as "gross" "inappropriate" "gore" and that the user was "going too far". after looking at the gif i was absolutely shocked on how people were discussing the punishment the user would receive for it. of course if someone is uncomfortable because of this, they can tell them to stop, but there are so many reasons why discussing a punishment (my words being the possible ban, post punishment, etc) for this would be going too far:
- blood may trigger people, but it is a natural process of life. there are some people i know who are sensitive to it, but, in my opinion, we can't adapt for the what-if's. it happens in real life--we aren't going to punish someone for pointing out that cats kill mice. cats kill mice and there is blood. that's a fact. if someone walks in and is like "flec, i'm triggered by blood, please make the cat stop killing mice", i might try to hide the view from that person, but it's not going to make the cat stop killing the mouse. that's simply a fact.

-what if someone in this forum will be triggered by [this]? because of that, we can't post [this] at all anymore just in case! <-- is a logically fallacy. avoidance without knowing a possible effect is not the right answer.

-the person who posted this walked into the verdict thread and said that they were a third grader. it's not like the person is posting it to annoy others or purposely trigger others' anxiety from it. they were simply posting it for "funsies" as i like to say. Discussing a punishment for this, when it obviously doesn't have any malicious intent behind it, is not right. we're game forum owners, not parents. Game forums are a place for fun. a third grader doesn't understand how someone could be triggered by this, much less wouldn't understand why they are being restricted from the place they love.

it would be a different situation if the person kept posting it to trigger others on purpose, but even in that case, i wouldn't go through the process of the whole thread that 1) is public for the accused person to see, and is 2) allows people of different ranks/ages/knowledge and thus causes an argument in the thread that's supposed to be mature. it would also be a different situation if it was actually offensive things like genuine racism or hate speech. with a gif like this, this is what i would do.

What my verdict would be: simply delete the post if someone is triggered, and just ban without second thought if they do it to trigger people

Flaw 2: Much too complicated systems
What the heck is this system of these recent game forums?
a warning, then you receive a currency that you get if you do bad, then you get a label, then you get a post restriction, then you get written on the list of reports, then you're banned?
how do you even follow that? that's going to create so many flaws in between and unnecessary crap. and some forums have even started making files on behavior and how each leads to this different kind of punishment.
i do not understand why.
yes i was obsessed with organizing TA into one big little file when i ran it, too. but it's too much.

TA, for example, was separated into two categories which i would do:
1. warning
2. temp ban
3. permanent ban

simple as that.
In my opinion, it is a complete waste of time to make these systems. it just ends up confusing people and making the so-called "punished" users feel indignant.
you don't need to separate categories.
Let's say someone keeps swearing when it's a pg forum. you don't need to give them a warning, then a label as an "inappropriate user", then give them a post restriction (that they can only post 5 times per day now), and then take away their game-posting privileges or something.
All you have to do is 1. tell them to stop, then 2. ban them
they can't argue back. you told them to stop. they didn't. people may call you "corrupted", which is what kept me from banning people when i ran TA, but at second thought, i'm the forum owner. i have too much to worry about instead of a user who won't shut up. if a user wants to piss me off, they should be aware of the consequences. if you tell them once or twice, you don't have to tell them again.

This is my opinion on the reports/punishment system of many popular forums nowadays.
i'm sorry if my opinion on the xarcade verdict was offensive in any way, especially for people who are triggered by blood. it is my opinion, however, and it will not change. i personally think that i should be the one aware and responsible for my own icks. just because i have an ick, i think, means that everyone else has to be extra careful just in case i have an ick. i'm not talking about the obvious messed up things, like joking about cancer, but i am talking about topics where people might have an ick, others might not. for example i have emetophobia, but just because i have it doesn't mean i can stop people from getting sick. that's why i do my best to mentally prepare myself just in case and make others aware of it so that they don't get confused when i run out of the rooms at elementary school lunch volunteering sometimes. the fear i have is not what everyone has, so i don't think everyone must be extra careful for me. i think i have to be extra careful for me. blood is not an ick everyone has, so i think that falls under this category.

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thanks for listening to my rant
i know how bad this is because i used to be the one wanting to organize everything
i used to be like "" when i saw someone say "hell"
trust me, i know. because i was like this, i cringe when i see it now, three or four years later.
i know your forum means everything to you, but if i could say something to the owners right now, i would say: sometimes, let loose, because most people here are good--you can't see that if you're uptight. whether we're joking around, insulting friends, fighting over a game, whatever, in the end, we're all people. being a game forum owner isn't to make sure everything is perfectly organized--it's to look over what you have made, keep the peace to a certain extent, and just simply be there for others. whatever happens, everyone learns a lesson. not everything happens for a bad cause.

and finally, i feel. whether i shed a tear or two when a user left TA isn't important (trust me, i did). when someone left TA, i would think, why did they leave? and then my overthinking brain would lead that to, how could i have made them happier? every single answer leads to, i could have been less uptight. i could have been their friend. i could have acted like a member of the forum alongside them, not their leader. i could have not acted like i was above them, or anything else. what makes the user and you happier in the end is to know that you did what you did. that you acted right.
you're the owner, good job. i loved TA every second of its life. but if i could get rid of that red ink on my username, i would. because in the end, we are all users.

i take a quick break to write about game forums though i am so far past its stage now.
i know on this blog, i act like i don't care.
my apathy and how i've moved on, it genuinely could be a whole movie.
but i guess i do have to make my confessions--honestly i miss being part of a game forum and sometimes i do dream about reviving TA and let people do whatever they want to and join in, to, yk, just have fun.
i would love to have another roast thread where we just randomly insult each other out of the blue and laugh about it
i would love to play mafia again
i would love to play that twin game where we have a partner and we try to get the same answers for different questions for the "compatibility".
i would love to find similarities and randomly ship each other for fun
but then again, it's over.

aops is not the place for that anymore

tl;dr, because i always include one of these on some of my excessively long rant posts: if you want to roast your friends, go to their house. don't go to 2023 aops game forums.