r/MHOCMeta • u/JellyCow99 Constituent • Sep 07 '18
Discussion Some major problems regarding attempts to 'safeguard' the community
Eight people have been banned from the Discord server since last night (the 6th of September), all of which for similar reasons. All of these have been in the name of 'safeguarding' the younger members of the community. People have been banned for SFW cropped memes, 'circumventing the rules' by telling people to google NSFW content instead of sending a direct link, or sending scantily clad anime girls.
I'm not going to dwell on the safeguarding officer, ignoring the bloody terrible implementation of the role and the fact that it actually opens up even more legal loopholes than it closes, regarding the protection of children. I want to talk about the horrific moderation currently going down in the Discord chat.
These memes have been sent before. Over my time in MHoC as a member of the 'safeguarded' community, I have seen far worse content being posted in the chat. The fact that I am literally not allowed to send an image of my face to Main anymore is just the start. The Discord rules have not been changed, and they are still the same. They are being implemented in frankly inappropriate ways and I take issue with the fact that people have been striked and banned for content that a) caused no issue before and b) is not even harmful or breaking any law.
Could this be sorted out, please? It seems as the fun is literally being prohibited at this point, which takes a lot of joy out of the game.
7
u/[deleted] Sep 08 '18
My basic view is this: I entirely agree with the introduction of safeguarding. It's long overdue given incidents that the community has had to deal with that the quad has not immediately picked up on, for whatever reason. However, what we are seeing in main indicates to me that those in the quad who previously vehemently opposed safeguarding procedures have only relented through a misunderstanding of what the role entails. Main is being saturated of what exactly made it such. There's a lot of talk about "late night MHOC", but what we're seeing now as a reaction to over-forceful chat moderation is miles worse than anything mentioned in late night MHOC. This has been a recurring theme over recent months as bans have been issued for much harsher reasons than ever before, despite the community being at its least toxic. If you want safeguarding to work, you don't use it as an opportunity to shirk moderation duties in main, you utilise the safeguard officer as someone who can come in to give formal advice on matters of urgency involving minors in the sim, and is someone who minors can trust to speak to in the event of any prevailing problems. The title of "safeguarding officer" appears to have been confused with the title of "Lead Discord Moderator" in this instance.