Oh shit, here we go again! Ft. misleading bans

Disclaimer: The content you're about to read is nothing else but my very own feelings reflected in this very thread. It contains foul language that may be considered as racial slurs. Close this tab or turn back to where you came from if thou art considered weak-minded. There will be no profanity filter.
You've been warned.

Hiya friends! Now some may wonder: "Wait Chrissy, aren't you a chill dude? The type of dude that jump into controversial topics?" - Well, you see. You're right. Shit as stupid as recieving a ban where I express my love for an ice cream named Nogger though? Ah, fuck. The tables have turned.
The ban is quite simple; I'll be quoting from the PM I received from Matt that states it:

Spoiler

"Oh man, you said Noggers. You probably just meant hello my niggers!" - In what way would I be delusional and blatantly lie to myself when there's a dozen of players checking the latest juicy news in the shoutbox. Unreasonable thinking, especially among the staff that slam dunked my head with the 3 days banhammer. I am not alone -- Other significant beings have fallen for the same bullshit as me, if not worse. One specific offer would be @Iridescent's. They got a ban for including the word nagger? Oh, and I won't forget about @Aerith's ban: "Thank N". Come on... That's really not... Sigh, whatever floats your boat but I can't help but laugh at it. Sure, a ban evasion we verbally agree but jeez.

It's about time to cut this black-and-white morality bullcrap. It's not always the truth. You have the audacity to make assumptions it's hate speech on spot... Sigh, it's a disturbing thought. At first, let the sense of direction lead you; how is the person directing their message? Is it at someone? Or towards someone? Don't go by default and say that person's a racist TemuTemuTemuTemu where they used an uncommon word that closely resembles TemuTemuTemuTemuTemu or TemuTemuTemuTemuTemuTemu.

It has never been racist. Having second thoughts of it may be an indicator someone could be. So.. let this sink through. All on all, some justification would be great~

 

What's misleading is that's not what got Mati banned, at least not permanently.

The whole situation tends to lose credibility when players have in-game meltdowns and admit they were just skirting around the rules the entire time though, but I don't get the feeling truth was what you were aiming for.

 

Spoiler: Just in case one of the mods want to give me warning points

 

I’m pro-hate speech, not bothered by racism, sexism, or anything on the “offensive” spectrum, and I firmly believe that we should be able to say whatever the fuck we want no matter how offensive it is to anybody.

However, I also believe in following the rules, even if they may not reflect my personal views. Not trying to flex/bend the rules, just following them or accepting the punishment for not doing so. Intentionally using a letter/word to bend the rules but not break them is painfully obvious and should result in the same punishment as actually breaking them. I don’t know any of you, I don’t talk to any of you, and I don’t have a problem with any of you, but it is ever so clear what you guys are doing and it isn’t cool, funny or edgy. Friend(s) got banned for using a term that is against the rules, so you guys tried avoiding breaking the rules while still feeling e-powerful by using terms to represent the same word(s) that got your friend(s) banned. It’s dumb. It shouldn’t be tolerated. Just don’t do it. Problem solved.

Like, it isn’t hard to determine what’s taking place here even from the most uninvolved and unbiased of perspectives:

Saying turtles is against the rules
Billy says turtles
Billy gets banned for saying turtles
Billy tells his friends on his little online chat
Billy’s friends start trying to rebel by spamming terms like “t” “tort” “turt” “t word” because “it’s technically not against the rules and you can’t assume the meaning!!”
Billy’s friends are childish buffoons who should be banned just like billy was


I want to again reiterate again that I am in favor of being able to use any slurs, hate speech, insults, whatever, and nothing anybody has said on this topic has ever offended or bothered me in the slightest. I am not in favor of these excessive rules and over policing things like words, IGNs, etc.

Sadly we just don’t have such freedoms on here though, and instead of trying to walk on that fine line between rule breaking or not, take a full step back and try walking a little further behind it—it’ll save both parties a lot of time, hassle, and unnecessary emotional investment into a measly video game forum.

Sincerely, someone who has broken the same rule(s) recently (said *~hurtful~* words and caught a forum ban for it) and doesn’t agree with it being a bannable offense.

 

For some reason it's always the same group of 4-5 members who get banned for the same thing, related to a certain racial slur, perhaps you guys should just stop using that word or workarounds of it, instead of going head on against the moderators

 

You guys are so obviously trying to skirt the lines by not saying racial slurs directly, it is SO obvious what you are doing. And you're also pulling the "I'm not racist, you're the REAL racist for thinking I was being racist!" edgy card, I hope maybe one day you guys will grow up and reflect on your childish actions.

 

I am not a person who uses offensive racial terms. Would I even if there was no rule here? Absolutely not. Do I judge others who use those words? Yes to a certain extent. But i also prefer to judge someone on their actions more than the words they use. Using offensive language amongst friends, out of sight of the wider audience should be looked at as it being spoken within a private group. Someone typing those words on a friends profile should have absolutely nothing done as i find that falls under the whole "keep it within your circle of friends" thing that you used to believe in. You're not spamming smega's saying it, you're not leaving a wall of obscenities in the shoutbox, you're doing it on a friends profile page, far removed from the wider community at large. Hell I've even been lead to believe that you're now banning for discord screenshot submissions completely outside the scope of Royals itself. I hope this isnt true and I simply misheard this.

I said it before ill say it again. Ban for the actual words usage. Ban if someone is trying to bypass the filter with numbers when used in an enviroment when a wider audience is being exposed to it. Beyond that, you walk an incredibly thin and dangerous line

 

Mati was set-up !

 

By himself ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

I find it funny how inconsistently the rules are applied, you can get banned for mentioning your favorite ice cream but not for having an in-game name like "1488HH" (which means "We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children, Heil Hitler")

 

You can report that- can't say that would be something 99% of players would know when they see that string of numbers of letters in game (thus it's not inconsistency as much as it is.... not knowing it could be a problem)

 

This is a well-known and internationally used term. 99% of players won't be bothered by it, apparently, but how many will be bothered by somebody saying "N"?

 

Yo thats me man

 

I think you're overestimating how common knowledge that is. Individually (14, 88, and HH) I have seen all of those and in most contexts outside of Maplestory I would have caught those individually. However- in a game where people have random and obscure names from a million different facets of life ( I mean, HH also means Headless Horseman) it's not as stark. I mean it's pretty clear when a skin head comes into the hospital with 88 tattooed on his arm we (the people there) all know what it means.

The "N" thing didn't happen overnight- it's been something evolving for years on the forum/game out of dozens of conversations on whether or not certain language is okay and as it became more concrete (You can't say certain words in all chat but can in guild, for example) people started trying to get around the filter.

This sort of argument always comes up though... just because certain things are getting banned in no means gives a pass to other bad things- it's simply those other things haven't been an issue. I think you were the one in the shoutbox talking about how the person also has the name adolfhitler- something which kind of shows it's not an innocent string of numbers and letters but intentional- just like how the whole situation with "N" came about.

I'll forward the name to the staff discord though, so fwiw thanks for the report!

 

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=1488
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourteen_Words
https://www.adl.org/education/references/hate-symbols/14-words
"the most popular white supremacist slogan in the world"

It was used by the Christchurch mosque shooter, he painted it on his gun before killing people

 

My broader point is that this rule is arbitrarily enforced, and quite inconsistently.