Community feedback - Issues with consistent e-bullying

Hey guys, basically I wanted to call attention to how e-bullying or consistent harassment is address on the site.

In a nutshell, it's approached with much bias, and is generally unfair and ineffective.

I can't really say much about members themselves in the spam forum, because it is the spam forum and I'm very much an advocate of "if you can't take what people are saying, don't go there", but sometimes you do have to draw a line. There was that huge case with Elena a couple weeks ago, but another case which has been ongoing for over a year now has not been address and is actually being encouraged by staff: Laptop65.

Most of the threads which directly revolved around bullying him have been removed by his request (note: no staff even took initiative to do something about it themselves), but this one has just surfaced
http://www.sythe.org/spam-forum/1530077-further-proof-laptops-fucking-idiot.html

I don't mean to single you out, Ryan, but this is just one of many examples of staff basically e-bullying another user. In that same thread, you have multiple "supports" by other staff.

This is just one, existing example. Don't reply to this thread attacking this one point. Most other examples I could have had have been removed as per Laptop's request.

I'd also like to stress that this thread is not only about Laptop65. He is just the only real example I can come up with that all users can relate to, Deathsnova maybe being a second. This thread is about the bias towards e-bullying that staff have employed.

"The primary goal of the staff at Sythe.org is to ensure that our users are satisfied with this site." - Govind

(http://www.sythe.org/sythe-org-news/1450774-restitution.html)

Something needs to be done about this. Yes, the spam forum is the spam forum, but this happens outside of the spam forum as well, BY Sythe staff. It happens in Skype, it happens in the IRC, it happens on TC. Being "off-duty" does not automatically give the right to a staff member to harass another member persistently. This especially applies when the staff member is on-duty (harassment occurring in other sections).

Now onto jokes: there is a line between harassment and jokes. That line is when you cannot tell if someone is being serious anymore. That's when it needs to stop. I know that these couple of sentences won't stop someone from posting "it's just a joke", and honestly, if someone does, I'll reply "Are you fucking kidding me?". Especially in Laptop's situation, it's way past a joke, and that's way beyond obvious.

The reason I mentioned Elena earlier, is that something was done about her case, mostly due in part because of her gender. Laptop did try to tell people he didn't agree with what they were doing to him, but things didn't get better. The gender of a user should not dictate whether or not they are to be harassed and bullied, and especially not their sexual orientation, whatever it may be.

So, a final word to staff: eliminate the bias when it comes to harassment. Your goal, as stated by Govind, is to ensure that users are enjoying the site. If you constantly harass them and support other users in harassing each other, you're not encouraging the type of environment that you're supposed to be encouraging.

 

I don't care to post a whole 10 paragraph essay on this, although I could. I only care to point out one thing, and that's that your prime example here, which is the events with Elena, is that Elena's threads also were not dealt with until she requested it. Get your facts straight.

I also don't care to comment on what other staff members do on the site, but with regards to what I say to him, its all on Skype where that's mostly all we do. The only times I actually say shit I mean to Laptop is when he does something stupid, such as what he did today, but I won't go into detail about that.

A good example I have, however, is how he came into our Skype call tonight, constantly called a girl a shemale, but can't take it when someone says something to him.

I have no problems with Laptop, I'm not his friend by any means, but I certainly don't mean anything I say when we're fucking around calling each other names. I strongly believe the saying "if you can't handle the heat, get out of the kitchen" applies to our Skype conversations.

 

What the fuck does Skype have to do with Sythe. Keep your group skype chats out of this site just like what happened with Hackforums, what you do on Skype is your problem


mfw -.-

 

Thanks for pointing that out, you've strengthened my argument. Instead of being able to say that staff are bias, I can now say they do nothing at all, which is worse.

So a bully is not allowed to cuss out a kid in school, but it's fine after school? That makes total sense lol

 

No, we just generally don't get involved in hate threads like that unless the person complains, because if they don't care, why should we delete the content?

 

So if someone doesn't complain, that gives staff the right to hop on the "let's harass this one kid with everyone else lolololo" bandwagon?

If you don't like it, I'll stop, that's how this community should operate too.

 

Don't complain to me about what other staff members do on this site, if you want to complain about that you should go to Sythe himself.

I've hardly if ever participated in a hate thread on Sythe, so I'd rather not be included in that generalization.

 

The Feedback section is for pointing out flaws in staff operations, this doesn't belong in Sythe's inbox. I'd rather not drift off topic, so if you'd like to address this post then please PM me instead.

 

Wow are you kidding me?

You forgot to include my thread, btw.

What goes around, comes around for laptop. He participates in e bullying as well as everyone in the spam forum. If he can do it to
Other people, he should be able to take it
From
Other people.

Edit 3:

/thread

 

Can I just add to this, we are talking about pixels. There is a key difference between bullying that goes on in real life, and on the internet. This thread is ridiculous. The people who are subject to what you call ebullying have the opportunity to remove themselves from the community without hastle or retribution if they are getting offended.
Grow a pair of balls, this is the internet. Harden up.

 

So when other members of the site force someone else off the site, that's okay? I don't think that's how you get new members or form a community mate. I think your opinion would be very different if you were harassed at every corner.

 

The purpose of Sythe is to allow people to sell their virtual goods, and it wasn't primarily intended for people to come and make friends.
If people come here to make friends, they can move on.

 

I'm just going to point out Govind's quote in my original post. That doesn't target just the one type of user you're talking about, it includes everyone.

 

Vading fgt





on topic, I find there's no pleasing these people. I elect to ignore deathsnova and laptop entirely, and handle any report put forth by them as if they were nothing but a user just like stormzz up here, but they're STILL malcontent with me, I've gotten three messages from laptop in the last month saying "what the fuck is your problem with me", and I haven't talked to him in MONTHS.

It's like they want to belong, but they're not tough enough for the heat, so they get users like you riled up to fight their fights for them...


Not to mention laptop is talking about all sorts of staff-only shit to everyone, and that personally annoys me. other than that I have no problem with him, but neither do I want to be friends with them, I have nothing to gain from it. So refusing to acknowledge them outside my duties is my compromise.

 

Not to continue this conversation, but Moh is right with the fact that there will be SOME people that will never be happy with what goes on. I go into the spam forums when I want to troll/can accept the trolling. If I can't do that at the moment I get outta dodge.

Now the fact that it happens out of the site, well then he needs to know when to block them, notify them that it's getting annoying, or getting proof and sending it to someone that can buckle down and get serious when they need to.

It's a little ridiculous when someone goes into the spam forums knowing they are going to get trolled hardcore and come out crying because of it. Yes I understand that there may be consistent badgering but how many other people are trolled in the same way down there?

 

The staff are very biased, and your case is the perfect example. I mean laptop and deathsnova are annoying and complete idiots who just crave attention apparently, but they do deserve the same protection as say Elena. Again, I still contend that Elena got special protections because she is female and was IRCing and TCing constantly.

I feel that if you're continually posting in the SF you are asking for it, and especially if you're making yourself a target. There are plenty of warnings in the spam forum. There isn't a place in schools that make special exceptions and say 'In Hall A there are very limited rules, do whatever you want', but Sythe has that place. So drawing a parallel with a school isn't a very good analogy.

 

It's a privelage that the pardon system even exists. To lie about important details during this process is down right ignorant and disrespectful and should be dealt with as such. By your logic, we should just support all pardons because "they've changed", uh.. no.

I whole heartedly agree with Blupig on this one. There is blatant e-bullying happening every day on Sythe and not an awful lot is, or arguably can, be done. If a user, regardless of who, is unhappy or uncomfortable with any given situation then appropriate actions should be taken to prevent further harassment.

 

If I actually gave a shit I would try to argue this. The topics not about pardoning somebody, it's about e-bullying. Once you realize how a team works, you'll realize one staff member represents the whole team. You're going to say whatever you want about Sosa because you're staff, but it's more a you have to be in that position situation. Anyway, one staff member represents the whole team, that's the bottom line, mod or admin.


I am staying neutral on this as my posts can be delete at will, and I don't like writing for nothing. However I will keep reading to see your response.

 

E bullying does happen, it is not completely preventable ether, but if you are trolling people and you get bullied you shouldn't complain. As for the pardon system from what I understand it's a second chance for users who have been banned etc. Well, If they didn't break the rules in the first place they wouldn't have been banned. So why staff should be so called obligated to respond to pardon's I don't understand myself.

 

What pisses me off is these rules still don't have a fine line, there is no way to objectively dictate this.

Do you guys fucking do anything or what?