Donec mors nos separaveri
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Seen 31st August 2023
Hydra
3rd May 2021, 09:50 AM
Hello,
I'm going to use this post to address the allegations made against me and a group of other people. Recently, to those who are unaware, a couple of people partook in a Jackbox session in the CO chat, me included. The topics some of us made contained offensive material, and now we're being accused of being racist, sexist, and anti-Semitic. This is categorically untrue and a complete lie. I was hoping the topic would die down on its own, but it's clear to me now that people are going to keep making passive aggressive posts and videos on this topic unless I don't address it myself.
First off, let me make something clear. If your accusation is solely "Mercer and the other lot shouldn't have made these offensive jokes in an OldCP-related server", you win. You are absolutely correct, and I can't dispute that. It was wrong of us to play that game in a public server, where other people could see it, and it was wrong of me to allow this session to keep going when the topic material was so sensitive.
However, if you've even insinuated that me and my friends should be demoted and deplatformed for being racist, sexist, or anti-Semitic, that is a completely false claim, and that's what I'll be disputing in this post.
1. Explanation for the screenshots in Randy’s first video
I feel like I’m obligated to give context for the 2 screenshots you saw in Randy’s 1st video. Please note that this is not a justification, just an explanation. In the screenshots he showed, there are these questions, with responses made by users under it, and these responses paint us in a very bad light. That's the point of the game, but not in the way you think. That game is called "Survive the Internet".
(an example of what the screenshots looked like for those who haven’t seen the video)
In the game, you're given a regular question, which you must answer. Then, someone will take your answer, and replace the question with something that will paint you in a bad light.
For example, in the 2nd screenshot, I was asked the question "What do you think about camping?" to which I replied "It's cold, moist, and it makes me uncomfortable". Then someone received my answer, and wrote a question in order to misconstrue what I said. That's the point of the game.
However, this does not excuse the blatantly anti-Semitic responses written by Akkar and "Alatar's mom" (I don't know who that is). The game doesn't ask racist questions, so the answers they wrote was them making an attempt to be edgy, which they were told off for.
______________________
2. The videos made by Randy
I'll be discussing the videos made by Randy, as they are the main vocal point of protest.
There are 3 videos in total, with a length of approximately 26 minutes. These videos have fair criticism, but I'll concise these videos into a few points, since half the runtime of these videos are the words "man", "bro", and "weirdos in the com". These points are:
"Admins and moderators that have dark humor should be punished for having dark humor"
“There is a divide in the community that has caused people with dark humor to hate on those that don’t”
And lastly,
“There are weirdos in the com, bro”
In the 1st video, Randy talks about the 2 screenshots which I talked about in point 1, so I won’t say much more on it. However, I will accept that the “jokes” in that game were in very poor taste, and I should have stopped the game sooner.
In the 2nd video, Randy talks about how the mods and administrators involved in the Jackbox game should be punished for having dark humor. Me and the staff involved have been warned by Damen for making such jokes in an OldCP related server, and I will not dispute that. However, I disagree with the idea that we should be demoted for making what are essentially jokes in poor taste.
The 3rd video talks about how there’s a “divide in the community”, and that the game is divided into the “right side”, comprised of the people who like dark humor, and the “left side”, comprised of the people that don’t. I find this video to be untrue, and believe that it only serves to polarize people even further, and uses unrelated examples to accomplish this. Not to mention the clear bias shown to the “left side” in this video.
In it, Randy brings up the post made by Wilf about the new LOTB, and uses this as an example on the “divide in the community”, using the Fable-Pic conflict in the community to try and prove his point.
What’s very hypocritical about this is that when talking about the people who disliked posts supporting Pic, Randy labels these people as “hateful”, acts like that they did it out of pure spite, and uses these 2 sentences to criticize them:
“People are going to judge you when you like somebody else.”
“Is it really needed bro? That’s a lot of hate, making this community very negative”.
However, when it came to people disliking posts about Fable, he completely justifies it. So it’s “hate” when people disagree with Pic for LOTB, but it’s just criticism when you lot disagree with Fable for LOTB?
I also want to talk about the description of this video. One sentence in particular:
This is absolutely untrue. I had this type of humor for years, and never once as an admin have I shown favoritism to people that share my sense of humor.
Randy, despite the disclaimer you made at the start of the video, if you were offended by the contents of the game, please let me know, and I will personally extend my apologies to you.
______________________
3. The “divide in the community”
One phrase in the video stuck out to me: “The divide in the community”, which means that both sides of the side hate each other. They don’t. Ironically, the “right side”, which have been labeled as "hateful", were the ones that received the most hate, despite having actually acknowledged our mistake and moved ourselves out of sight so it would no longer inconvenience anyone in the DSGHQ. However, the "left side" continued to criticize us on DSGHQ platforms, repeating the same sentences over and over and trying their best to make it a DSGHQ related issue. That’s why I made this post. If you want your “divide”, congratulations, you got it. You (not us) caused a divide in the community by crying “wolf” for 3 days, after we already acknowledged our mistakes, apologized, and moved on.
______________________
4. "Admins and moderators that have dark humor should be punished for having dark humor"
This is another phrase I kept hearing, about how having dark humor makes us racists, sexists and anti-Semitic. It doesn’t.
You don’t have to like our humor. That’s completely understandable. Hell, I find a majority of you to be unfunny as well. But to try and label us as things we are clearly not because we made some sensitive jokes is factually untrue, unjust, and nothing but baseless slander. I'll sum up why with these 3 key points:
1) The jokes you make don't determine who you are as a person. (That would make every offensive stand-up comedian a racist, sexist, and/or anti-Semitic.)
2) People are allowed to have humor that doesn't appeal to you.
3) Jokes that admins and mods make off-platform do not affect their sense of duty to this game. As an administrator, it is my duty to handle user requests with utmost care, and the jokes I make do not affect that in any shape or form.
That session was meant purely for entertainment, with no ulterior motive behind it, but it is my fault that I did not consider where this session was being held, and how it broke community guidelines.
______________________
5. Closing statements/apology
In that Jackbox session, most of us used what is called "shock humor".
Shock humor: A style of comedy intended to shock the audience. This can be achieved through excessively foul toilet humor, overt sexual themes, mocking of serious themes (otherwise known as black comedy), or through tactlessness in the aftermath of a crisis.
The intention was to make jokes so absurd that it would cause a reaction from people among us. However, I did not account for the fact that this was being done on a public server, where people who didn't want anything to do with our humor was able to join the call and see the jokes we were making. I apologize for my negligence. I should have stopped the call sooner, and as the admin in that situation, I take full responsibility.
However, I will not apologize for having the sense of humor that I do. Everyone has their own sense of humor, and nobody has the right to determine whether a joke is funny or not. If that means I’m a “weirdo in the com”, eh, I’m fine with it.
I'm going to use this post to address the allegations made against me and a group of other people. Recently, to those who are unaware, a couple of people partook in a Jackbox session in the CO chat, me included. The topics some of us made contained offensive material, and now we're being accused of being racist, sexist, and anti-Semitic. This is categorically untrue and a complete lie. I was hoping the topic would die down on its own, but it's clear to me now that people are going to keep making passive aggressive posts and videos on this topic unless I don't address it myself.
First off, let me make something clear. If your accusation is solely "Mercer and the other lot shouldn't have made these offensive jokes in an OldCP-related server", you win. You are absolutely correct, and I can't dispute that. It was wrong of us to play that game in a public server, where other people could see it, and it was wrong of me to allow this session to keep going when the topic material was so sensitive.
However, if you've even insinuated that me and my friends should be demoted and deplatformed for being racist, sexist, or anti-Semitic, that is a completely false claim, and that's what I'll be disputing in this post.
1. Explanation for the screenshots in Randy’s first video
I feel like I’m obligated to give context for the 2 screenshots you saw in Randy’s 1st video. Please note that this is not a justification, just an explanation. In the screenshots he showed, there are these questions, with responses made by users under it, and these responses paint us in a very bad light. That's the point of the game, but not in the way you think. That game is called "Survive the Internet".
(an example of what the screenshots looked like for those who haven’t seen the video)
In the game, you're given a regular question, which you must answer. Then, someone will take your answer, and replace the question with something that will paint you in a bad light.
For example, in the 2nd screenshot, I was asked the question "What do you think about camping?" to which I replied "It's cold, moist, and it makes me uncomfortable". Then someone received my answer, and wrote a question in order to misconstrue what I said. That's the point of the game.
However, this does not excuse the blatantly anti-Semitic responses written by Akkar and "Alatar's mom" (I don't know who that is). The game doesn't ask racist questions, so the answers they wrote was them making an attempt to be edgy, which they were told off for.
______________________
2. The videos made by Randy
I'll be discussing the videos made by Randy, as they are the main vocal point of protest.
There are 3 videos in total, with a length of approximately 26 minutes. These videos have fair criticism, but I'll concise these videos into a few points, since half the runtime of these videos are the words "man", "bro", and "weirdos in the com". These points are:
"Admins and moderators that have dark humor should be punished for having dark humor"
“There is a divide in the community that has caused people with dark humor to hate on those that don’t”
And lastly,
“There are weirdos in the com, bro”
In the 1st video, Randy talks about the 2 screenshots which I talked about in point 1, so I won’t say much more on it. However, I will accept that the “jokes” in that game were in very poor taste, and I should have stopped the game sooner.
In the 2nd video, Randy talks about how the mods and administrators involved in the Jackbox game should be punished for having dark humor. Me and the staff involved have been warned by Damen for making such jokes in an OldCP related server, and I will not dispute that. However, I disagree with the idea that we should be demoted for making what are essentially jokes in poor taste.
The 3rd video talks about how there’s a “divide in the community”, and that the game is divided into the “right side”, comprised of the people who like dark humor, and the “left side”, comprised of the people that don’t. I find this video to be untrue, and believe that it only serves to polarize people even further, and uses unrelated examples to accomplish this. Not to mention the clear bias shown to the “left side” in this video.
In it, Randy brings up the post made by Wilf about the new LOTB, and uses this as an example on the “divide in the community”, using the Fable-Pic conflict in the community to try and prove his point.
What’s very hypocritical about this is that when talking about the people who disliked posts supporting Pic, Randy labels these people as “hateful”, acts like that they did it out of pure spite, and uses these 2 sentences to criticize them:
“People are going to judge you when you like somebody else.”
“Is it really needed bro? That’s a lot of hate, making this community very negative”.
However, when it came to people disliking posts about Fable, he completely justifies it. So it’s “hate” when people disagree with Pic for LOTB, but it’s just criticism when you lot disagree with Fable for LOTB?
I also want to talk about the description of this video. One sentence in particular:
Quote:
“You won’t really be favorited in this community anymore unless you got that kinda humor”.
Randy, despite the disclaimer you made at the start of the video, if you were offended by the contents of the game, please let me know, and I will personally extend my apologies to you.
______________________
3. The “divide in the community”
One phrase in the video stuck out to me: “The divide in the community”, which means that both sides of the side hate each other. They don’t. Ironically, the “right side”, which have been labeled as "hateful", were the ones that received the most hate, despite having actually acknowledged our mistake and moved ourselves out of sight so it would no longer inconvenience anyone in the DSGHQ. However, the "left side" continued to criticize us on DSGHQ platforms, repeating the same sentences over and over and trying their best to make it a DSGHQ related issue. That’s why I made this post. If you want your “divide”, congratulations, you got it. You (not us) caused a divide in the community by crying “wolf” for 3 days, after we already acknowledged our mistakes, apologized, and moved on.
______________________
4. "Admins and moderators that have dark humor should be punished for having dark humor"
This is another phrase I kept hearing, about how having dark humor makes us racists, sexists and anti-Semitic. It doesn’t.
You don’t have to like our humor. That’s completely understandable. Hell, I find a majority of you to be unfunny as well. But to try and label us as things we are clearly not because we made some sensitive jokes is factually untrue, unjust, and nothing but baseless slander. I'll sum up why with these 3 key points:
1) The jokes you make don't determine who you are as a person. (That would make every offensive stand-up comedian a racist, sexist, and/or anti-Semitic.)
2) People are allowed to have humor that doesn't appeal to you.
3) Jokes that admins and mods make off-platform do not affect their sense of duty to this game. As an administrator, it is my duty to handle user requests with utmost care, and the jokes I make do not affect that in any shape or form.
That session was meant purely for entertainment, with no ulterior motive behind it, but it is my fault that I did not consider where this session was being held, and how it broke community guidelines.
______________________
5. Closing statements/apology
In that Jackbox session, most of us used what is called "shock humor".
Shock humor: A style of comedy intended to shock the audience. This can be achieved through excessively foul toilet humor, overt sexual themes, mocking of serious themes (otherwise known as black comedy), or through tactlessness in the aftermath of a crisis.
The intention was to make jokes so absurd that it would cause a reaction from people among us. However, I did not account for the fact that this was being done on a public server, where people who didn't want anything to do with our humor was able to join the call and see the jokes we were making. I apologize for my negligence. I should have stopped the call sooner, and as the admin in that situation, I take full responsibility.
However, I will not apologize for having the sense of humor that I do. Everyone has their own sense of humor, and nobody has the right to determine whether a joke is funny or not. If that means I’m a “weirdo in the com”, eh, I’m fine with it.