Avatar pushing the limits....

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There is a clear and obvious resemblance to a swastika, whether or not it technically meets the definition.

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no doubt and I understand that nobody wants to do anything to it now. But I don't think we should even be sending members PMs over something like this. I just think it makes out job much harder when it comes time to take action and lends credance to whole thought police, nazi [censored] that i'm sure we all have read again and again

There are going to be times when certain members become offended it's going to happen on any message board of this size. It's no big deal in my opinion that this happens

[Evan]

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There is a clear and obvious resemblance to a swastika, whether or not it technically meets the definition.

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I disagree, I've seen that avatar many times and never thought that. Half of the appendages are going in the right direction to be a swastika and it's got an extra one because of the head. So basically 40% of the avatar looks like half of a swastika.

[durron597]

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There is a clear and obvious resemblance to a swastika, whether or not it technically meets the definition.

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I disagree, I've seen that avatar many times and never thought that. Half of the appendages are going in the right direction to be a swastika and it's got an extra one because of the head. So basically 40% of the avatar looks like half of a swastika.

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I would never have thought swastika until I read this thread.

[Lloyd]

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There is a clear and obvious resemblance to a swastika to many people, whether or not it technically meets the definition.

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FMP

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I'm going to be honest and it's not my intent to direct this at anyone person or offend anyone but that this was even grounds for a thread is quite bothersome to me.

It's really caused me to reconsider some of my moderating policies and I think a lot of us need to take a step back and make sure we aren't going overboard with getting rid of things that we as individuals are sensitive to.

Like I said I've probably been as guilty as anyone of this in the past but I've noticed a definite trend since becoming active on the board once again and it's not a good one.

I'm all for banning jackasses and creating a conductive environment to learning and entertainment but I don't think we should be out there looking for and getting rid of everything that may offend someone or may hurt someone's feelings.

I don't think that is the type of board we want and I don't think that is the type of board the majority of the members want.

Let's focus on dealing with things like trolls, spam, obvious shitheads and other things which really result in the forum not being fun for anyone and let the members decide of they are offended and how they deal with it.

I once had an avatar of some dude getting sucker punched in the face. I thought it was harmless but another member PM'd me and said that had happened to him recently and it really bothered him to see. He asked if I would take it down but understood if I wouldn't. I decided to but I would have been really bothered if instead of it being handled like that a user mod would have sent me a PM or taken it down because it may offend others.

Basically when it comes to all these things whether they are avatars or myspace threads let's be a little more open and little less likely to take action in all but the most extreme cases

[Surfbullet]

I followed the link and couldn't figure out what was going on, I went through the entire thread. Then I went back and read this and realized it's the catuar that's been worried about? That thing's in a whole slew of Final Fantasy games, and if you see it in the game its arms move back and forth to make it look like it's running - it's definitely not a symbol of hate. I actually think this whole thing is kind of absurd. [img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img]

Surf

[AngryCola]

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I'm all for banning jackasses and creating a conductive environment to learning and entertainment but I don't think we should be out there looking for and getting rid of everything that may offend someone or may hurt someone's feelings.

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Yes.

The main problem here isn't people wanting to remove offensive content. I think everyone can agree that there is a line some things actually do cross. What's worrisome is that line seems to be constantly moving towards catering to a progressively smaller number of people. This is not good, IMO.

Clearly the people who mod forums will always impose some of their own sensibilities. That's to be expected. But those sensibilities always need to be balanced with what's reasonable and best for the forums.

The cactuar may look somewhat like a swastika, but is that really something that needs to be addressed by us? A lot of things bear some resemblance to a lot of other things.

If I used an image of a big cucumber as my avatar, would that be something that required the attention of a moderator? It looks somewhat like a penis, and we all know that we wouldn't allow an avatar with genitalia on 2+2. Yet, I bet more people would see a penis in a cucumber than a swastika in a cactuar.

Even so, I believe that if I posted about an offensive cucumber avatar in this forum, all of you would call me crazy.

If we start going after stuff that, to some people, looks somewhat like something else that's offensive, we really have gone the wrong direction. That would be catering to a very small group of people. We should not be doing that, mostly because it would be an entirely futile effort. Even if it doesn't make any sense, some people will always be offended by particular actions, words, and images.

So, let's try to stay reasonable, guys.

[B Dids]

As the guy who was championing the senstive in other threads, this avatar is fine.

Yeah- we need to be aware, and it's good that as mod we're having these conversations, it helps establish standards and get us all thinking and talking, but this does seem a little far.

[GuyOnTilt]

Um, even if the avatar was a blatant swastika look-alike, what's wrong with that exactly?

GoT

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Um, even if the avatar was a blatant swastika look-alike, what's wrong with that exactly?

GoT

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this is my feeling as well and what I was trying to get at with my long winded reply