I'm just really curious as to why this thread:

http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthr...hreadid=214355

stayed open even though it consisted of religious and racist humor.

Yet this thread:
http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthr...hreadid=215396

was immediately closed for basically the same thing (racist humor). I've heard people talk about the Other forum being pretty anti-semitic and until this i never really noticed it but wow. Good to know bigots are allowed their fun if it is against an "acceptable" minority.

Because I received a report to moderator on the second one, and not the first. It has nothing at all to do with my perspective on them other than that.

You might be surprised at how much effort is put into dealing with these issues and we do try to handle them. I can't speak for everyone, but I do not read every thread, nor am I online 24/7.

Totally understandable - i guess my confusion is that i did use the report this to the moderators button. Also, i'm not meaning this to be a criticism on the hard work you guys do and i don't expect you to have read every thread - but since i reported it and nothing was done i took that as a sign of tacit approval of the threads comments.

Understandable and a common perception. I think I even remember the report, but the mail to me was received while I was away and when I came back online, I assumed it was not an issue anymore.

FWIW, I agree that we need to be careful equally about offending ethnicities and religious beliefs.

For the record, I reported the first, and screamed bloody murder about it. As well I personally emailed one of your ranks who ignored it, apparently.

I'm going to have to get my Klaxon alarm looked at. There must be something wrong with it.

This is like the nazis in Germany

I did receive this report about the open thread. By the time I got there, you appeared to be openly participating in the thread though. Because of this, I assumed that you had decided that it wasn't so bad after all.

If you really feel something is inappropriate, why would you particpate in it?

I would assume he was trying his best to show how offensive the humour was by "putting the shoe on the other foot." Considering an administrator was participating in the thread and no one had closed it upon receiving two complaints i imagine he just felt no one really cared so he was trying to show the bigotry for what it was.

Administrators don't receive the reports unless they are either explicitly listed as a moderator of the forum or there are no moderators. Amazingly enough, it sometimes takes us longer than four hours to check our email/spot a thread. Actively participating in a thread often waters down any complaint you may have reported.

xmiyux put it very well.

I followed the rule of reporting the post to moderators, waited some time, and once nothing was being done about it I felt I had no choice but to try to persuade by showing other people how it felt.

When the law fails you (it was my opinion that it did) you often have to try to take things into your own hands. And I tried to do so while clearly staying within forum guidelines.

Huh? You can feel this way if you choose but that's not a criterion I would usem when the response is clearly being made to reflect on the concern I reported.

PLUS, why should my reaction matter at all. Offensive is offensive. If I reply or not should be irrelevant for an issue like this. IF however I report a post because someone is taking a shot at me, and I return fire, that is logical.

You posted another joke that involved religious stereotypes, how is that clearly making any kind of point, besides that your joke was funnier?

Did you report this before your response to WhoGirl? Because if not, I count 20 minutes before you decided the 'law' failed you.

I didn't time it, sorry to not be able to answer you.

Plus there were other threads receiving moderation then, suggesting the mods were on the board, no? When I see mods respond in 20 seconds to a report a post, 20 minutes ain't unreasonable.

And the point was to show people how unfunny it was. Maybe it was too subtle for you (entirely your right) but not too subtle for others.

I have no problem with any sort of jokes, when told between people who know one another and know the motives underlying them. However I am extremely uneasy about racist/anti-semetic/anti-gay/anti-religious joke on a public message board. In fact I think I've been rather consistent in this belief, whether it takes shots at groups I identify with, or not.

I wasn't asking you for times, I was just wondering if you saw the thread earlier and reported it, or if Who's 'joke' prompted you to react.

Quote:

And the point was to show people how unfunny it was. Maybe it was too subtle for you (entirely your right) but not too subtle for others.

Please don't play that card; just because you wrote subtlety into "Fun right?" doesn't mean anyone else will read subtlety out of it. None of the people who responded to your joke were part of these "others," they were all laughing at it.

Please do not tell me what I can or cannot do. Clearly a poster in this thread knew exactly what I was doing. I would consider him part of "others", no?

But even if I was posting it with intent to just play along what does that have to do with the price of tea in China? If it is offensive it should be closed, regardless if I posted in the thread or not.

And to answer your first question, I think I reported a post as soon as it began, saying that the thread was going to get out of hand and stated my common objection to these threads. Or I just thought it to myself. I'm honestly not sure. I tend to drop these things unless I see someone else mention them in Feedback.

Hmm, now I'm confused.

Should this thread be closed due to this statement of a stereotype that might be considered offensive to people in China or people of Chinese descent? Or am I supposed to wait until someone reports it? But then does it matter if the reporter posted in it?

Once again i agree with Bushdog on this and it is actually kind of blowing my mind that these points are even being debated. Someone is making jokes about the stereotypes of Catholic priests all being pedophiles and Jewish rabbis all being tightwads. Ignoring the fact that it is offensive to be joking about sexual abuse of children these jokes are obvious racist and cultural stereotypes. If 500 posts made new jokes it wouldn't change the fact that the posts were bigoted and as such should be closed. Ir would also be something entirely different if someone was discussing the stereotypes because it would be that - a discussion. As such these were just spreading hate.

Wow, cute - and it doesn't shock me that you were the one participating in the thread in contention.

(edited out comment i decided was totally inappropriate - if it got quoted before i got rid of it i apologize for it in advance and acknowledge it was just a little too much of a flame)

Come on dude, that's harsh, his mother has nothing to do with this.

A stereotype that people sell tea in China? They don't? Or are you equating the stereotype of Chinese people consuming tea with the stereotype of Jews being cheap and Priests being pedophiles?

I am a little disappointed with your marginalizing of my concerns.

Typing up response...please hold on.

I closed this because things seemed to be getting a little more heated than necessary and in the hope of putting some of this behind us already.

As for the two threads in question...we've had a past history of problems with people going too far with making fun of Asian accents here. To the point where it started to bleed over into completely unrelated threads, so if we're a little more sensitive to race related humor than religion related humor, that's why.

Moreover, the Other forum treads a sometimes thin line with trying to not be too "politically correct" and trying to be respectful of what others may find offensive. Religious jokes in particular, or more specifically, threads dedicated to telling jokes which include religious jokes, have usually been given a bit more leeway...again, part of why one was closed and another wasn't.

(Bushdog, you ask what difference it makes if you participate in a thread and report it as offensive as well...in this particular case, you not only said "fun right?" but added a smiley face. When I read it, I thougt the same thing that AndyCapps did: that you had changed your mind and decided that it wasn't as offensive as you had originally thought and decided to join in on the fun. Obviously, we've misinterpreted your post, but that, I hope you'll agree, was simply an honest mistake. Moreover, Aghama said "please," it was a request, not an order...and a reasonable one in my opinion, as well.)

Religion is taken seriously in widely varying degrees by most people which can make some of these things hard to moderate. It's been my personal position that the major religions tend to be in a majority position and as such, have to expect to take a few more hits as they are a bigger target.

xmiyux,

I hardly think that our not editing out a joke in a thread that was taking shots at both Catholic and Jewish religions justifies implying that DVDTalk or, by extension, it's moderators are anti-Semitic. I find that to be an offensive exageration.

Nevertheless, I do see both your and Bushdog's points. Jokes like these have been made before, but given the current rise in anti-Semitism in Europe and the Arab World, as well as recent events with some Catholic priests, it is a good idea for us to be more sensitive about these kinds of things for now as they can add unnecessary fuel to fires that are already burning too brightly. As such, I'm closing the religious joke thread, and we'll look at these types of jokes with a little less restraint for now.

Finally, in the future, lets try to keep our comments about the issue at hand and not about the people discussing them.

If anyone feels a very strong need to address some point I've brought up, or to defend something they think has been taken out of context, please email me and I'll probably reopen it. I just see too much potential for more bad blood here, and the basic complaints have been addressed.