I'm glad we're finally having this discussion, which I will own up to intentionally provoking (if not directly).
To begin with I want to state that I understand the position of the moderators here, in the sense that they have yet to find grounds to outright ban krellin. We have discussed the moderation of the more unsavory elements of this forum many times before with respect to hate speech, and in my opinion consensus was reached. I continue to support the existing "self-moderation" consensus.
And I don't disparage the moderators for doing their level best to uphold it. That said, it is true that I knew before even seeing that if a thread like this one was posted (I was tempted to post one myself a few days ago), it would receive a non-binding reprimand from a moderator.
This, I do believe, is somewhat unfair. I don't think this thread counts as "harassment" anymore than what krellin does to bait people, or what has been done dozens upon dozens of times. I also don't particularly understand why the arbitrary distinction between a thread and a post matters so much. Players are apparently allowed to harass each other essentially without limit using their posts, but if they make a thread for this purpose? Then it becomes "spam", somehow.
I think the question of what is "spam" and "harassment" ought to be revisited, for starters.
But back to the subject at hand: krellin, man of the hour.
I have never been a fan of the mute option, and have to date never used it either to silence or a thread or a user. Of course I don't think it should be done away with - I am first to understand that many players here are not particularly interested in the personal opinions of some of the louder users, and mute the repeat offenders. Fine. Let them play diplomacy in peace.
But for those of us, especially longtime members such as myself and most of you, who are here for the community and the site as much as the game of diplomacy, it strikes me that the mute button is something I don't want to have to use. Not only would it lower my ability to fully participate in the forum's conversations (after all many users I would have already muted like krellin, Draugnar, ILN, Tolstoy, Octavious, and others are regular and consistent parties to our discussions), but more importantly, with a distasteful figure such as krellin, it would be worse than a cop out.
I refuse to mute krellin less out of a concern for my own personal integrity (muting him would be "admitting defeat" from a certain angle), but more because I have reached a point where I am unwilling to cede ground to such a poisonous windbag.
This may be a board game website, but he espouses actual views (whether they are exaggerated for his entertainment notwithstanding) and his actual views and words are hurtful to individuals that play here, and worse, hateful and discriminatory to actual people that live in this world.
In short, I refuse to allow a scumbag like krellin to go unchallenged with threads like what we have seen today. And further, I refuse to allow him to go unchallenged in other contexts, as if his behavior elsewhere in calling people pedophiles - insinuating gay people are promiscuous and perverted, deploying racial slurs for comedic effect, and so on - is somehow forgettable as long as he is talking football or some other banal subject on a rare occasion that he does not find a way to make the discussion germane to his toxic social views.
And so, here we are. We are talking about krellin. I'm glad the thread wasn't silenced because I think there is a place for a meta-thread like this. It's not harassment, it's a reaction of the people who post on this forum. Does krellin have his supporters? Of course! A troglodyte like him doesn't exist in a vacuum, and this is after all a white male dominated forum as we all know. White males are krellin's natural allies.
None of this should excuse how he behaves though. So although I am not petitioning the moderators to ban him, I am going to take this opportunity to petition the FORUM in general, including the moderators who participate in it, to refuse to allow krellin to have the rhetorical space to spread his hate-gospel.
This is not the same as "feeding the troll." It's one thing to react emotionally and tell krellin to fuck himself and say you'll piss on his mother's grave, and other shit than krellin so often says to me and other people here.
It's another thing to consistently and calmy denounce his ugly views and tell him to take them somewhere else.
By analogy, allow me to explain my thinking: in the USA, freedom of speech is a legal right. Often, blowhards who misinterpret the meaning of the phrase "freedom of speech" believe that their legal freedom of speech is being violated when then find themselves cast as social pariahs, for, say, bashing gay people.
This of course is not a violation of their freedom of speech, since as you all know, being of a higher cut than most, freedom of speech is not the same as freedom from social antagonism resulting from unpopular speech.
And so, I propose to each and every one of you forum members to hear this message: don't let krellin have an effect on the people who read his posts.
Interrupt him. Challenge him. It's usually a waste of time to actually debate him, but do not let him speak without being ridiculed. This isn't so much because I hate krellin the man, since after all I don't know him in his entirety - this is because I think we can all agree that krellin the forum poster spreads some extremely distasteful, tiresome, and downright antisocial views here, that I don't want other people seeing and accepting.
So when we say "ah krellin is harmless, it's funny to read his rants," when we treat him like some kind of class clown, we do a severe disservice to not only the people that he is at the moment verbally abusing, but also to the people whose safety and legitimate position in society he is systemically and intentionally downgrading, whatever his protestations to the contrary.
So next time he replies to a post of yours - tell him to get bent.
This is all in the hopes not that krellin will disappear from the forum, a self-imposed exile if you will, since this is admittedly unlikely in the near future barring an act of God. Rather it is in the hopes that krellin will understand that he will not be free from haranguing and discouragement until he stops posting such bile.
Of course we cannot ban the ILNs and Fasces of the world who hold distasteful views, and indeed we should not. But what we can do is ask that loudmouths like krellin take it down a peg and at least respect a mutual level of decorum. No racial slurs, no sexist insinuations, no personal attacks on character, family, or otherwise.
I will be doing this from here on out until he changes. And as a long-standing member of this forum, you shouldn't be expecting me to give up and leave the site. This is no faux Draugnar-like "I'm leaving" ultimatum. This is a notice, and a request that you join me.
It's time that we said enough is enough. Would you be willing to share a table over and over again, and tacitly encourage, someone who had displayed such a lack of scruples and such a penchant for hatred and ignorance as krellin?
And before you say "it's his persona, not really who he is," who gives a shit? He says the words, here, out loud, on this forum accessible to everyone on the globe, there to read. We are members of this forum, and should be ashamed of his behavior, facetious or otherwise. Whatever his internal motivations, his behavior is reprehensible and unacceptable.
Krellin, enough is enough. You're free to your views, but you're not free to your gross rhetoric, not without your fair share of opprobrium.
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Who would win in a fight between...
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