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Zero Tolerance Approach to Harmful Beliefs and Discrimination

There is an small update to this policy, which can be found further in the thread or by clicking here.



In an effort to ensure SMW Central is, and remains, as LGBTQ+ friendly and all-inclusive as it should be, we're pushing forward with a zero tolerance policy and approach against expressions of homophobia, transphobia, sexism, racism, etc. Over the last few days, both arms of our site moderation teams (forum moderators and Discord moderators) have been working together to iron out this approach to ensure our moderation is consistent across both the site forums and our Discord community.

Our zero tolerance approach to this kind of behaviour means that we will be reacting faster in removing a user from our community where they are entrenched in these sorts of harmful beliefs, or expressing these kinds of beliefs in bad faith. As this is a cross-platform approach, should a user be removed from our Discord community due to this, they will also have their account disabled on the site.

This doesn't mean we're going to be disabling accounts of users who may accidentally use a slur, without realising its true harm or meaning. In these kinds of instances where this kind of behaviour is carried out due to user ignorance/misinformation, we will do our best as a moderation team to educate these users on why this kind of behaviour could be seen as harmful to others.

We hope this new approach to this kind of behaviour will be welcomed by the SMW Central community. We're here to ensure everyone feels welcome at SMW Central, regardless of their background.

With all this, Rule A3 of the SMW Central Site-Wide Rules has been updated to reflect our zero tolerance policy, and this has been noted in the Site-Wide Rules Changelog thread.
So you are going to be intolerant against intolerance? A good step I assume, even if it's disappointing that it had to come that far.
Main purpose on posting on this site, despite sharing interest and resources for our common hobby, should be making friends and having fun.
Please be kind guys!








A great step in the right direction for sure! I am glad the site is starting to make some proper changes to it's attitude that seemed stuck in the past for a long while.
Very proud of the site and its staff for making this move. We are all human and everyone deserves the proper respect. #smrpg{y}
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13:13
mod edit: removed post contents for bigotry
Originally posted by Ezek.The Square Remixer
Words

I mean, at least you respect their "right" to do what they want with their bodies, but statements like this still come off as incredibly underhanded, whether that's your intention or not. Kind of the same thing with the "turning left" thing; regardless of your political orientation, we should want the best for everyone. Even if it bothers you that much, it's not something that really needs to be said, considering the possible people who might read your post.

...


I, for one, am happy about this. There have been far too many incidents lately (mainly on the Discord) where LGBT+ views were being disrespected blatantly, so it's nice to have some confirmation that they will be dealt with appropriately #smw{:TUP:}
Twitter
The handomest people in the world are ones who follow my Twitch
wonder if this was posted because of what I posted in #media the other day lol; not that I care since I made that video 2 years ago at that point along with it being a sort-of response/vent to certain events that were happening at that point in my life (which I just removed btw since there really was no reason for it to be kept for this long anyway), but honestly this was long overdue, so it's nice to see this being enforced a bit more even if I may have indirectly influenced this decision, heh :V
Layout by Mathos
Originally posted by Ultima
wonder if this was posted because of what I posted in #media the other day lol; not that I care since I made that video 2 years ago at that point along with it being a sort-of response/vent to certain events that were happening at that point in my life (which I just removed btw since there really was no reason for it to be kept for this long anyway), but honestly this was long overdue, so it's nice to see this being enforced a bit more even if I may have indirectly influenced this decision, heh :V

For clarification purposes, it was not.
Bio.
Twitch.
Originally posted by Ezek.The Square Remixer
* Original Content Removed *


The original post in the quote above was removed due to containing bigoted content. These kinds of comments / attitude in this community is exactly the kind of reason why we have to take this approach, and therefore the user in question has had their account disabled.

It's unfortunate that we have to take this approach, because being kind and showing someone respect regardless of their background should be common sense. And until that changes, we will ensure that SMW Central remains a community for all, regardless of your background.
I'm glad you guys are doing this...but I'm somewhat annoyed that this has to be an official post instead of a basic decency thing that people get due to common sense.

I didn't get to see the deleted comment, but I saw that the account was disabled. If that's because of what the user said, I'm glad you guys are holding people accountable instead of brushing it under.
I welcome this approach, personally. This has long been overdue. I don't think it's feasible to keep the "it's just common sense" approach anymore, as history has shown users have been racially or sexually indifferent at minimum. (with a greater emphahsis on sexually)

Glad this is being taken care of now.

-----------

STELLA!
At first, I was like "wait, didn't SMWC have zero tolerance against these behaviors before?", but after reading this thread, I understand it wasn't "zero tolerance" enough and it had to be tightened.

I'm definitely thankful for the hard work the staff is doing to keep this place LGBTQ+ and minority friendly. I wish more places over the internet did the same.
as far as im concerned smwc's main purpose is to modify a 25 year old video game and any other discussion not pertaining to that is a privilege; h*ck, even using the website without discussion is a privilege. so this new rule is fine, welcome even. my one, personal, concern is how this pertains to content posted/hosted/etc before december 10th 2020? i have certainly joked about things of this nature; i mean ive had that pic in my bio for almost a decade, but should i take it down? should i go back and remove things that were a bit risque/edgy/etc?

i argue also "zero tolerance" in regards to sexuality is a bit ambiguous. uhhhh LMNtals warned me for something the other day on discord related to this. i didnt think it was truly offensive and i removed it because it doesnt pertain to the function of this site, but it begs the question: is this zero tolerance approach to say any reference to any such major or minor groups of peoples or communities is now forbidden? can i make a hack with a gay character? is that offensive? why is that offensive? i ask these questions rhetorically for discussion purposes; again, i'm mainly here to utilize resources related to super merio

edit: oh but i am seriously asking about the bolded stuffs

This policy is not going to be applied retroactively, otherwise I would have to immediately turn in my staff badge. #smrpg{gasp} That said, a user's past site issues would still be considered if they were to get in trouble again (with some respect to how much time has passed, of course.)

The issue you brought up on Discord was due to a hack you made that the moderators found to be in poor taste, not because the character was gay but because of how it was presented in the text (you can feel free to PM/DM a moderator about this if you have an issue with the warning). Obviously, we don't have an issue with a hack featuring an openly gay character so long as it's presented in good faith.
Hi there,

I was not aware problems of this magnitude existed since so far I was not witnessing any displays of personal harrassment. I guess those happen more in private discussions? I am sorry to see such developments on a hobby website.

To be honest I often feel shy to engage in topics different than smw hacking anyway, and I can't seem to make friends online all that easily.

This said, I came here to state I actually hope the line is drawn between active harrassment and/or insufferable bigotry, versus innocent joke; that there is room for trial and error.

I already have received soft warnings for using slur x or y in my self-deprecating jokes: jokes that targeted myself. It felt a bit arbitrary at that time. I've learned and am doing my best to not repeat the incidents. It isn't always obvious, though.
I'm quite glad the staff are taking this approach, that way it'll be much easier to stop situations like the recent terf outing in reality corner in their tracks. I've definitely seen in previous years users getting let off or not given strong enough punishment for things like blatant Islamaphobia, so this is definitely a welcome change.
Does this mean I can't make gay jokes? I'm quite gay so...
it's one thing to call people the f slur or the d slur or the t slurs while being cishet and allo but it's another to go like "im so gay and useless" when im a masc-preferring pansex dude who is in fact very much useless. homophobic and lesbophobic homosexuals are very much a thing though, so you need to distinguish outright bigotry from just harmless jokes

im not the kind of person to describe myself with the f slur as it seems too harsh and i've grown to associate it with 4ch

i assume staff has discussed with sexual and racial minority users thoroughly and properly though

i do welcome this change wholeheartedly as romhacking is still a bit of a cishet white male dominated area as seen with that one goemon 3 translation patch that had a transphobic joke in place of the term "newhalf" which while having a sort of History, it is very much used by older japanese trans folk, as well as that one helicopter player hack for zelda made by that one badder hacks dude, and let's not forget the racist labels of the xatu boss in /v/orld 2 (which thankfully doesnt affect the main game itself, as all of the ingame questionable content was censored pre-release)

Originally posted by Samantha
I've definitely seen in previous years users getting let off or not given strong enough punishment for things like blatant Islamaphobia, so this is definitely a welcome change.

fuck yeah sockbat replica's getting nanned
HackPortsASM"Uploader"