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I will always think Red Dead Redemption 2 was a masterpiece.
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@AdaptableRatman
I don't understand libertarianism enough to be qualified debating it, tbh.
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@AdaptableRatman
As a mod you'd be going off on any anti-Christian rhetoric and banning people for criticizing a religion.
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@AdaptableRatman
Sigh.
"Jesus, son of a philanderer and a loose woman, was a sexually repressed gay guy, who probably masturbated a lot. Rather pompous of him to tell women how to recreationally utilise their reproductive equipment. And you cannot prove that a word of this is untrue."
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I like casual debate. I've looked into formal debates, but I can't help but find them tedious. Too much like work. Rules, formality, rigor, deadlines. I prefer the freedom and organicness of just debating somebody in the forums. Plus I really like when another person's viewpoint expands my perspective, makes me reconsider.
Why aren't you non liberal?
I have empathy, so my options are limited.
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@AdaptableRatman
I didnt say that to him. Quote my exact statement to Zed.
"Zedvoctor4 chooses Hell every single time he makes such posts. Cease to make such posts."
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@Sir.Lancelot
I feel like there's a lot of Barney backstory I'm missing. I gotta stop going on hiatus.
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Have you seen those motivational posters in churches that say stuff like "A true Christian wants to be free of sin, not to sin freely." That's what the establishment tries to teach, I think.
But like, on paper you can totally live a life of evil from birth to deathbed, repent accept Jesus and then go to heaven. If there's a baptism somewhere along the way. Which is... suboptimal, justice-wise.
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@AdaptableRatman
I think deep down you just want to protect people from feeling the way you do now. But most of us don't feel as threatened as you do by online opposition. Internet jabs are foam darts, but you see them as nuclear warheads. So you're like "Follow me and I'll denuclearize DART." There are no nukes. We don't need a fascist nuke crackdown.
Accepting the debate wouldn't have been caving in, btw. It would've been rising to the challenge. Would've been nice to see it. But I understand.
You would be safe under my leadership btw. I'd tame anyone who dared mess with you, Castin. You know I would.
I'm bi, Rat. Don't think I'd feel very protected under an authoritarian religious regime. You just told zed to shut up or face the fires of hell because he spouted irreligiosity. Hate to think what you'd say to me if you really knew me. Don't mind hearing that fire and brimstone shit from other users, but if I heard it from staff? No thanks. Time to leave.
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@Lemming
Neither of them really knew how to throttle back. ethang developed Predator vision around trolls and wouldn't quit, and Poly was just sort of persecuted and hateful all the time. Still, good contributors. Especially enjoyed hearing Poly's perspectives. A pagan viewpoint was a breath of fresh air.
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@MayCaesar
Well, first, there is an option to refuse to do anything and tell the AI that the organics will decide their fate on their own. That leads to the cycle being complete and Liara planting some data for the next civilization to uncover.
wat
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Morrigan and Alistair were such well-drawn characters. And Flemeth was *chef's kiss*
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KOTOR 1 and 2 will always be connected to my heartstrings. They were some of my first RPGs. HK-47 was my first videogame robot buddy. And what a mad murderous buddy he was.
I don't know why they never went back to Jade Empire, there was plenty of potential there. Maybe they were embarrassed they ever gave you the option to have a threesome with two first cousins.
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@MayCaesar
If it had been presented as an imperfect AI trying to solve a galactic development problem, that would be one thing, sure.
Instead, everything the child says is presented more like an exposition dump -- objective information on which to base your endgame decision.
Note how Shepard can't challenge holobrat's conclusions or premises, and is left with the three options holobrat gives him, even if holobrat has arrived at these options erroneously. I was dying for dialogue options which challenged what I was hearing, but I didn't receive any.
It was shocking to me that Shepard doesn't even have the option to ask why holokid looks exactly like the child Shepard couldn't save on Earth. It was almost like the whole ending sequence was a fever dream. Some fans argued it was.
And none of it answers the question of why the Reapers developed such evil personalities. If they were created by a neutral but malfunctioning AI, they should have just been silent cleaners. Instead they spend the entire series mocking you as an inferior creature of blood and flesh, like there's real malicious intent behind their actions.
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@Sir.Lancelot
Shrug. I clocked him as less polite to me, but you've interacted with him more than me since his return.
More polite is great, but the Bible thumping and constant channeling of Waterboy's mom is such a step down.
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@AdaptableRatman
No, just freedom of expression and a mind unfettered by repressive dogma.
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@AdaptableRatman
I loved your rap battles. They were fun and you had talent. Even your wild religious ideas were interesting. A lot has been lost in this new you.
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@AdaptableRatman
I am ethically against them unless swearing, sex, threats and basiclaly all rap diss elements are removed or reduced.I literally see them as Satanic now.
Smh. You've removed everything I liked about you and left only the control freak syndrome and the persecution complex.
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I've just realized this may have been a bit of a trigger.
Ahem. Ignore my outburst plz.
BioWare is a great developer, ME3 WAS A LONG TIME AGO I'M OVER IT I'M OVER IT.
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@MayCaesar
Casey Hudson, the project lead of Mass Effect, was a huge Deus Ex fan, and I honestly think he just got so hyped up on it that he injected Deus Ex into Mass Effect. The thing was, it didn't fucking fit.
I spend all of Mass Effect 3 getting the quarians and the geth to make peace, sacrifice along the way to get it, lose Legion after he just discovers first person pronouns (sob) and this fucking hologram child (why does he look like the kid on Earth from the beginning of game 3?? are the Reapers pulling the image from my mind?? am I already indoctrininated?? NEVER EXPLAINED) appears out of nowhere and says that organic and synthetic life will wipe each other out AS AN INEVITABILITY and the super genius solution has been genocide every 50,000 years, then rinse, repeat, reset factory settings. Now choose red blue or green!
No. I don't agree with the fucking problem. I don't think organic and synthetic life are going to wipe each other out this time. I've made progress. Does that mean nothing all the sudden just because holobrat appeared? I'm sure as fuck not willing to put all organic life in the cyborg blender, become a Reaper, or destroy galactic travel in order to solve the hologram child's nothingburger of a problem.
And none of this explains why the Reapers were so mustache-twirling evil the whole series?? Listen to Harbinger and Sovereign talk, they're Voldemort in giant squid form. I was expecting an evil plot, not that they were just galactic Roombas made by another race. Why did they make their Roombas so evil?? If there's no evil behind the curtain, why evil curtains? Why--WHY--
I was so hyped to find out why sentient robots were wiping out civilization every 50 millennia, and it turns out, it was to keep civilization from being wiped out by robots! OH HOW NICE, THAT MAKES SENSE.
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@AdaptableRatman
Zedvoctor4 chooses Hell every single time he makes such posts.
Hell is an unjust concept originally envisioned by the oppressed to comfort them that their oppressors would find punishment, but now used as a cracking whip to enforce Christian dogma. Zed will not be impressed with your whip.
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@zedvictor4
Perfectly feasible interpretation of biblical texts, relative to known human function and behaviour.All the pretentious latter day interpretations referring to stuff such as sin, righteousness and repentance is largely hypocritical theo-speak, that ignores human function and behaviour.Whether designed, evolved or designed and evolved, the organism is programmed not to be sinless. Whatever sinlessness might mean.We have been designed or evolved or designed and evolved, to be competitive survivalists and progressive intellectualists, wherein being nice all the time, just isn't workable, and we have never functioned as such.Even the bible is full of competitive not niceness.After all, the basis of Christianity is either founded upon the rape of Christ's mother, or a quickie in the stable when Joe wasn't looking.Or magic sperm of course.
The Gospels and Pauline epistles constitute our best data on Jesus. They need to be judged critically, using historical methodology, but they're our best data.
And they are silent on Jesus's sexual orientation; they are silent on the identity of Jesus's real father. You can "interpret" that he was gay or a bastard, but the fact of the matter is the data is inconclusive, and you would simply be taking liberties with it to score points against Christianity.
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@zedvictor4
Yes, I miss Ethang5.
Ethang5 and PolytheistWitch should be unbanned.
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@WyIted
Also why would you care more about the sincerity of an argument than it being factually accurate?
You don't care about deradicalizing anyone, so your argument is a pretense, rhetorical prophylaxis. If a real extremist came on this website you would most likely toy with him to see what amusement could be gotten from it.
And only the part about most extremists being radicalized in echo chambers was factually accurate.
The part where blackface trolls are gonna help us save lost souls is monkey shit.
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@zedvictor4
I can't prove it's untrue, but I can certainly say it is unsupported by the data, and it is.
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@LucyStarfire
Sites with better resources are going to have better trafficBanning people reduces number of people on the site.
Say you have 20 active users. 6 are ban-prone. Lax moderation policies would keep those 6 online, but you've still only got 20 people. Doesn't solve the underlying issue.
Relaxing rules is never going to help traffic as much as real advertising. If you had 100 active users, what would the loss of 6 matter?
If you don't ever plan for the site to grow, then yeah, I guess having mods asleep at the desk like Homer Simpson is the way to keep all 20 people on.
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@ResurgetExFavilla
The next time there's a mass shooting, nobody else will understand why. But we will.
😂
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Lol. People continue to blame moderation policy for a lack of marketing and funds. Sites with better resources are going to have better traffic.
"Change moderation policy to my way of thinking and the spice will flow!" It won't. #Resources
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@WyIted
Not a bad argument tbh. Coming from anyone else it might sound sincere too.
By all means, let's permit all manner of stereotypical niggamassabitch inflammatory garbage on the 0.6% chance we might deradicalize the next Columbine shooter.
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Jesus tells the woman taken in adultery to "go and sin no more." I believe the intent is for you to repent and then change your ways, to struggle against sin, as Paul says in Romans. Nevertheless, many use it as a revolving door of crime and absolution, and there's nothing in the Bible that explicitly says that kind of shit doesn't fly, that there's a limit on how much sin can be forgiven.
The Bible also indicates we can never truly abandon evil in favor of righteousness. A sinless life is aspirational, but can never be realized.
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@Sir.Lancelot
What are your guys' thoughts?
On DDO, I found a forum I really liked. There was a strong, steady flow of users discussing the subjects that interested me, and I met a lot of interesting and intelligent people. I felt like I was in the agora, or tapped into one of the main debate arteries of the interwebs.
My only beef was that there was no moderation or active management. Spammers reigned and trolls could churn out a dozen garbage threads filling page 1 of a subforum.
When DART started, I wanted only to restore what DDO felt like, but with attentive mods. I wanted the same community instead of all of us scattering to the four winds, but with a company or administration that gave a shit. That's still all I want.
It's not going to be achieved through purges and feuds.
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@MayCaesar
The ending of game three pissed me off so much I never revisited the franchise. But excepting the ending, it was a fabulous trilogy.
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I'm addicted. This show doesn't get nearly the clout it deserves.
Insane how much I want Helly R to get revenge on her outie. "I want her to wake up as the life drains out of her and to have her know it was me who did it."
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I'm still not clear on what your objections are to WF and Barney. They seem like decent chaps.
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@AdaptableRatman
I mean, I assume?
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@IlDiavolo
Takes more server space which requires more $$$, is the last word I heard from Mike on it.
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I'd like a site I can be proud of, but I'd rather have no mods at all than oppressive authoritarianism.
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@WyIted
Heh. Lashwnda was a noble e-blackface account struggling to turn extremists away from even worse racism, was she.I was addressing the principles behind why I think she shouldn't be banned because those principles stretch beyond her even if the principles themselves are not directly relevant to her.
Fair enough. But just say you want carte blanche to act however the fuck you want because it's fun, dude. We don't need all this baloney about wanting to deradicalize anyone.
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@WyIted
I mean Lashwnda was basically online blackface. E-blackface if you will. If someone puts on blackface and starts machine-gunning the N-word in a "friendly" way it's still pretty racist.We don't want to ban racism and put people in echo chambers where they can be radicalized for extreme violence
Heh. Lashwnda was a noble e-blackface account struggling to turn extremists away from even worse racism, was she.
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@AdaptableRatman
If it only counts if directed at a user, then none of that is actionable.
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@WyIted
I mean Lashwnda was basically online blackface. E-blackface if you will. If someone puts on blackface and starts machine-gunning the N-word in a "friendly" way it's still pretty racist.
Don't be sad. There will be other trolls for y'all to play with.
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@WyIted
Didn't Lashwnda call people racial slurs all the time.
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@WyIted
Into the new COC is it's goals. The COC is able to be modified and is a living document as well but written into it is the fact that it is intended to balance free speech with personal respect.
I'm actually kind of confused by the new one. It doesn't say anything about racism being against the rules but she was banned in part for racism. Which parts of the old CoC is the new CoC replacing? Are racial slurs still against the CoC or not?
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I'd just like to understand what the theistic preoccupation with the "blaming God" talking point is.
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@n8nrgim
im getting to the point of writing books and already writing blogs on christian spirituality and theology, and what NDEs can teach us, and incorporating these both within the science of happiness. the science of happiness is a relatively new branch of study for me, but i'm learning a lot. i'm finding connections between the branches of study and finding new ground for writing. Artificial intelligence is extremely helpful, but sometimes using real intelligence from humans helps too. you got to bounce the ideas off both. i post on different forums with different topics where i might be able to learn or develop more thought. this forum is more generic and i can't get specialized very well here for most topics.
Have you ever had an NDE, out of curiosity?
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@AdaptableRatman
New mods are silent. New mods watch from the citadel. New mods arespineless.
Shrug. Every time bsh1 communicated with the community in defense of his bans it just added fuel to the fire. Staying silent is the smart move. Less entertaining for me, but smart.
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@badger
I feel like you're seeing all Christianity through the lens of right-wing American evangelicals. If you're looking at only them, Christianity becomes nothing more than the cudgel they use to enforce their RWA politics. Easy to start saying stuff like "Christianity is a force for ill" then.
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@ResurgetExFavilla
New mods are silent. New mods watch from the citadel. New mods are wise.Eh, I think this is kind of why the site is dead. I was looking over people I remembered from the past who had colorful, strongly held opinions and many of them have been banned or just stopped posting. Sure, as a mod you can ignore feedback from site users, and it causes less trouble in the short term. But there's a reason that there's been a drive to loosen up moderation rules by the actual users. This forum is just boring. Mafia is the only thing it has going for it and is really the only reason I came back. There are dozens of places I could go to discuss issues that offer more diverse spreads of opinions and users who are articulate enough to defend them well. In my opinion, the site has been slowly smothered in its cradle by enforcing an Overton window and level of decorum that's like a timewarp to 2015. Nobody on the internet wants that anymore, and there're so many better-populated places to find what people do want. For the people who want a hugbox, there are places that are much stricter. For people who want to speak and explore freely, there's an ever-increasing number of sites that offer complete freedom. The zeitgeist has moved on.
Imo it's just that the userbase is so damn small that the loss of any active user is too keenly felt. One or two bans can alter the noise level of the room. Doesn't help that some of the most loyal regulars are the naturally ban-prone.
The mods are just enforcing the CoC, and the users all vote on the CoC, so I don't know where we're going wrong if laissez-faire policy is the will of the site. I just don't think our low traffic problem is Team Sensitive's fault or Team Insensitive's fault. It's just lack of marketing and lack of funds.
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