It's my opinion that the sexism on this board is rather tame given the amount of freedom that the Mods allow. If a bit of ribbing scares someone away, they really need to get off the internet completely. There is also nothing stopping a female member from joining in and playing along by doing a little male bashing.
People really need to grow a thicker skin and stop looking at everything as a personal attack.
Please don't turn this place into a politically correct piece of crap.
Ok, someone else can have the soapbox
It's too bad that there are so many people here who are in denial about their chauvinism. There has to be other computer forums with nicer people.
Here's a little wake up call for you guys, and it requires a story:
For me realizing what this place is really all about started with a guy named I.R.A. Who posted, on the general nonsense forum, a thread titled "why can't women shut their trap." It was about him being mad at his girlfriend for giving him a hard time because he took a video clip of chuck norris hitting a woman and made it his avatar. So he was frustrated that she wouldn't shut up, and came here to complain.
First of don;t tell me that it was just friendly ribbing haa, because it wasn't, and second, women are very familiar with this tactic (yes it's a tactic) of: "what's the matter, can;t you take a joke"? Ohmigod, tell me one right back. Guess what, two wrongs don't make a right.
So, ok, I had a problem with this video clip too, and I said something about it. This started everyone in on oohing and ahhing, and going, "oh man isn't that great" and "oh let's post a picture of what Tyler really looks like because she has a problem with this, and posting a picture of a fat ugly woman, and going: "that is too funny that she is complaining about this, that's the funnniest thing I ever saw." Boy that's real creative freedom of speech all right. I'm going to exercise some of my own.
So I wrote the moderators, and they deleted that stuff. Then I.R.A. posted it again on the never ending pizza thread, to keep it going, and I complained, to zekraminator I believe, and he sighed and deleted it. The thing is, Zekraminator (spelling whatever) did not think there was anything wrong with it either, but at least he did delete that stuff when I complained. I was really apalled to notice that I.R.A. did not even understand what was wrong with what he was doing, until a male with authority over him, deleted that stuff. Then he admitted maybe it wasn't right. Maybe it's kinda like how criminals don;t even see that they do stuff that's wrong, until they are caught. Since they apparently have no internal apparatus for having a conscience, they can't fit into society, but they can only realize once the consequences are at hand. That's the mechanism that I see at work here.
So later on ( and yes I'm working up to something here), on another forum I'm on (which is slightly sexist but not as bad as this joint), somebody said something slightly sexist, I said something about it, and I also mentioned what happened with I.R.A. and the chuck norris clip, and all the wonderful admiration he got for it, and I said to them: "Guys please don't be that way, because this forum is one I'd probably like to stay on." And you know what they said? They said: No, we don't condone that, we are not in favor of hitting women." And the guy who said something sexist apologized to me and deleted it. Then another guy said something else sexist, like the usual "can't you take a joke" and etc.ad nauseum, and I let it drop. He meant what that guy on that forum said, not the chuck
norris story from this one.
So here's the wake up call for you guys: Even amongst other male chauvinists, there
was a reaction of total appallment at what happened here. Do you get it - Even the
other male chauvinists were appalled by the low level of awareness exhibited by this
example. That's really sad.
Yes I do take it as a sample of the general mentality on this forum, because it wasn't
just I.R.A. by his own lonesome self. Further observation just serves to confirm
my impression.
So what I find interesting is that the forum moderators see fit to try to "tighten things up" by stopping stuff like nonsense posts, but they don't mind stuff like this at all. I respect Zekraminator for at least trying, and deleting that stuff because I requested it, but then I expect he only did it because it was just so obviously offensive. What I don't respect is that he thought it there was no problem with it,
on his own.
In the forum rules there is a statement that they do not want "hateful messages" on here. The way I see it, this forum is not living up to that standard, and the moderators are not doing enough to prevent it. It is evident right there in the behavior of Zekraminator, who could not see what was offensive about that video clip on his own, when even the male chauvinists on the Truespace forum immediately did.
So I hope that the moderators of this forum wake up and smell the coffee, but as for me, I hope I can find nicer people out there. Nicer people than you. There's a lot of great technical knowledge on here, but I'm sure I should be able to get it somewhere without this crap.
Tyler
PS Zekraminator, according to your forum rules, I deserve a certain level of respect just by being here, because they don't want hateful language on here. Having my underwear referred to in the manner it was, was certainly not respectful. And I quote:
"By agreeing to these rules, you warrant that you will not post any messages that are obscene, vulgar, sexually-oriented, hateful, threatening, or otherwise violative of any laws."
This forum is sadly failing, and panchoman's sig file is just another piece of shit on the pile, if you get my meaning.
