D&D General Jaquaying the dungeon - a term to avoid

[Retreater]

We're in a hobby that still argues about how to pronounce "drow" and "THAC0" after 40 years. If the discussion is still what sounds better between "Jaquaying" vs. "Jaquaysing," I think we can make the latter work.

 

[Dire Bare]

Absolutely. The most significant problem right now is that he is still acting like he was doing the right thing back then, when he absolutely was not.

But there's a very significant difference between being transphobic (or sexist, or racist, etc.) and doing something transphobic. And when we blur those lines we give cover to bigots who use dog whistles and sketchy behavior to spread their beliefs. We also give cover to well-meaning but still ignorant people (like Alexander) who can rightly point to all the ways in which they do actually respect trans people without addressing the underlying bad behavior.

We like to think that just because we aren't a transphobe/homophobe/racist/etc. that we can't be transphobic/et al... but it's not that simple. We can mistakes. And when people use those mistakes to say we're a bigot, we push back, and I would argue rightfully so. Alexander isn't a transphobe; I truly believe that. But he's doing transphobia, and that's an important distinction, not just in the broader sense, but also to overcome the natural urge of defensiveness.

Good points.

I've worked hard since being a kid to not be racist, and more recently to even be anti-racist . . . but pretty consistently I have to confront my own behavior and thoughts that still are racist to some degree. I try not to judge myself, or others, too harshly for not always being on top of these things, but . . . . it's HOW you react to folks calling you out on bad behavior.

I'm not impressed with Alexander for this reason. His reaction to being called out on his transphobic behavior has been less than stellar. For that reason, I'm not motivated to purchase his new book or follow him on the socials. I'm not going to label him as a transphobe or worry about judging him . . . I'm just turned off from following his work.

 

[Rystefn]

Meh. That's a whole lot of (metaphorical) ink spilled over the difference between transphobic actions and being a tranphobe as if that's a meaningful difference. It's not. It might be better for your optics if you're trying to change behavior by making one approach over another, but it's not even a semantic difference, it's a tactical difference. And since he's not in this thread to worry about how he reacts and which approach is likely to change his behavior, I couldn't possibly care less about which tactic feels more effective. It doesn't matter how much he's on the right side of other naughty word, he's on the wrong side of this one.

At best, it's the difference between being stupid and acting stupid. Sure, if you did something stupid once, maybe you aren't stupid. Maybe you just made an honest mistake and we shouldn't keep calling you stupid. But if you do something stupid, then insist on continuing to do it for years, then defend it later and claim it wasn't stupid... yeah, I've got no problem calling you stupid about it. So yeah, I've got no problem calling Alexander a transphobe about this.

 

[cbwjm]

We're in a hobby that still argues about how to pronounce "drow" and "THAC0" after 40 years. If the discussion is still what sounds better between "Jaquaying" vs. "Jaquaysing," I think we can make the latter work.

Drow is clearly pronounced like row.

 

[Rystefn]

We're in a hobby that still argues about how to pronounce "drow" and "THAC0" after 40 years. If the discussion is still what sounds better between "Jaquaying" vs. "Jaquaysing," I think we can make the latter work.

Thack-zero. This is my hill, and I will die on it.

 

[Cordwainer Fish]

Thack-zero. This is my hill, and I will die on it.

Thack null, rhymes with aleph null.

 

[Spectral Anomaly]

Thack null, rhymes with aleph null.

Tee-Aitch-Ack-Naught

 

[schneeland]

Five years later, AFTER he and his book editor decided they'd prefer to use a term referring to himself, he updated the website, using weasel worded terminology to imply that he was doing as Jennell asked. When it's publicly documented in several places over the years that she wanted the spelling of her name corrected.

And MAYBE it's true that she told him if he wasn't willing to spell her damn name correctly she'd rather he take her name off it than keep the misspelled term. But that's still not him honoring or respecting her wishes by refusing to spell it correctly and then just replacing it entirely.

Yes, this is my main complaint here. From what we can tell, it seems pretty clear that her wish was to have the spelling corrected. And even if we ignore that for a second, it seems rather pretentious to choose his own name as a replacement.

 

[General_Tangent]

We're in a hobby that still argues about how to pronounce "drow" and "THAC0" after 40 years. If the discussion is still what sounds better between "Jaquaying" vs. "Jaquaysing," I think we can make the latter work.

We used to pronounce it THAC-oh, rhymes with Wacko

 

[Mistwell]

Yeah, what the heck? The actual OG designer who invented that style of dungeon design wants the name changed, so Justin Alexander decided to declare that it's now named after him? What the heck?

There is no way I am going to accept naming something Justin Alexander did not invent (he described the invention he didn't do anything to create the invention) after himself. There is nothing wrong with something like non-linearizing dungeons, for instance.