Above my paygrade

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

We've got people, apparently unknowing, promoting a game by a highly problematic person. Mentioning it is going to blow things up. (RPG.net has banned all references to this guy, who apparently has threatened that site with lawsuits.) But not mentioning it is going to mean promoting the work of a person some portion of the posters might not want to support.

This feels like a moderator-level decision. Maybe it's already been made in the past.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

You should probably dm the moderators.
I for one have no idea what you are on about. I mostly hangout here.

 

[Alzrius]

You should probably dm the moderators.
I for one have no idea what you are on about. I mostly hangout here.

I'm pretty sure it's a reference to Alexander Macris, who through his game company, Autarch, has released TTRPGs such as the Adventurer Conqueror King System (aka ACKS) and Ascendant.

Please note my use of affiliate links in this post.

 

[Umbran]

I closed one thread this morning in which folks, in their vehemence to reject someone they didn't approve of, stepped over lines they should not have.

Please report whatever post you find an issue, and we will look into it.

 

[Ondath]

I closed one thread this morning in which folks, in their vehemence to reject someone they didn't approve of, stepped over lines they should not have.

Please report whatever post you find an issue, and we will look into it.

I ask this entirely in good faith, and if the clear mod response is that this also counts as line crossing, I won't belabour the point. That said...

The matter with the person in question goes beyond approval or disapproval, I'd say. We're talking about someone who's had an active business relationship with another someone whose views would be completely bannable offenses here. Normally when someone brings up the guy, I would wish to warn someone of this situation, in case they don't know. The same way one might wish to warn someone of Justin LeNasa being... Justin LeNasa. But I feel like that might be a line to cross with regards to the forum rules (specifically, no politics), so I feel constrained when I want to warn people of this guy, while he and his game are suggested as if he's a noncontroversial figure. Would it be alright if I warned people of his connections, much in the same way one might warn people of LeNasa?

 

[Gradine]

I think, in this very specific case, the issue isn't just that the person in question is legitimately horrible and has said and done things that would get them a quick and easy permanent removal from the site. We can and have discussed multiple individuals like this in the past.

The specific issue here is that this individual has a history of issuing legal threats against both forum administrators and individual posters, and allowing such threads and topic to spiral into the pages long kinds of back-and-forth that, lets be honest, frames our most prolific threads, increases the risk that the sort of litigious person who name-searches themselves on the regular will stumble across our little home on the internet and threaten its members and shepherds.

A thread about another infamously litigious (and just generally infamous) RPG public figure (let's say a name associated with the last letter of the English alphabet) cropped up just over a month ago and was nearly immediately thread locked. I think the OP is suggesting a similar level of care to shutting discussion of the individual currently in question.

 

[Umbran]

The matter with the person in question goes beyond approval or disapproval, I'd say.

If Morrus tells the mods that this person is on a "do not allow mention" list, then we will enforce that. Otherwise, mere mention of their work is not itself something we are likely to step in on.

But I feel like that might be a line to cross with regards to the forum rules (specifically, no politics), so I feel constrained when I want to warn people of this guy, while he and his game are suggested as if he's a noncontroversial figure. Would it be alright if I warned people of his connections, much in the same way one might warn people of LeNasa?

The devil is in the details.

I closed a thread because, in effort to reject a creator, users stooped to profanity and information about the subject's personal life, neither of which is okay.

If you want to warn someone, "Just so you know this person has some associations and stated attitudes that many folks are not okay with, and you might want to look some of those up before supporting their work," that's more likely to pass muster.

 

[Umbran]

The specific issue here is that this individual has a history of issuing legal threats against both forum administrators and individual posters, and allowing such threads and topic to spiral into the pages long kinds of back-and-forth that, lets be honest, frames our most prolific threads, increases the risk that the sort of litigious person who name-searches themselves on the regular will stumble across our little home on the internet and threaten its members and shepherds.

If you can private message someone on the mod staff (me, Danny, or Morrus) cites or references, that would be helpful in making a policy decision.