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Notes -
The Gays Destroyed The "No Politics" Rule
Pride month began, and the moderators of /r/Battletech enforced their "no politics" rule as they have through elections, wars, referedums, economic crisis, etc. A long standing rule fastidiously kept by most Battletech groups I frequent. It's preserved Battletech as one of my escapes for long years as every other hobby I had got overrun with far left politics. Alas, no longer.
In response, Catalyst games launched /r/OfficialBattletech, specifically calling out the "bigotry" of /r/Battletech, and announcing Battletech is a "safe space". They parachuted in a community leader with experience moderating "safe spaces". People began making the sorts of spurious claims against the mods of /r/Battletech you are used to seeing, calling them being fascist at best, literally "Heil Hitler" nazi's at worst on the most spurious of circumstantial evidence. The originator of /r/Battletech came out of nowhere and completely removed the mods of /r/Battletech to make damned sure /r/Battletech participates in Pride Month.
Because it's not political. It's just being a decent person.
So I guess Battletech is explicitly left wing now. You are no allowed to opt out of their politics.
Hobbies/Fandoms I'm allowed in
Video GamesBoard GamesScience FictionStar WarsStar TrekBattletechWoodworking
And I log into youtube to watch Stumpy Nubs tell me how to sharpen a chisel every day in fear some flashpoint will have occurred. That the Eye of Sauron finally noticed that woodworking is too white and must be destroyed. And suddenly every content creator I watch will be posting these mewling apology videos for not doing enough to foster diversity and inclusiveness in this important hobby. And the rest of the month ends up being pride themed woodworking content. Making your own buttplugs on a lathe or whatever. How to add glitter to a poly finish.
Sounds like the problem here is the originator opening the gates. Otherwise the mods and population could have kept chugging along. At least until someone justified a wargoal to Reddit admins.
I don’t think that plays out the same way for woodworking. There’s no originator to destabilize the whole community. You’d have to go straight to the top and try for mass demonetization. As I understand it, YouTube is absolute garbage as a platform, but I don’t think it tends to moderate for not saying something. I hope.
I recall something similar happening when I last was looking for Minecraft launchers. One of them was reasonably recommended, but the latest commit had deleted a woke code of conduct. Ooo, scary—oh. He also booted anyone he thought was too left-leaning from the permissions. There goes the neighborhood.
Easy fork, right? Just make their own PolyMC and don’t let this guy in. But network effects mean that requires a bunch of hand-wringing warning people off the old brand name, which is now dead to “anyone of sane mind.”
I mention all that because my first reflex was to tell you to suck it up and make /r/TrueBattletech or whatever. There’s clearly a supply of recently unemployed moderators. But I realize that the network effects are stacked against you, and that no matter what you do, it will be painted as a reactionary shithole. That sucks, and I’m sorry to hear about it.
While we’re on the subject…Please tell me that RogueTech is still okay?
That's why it's important to have a principled rule in the first place, because majorities don't have principles.
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