#bulbagarden IRC Channel Issue.

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DoctorPain99

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Hello. I am DoctorPain99, a NIWA staff member.

Because of my position of NIWA, I like to lurk on the irc channels that have NIWA affiliation, including #bulbagarden. While I was on this channel, it came to my attention that, quite frankly, the subject matter of the discussion on the channel became beyond not appropriate at times. Bulbagarden is a website about a children's video game series; it is not appropriate to be talking about alcohol or sexual issues on such a channel. At one point, although it was pretty clear it was a joke, it was suggested among the members of the channel that inappropriate graphic material be shared. The channel ops were even participants. How can this be allowed on a chat about a children's video game?

I and a few other NIWA staff members ask that this be looked into. I can provide IRC logs if necessary. Thank you for your time.
 
The NIWA, to my knowledge, incorporates bulbapedia but not the larger umbrella of bulbagarden, under which #bulbagarden falls, so I don't really see why this pertains at all to the channel. It isn't #bulbapedia. Conversation there, however limited it is, pertains exclusively to the wiki, which may be relevant to NIWA. Bulbagarden may be an affiliate, but I don't think that gives NIWA any ability to dictate content.

There are subforums and blog posts on bulbagarden too concerning adult topics. As far as the community goes as a whole, bulbagarden has a generally more mature clientele which is reflected in what I consider a more lax set of rules pertaining to language use.

The chat is its own community. Most of us may share an interest in pokemon, but that doesn't mean we'll limit our conversation to just that topic. Many of us have known each other for years and know each other pretty well. That's because we're able to have the same types of conversations we'd have with friends outside of the pokemon community. You can't have a functioning IRC community if you were to limit the discussion to solely pokemon. Channels like #spp are stricter content wise, but they don't limit discussion to only pokemon. And it's because of the autokicks for saying words like shit or linking to absolutely anything that make it a less fun community to be a part of.

I think you simply have the misconception that it is a chat about a children's video game. It's not. It's a chat for a community of people, many of whom have interest in said franchise. Bulbagarden forums and #bulbagarden aren't content, they're community. It's Bulbapedia and Bulbanews that is responsible for the site's content.
 
GreatLiver said:
The NIWA, to my knowledge, incorporates bulbapedia but not the larger umbrella of bulbagarden, under which #bulbagarden falls, so I don't really see why this pertains at all to the channel. It isn't #bulbapedia. Conversation there, however limited it is, pertains exclusively to the wiki, which may be relevant to NIWA. Bulbagarden may be an affiliate, but I don't think that gives NIWA any ability to dictate content.

There are subforums and blog posts on bulbagarden too concerning adult topics. As far as the community goes as a whole, bulbagarden has a generally more mature clientele which is reflected in what I consider a more lax set of rules pertaining to language use.

The chat is its own community. Most of us may share an interest in pokemon, but that doesn't mean we'll limit our conversation to just that topic. Many of us have known each other for years and know each other pretty well. That's because we're able to have the same types of conversations we'd have with friends outside of the pokemon community. You can't have a functioning IRC community if you were to limit the discussion to solely pokemon. Channels like #spp are stricter content wise, but they don't limit discussion to only pokemon. And it's because of the autokicks for saying words like shit or linking to absolutely anything that make it a less fun community to be a part of.

I think you simply have the misconception that it is a chat about a children's video game. It's not. It's a chat for a community of people, many of whom have interest in said franchise. Bulbagarden forums and #bulbagarden aren't content, they're community. It's Bulbapedia and Bulbanews that is responsible for the site's content.
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I never suggested that the discussion should be "limited to just Pokémon", and I agree that channel's with overly strict rulesets like #spp are ridiculous. However, the content being discussed was still vastly inappropriate. It caused me and at least one other user to exit the channel (that user being well under legal age, btw), and while you may not think of yourself as a chat for a children's video game, that's what you associate yourself with. Yes, in general, freedom of speech is good, but not without limits.

I also want to clear up a few things. I am not trying to use my position as a NIWA staff member to claim any authority, but rather to state why I'm here and that I'm not just some random new user who was offended. I also, after looking at the rules, see that profanity is explicitly allowed, which I lack a problem with. However, I discussed the sexual issues with other people and each of them agreed that it wasn't appropriate and asked me to bring it up here, so I did so.
 
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DoctorPain99 said:
I also want to clear up a few things. I am not trying to use my position as a NIWA staff member to claim any authority, but rather to state why I'm here and that I'm not just some random new user who was offended. I also, after looking at the rules, see that profanity is explicitly allowed, which I lack a problem with. However, I discussed the sexual issues with other people and each of them agreed that it wasn't appropriate and asked me to bring it up here, so I did so.
Click to expand...

I dislike drama and hate to be confrontational, but I should point out that you do sound authoritative and even threatening. What exactly are you trying to accomplish? A reevaluation of the rules of a community that has functioned just fine for years and years?
 
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