scans_daily

(Cross-posted to NoScans_Daily.)

We'd like to thank all our members for bearing with us while we worked out a response to the comments and queries raised in

parusmajor's post on anti-oppression, the community ethos and the mod stance on it. We're cross-posting this both to the thread and both comms and have attempted to make our stance as clear as possible to avoid further confusion.

We need to be very clear that the moderation team will clamp down on discriminatory behaviour where we see it and we will continue to apply anti-oppression methods of moderation, many of which can be read up on in our Resources post, which has been up and linked from the main page for several months. The reason we raised this issue now was not because it was comics related, but because it was community related. What better place to discuss discrimination than one where it has, unfortunately, recently been at work?

We also need to be very clear that we're concerned most with those who are being denigrated - we do not believe that our priority is protecting those members who are called out for, or demonstrate, discriminatory behaviour or bigotry. This is not about making the community safe for those members. We do realize that sometimes comments can be made that are unintentionally discriminatory. In those cases, we hope that any member who gets called out would be able to apologize and learn from the experience and, if doing so, we will strive to ensure they are not harassed over what may well have been a mistake or misunderstanding. In most cases, a heartfelt apology is enough to defuse a misunderstanding. If it isn't, we will endeavour to step in and mediate to protect all out members. We are confident that the majority of members are able to handle these situations well, and can recover from mistakes. But at all times our priority will be those members who are discriminated against over those who are called out.

We'd point members again to the community ethos that talks about trying to make Scans_Daily and NoScans_Daily a safer space for those who are discriminated against. That has always been a part of Scans_Daily's ethos ever since the community was founded as part of the slash community and the only change is that the moderators have tried to be more active about anti-oppression. We fully intend to continue to do so and to help make Scans_Daily and NoScans_Daily places where bigotry and discrimination are not tolerated, but where everyone, minorities and non-minorities alike, can feel safer.

What does that mean for the average member? Very little. We genuinely believe that the large majority of our members are open-minded and aware of oppression issues and have no intent to harm. The vast majority of posts on the community members do not need any moderator intervention. The policy of encouraging the calling out of other members or creators for discriminatory or oppressive behaviour is one that has been written in as part of the community's ethos for nearly a year, and the vast majority of members have continued to post and discuss comics without any concern. One only need look at the 60+ posts to Scans_Daily since the last mod post to see that, for the most part, it's business as usual.

We would say that for anyone who does not feel comfortable with these anti-oppression policies, there are a large number of forums and communities online which do not follow such policies, where they may feel more at ease. However, we will state that there's no big change here and that if you've been comfortable being part of these communities for some time, there's no reason for that to change.

We have seen some concern that policy has changed and we're now allowing personal attacks. We're not and we need to be clear on this. The subject of tone has been brought up many times in the comments of the mod post and we'd particularly encourage people towards reading The privilege of politeness, an essay not written by us but which we believe clarifies our stance on this issue. As part of our stance on anti-oppression moderating, prompted in part by events on this community last year, we recognize that those who are confronting discrimination, and may well be on a daily basis, shouldn't be expected to react to bigotry and discrimination with calmness and politeness. Bigotry is not polite, it is an attack and insulting. Thus, we will give more leeway to those members who are being discriminated against if they have an understandable emotional response. If someone is being horribly discriminated against, even unintentionally, we are likely to be more understanding if they snap back, once or twice. However, we encourage anyone being discriminated against to disengage and ask for modly intervention in such cases.

Rest assured, the rules on personal insults and attacks are not changing and repeated harassment, personal attacks, or insults will also not be tolerated.

We would like to thank those members who have commented on the previous post and have been supportive of those who have been discriminated against. We'd also like to thank those who made positive contributions to or constructive criticism of the moderators' approach. We have taken these comments on board and in any future posts we will strive to be clearer with our intent, and provide resources so members can further educate themselves if they choose to do so. However, there is no compunction to comment on such discussion: if you feel that an issue doesn't directly affect you, we'd ask you simply skip past it. Intentional or not, derailing from what may be a deeply personal issue for some members can drown out their voices. This is not acceptable.

As always, we welcome comments and criticism, but be aware that the ethos of the community is not up for debate - we have every intention of continuing to strive towards making this a safer space for everyone, and that won't be changing.

We'd like to thank our members for supporting us on this.

- The Scans_Daily and NoScans_Daily Mod Team

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