Had a chat with a Gen Z coworker that flipped my view on moderation

Honestly, I've been on forums since the AOL days and always thought censorship was just the man keeping us down. But last week, Jenny who's like 22 was talking about getting harassed in a gaming server and how she just wanted the mods to step in. She said 'I don't think free speech means you get to make people scared to talk.' That hit different because I'd never thought about it from the side of someone who actually needs rules to feel safe participating. I mean, I still hate when mods go overboard, but now I'm not so black and white about it. Has anyone else had a moment where someone younger made you question your whole stance on something?

3 comments

3 Comments

sagecooper8d ago

@jamie_webb67 hit it - same pattern everywhere, one loud voice always drowns out a dozen quiet ones.

brianreed8d ago

The "that's just how he talks" defense is such a trap. We had the same thing in our gaming group and what finally worked was making a simple rule like you did - no personal attacks, period. It's amazing how fast things get better when you stop making excuses for one person.

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jamie_webb678d ago

My old guild in World of Warcraft had a similar thing happen. We had this dude who was a great raider but he would just tear into new players for making mistakes. The older members kept saying it was just how he talked and people needed thick skin. Then our youngest officer, she was probably 19, straight up said we were letting one loud guy chase away everyone who was still learning. She was right. We changed the rules to ban personal attacks and the guild got way better. More people joined voice chat and started asking questions. Sometimes bad behavior just chokes out the good stuff.