If no one protects Warren Ellis from the tyranny of having to follow the rules, THE ANAL SKRULLS WIN

[seriousfic]

Once again, Scans_Daily has proved it has the best moderators on the internet, except for all other moderators ever. I'm including the moderators of the Interracial Dolphin Lovers Society in that, as they do a very good job considering the controversy blowholing elicits.

Now if I may channel Dr. Strangelove for a moment... "Of course, the whole point of a discussion community is lost, if you don't allow discussion!" If members aren't allowed to feel certain ways about certain characters, (and no, don't say this is about how they express those feelings, these goalposts have been changed so much that sheer incompetence can no longer be a valid excuse for active malice), why don't these all-knowing, all-wise, all-singing, all-dancing mods simply inform the fawning masses of the latest developments in comics and then tell them how they should feel about it? Wouldn't that save so much time? Wouldn't that clear the goddamn air some?

It's important to understand, back in the day, if you wanted to talk about social justice in comics fandom, your only real options were Scans_Daily and Girl-Wonder.org (where people post articles justifying a character whose origin is being gang-raped until she's a badass). Now, of course, S_D provides a very different function: comic scans for people with crippling phobias about tumblr. Because at just about every other function it claims to attempt, it fails miserably (I say "just about" so as not to insult the tag system, which people worked very hard on).

But what has become of S_D? I was trying to think up a fresh metaphor to describe Scans_Daily to people who, let's face it, have better things to do than catch up on concentrated irrelevance. Then it hit me. I know who the mods are. They're Madam Umbridge. Not the Madam Umbridge from Harry Potter, mind you, I'm not making some hyperbolic Godwin's Law comparison to Nazis here (S_D mods lack the charm and fashion sense). No, the Madam Umbridge from A Very Potter Sequel.



"There are just some very simple rules here. No advocating violence against women... UNLESS THEY'RE CRIMINALS! No using gendered insults... UNLESS YOU'RE CALLING SOMEONE A DOUCHEBAG! But seriously girls, if I do catch you breaking any of the secret rules that only the cool kids know... I’ma rip your pretty little boobs off."

But I digress. Keep fighting the good fight, Scans_Daily, protecting us from the oppression of disabled lesbians and African-American gay men who would attempt to criticize the work of straight white men. Because that's what social justice means to me!

ETA: Of course, by S_D's own logic, me calling them Madam Umbridge means I want them to be raped by centaurs. Not true! I simply want them trapped in loveless centaur relationships. For the sake of their quarter-horse, half-human offspring. What's the final fourth, you ask? I gave science a ring for that very question and I still haven't heard back. I think I scared it. I scared science.

Comments

[dr-von-fangirl.livejournal.com]

I'm honestly kinda shaky from all the drama that's exploding everywhere, because hey, actually calling out a moderator on a massive well known community knowing there will be a backlash when you've got crippling social anxiety and the internet is one of your few social outlets because of it? Yeah, that pretty much takes all the nerve I actually have for the day, but...you know...

Thanks for the solidarity. The funny, funny solidarity.

[mcity.livejournal.com]

I am interested in other people's reactions to your post (beside my own cheering), but am worried it might be gauche of me to ask.

[seriousfic.livejournal.com]

Anytime.

I see they're circling the mod-wagons. *repost

[mcity.livejournal.com]

http://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/3407399.html?thread=116572199#cmt116572199
>"Dick" as an insult can't really be the same as "bitch" as an insult. I'm not saying that it's a particularly mature or well-reasoned thing to call a man, but seriously. Men as a gender rule over women, all other things being equal.

I love how people say they are against gendered language used as a slur, but when someone asks if they have the same problems with slurs against men as they do against women, they go on about how it's "different" without actually answering the question directly.

>These term come with baggage. It's bad form to try and claim that you can use them as insults without bringing that baggage along with you.

So, what, the terms used against women inherently have more "baggage" than those used against men? Does that make the male-gendered terms better, objectively?

>You would not have gotten a warning for "uppity dick". Mostly because men do not suffer from widespread discrimination and oppression just because they have a male body (though they may suffer from discrimination for mores specific reasons) and the expression "uppity dick" isn't built for the express purpose of reminding them their place as lower being.

I also love how every instance of this particular female-gendered slur is a slur against all women and their bodies, while a male-gendered slur specifically insulting them in terms of their sexual organs being a negative isn't. I think both the mods and question and I would agree than "cunt" should not be used as a slur, but she doesn't see any problem with "dick".

>If you call a guy a dick, it's not sexist. It's a gendered insult but it's not about denigrating a guy for being a guy (ew!). It simply doesn't have the same weight or history behind it.



I suppose I could draw a parallel between the historical and contemporary meanings of the word "gay", but that would require logic, not inconsistent principles based on mercurial personal beliefs masquerading as "rules".

Incidentally, even 4chan/co/ thinks SD is bad. 4CHAN. If I didn't have 4chan locked out of my computer, I'd post the link to DVG's post, just to see what they say.

[milleniumrex.livejournal.com]

LOL Scans Daily. It's become like 1984 over there or something.

I especially love that they have a three strikes rule, but the mods apparently decide how many strikes each offense is worth.

[proteus-lives.livejournal.com]

I said it when the new regime rolled out.

"Oh, like Animal Farm. All animals are equals but some are more equal then others."

[fengi.livejournal.com]

So scans daily is where people go when the miss the good old days of mercurial TWOP mods?

[mcity.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry, I just had a flashback to Damien.

[rdfox.livejournal.com]

Oh, X'Hal, what're they doing NOW... *goes to check*

Excuse me. I need to hit myself in the forehead with a hammer until I'm stupid enough for the reaction (from the mods, not from DvF) to start to make a tiny little bit of sense.

I particularly like "no using gendered insults" when the *mods* were saying that "slut" (which I've seen used PLENTY of times towards men, INCLUDING IN THAT NEW TITANS PANEL THEY LOVE POSTING) is a gendered insult and giving me a first strike for using it (in a fit of rage that should have been clear to anyone who read the comment) to describe Scott Lobdell's version of Starfire... and then going and using the term "fratboy fantasy" to do so, when that's a pretty blatant slam against males... and the irony is, I wasn't using "slut" as a derogatory term; the comment specifically said I didn't have a problem with FWB relationships, or even casual sex with random strangers--just that it was completely failing to get the character. And yet it's then deemed "slut-shaming" as part of the first strike. Ahh, don't you love this culture of not-being-responsible-for-anything that we live in?

(As a side note, the only reason I go back there is not because of a "crippling phobia" of tumblr, but because A: I hate the attitude of "let's move to the new social media site every six months TO STAY TRENDY!" that people abandoning LJ for tumbler is the very embodiment of, and B: I hate the tumblr interface, particularly it being impossible to put threaded comments on posts; how in hell are you supposed to *discuss* things if you can't do comments easily? As for finding scans, well, I know how to use IRC and filesharing services, so I sure as hell don't need it to keep current...)

[mcity.livejournal.com]

I don't use tumblr because I refuse to regularly go to any website that will leave the term "fuck" in my browser history, regardless of whether or not it is followed by "yeah".

>Ahh, don't you love this culture of not-being-responsible-for-anything that we live in?

I especially like the popular rhetorical trick of being proved wrong about X being *ist, and then claiming you were really talking about the "social context" which causes X to "resemble" *ism. Bonus points of you can use the terms "rape culture" or "privilege" or "mansplaining" in your explanation.

>A: I hate the attitude of "let's move to the new social media site every six months TO STAY TRENDY!"

Yeah! I agree!

/said the man on his third blogging site
//albeit in ten years

[rdfox.livejournal.com]

Heh. A long time ago, just as s_d was really starting to go to shit, someone went off on a rant about something I'd said--I can't even remember what any more, except that it was vaguely anti-P.C.

So when I replied about how the "[insert majority here] has historically dominated so therefore anyone who isn't should get special benefits over them!" that they were espousing was pretty damn dumb, I tried to soften it by opening that it was just my opinion, and that "maybe as a bisexual white male living near Ann Arbor, which is probably the only place in the world more P.C. than Berkeley, my point of view may be somewhat colored by seeing people in local media and government praise reverse discrimination."

The reply? They quoted "white male living near Ann Arbor," cutting everything around it, and said, "Sorry, I stopped listening as soon as I heard that." *eyeroll*

[box-in-the-box.livejournal.com]

You should have called them out on "bisexual erasure," since their omission of that part of your identity both figuratively and literally fits the bill for that one. It would have been great to make them squirm to justify their hypocrisy by their own standards.

[rdfox.livejournal.com]

If they did it now, I would. Unfortunately, this was a couple years back, and the pattern wasn't thoroughly established yet...

* correction 2.0

[mcity.livejournal.com]

There was a post on brps_adult a while ago (FLocked) where gender identity came up, and one poster in particular was a hurricane of vitriol, especially her favorite word "fuckwad". Whenever someone asked her to tone it down, she dismissed them on the grounds that no one should tell her how to say what she has to say, Tone Argument, etc. Eventually, someone openly mocked her, and was promptly banned by the mod for being "dismissive".

Incidentally, the mod, according to the rules, reserves the sole right to determine what deserves a warning and what deserves a banning. In other words, they get to make up all the invisible rules they want, and its the members' fault if they break them.

For some reason, that community is dying too. I wonder why?

Re: * correction 2.0

[rdfox.livejournal.com]

Ahh, the joys of comms where the mods care more about making their little circle of friends happy than, y'know, enforcing rules of good behavior and such. (Before I checked, I was half-expecting you to have meant Rann's comment; he's a friend and I now that we share similar views on a lot of stuff, but he's a lot more outspoken about them.)

I particularly like, BTW, how when the *actual hermaphrodite* showed up to shoot down Miss Bitchy's argument that "hermaphrodite is an evil term only used to dehumanize," she was *nowhere in sight* on that one. (Ironically, my father is transgendered, and I'd only heard the term "intersex" used once before, by a non-native speaker of English; how can one claim that it's the "standard, preferred term" when *nobody actually uses that term*?)

Oh, and also, her getting all offended that someone might use the term "dumb," which, last I knew, had last been used to refer to someone who's mute in "Pinball Wizard" back in the 60s, because it could be offensive to mutes... yet showing an official etymology of "jerk" that *specifically* refers to it possibly being derived from "jerking off," and not recognizing that it could be JUST as offensive to chronic masturbators! ;)

Re: * correction 2.0

[mcity.livejournal.com]

>Ahh, the joys of comms where the mods care more about making their little circle of friends happy than, y'know, enforcing rules of good behavior and such

My problem is less with good behavior than consistent modding. VodkaShakes was dismissing the opinions of others, quite rudely and profanely, but the second someone mocks her in a snarky fashion, koshka banhammers like a thunderbolt form Zeus.

In fact, as far as I can tell, they're not even particularly friends; neither is on the other's flist. Kosh is giving VS a pass just because she agrees with her. You can't honestly claim to be egalitarian, yet enforce double standards. You can't.

If I didn't need to lower my Raeg Meter to get homework done, I'd link to that one feminist blog I found that said if a woman accuses a man of sexism falsely, she needs to make him reach out to her to understand why she made the accusation, and how it's nothing compared to what women go through every day and only "feels" representative to the guy in question. That's arguably true, but a) it's mealy-mouthed blame-dodging victim-blaming nonsense, and b)it doesn't mention the possibility of apologizing or even admitting error.