Hello everyone, Quick intro so I don't waste the thread: I'm Lance, I go to college in America, am a Comp Sci major, and I like Rick and Morty. Boom, done. -Oh, and also I have to really commend all of the people at Mega and AJ for doing this whole merger in the first place. I can only imagine the headaches this probably caused. Know that you guys have my full inherent respect for letting Mega live on. Finally onto my suggestion: Now don't get me wrong, I'm down to follow any rules on a server, primarily because my main intent is to create and I honestly view other players as just side-entertainment/side-conversations (not sure what that says about me as a person..). But one thing I enjoy personally, as a college student, is the occasional political conversation. This is for multiple reasons really, the primary is just to understand other people's views who don't immediately live near me yet share my interests. Especially when talking to somebody who lives in a different country with a different political system. I know I'm a boring educated person, but can we all really say that talking and comparing political systems and climates doesn't foster growth? Which moves me onto my next point, the occasional chance to challenge someone or educate them. I know this sounds inherently like arguing or pre-arguing, but when it's done maturely (which is more often than you'd think) then what's the harm really? Someone becomes educated and gains a different perspective? You animals! Plus even if you're not a fan of the two points above and think that talking about politics ruins the general discussion, I'd like to actually argue the opposite. I think taking out these rules will clutter up the server less, specifically the chat. I mean, I literally just saw a case where two people brought up something very generally political and everyone in the chat felt the need to backseat moderate (Wow, all of them would make such good staff members It's a good thing THEY know all of the rules (I'm implying that half the chat at any given time fantasizes about being a moderator and goes to stupid lengths of proving themselves when they really shouldn't)). Stuff like this disrupts the natural flow of the chat, which I know sounds stupid, but when it gets disrupted like this then the chat typically gets more annoying than usual for no real reason. In general I've found that once you make something or some topic alright to talk about, then it often gets talked about less or at least to a point where nobody really cares. And obviously if people get too heated then a moderator should step in and tell them to take it somewhere else. This has happened before, not just with politics, but with everything. Years ago I once debated with someone about how Bioshock was clearly better than Bioshock Infinite and I got heated on that one (because I mean, come on, Infinite was trash) and that had to get shut down by a moderator. Point being, politics doesn't only divide and we shouldn't treat it like it does. If anything, it's comforting to see so many people become united on certain things. Now to appeal to moderators (as I've been in your shoes before), wouldn't it be nice to not have to log on and deal with a report about someone saying something like "Thanks, Obama" knowing that whoever said it was clearly joking.. Changing the rule takes away from petty things you guys shouldn't honestly be dealing with. Don't get me wrong, now you'll have to deal with "[Insert stupid extreme political remark here]" on hopefully fewer occasions, but it's a lot easier just to mute those people than to explain why you're not moderating like player who filed the "Thanks, Obama" would've moderated. So those are essentially my main points. In retrospect this looks rant-ish, so lemme post some disclaimersfor better/worse: 1. Yes, some of this is opinion. I've been doing Minecraft for a while obviously and I like to think I know how this all works, but hey, I could be extremely wrong about some things. 2. This change is something I personally want but if the entire community doesn't want it, then honestly I don't either. I'm more of a go-with-the-majority sort of person. After all, we all know what's best, and some of you are pretty smart. But inherently I think to think we all want the freedom to speak freely within reason. 3. I'm also lumping talk about gender into this too. This even more than politics I'm surprised at tbh. If someone who is LGBTQIA wants to talk about their experiences, then they should be able to educate. In many cases I've seen an amazing amount of support from fellow players. On the flip side if they want to stay silent, then, well, it's a server. I know a lot of people typically associate LGBTQIA with safe spaces and being triggered, and while I'm sure people like that exist (and don't blame them), I've personally found a lot of vocal people like I described above. Seems like a shame to silence that... 4. I'm NOT lumping religion into this. I know this may make me appear like a hypocrite, and if someone wants to argue for why it should be allowed then by my guest. But I've typically found religion to be more of an extreme topic anywhere in general. While I appreciate learning other's perspectives on it, it is one thing I'll admit to the fact that players can't handle as readily without debate.. sorry I'd love to see what you guys have to say, so feel free to post any insight or opinions in the comments. I don't generally do Minecraft forums anymore but I'll definitely stay on for as long as this stays active (or perhaps longer).
I understand your point but in the past when discussion of political discussion came up, it would always quickly turn into 99% of the players in less then a minute just arguing that their point is right and they don't want to hear any other opinion insight into others peoples perspective. So due to that is why I believe staff will not allow political discussion on here.
Hi, Lance. I appreciate you expressing your opinions/concerns with the rules we've set in place, and while some of your points have merit, ultimately allowing the discussion of controversial topics such as politics and gender results in heated and toxic general-chat rather than an informational or educational one. You need to understand that any Minecraft community, but particularly the one we have here on AJGaming, has a diversified demographic regarding age, gender, sexuality, religion, race, etc. So, while perhaps you and some other members would enjoy indulging in political debate, many members of our community don't want to be subjected to that kind of talk whilst on our server. People often use Minecraft as an escape from reality - a place where they can go and forget about their problems, societal ills, etc, and just have a fun and carefree time. Introducing politics into public chat takes away this liberty from many members of our community. We want our server to be a safe haven for all people, not a place where topics such as politics and gender are debated and/or argued. However, this is not to say that the discussion is banned from the server completely. Feel free to discuss politics via private messages, plot chat, forum or discord conversations, etc, but we want to keep main-chat as user-friendly and clean as possible. (I, too, enjoy political debate, but I only discuss politics in private settings where I am around people who are also interested in political discussion) I hope this makes sense, and if you have any other questions just reply to this post and I'll be glad to answer them. Cheers, Buffers
