thread to watch

[Laura Knotek]

I just gave warnings and cleaned up this thread. People were insulting and fighting by making comments implying Indians are cheap.

 

[Daniel Ratcliffe]

See my response.

 

[Dave Blake]

Good response. It amazes me what people are offended by. The guy said what developer slaves? How is this racist? Offensive sure but is that racism? You can draw the line that he said Indian developer slaves but you have to pull 2 posts together to get that. What I want to say here is we can't have to draw a line between posts then ban someone for racism. I also think some people need to get a thicker skin. You guys did a great job cleaning the thread and the appropriate warnings were issued. I just want to toss around the conversation. I have recently battled with this exact situation I might have drawn the line to soon. I am wondering what you guys think?

 

[stmav]

Good job Laura. That azaright has drawn my attention in a couple of threads. Not sure if he's just rude at times or a loose cannon.

Dave, just what is it that you want opinions on? I'm not sure I got the full gist from your comments.

 

[Dave Blake]

What I am asking is are his comments racial comments? Those comments don't belong on this website and had to be removed I agree with that. I am not 100% convinced that he was making racist comments.

Honestly I think the other guy over reacted calling him a SOB. He didn't say Indians were cheep. He pointed out that developers from that region would cost less to develop apps. That's just a fact.

 

[Daniel Ratcliffe]

Laura issued the warnings, I just went into the thread and made it so it was clear the thread had garnered mod attention. I won't stand for racism. I just trusted the comments were racist as Laura posted here.

 

[palandri]

Yes, I think WasteSomeTime made a racist comment. I would give him an infraction and read him the riot act on the note.

 

[stmav]

I'm not so sure they were intended to be racist. A poor choice of words perhaps. But I've heard the term throw some pennies at it and make it go away several time. I don't think that was meant to imply cheap.

 

[Dave Blake]

I want to say there is no way we will all have the same reaction to this type of think. As a team we can get stronger and become more consistent by having this discussion. Lets concede that these comments can be considered racial in nature. Next is intent, did he intend to cause harm with these comments?

 

[stmav]

But intent is also subject to interpretation. Only he knows what he really intended. How about a pm to him explaining that the comment was not suitable and could be considered racist. There is no place on this forum for those type of comments. His reply could be an indicator of intent and his behavior going forward.

 

[Daniel Ratcliffe]

Who should send the PM?

 

[stmav]

Laura, since she is the originator? Or our Fearless Leader? Or whoever wants to?

If that's the agreed upon course of action.

 

[Laura Knotek]

Yes, I think WasteSomeTime made a racist comment. I would give him an infraction and read him the riot act on the note.

I didn't have an issue with the comments other than those by wastesometime and azawright. Wastesometime's comments could have been considered racist, but azawright overreacted.

I only warned those two posters, but I cleaned the thread of all posts that were quoted, so no additional potentially racist content could be found.

 

[Dave Blake]

I 100% agree with how this was handled no need for further action. No need to PM anyone this is just a discussion between us.

The point I am trying to get to here is that in my opinion these comments were wrong they deserved warnings but nothing in that thread is sever enough to provoke a ban.

I think we can improve our mod skills by discussing situations like this. If I see something I think was handled well or maybe even not so well I want to start discussing these situations so that we can all learn for each other. I want to do this in a supportive way so I might not jump right out and provide an opinion.

 

[Laura Knotek]

I received a response from azawright. He understands that he should hit report and let us deal with problematic posts, rather than respond to the offensive poster.

 

[palandri]

I want to say there is no way we will all have the same reaction to this type of think. As a team we can get stronger and become more consistent by having this discussion. Lets concede that these comments can be considered racial in nature. Next is intent, did he intend to cause harm with these comments?

Yes, I think there is intent on the part of WasteSomeTime to provoke anger within the Indian community. He's written some other stupid posts in the past.

 

[Laura Knotek]

Yes, I think there is intent on the part of WasteSomeTime to provoke anger within the Indian community. He's written some other stupid posts in the past.

I believe that we should watch WasteSomeTime and see what he posts in the future. He might or might not be racist. It's like that other guy who posted comments on the blogs over a year ago that Eric spotted; those posts were irrelevant but not racist. The same guy later posted comments in the forums that were clearly racist, and I perma-banned him.

 

[stmav]

I received a response from azawright. He understands that he should hit report and let us deal with problematic posts, rather than respond to the offensive poster.

I'm pleasantly surprised to hear that.

 

[palandri]

I had a class in college on Prejudices and Biases and the amazing thing you learn is everyone has prejudices and biases according to their life experiences. It can be as simple as picking out a blue shirt over a green shirt. By realizing this, it helps to put things into perspective so one can make a more prudent decision.

 

[Laura Knotek]

Blue is the superior Windows Phone colour, since I have a cyan Lumia 900. Blue rules over all other Windows Phone colours! :winktongue: