New Rule: Replace the Word "Lynch" in Games

[InflatablePie]

...and something tells me I REALLY don't want to read the ensuing eighteen pages.

depends on your blood pressure and/or access to some form of medication (self or prescribed)

yall, there are some seriously disappointing takes here.

Caring about not making people uncomfortable or hurting them is never a bad thing. Filtering ourselves to be a more inclusive, welcoming community isn't hard.

This isn't censorship, this is kindness.

what's the quote about privilege and equality feeling like oppression? I'm tired.

[Firebringer]

Finally I can just let my phone auto correct to lunch every time.

this is honestly the best outcome of this rule change.

Finally people will no longer question me when I send a text message asking me why I want to get "lynch" with them.

[SleepyKrew]

The only post in this thread that I've read is the OP. I assume the thread is 19 pages of people agreeing that this is a good change and suggesting new verbs. My suggestion is: obliterate.

[Firefly7]

I don't see how this is being taken as a political change over a QOL fix. The word "lynch" makes a minority of people uncomfortable. It may be a small group, and not a loud group, but one nonetheless. If a small change can be made to benefit them without really effecting the rest of the people on the site, then its a good change.

I think seeing this as a political thing comes from misunderstanding why the change gets made in the first place. I come from the unique position of having experienced this change and its causes on another site, so i think i can try to explain this. Over there, the change was made because a person spoke out about how the usage of the word made them and their friend group uncomfortable. A discussion ensued, and more people spoke up about how the usage of the word made it harder for them to share the game with friends, or harder to talk about, or just made them uncomfortable too. The change was made because it could improve the experience dramatically for 5% of players, and change little to nothing for everyone else.

The same change has been made here, and i assume for the same reasons. Heck, even in this very thread we have people saying that they've been made uncomfortable by the word.

[Alisae]

It may be a small group, and not a loud group, but one nonetheless.

is it a group that is on this website

[Ginngie]

There are literally so many ways to write that people died without saying lynch

MariaR had failed heart surgery Day 1.
Bulbzak turned into a chew toy Night 1.
Dunnstral went on a date Night 1.
Pine was turned into christmas decor Day 2.
Reck got stumped Day 2
Aristophanes greened out Night 2.
Lady Lambdadelta got stuck in a time loop Night 2.
Bingle blooded the blood god Night 3.
gobbledygook tripped on a twig while caffeinated Night 3.
PenguinPower mixed energy drinks and moonshine Night 3.

[McMenno]

Here's a bit of perspective to understand why people might be surprised and confused by this change:

I was born and raised in the bluest of blue states. I have regarded myself as overall socially progressive for pretty much my entire life. The circles I hang around in lean quite far left and social-justicey. And I

know

about the history of race-based lynchings in the United States, both past and present, and that it's still a fear people have today.

Despite all of that I did not realize until I think this year that any significant number of people attach racial connotations to the word "lynch" itself. It wasn't even on my radar. This could be because I'm a complete dumbass who fails to notice obvious things, but I think a more plausible hypothesis is that

this is an easy thing to miss

for a lot of people. They have never thought of the word in that way, and they haven't been exposed to lots of people thinking of or using the word in that way, and so it just seems obvious to them that it has no such connotation at all. Just as it seems obvious to others here that

of course

it has that connotation.

Given that people's viewpoints don't feel internally like their viewpoints but just like obvious truths about how the world is, it's not surprising the announcement of a rule like this would be contentious. If you don't attach any racial connotations to the word 'lynch' then the idea of it having those connotations seems absurd and like people are just making up problems that aren't there--but it's not absurd, people really do interpret the word that way. And if you do attach those connotations, the idea that anyone could deny them just seems like being willfully obtuse -- but they're not, the word genuinely does not mean anything like that in their idiolect.

Tl;dr: Communication is hard

white liberals irl

[Chickadee]

I just want merch I can wear in public.

Oh man...

If only someone had designed some shirts a while back when mods called for submissions.


(I joke)

[Chickadee]

The only post in this thread that I've read is the OP. I assume the thread is 19 pages of people agreeing that this is a good change and suggesting new verbs. My suggestion is: obliterate.

Ah see I was thinking annihilate would be cool. I could get down with obliterate.


Or maybe FINISHED. Always in all caps.

[NotAJumbleOfNumbers]

The only post in this thread that I've read is the OP. I assume the thread is 19 pages of people agreeing that this is a good change and suggesting new verbs. My suggestion is: obliterate.

Ah see I was thinking annihilate would be cool. I could get down with obliterate.


Or maybe FINISHED. Always in all caps.

I was thinking about flat-out using "Kill" ngl

[TemporalLich]

I mean I still prefer eliminate as the replacement, but "voted out" could be something I'd want to use.

I'd prefer it to be distinct from kill as Bulletproof exists.

[Davsto]

I for one think this is a dreadful decision by the mod team. How entire decade of using the word lynch on this 100-strong member site apparently is culturally outweighed by mere centuries of black oppression including decades of lynch being a term generally referring to the unlawful group killings of black people is beyond me.

I frequently use the word lynching to mean unlawful group killings in other contexts such as the French Revolution, a historical event which remains increasingly relevant to this day. I think the co-opting of the word "lynching" by these black murder victims is the real issue when it is clearly a word one only associates with the party game mafia and the guillotining of the French aristocracy.

It's only a word so I don't know why its frequent use bothers people so much. It bothers me so much that the moderating team would move to change it to another word, and in such an authoritarian fashion by promising to ban no users who use it and just getting the mods to use alternatives to initiate a culture shift where the word is used without having to resort to banning dozens of users. It's Draconian.

[Ginngie]

your avi is ironic given that post

[Haschel Cedricson]

I for one think this is a dreadful decision by the mod team. How entire decade of using the word lynch on this 100-strong member site apparently is culturally outweighed by mere centuries of black oppression including decades of lynch being a term generally referring to the unlawful group killings of black people is beyond me.

I frequently use the word lynching to mean unlawful group killings in other contexts such as the French Revolution, a historical event which remains increasingly relevant to this day. I think the co-opting of the word "lynching" by these black murder victims is the real issue when it is clearly a word one only associates with the party game mafia and the guillotining of the French aristocracy.

It's only a word so I don't know why its frequent use bothers people so much. It bothers me so much that the moderating team would move to change it to another word, and in such an authoritarian fashion by promising to ban no users who use it and just getting the mods to use alternatives to initiate a culture shift where the word is used without having to resort to banning dozens of users. It's Draconian.

[Porkens]

I’m editing a textbook and “elimination” is used for poop so I think of the game as bowel with players being voted out and eliminated.

I look forward to what up with what you come.

[Ginngie]

For the love of god can we please fix admins starting threads and always having the first unread post being the first post on a new page

[xRECKONERx]

[Ginngie]

GOD INLOVE U TECK

[Ginngie]

The mastina one still has me rolling

[Davsto]

on a more serious note i mean. I can kinda understand the apprehension. Despite the only use of the word lynching I heard pre-mafia actually being in reference to the black killings of the 60s (Brit here) to the extent I thought it referred more literally to the hanging off a tree it wasn't super ingrained and I did accept the word's use on MS as being unracial and able to be divorced from the subject since, like, I saw it as being in the past and technically the definition of the word does just mean group unlawful killing or whatever. Honestly the better solution would've been not using the word in the first place then we wouldn't have a racially charged word and we wouldn't have people upset by the culture change. But to act like the word itself doesn't have some level of racial connotation is just ludicrous to me. Outside of maybe the phrase "lynch mob" being used to refer to an angry crowd of people in certain contexts and maybe another couple odd uses, lynch referring to the black killings (in the 60s in particular) is the only use of the word I've heard outside of mafia, and far and away the most dominant use of the word I've heard.

It's a shame that a word somewhat ingrained in the site had to be changed, sure. But like I care way less about the word being gradually changed than I do the people who'll feel more comfortable with this change being made. Although maybe in reality I care about neither haha who knows.

[Haschel Cedricson]

[Zulfy]

Elimination fucking SUCKS.

Hello I skimmed a bit. I'd say it's a bad change because of reasons (racializing things is always iffy for me) but the post that convinces me is Reck's post 43 The Davsto one is also good. ABR posting is also good in the sense that it should convince you that this is a good thing to do.

THAT BEING SAID,

elimination is abominable as a replacement it's shit

. The entire reason why lynching is the term used is because it's illustrative of the gameplay of this game that we play, a lynching is a mob action where someone is killed with little regard for their actual guilt in whatever crime is being punished. It signifies the panic and uncertainty that's a crucial cornerstone of this whole ordeal. Elimination does nothing to illustrate that.

So considering the soviet origins of this lil party game I suggest purge? Idk I like it. Other options: Lick (saves the acronyms), execute, behead, chop. Just don't fuckin, please for the love of God don't use eliminate.

[scotmany12]

Imagine actually using sepia

[Zulfy]

On a completely unrelated note this discussion is reminding me of how much I loathe the terminology used in Secret Hitler.

[Umlaut]

So considering the soviet origins of this lil party game I suggest purge?

This is honestly the first suggestion I've unironically liked.