Anywho, this time it's the decision by MJ/Lib/Giang to suppress every post containing the word "Catcher". I just have a few questions for the government here:
- Did Fratt approve the decision to suppress all posts referring to TRR as a "Catcher"?
- Does the government believe the (informal) rule is in line with their obligations under the Regional Controls act to "maintain a safe and open public space for other residents"?
- Was this suppression part of a cultural event, and if so where was this announced?
Now, justification for the suppression was that it was "part of a bit" the RMB moderators have been doing on the RMB, with MJ saying when asked about posts that I believed were the start of the period of suppression, "That post was suppressed because suppressing posts with the word catcher in is part of a bit we've been doing on the RMB. It hasn't been a big deal at all until now." (On Discord). We've done some of these in the past, typically around Rejectmas with Lord of Misrule. However, I couldn't find a post (albeit I didn't look that hard) by any member of the government, or otherwise, announcing a new joke rule for the purposes of a cultural event, like what takes place with Lord of Misrule.
My personal thoughts are that this was overreach and an abuse of RO's communications perms. While internally the term and tag "Catcher" is controversial for various reasons, it is not a slur, nor does suppressing it contribute towards making the RMB a more welcoming or safer place, particularly not when ROs are calling things slurs. All it does is cause some upset and detract from possible more pleasant topics of conversation if/when people get annoyed about their posts being suppressed.
Full disclosure, from when I did start to pay attention to the RMB I did unsuppress all posts I interpreted as being suppressed for containing the word "Catcher", hence the lack of suppressed posts on those pages.