Suppression of the word "Catcher" on the RMB

[BowShot118]

It's been a while since we've had one of these RMB moderation threads, thought I'd bring it back.

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?

I am aware that MJ has been given a wide berth by the Delegate to act as they see fit to guide conversation and keep the RMB more pleasant, and that the region has a typically more jokey and light-hearted atmosphere that sees people who primarily reside in Discord venture off-site to poke fun or mess with each other on the RMB from time to time. That being said, the justification for suppression from RO's is that the word "Catcher" is a slur, and that caused some agitation on the RMB. I'm unsure if the suppression happened more than just today, I honestly cannot be bothered to trawl the RMB for the word "catcher", particularly given suppressed posts don't appear in a search, but it was going on for at least 49 (+/- 1) pages until it was stopped.

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.

[Salem]

Why is Bowshot linking a discord comment MJ said in the #citizens channel publicly

Didnt we learn our lesson last time what happens when MJ gets leaked on

[Giangsang]

In my opinion, this is such a strange thing to react to.
The suppression of the word "catcher" started when Sedge officially introduced the term onto the website as a way to show people that we do not self identify as a catcher. This lead to that Anarchi post being pinned on the WFE (with the delegate's blessings, that answers your first question), which meant that the ban on the word catcher was now more or less official. The ban on this word has always been light hearted, but a strong way to show where we stand on the topic.

I will also mention that the RMB has been functioning fine with this ban in place, and that the moments where large numbers of posts containing the word catcher have been suppressed in a short period of time would usually otherwise be considered spam anyway. This is a strange overreaction to a non-issue IMO.

In regards to the Regional Controls Act, I'm not in the government so I can't answer your question, but I'll still state my thoughts. I think the Regional Controls Act is a little restrictive, but strictly speaking suppressing RMB posts for containing the word catcher isn't against the law. It states that the delegate is encouraged to publish a policy that stipulates the general circumstances in which posts may be suppressed. It doesn't say it has to be in the form of a dispatch, so a post in the WFE would count. Once again, that WFE message was allowed to be put there by Fratt, I just want to make that very clear.

That was a bit of a scattered answer but I hope that answers all the questions. And if you're looking for a more streamlined response here goes:
Did fratt approve? Yes.
Is this in line with obligations? Technically yeah.
Was this part of a cultural event? Idk what this question means.

[Mad Jack]

Giang said most of what I want to say but in a much better way.

What I will say is this - the catcher thing is a bit. Is it a particularly funny bit? Not overly. It's not going to split your sides. But it's amusing enough that the region has, mostly, embraced it. It's not something I or any other RO came up with - it developed naturally on our RMB and most people went along with the fun.

When people didn't know what it meant asked, it was explained to them, and they joined in on the bit too. Today we saw some people pushing back against the bit who didn't really understand the joke - and that's fine. Does suppressing them do anything to harm them or prevent them speaking? No, not really. As evidenced by how most of them are and were still speaking on the RMB after the conversation was finished.

Should we stop suppressing people who say catcher? Nah. Should we make more of an effort to explain what the joke is to people and perhaps use a different tone when dealing with those people? Probably, yeah.