No lie, I stopped using the word "gay" in public to describe stupid stuff after I started posting on NT.
That is seriously and without exaggeration one of the best compliments about the site I can remember. Thanks for that.
...but it's all jokes. Locker room banter. At my job we make worse comments. Not around the women though
There are other "right things to do" that aren't done in other cases so I don't see how that argument really works. Unless double standards are in order, which some NT mods have admitted to. Are double standards "the right thing to do"? It can be a combination of factors. Sometimes "the right thing to do" also carries with it a self interest. Ain't nothing wrong with that.
The "argument" works because, of the two of us, only one has any direct knowledge of the inner workings of NikeTalk and the motives behind its policies. Rather than expect you to take me purely at my word, because I realize how impossibly cynical some people are, I've backed it up by our track record. So, again, explain to me how running the site ad free with a policy that forbade sexist and heterosexist comments for over five years was being done for profit.
You're claiming it's about self-interest, yet the policy predated even our first charitable donation. At that time - we didn't even list with search engines or the Yuku forum directory and we went out of our way NOT to be SEO friendly. The more popular the site was, the more money it cost us - and we were
STILL prohibiting sexist comments.
If you're going to make an allegation like that, which takes a shot at our integrity, I'd have hoped you'd take it a little more seriously - because that's not "just jokes." You should know better than that.
I'm disappointed enough that you just took the OP's claim at pure face value with zero scrutiny or independent thought. This is just making matters worse. We've had this policy in place from day one and we've been enforcing it ever since. The
reminder was added months ago and never seemed to be an issue until people became bored on a Sunday.
There's a reason why the sort of "locker room talk" you described generally doesn't fly around female coworkers. It makes the workplace less welcoming for women. There's pressure to just be "one of the guys" and roll with the punches, because to do otherwise would be even more uncomfortable, but that only reinforces just how oppressive those conditions truly are. The fact that you, as a male, don't think sexist humor is a problem doesn't exactly carry a whole lot of weight. It's like the Stormfront folks and/or Rush Limbaugh claiming "ah, it's all in good fun.
I'M not offended - and that's all that really matters."
For those of us who started NikeTalk, we came from forums where racists would routinely come in and post flagrant White supremacist stuff on a fairly regular basis. You can try to ignore it, but there's no question that it brings down the atmosphere. It was very important to us, from the outset, that everyone feel welcome on our forums. It wasn't our goal just to create a forum for straight males of all races. We wanted all members, regardless of background, to treat each other with respect - and sexist jokes are by nature disrespectful. That is the origin of the policy and, frankly, I think as someone who helped draft that policy I would know.
