Marsden is Here

This weekendish DreamWidth is changing one of it's service providers because [DW have] ethics. You can read the details in the DW Maintenance post and comments if you want to know more.

The comments took a left turn into free-speech, censorship and content-moderation (which are, to be clear, completely unaffected by this move) and several very good analogies were brought up which I want to preserve for my own future reference/use :)

Content warning: references to potentially triggering topics.

For a tamer example, it would be entirely possible to make a bot that responds to everything a particular person posts on Twitter with pictures of human poop. If you use public-domain images, like Wikimedia's, it's even legal. But no one wants to use a website that's plagued by Poop-Bot and its ilk. A site that allowed Poop-Bot to run rampant would lose all its users in short order.

I somehow think, even though it's just gross and not actually dangerous, Poop-Bot would get kicked off the vast majority of "free speech" sites.
raininshadows

Everyone always says they want to use a website that doesn't "censor" content. ("Censor" in scarequotes there because people treat it like it's a magical word even when they're not treating it like the greatest possible offense... If you actually look at how people behave, though, the vast majority avoid unmoderated or undermoderated spaces, and the people who don't avoid them are the ones who've been kicked off every other service -- usually for cause -- and are shitty fucking neighbors. People do not actually want to hang out on a website that is nothing but spam and neo-Nazis! They just have no idea how much careful effort it takes to keep a website from becoming wall-to-wall spam and neo-Nazis, because good content moderation is invisible; they never see the amount of stuff that gets removed or the sheer volume of shit-tier spam and garbage that would cover 95% of every even mildly active site in 24 unmoderated hours.
denise

...banning content that actively harms human beings isn't censorship, it's basic safety and human rights.
...
This isn't about free speech, it's about protecting users from actively harmful content like human trafficking and doxxing. As in, things that happen to real human beings and should not be happening to real human beings.
sarajayechan

"Free speech" is the wrong framing! "Free speech" is about the government suppressing or punishing you for what you say, and we aren't the government. Any online site that accepts user-generated content (which is the fancy term for "the stuff y'all post" as opposed to "the stuff the site itself posts") has to set forth content policies that govern what their users can post, because without those policies (and active enforcement of them) a site will be unusable in days, if not hours, because it will be overrun with spam, child sex abuse material, and a thousand other categories of things that make a service impossible to use and create legal liability. Like every other site out there, we have content policies that govern what people are and aren't allowed to post, and we will (and do) remove content that's reported to us that violates those policies.
denise

Actual free speech actively requires deplatforming those whose only "side of the story" is trying to harm and/or silence others.
onewhitecrow

There's an immense difference between fictional content and conduct that has concrete, tangible, offline harm. (Not trying to police your use of the term at all, but I personally try to avoid "real-world", because dammit, after 20+ years of us all living, working, and socializing online, and *especially* after the pandemic and associated virtual event shift, "online" *is* also the real world.) But there's also a huge difference between "someone posted a link to my Twitter account" and "someone posted a link to the GPS coordinates of my house", and the potential consequences of both are wildly different. Smart policy needs to recognize that!
denise

Environment Canterbury is currently seeking submissions on their Long Term Plan for 2015 - 2025. Locals may have found a print version in their mailbox over the past week or two. You can download the document and make submissions online at the Ecan Website

This is my first time being motivated enough to make such a submission. It may be a little wordy but I felt it important to convey a little of my personal perspective and background rather than a relatively context-less set of bullet points (which I couldn't have arrive at without writing all this out anyway).

( long )

I am attempting to top up my T-Stick using your online service. It says quite clearly at http://www.telecom.co.nz/mobile/yourmobile/topup "Top up your XT Prepaid Mobile or T-Stick online" (with fuel-gauge graphic adjacent) and "Top Up Now" on the button below

Clicking the button takes me to a page where i can enter my credit card details - so far so good. However completing this page does not allow me to top up my T-Stick online. Instead the instructions tell me to call my mobile phone and follow the top-up procedure using the displayed voucher number.

Of course this will add the credit to my mobile phone, not to the T-Stick! The specific wording of the instructions implies that there is an option for selecting a different phone number somewhere in the menus but I have been unable to find it. Instead I had to press "3" for PROBLEMS (which is almost funny) and your help-desk was able to apply the voucher number - and tell me this was the -usual- process for "topping up online".

However 3 escalations later they were still -unable- to tell me
a) why the website - and their scripts - insist that it is possible to "Top Up Online" when it is not.
b) who was responsible for this situation
c) who is going to be responsible for fixing this situation

And by fixing this situation I do not mean changing the website to make it explicit that you can not in fact top up online. I mean actually adding the functionality that will let me and all your other T-Stick and similar users add credit to our devices directly from your website. We should not have to have access to a -phone- to top up our -mobile internet-. We should not have to -spend time waiting on the phone- until we reach the front of the queue for your call center!

(For all I know the functionality is already there, and just the links are wrong. How easy would that be to fix?)

Yes there are other mobile internet providers in NZ. I reluctantly chose Telecom because on the rare occasions I need mobile broadband you have the best coverage. I'm sorry the rest of your support structure does not match up.

~~~
Quite appropriately, the stereo is playing the following from the CrüxShadows right now
once we have a promise
twice we have a curse
three times is impossible
and four times even worse
once we have an accident
twice we have a fault
three times is delinquent
and four times is the fall

The prime material - not so much neutral territory as a neutral battlefield.

Working on the assumption that if I want to keep gaming on Sundays / outside SAGA times I'm going to have to start up another campaign after Guido's Treasure concludes....

D-Space

Some time in the future humanity has discovered an alternate dimension mapping onto our own but where time/distance has a different relationship, and used this to begin the process of colonising our galaxy. Several colonies and routes are well established before the natives of this new dimension discover our shipping routes, and they're not happy with the incursion. Or maybe they're just hungry....

D-Space. Here be Dragons.

Concept visuals (wish I could draw)
- A dragon clings to the front of a battle-cruiser only 4x it's size, one-man fighters swarming around it like so many oversize gnats.
- dogfight - smaller dragons matching size with one/two-man fighters.
- on some sort of asteroid a lone human in an environment suit fires a hand-held energy weapon at one of the smaller dragons which is rearing up in front of (him) - the dragon doesn't seem particularly bothered by the impact.

Genre: Science Fantasy
System: Probably BESM.

Perdon - The Heirs

The Empire of Perdon is fracturing. The deceased Emporer's only daughter is but a child and the authority of the black robed wizard holding the Regency only holds as far as the hinterland of the Capital. While nobles from across the Empire formally manuoevere for position at court based on historical ties to the Imperial family, privately armies are being raised and the descendants of subjugated nations are incited to rise up under banners both old and new. What's a loyal spymaster (mistress) to do?

Sequel to my previous Perdon campaign, wound on about 10 years

Genre: Fantasy
System: HERO (4th+) or Arcana Unearthed

To the End of Time

(Recent idea for a conflict on the Law vs Chaos axis.)

The Unraveller manifests to marshal the armies of Chaos, attempting to tilt the balance far enough that he can undo the very flow of Time itself. Facing the threat of absolute destruction nations put aside their differences to assemble beneath a banner of Law. Uncomfortable allies find themselves on a quest to preserve the foundations of history.

Genre: Fantasy
System: D&D3.5, probably starting around Level 5.

Other options

I'd be happy to revisit the Broken Kingdoms or Gemini (perhaps the New Detroit/Cyberpunk idea I was toying with, although I think I'll change systems for the next Gemini game).

There are some modifications (mutilations) to D&D3 I've been turning over - build-your-own class, crits do CON damage being two that come to mind. There's a lot of work to be done there, but I could throw something together, start small and see where the game goes.

Of course, what I'd really like is to play in something while I prep one of these :D Although it looks like there might be an old-school D&D game on the horizon for the uni break while Neverwinter is on hiatus [shivers with excitement].