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How do you tell when something's unacceptable on Barbelith? Changing to become a discussion on the future of Barbelith.

 
  

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Spatula Clarke
15:50 / 09.03.07
Same.
 
 
netbanshee
17:36 / 09.03.07
I used to know / lived with the "Ice Honkey" dude IRL till a few years ago. He introduced me to barbelith coincidentally.

It never seemed to be a problem at that time he was posting and his usage of it was in a "white rapper" spoof context (He also used Ice Hockey and Icy-T pointing to associations with Ice-T, etc.). He grew up in a predominantly black neighborhood and lived with non-whites from time to time, so his aim certainly wasn't to be racist.

Just some added context...
 
 
miss wonderstarr
20:31 / 09.03.07
I would have thought that if anything the word "honky" would be offensive to white folks (whether it is or not, whether it matters, is a different issue, but by all accounts it was coined as a derogatory term for whites) so that a guy calling himself Ice Honkey had black friends seems less relevant, unless I've missed something.

For the record, personally I don't feel this matters anymore, but it's still quite interesting to talk about.
 
 
Fraser C
12:46 / 12.03.07
Good Lord. It never occurred to be for an instant that my username would cause any offence. Just never entered my mind.

Mr Honky is a clown character I play in a sketch group I'm in who communicates by honking. And that's it. I chose the name because I was reading over a script featuring this character when I was completing my Barbelith log in.

I will happily change it to something else and apologise wholeheartedly to anyone who was distressed by it.

As I said, I never for an instant considered it to be inappropriate.

Can someone fill me in on how to change my username and again, sorry to all.
 
 
Less searchable M0rd4nt
12:56 / 12.03.07
Aww. I feel all bad for you now.
 
 
Quantum
14:11 / 12.03.07
HONK! HONK HONK! HONK HONK HONK!*


(*transl="Mr Honky! Don't change your screen name! It's cool and groovy!")
 
 
jentacular dreams
14:15 / 12.03.07
Don't worry about it. I think it's already been established that it is a pretty rare word in the UK and I think the majority of people were concerned that it would seriously offend others, rather than being personally offended themselves.

Your options are twofold.

1 - 28 days after signing up you can change your screen name, you'd still sign in with the original Mr Honky name, but when you post people would see Mister H or whatever you decided would a be a good one. A lot of people change their names every month. The only downside is that until ANOTHER 28 day passed you would have the legend "prev: Mr Honky" underneath your screen name. Some users might encourage you to minimise your postings during this period (especially before the first 28 days are up)

2 - The alternative is to PM your e-mail address to someone like Haus (who this month is called Tann Vennegoor of Hauserlink) and say you'll be putting in a new membership request. He'll then pass on the reference to Tom and it will get OK'd with the next batch (though I'm not sure if you can have multiple suits/users registered to a single e-mail address).

In a way, if people are upset by the name I'd almost discourage this though, as when you change to the new suit, your old name will become immortalised on the site. Option 1 gives you the ability to cycle it out completely over 56 days (as the ID label next to your posts changes every time you change your screen name), and then the only person who has to see it is yourself (to whom it obviously has a very different meaning).

From the tone of your post you seem quite shocked by it all. I hope this won't, ahem, colour your future interaction with the board too much, and that you find it as enriching an environment as the rest of us.

Welcome to the 'lith.
 
 
miss wonderstarr
14:19 / 12.03.07
Sorry, Mr Honky. It was obviously a fuss over nothing in the end, and I hope ~ as I was one of the people who posted most about this ~ you don't take any of that as personal criticism.
 
 
Less searchable M0rd4nt
14:23 / 12.03.07
I wouldn't bother with the name-change now that we know what you meant, though.
 
 
Fraser C
14:40 / 12.03.07
Hi, yeah I've just changed it and will change it over again so it's fully expunged as soon as I can.

A bit flabbergasted by the whole controversy to be honest – I hate to think people were seeing me as the kind of person who would use some kind of “wink wink” ironic racist reference as a handle.
 
 
MattShepherd: I WEDDED KALI!
15:41 / 12.03.07
Well, as a relatively new member people don't "know" you yet, and as you can see from other Policy threads Barbelith is no stranger to race-baiting !!c0ntrov3rsial!! trixxter gods.

None of which is to say you are -- I think you actually got some "hey, he seems solid" mentions earlier in this thread -- just that there's an unfortunate precedent in play.
 
 
Fraser C
15:55 / 12.03.07
Hi, yes I didn't realise you had so much trouble with trolls.

Of course, having just joined, no-one had any real idea of who I was or my intentions, so the reaction was obviously informed by previous experience with time wasters.

I should probably have introduced myself on the relevant thread in the first place. Might have saved some hassle.
 
 
Olulabelle
16:17 / 12.03.07
You're nice!
 
 
Our Lady Has Left the Building
16:25 / 12.03.07
Yeah, can we keep him?
 
 
semioticrobotic
16:39 / 12.03.07
You're nice!

Agreed. I wish I had half your tact, Fraser.
 
 
Princess
18:45 / 12.03.07
I wish I ever had a reason to be a honk making clown.
I mean, it really beats the telesales job I've got at the moment.
 
 
STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK
21:07 / 12.03.07
Yeah, ye seem cool to me.
 
 
Spaniel
13:59 / 13.03.07
I like Fraser
 
 
Spatula Clarke
16:22 / 13.03.07
I don't. That username is clearly having a go at the Scottish.
 
 
Haus of Mystery
20:06 / 13.03.07
Yeah. And everyone knows it's spelled 'FrasIER' after the telly.
 
 
Haloquin
15:25 / 14.03.07
Fraser; I, um, did a similar thing with my msn screen name, I didn't realise that the word I was told in hawaiian meant 'kitty' was an extremely anti-semetic word and caused my (at that point rather new) boyfriend some consternation... its easily done!
Re; 'honky'... I'll admit to just being reminded of clowns.
 
 
Less searchable M0rd4nt
19:18 / 14.03.07
I remember, as a wee n00b, wondering if that "Lick my plums, bitch" bloke was all right...
 
 
STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK
20:45 / 14.03.07
You and me both...
 
 
Our Lady Has Left the Building
06:10 / 15.03.07
I'm still not sure... Does anyone know what happened to him?
 
 
Regrettable Juvenilia
09:03 / 15.03.07
For your consideration..
 
 
Less searchable M0rd4nt
11:04 / 15.03.07
Pfft. Skirts, eh?
 
 
Olulabelle
11:10 / 15.03.07
I don't understand. Yes, the guy is a bit of a dick...but so are many, many other people.
 
 
Our Lady Has Left the Building
11:34 / 15.03.07
Well, I'd suggest he spends thirty years drawing a comic book that allows him to expound his views to a wider audience.
 
 
miss wonderstarr
11:35 / 15.03.07
I thought the idea was that Barbelith should, if possible, be a comparatively dick-free zone and not accurately reflect the dickery of society as a whole.
 
 
Evil Scientist
11:58 / 15.03.07
I don't understand. Yes, the guy is a bit of a dick...but so are many, many other people.

The "stupid b**ch" comment isn't really the kind of thing I want to be reading on the site though. I mean I don't really want to be reading any "Oh woe is me. My ex-wife done me wrong, but at least she ended up with a wife-beater." themed posts at all if I can avoid it.

Might be an idea to point Sole Eater in the direction of Shadowsaxgate-related threads so he can see where this might lead him.
 
 
ONLY NICE THINGS
12:12 / 15.03.07
"Silence, or we direct vast amounts of attention at you!"

Does that ever work?
 
 
Evil Scientist
12:20 / 15.03.07
I keep chasing that rainbow.

Anyway I sent him a PM and mentioned the SS banning discussion thread. Y'never know.

Well actually you do.
 
 
Spaniel
13:06 / 15.03.07
Mordant, Stoatie, not sure if I'm missing something here, but as far as I know Plums is now Goodness Gracious Meme.

Who has, in fact, locked hirself out of the board, to the best of my knowledge.
 
 
Quantum
13:28 / 15.03.07
Yup. As I recall, due partly to the tolerance of unacceptable behaviour esp. misogyny. Which brings us neatly to Sole Eater's unexamined misogyny and whether it's acceptable- strikes me as something we should be challenging, which might be tricky to do without confusing the issue with gunplay. I'd opine that it's acceptable to talk about shooting animals for fun (though IMHO wanky) but not acceptable to use misogynistic language, even about your evil ex-wife.
 
 
STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK
13:30 / 15.03.07
Mordant, Stoatie, not sure if I'm missing something here, but as far as I know Plums is now Goodness Gracious Meme.

That was kind of the joke, I thought.
 
  

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