[Dynamics]

I'm a bit iffy with the idea of letting people name name's. It has its benefits but it also has a downside to it. I can kind of see why it was initially like that, but I think it does have room to evolve. In the case of people scamming, yeah I GUESS it's okay to point out who's scamming what. But to me I think it would do very little to benefit FiestaFan as a community. If we endorse ourselves as the community that will talk about people freely and openly, and specifically in a derogative way (come on, we have a forum just for ranting about people, but none for thanking?), I don't think it'd be alright. Even if it opens up freedom for people in terms of speech, it opens up a whole other can of beans (flaming, public humiliation, wrongful accusations, this sites' reputation) for very little benefit (naming names).

I think the main issue is freedom of speech. People don't like not being able to fully voice their thoughts and feelings, and removing the ability of naming someone to a crime or an issue touches on this.

What we need to consider is how significant it is to name names when you're really just ranting. Would it benefit this community much to know the names of people who do bad in Fiesta? A huge part of me says not really.

The population in Fiesta is quite large, not to mention hugely dynamic. There are a lot of people who do bad in game, and pinning names just won’t justice in terms of awareness. I always thought All the Rage was a forum that gave you freedom to rant about a person’s actions, not about a person. You might be able to say that someone did this, and you might be able to open our eyes to them a little, but what really gives perspective is knowing their crime and becoming familiar with it. For example, prevention of scams isn’t about knowing who does it, because as the community grows names and such will become redundant information. The only way to prevent scams is for the individual to understand how they work, and to think before buying. I’m sure this same rule could apply for much more. I think it best to raise awareness of bad people another way than just naming names, because in an online community that kind of information becomes irrelevant very quickly.

I also believe that when you’re ranting, naming a name won’t benefit you much at all, unless it truly makes you feel better to see the world dislike that person. If this is the case then I don’t see any real benefit in terms of solving the issue. If you want to feel better about yourself, or more confident that another person did wrong, talking to your friends is the better solution. Why would opening a public thread to bring someone else down benefit you any more than talking to your friends about it? In a thread you risk not hearing what you want to hear, with your friends you’ll hear what you want no problem. If you’re going to argue that you’re helping bringing awareness to the community about the person, I really can’t believe you there. As I argued earlier, I think it’d be insignificant because the community is too large and dynamic.

I think most people would want to name names' to publicly and openly humiliate a person. I don't think it's ethical to do that. Maybe not when the person truly and factually is a bad person, but will giving them this reputation make them feel like they should change? Not really. They'd probably be a little hurt inside, and retaliate quite angrily. They'd feel singled out and this kind of feeling will only propel the justice of their actions in their mind.

If we were to implement a system that gives you the right to pin crimes and such against people, then we would have to implement a way for people to appeal for themselves too. In effect, by naming people in all the rage, a hypothetical list will be created in people's minds. The allowance of naming people in All the Rage may not be something as obvious as actually creating a "bad people list," but it's driving towards that. If we think of it in this way, I don't think the number of people with bad names would be substantial enough. Such information could also be unreliable. People are subjective when posting, particularly in a forum made for blowing off steam. Screenshots as evidence can't be enough sometimes. Any screenshot can be taken out of context, can’t it?

This whole thing is a bit more complicated than just giving people their freedom of speech. If things were black and white in game about who did right and who did wrong, then I’d be all for allowing people to express their concern about other individuals. The problem is understanding when someone is truly and factually guilty. If people misunderstand this, then it could lead to some seriously wrong accusations for seemingly little benefit.


Edit: Just another point, it might be irrelevant, might not be.

Allowing this might change the idea of this community site as well. What if we become the fansite that people turn to get the lowdown on who's supposedly bad in the community and who isn't? It's a doubtful outcome, but a valid one too. I mean, we're fiestafan not fiestaban.