Urgent Evoke

A crash course in changing the world.

An Open Letter to EVOKE - On Censorship

Dear EVOKE and EVOKE members,

If you've been to EVOKE today (April 24th) and checked the comments section, you'll have seen a blog called "Sarah O'Connor was suspended." by A.V. Koshy. This Sarah O'Connor is a very big contributor to EVOKE and brought about very interesting facts, and at an accelerated pace. Her efforts have been shown in the Leader Cloud at any given time, and has a wide selection of blog posts and images.

If just so seems that certain images that she's posted has been disapproved for posting. That would have been enough, although the images aren't that bad in my opinion (Here's the link if you want to check for yourself: http://delta-team.ning.com/forum/topics/censored-sarah-oconnor?xg_s...)

I have to start out by saying I understand your point of view. I understand that you do not want to offend those with certain images. I just do not agree with the suspension. Besides, I did not find anything inherently offensive in the images provided. They were however on the edgy side.

Now, there's an interesting paradox here. EVOKE is an opportunity for members for all over the world to come together to the internet and express themselves - what the moderators have done here is opposite; they have removed Sarah O'Connor temporarily. Now, I'm not theorizing that she was removed so that she couldn't win or anything of that matter. What I'm really here to say is that there was a lack of regulation here. Allow me to elaborate.

Now, I don't understand all the details here. so I might be wrong to a certain degree. I have not once found or read any rules about photos. I do have the Terms of Service open here, and it's only showing a few paragraphs; the rest of the page is completely blank... Besides, come on, no one ever really reads those. (:

The interesting thing is that the last readable line says

"The Ning Platform is not directed to children younger than 13 and is offered only to ...(it cuts off here)"

Interestingly enough, an EVOKE moderator's justification for the suspension was because it could possibly offend younger kids. If the Ning.Inc Platform is not for young kids, then kids have no place in this platform. I know we can't keep young ones out, but we could work out a way to lower the number of people offended. Here's a couple of ways we could go about this:

1) Allow the posting of images, but putting members through an age check (with the age provided during signup). Too young, and you're not allowed inside. Old enough, and you're through.
2) Allow the posting of images, but inappropriate ones get a warning if they are PG13. But all can see them.
3) The EVOKE member can set an age, appropriate, or organize an album with appropriate pictures, and one with PG13 images.
4) If you have any more ideas, please insert one in the comment section below.

I'm certain that your efforts were not to repress Sarah in any way, but more to uphold a certain standard on your site. However, the standards and guidelines were not clear, and maybe that could be something we could all work on.

Thank you very much for your time in reading this blog post. I hope you will consider your position on the situation at hand, and I hope that the reaction by not only me, but dozens of shocked EVOKE members, will guide you to take a different approach if the situation reoccurs.

Daniel Pisani

Please pass this blog post around; I would like it if it reached as many people as possible.

So what do you think? Was O'Connor in the wrong by posting the photos? Or were the EVOKE moderators to hasty in their decision to suspend? Please leave a comment telling me what you think.

Views: 134

Comment by A.V.Koshy on April 25, 2010 at 6:43am
dear daniel - i think if the rule is clear - that only thirteen year olds and older can play this game - but on the internet nothing is clear - i can still sign up - then some of the fog will dissipate
another is videos, blog posts and pics can be moderated but evoke cant do this because its too large and too many things are pouring in and it will slow the process down
at least pics and videos then , moderating comments and links and blogposts will quickly empty the place
and they can mderate by not censoring but by giving a rating as to who can view what and also having a lock so only they can really watch
throwing even one person out doesnt help and even temporary suspensions don't help...
i want you to know that your post would have made you unpopular but dont mind thanks for making a well written impartial to both sides blog post and go on with the game better than ever before
take care...
Comment by A.V.Koshy on April 25, 2010 at 8:26am
Comment by Ethan Walden on April 25, 2010 at 12:34pm
Agent Pisani, Thank you for your commitment. Amazing post.
Comment by Alvaro Mainero on April 25, 2010 at 2:51pm
Hello Daniel, Ì`ve just read your post and see images. I don`t find them offensive, moreover could be an interesting way of doing evident the coexistence of opposites in occidental culture and even hipocresy; however at postmodern age the triumph of the image and visual representations as meaning by doing so make them only a play -not in the way of theatre- but of the game between partners. A kind of joke saying truths, not even politicaly incorrects, maybe unknown for the most. I`ve seen those images before, and many others from the same source -I mean the webpage, not Sarah- and for sociologist as me they are not new, so, it`s a matter of context, tolerance and meaning, in certain way it`s about politics, the Politics of Evoke on the meaning what is allowed to do on crashing to change the world. Obviously not everything, but it`s to soon to know if posting those pictures means "the ends justif the means", to big I think so. But maybe it`s better to cut from the root and from he start. So, i`d like to ask about the migration to playing games on line to get rewards and feeling better doning things better than done in the "real" world. Many things said at Jane Conference 'Gaming can change the world', a lot of collaborators on line, the positive feedback, the sense that everything is possible to fullfil your goals; our collective goals.

In this sense, by censorship are we becoming more collaborative? are we evolving as collective intelligence doing the sume of all agents time, knowledge and effort the success of evoke; I`m not so nai to believe so, but thin again it`s about politics of collective over one person, or the most over minotiy, or even as hierarchical organization. Well, it`s not that a contradiction on the root of a networking community?
Comment by Daniel Pisani on April 25, 2010 at 3:07pm
@Alvaro thanks for the response. My goal was just to show that the rules were not crystal clear when it came to posting picture, so people are left to their common sense. Of course, common sense is a subjective thing, so what's considered offensive to some people is different to others. Do you have an idea to prevent this situation from reoccurring?

Thank everyone for the response.
Comment by Ethan Walden on April 25, 2010 at 5:01pm

Comment by Daniel Pisani on April 25, 2010 at 5:04pm
@ Ethan, that's awesome ! lol
Comment by Brendan C. Armstrong on April 26, 2010 at 5:35am
I guess we need to look at the facts. Sarah was not banned: She has a suspension. As far as I know, suspensions are temporary. So... on one hand, we have an Admin making choices and "suspending" Sarah for posting potentially offensive pictures. The admin probably has lots of things to do and PLUS it is a volunteer position, so this is not a full-time job. From what I understand, Sarah was suspended without much communication to her of what was happening. That may not be the entire story, but it is what I can see from the forum post.

On the other hand, we have the content of Sarah's pictures and the post she made. Does anyone have the original post she made? Furthermore, is this game an appropriate forum for Sarah—or anyone, for that matter—to post these kinds of pictures?

So... why did the Admin remove the pictures? I would hope he found it irrelevant to the game. The Admin admits as much and then some:

"Clearly we have to make subjective judgments about what we deem appropriate content for the website. I base my judgment on what I would like (or dislike) my 13 year old daughter to see. Although I see the merit in the images you posted - I am very much into challenging norms - I don't see that they added anything in particular to the current discourse and direction of EVOKE. More importantly they could certainly cause offence - not only to younger players but to other site visitors."

Judge this comment for yourself, but this is the reason given to Sarah O'Connor for having the pictures removed. Apparently, Sarah re-posted the pictures. I'm not sure how I stand on the issue of the pictures themselves, but I don't think it was a very wise move on Sarah's part to re-post the pictures. They were removed for a reason, and those reasons will not change if she simply re-posts the pictures. Perhaps we can engage some of the admins in a dialogue about the game's direction.
Comment by Ethan Walden on April 26, 2010 at 1:35pm
Thank you for your impartial although uninformed view Brendan.

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