Popular modding site Nexus Mods has banned the user who removed the Pride flags in the PC version of Marvel’s Spider-Man, sparking an outcry that the site has actively disengaged from.
The original mod was called “Non-Newtonian New York,” and replaced the in-game Pride flags dotted around New York City with US flags.
As today’s announcement from Nexus Mods explains, “In regards to the replacement of Pride flags in this game, or any game, our policy is thus: we are for inclusivity, we are for diversity. If we think someone is uploading a mod on our site with the intent to deliberately be against inclusivity and/or diversity then we will take action against it.”
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I know. Maybe this was badly phrased on my side.
On the one extreme, you have tens of thousands of communities for a very narrow and small community. There, you can only talk about certain things, but not about other things.
On the other extreme, you have one community where everybody can talk about everything, and everyone can see what others write and comment.
Both are not okay, because it’s a good idea to prohibit content that is about harming human beings, like calls to violence. This is already covered by laws in most countries. I argue that this is a good thing. So according to the law, you can’t talk about literally everything on online forums.
Having the above in mind, I argue that it is best to have lesser numbers of communities, and have less narrow limits. That way, we can see what the people are thinking and saying, and we lessen the chance of creating filter bubbles.
I personally would rather want to see what people are thinking and saying, even when it is about things I disagree with. For example, I rather have a talk about capitalism, and why I think it is a bad idea and has problems, with someone who thinks it is a good idea. I wouldn’t like if that user is prohibited to talk about it.
I could also talk about this with people who already agree with me, but… you know? That’s not quite the same.
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Thanks for your comment! I agree with your view on growth through discussion.
Interesting. I didn’t know that. Though, it may be difficult to decide what is a sociopolitic commentary, and what is not. As far as I can see, there are lots of mods that exchange the original flags of a game with LGBQT+ flags. I’m not arguing for the removal of those, but I fear some kind of double standard.
By the way: I think the mod that was banned was a troll attempt… and it succeeded. This was what the troll intended: Internet drama. If we would have just leave it be, and I think almost nobody is actually interested in that mod, it would have been a fairer and less troll feeding solution.