Suggestion: Ban the Discussion of Harry Potter

[Queen Vivane]

No support, a great many other fandoms would end up being banned from being discussed as well and really where would the line end up being drawn?

[conarcoin]

i hate jkr but agree with slippery slope. i'm a dsmp fan and while there's nothing in that that comes nearly as close as the disgustingly bigoted content of harry potter (despite what people claim - the actual fictional piece of media itself contains nothing of the sort) it's still one of those things that people would call to ban next, which makes me obviously very uncomfortable.

and that's just a specific example close to me personally, but i can see something like this leading to similar calls for bans on many franchises, which is just not a good idea.

i don't really see much harry potter talk on here anyways... is this really all that needed?

[BroadwayDreamer]

No support.

I can understand where you are coming from on this but its unreasonable.

Harry Potter is a huge franchise and it would be similar to banning something like Star Wars or popular games. While I absolutely agree JK Rowling is a terrible person and the series profits off characters with offensive undertones, banning it from the site wouldn't do much to help the cause. In fact, banning it would make it harder to educate people on why they shouldn't support it.

CS has a massive player count and a huge amount of old accounts. That would require a huge purge in old players and new players that have HP in signatures, names, profile photos, anything. It would be incredibly difficult. It would also be hard on the moderation team trying to keep up with this.

I don't think a rule like this would have the power to stop anything. I'm sure the mods and large majority of CS players don't support JK Rowling's views but the media of it and consumerism is all around us. I also believe there are bigger topics that could be worth banning rather than this. I've seen countless signatures and profiles with unsettling media, media based on real crimes or actual real photos of serial killers (yes, i literally have had to submit reports on this before). I very much so understand your view and how you might think it could help but I do not think it would show much other than creating a way for people to dislike CS and it's player base.

[Audrey_Bee]

I think the suggestion is the bit silly tbh, it's a series that is important to a lot of people in many ways, being able to seperate the art from the artist which is very easy to do and banning discussion of this would be silly and quite mean tbh..

There's no negativity in the series at all, it's actually very equal..

[StarWithRockDots]

You do realize that if talking about Harry Potter/JK Rowling was banned, you wouldn't be able to criticize it or educate people on it either?

This is the exact same point I came to contribute ^^

Literally banning discussion of the series in general would also prevent people from pointing out to others what makes it particularly problematic and spreading awareness about the various issues concerning it. So for that exact reason, this suggestion gets no support from me, sorry

[Sigesh]

I don't support this. When we are starting to censor entire discussion topics I think we are moving in a difficult/maybe even dangerous direction.. where should we draw the line?

If you have critical thoughts on a topic it is even more important to be able to share those thoughts in order to raise awareness about something. And lastly, the current topic of harry potter / J.K. Rowling is very divided in opinions and I don't think it's up to an animal forum to decide which side is right or wrong at the end of the day.

[bearticor]

No support.

I didn't buy the new HP game, I cringe when I see anything related to HP. I'm trans myself.

HOWEVER the books were so widely known and people still really love them and that's okay. That's their decision. Banning a topic you don't like isn't going to solve anything. It's better to educate why JK is such a bad person and point out the bad things she's done/said both in her books and recently as well.

[trilli]

Dictating what leaves a person’s thoughts in such a way, especially in regards to something as widespread and well-known as this, is not something I support. I don’t care if it’s online or not. If you ban the discussion of something, you may also ban any real progress that could be made toward actually rectifying an issue on a deeper level than “we disappeared that information,” which is virtually ignoring it and attempting to blind others to the language or idea. Things that are bad can also end up helping us, as a whole, to come up with solutions and progress as a species. Simply telling everyone to ignore it and ban even the slightest discourse is an awful idea and is counterproductive to the actual issue. Not only that, how many artists and whatnot have done things that are reprehensible? Where do we draw the line? At what point is someone and their content to be considered “unfit” to speak of? The fact that we are able to have this discussion at all is because we are able to talk about the issues caused by the thing you want to ban. I agree with what CHINARIZING said about blocking threads as well. If an individual has the preference of not wanting to see the content, then they should be able to just block it instead of trying to ban and dictate what everyone else is able to share discourse on.

[Lex.]

I am a bit tied on this. I do not support JKR in any way, but also users have the right to discuss their interests.
I think at the very least, characters that are tropes or characters that create blatant or recognizable mockery of certain cultures or races should be banned completely.
Up until today I had no idea that she had created such racist names. It's not even hidden at all. "Cho Chang" is obviously insensitive and lazy, as there are most likely millions of names [original and un-offensive ones] out there for Asian characters, as Asia is a HUGE continent and has an ASTONISHING amount of unique cultures and languages.

Also "Kingsley Shacklebolt", much like the previous name, disgusts me. I won't get into details, but this one really shocked and hurt me on a personal level. Especially knowing people still support her.
There can be an appreciation for art while separating the artist. It's not always easy, but it can be done.

So while I believe that JKR shouldn't be praised or to be honest, even discussed on this site, users do have the right to discuss what they want.
1. Discussions about purely the race/ethnicity/culture/language of a character in a negative light should be banned. [Which I'm sure they are, but it could be disguised subtly.]
2. Discussions about creators/people that are open supporters of their misguided views and bigotry should be banned, or at the very least discussions praising them.
3. Either should only be allowed if users are taking them as examples of what not to do or to make light and educate about them and why it's wrong to portray the character as such. Or even just a thread that gives 0 opinions, just facts/real things that said person has done to harm communities that have members on this site.

Maybe a thread could be made by staff addressing guidelines on certain topics regarding possibly problematic things.
And if there are fanclubs for these bits of media here on the site, they should be modded by staff to make sure that discussions and topics stay as safe spaces for all users.
A disclaimer on the first page of discussion threads/fan clubs would be great.

Ex: Discussion of x, x, & x in [series name] are not allowed as they could insinuate/allude to harmful ideologies. Discrimination & Racism have no place on this site. Here are some resources if you are curious about said topic.

I feel as though the Warrior Cats issues might be able to be chocked up to pure ignorance and ignorant appropriation rather than appreciation. [unsure of the authors standings.] Things like that can be more easily mended, such as rewording and rewriting of OCs and characters, and of course making the conscious effort to support Natives and use their own platforms for good.

I hope this makes sense. This is the first time I'm hearing about the Warrior Cats controversies and JKRs awful character names, so it made me very upset to say the least.

TL:DR
- No support for banning the topic of HP as a whole
- Yes for staff modding fanclubs of these series to prevent certain insensitive topics/comments.
- Yes to having a disclaimer on the fanclub threads to stop users from discussing hurtful/harmful topics relating to the series.

EDIT: And of course banning topics/discussion/references to/of media and/or creators that's sole purpose/main point is discrimination based on race/ethenicity/culture/language. [Which should already be a rule, I'm unsure if there is something like that on the rules thread.]

[JadeJester22]

Absolutely no support. This doesn't even feel like a valid thing to try and ban. This feels like a "No fun allowed" protest. There is nothing inherently wrong with the franchise itself (Rowling is a whole other story, but in terms of the content of the franchise itself everything is just speculation.) Besides, this opens the door for so much else... A bigot could try and use something more progressive (such as Flight Rising) and try and ban it's discussion here. Is it valid? No. But they could use the exact same points of trying to make something most people don't care much about seem problematic.

And the idea of the characters and such being problematic is all fan speculation as well. Give me any piece of media and (assuming I know it) come up with something "problematic" about it. (For example, I could say the fact that there are humanoid Pokemon like Machamp or Gardevoir that can be caught is the Pokemon Company supporting racism or something. This is just an example.)

It also creates questions on what is bad enough to ban. Alright, so if we're banning discussing this franchise that has anti-LGBTQ themes, what about the franchise with anti-(insert any race or culture here) themes? What about the one with anti-(insert religion here) themes? All this would do is cause the Entertainment Discussion and Suggestions forums to be a garbage fire of toxicity and create a huge mess.