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The last weekend was an impressively busy and positively amazing one for me. Without going into personal details too much, it closed a project that was thirteen years in the making. With how immediate and 'now now now', 'buy buy buy', and 'go go go' (*cough* Warcraft dungeons, looking at  you) the Internet cynically is sometimes, it was reassuring to see seeds planted in 2004 online finally blossom and start me on a new path in my life.

From Chroneco

This all goes back to how you use the tools given though. Are you flinging Junkrat grenades at conversations, LĂșcio healing auras, or Reinhardt's shield?

I read a recent article that tried to blame the platform snapchat as the root of all evil for a horrific situation. I have very little understanding of snapchat, but I recognized it and my knee-jerk reaction was to respond on facebook to the relative with the "but not all..." arguement.

I never posted my response.


Why not? Because I thought about the purpose of their weapon selection. It was posted to inform, teach, and protect. Trying to counter the blame game as the grieving parent attempted to reconcile the situation they were going through in the news article doesn't undermine the fact that the predator's weapon was partially to blame.

The Internet, like all things, has its positives and negatives. It's how you wield the sword that makes the difference. Part of possessing such a tool is informing yourself on not only how you can wield it, but how you should, and how to defend against the dark practitioners that don't.

Yes, I did just take the long road back to my previous article on first impressions. ;)

So how is this one different? Because when somebody comes out swinging, you have a choice on how to respond.

There are two rather large schools of thought on the matter. "Fight the trolls" and "don't feed the trolls". A recent twitter thread indicates there's another option though: factually deny the trolls.

In gaming terms it's something I plan to try as I hopefully have time to do my Overwatch competitive qualifiers this weekend: cite the TOS!

You hear somebody abuse someone else in text or voice? It's most likely that the platform you're on has some sort of established rule against it.

Blizzard, for instance, makes it very clear:
When participating in communication of any kind (chat, voice communication, group finder), you are responsible for how you express yourself. You may not use language that could be offensive or vulgar to others.
Hate speech and discriminatory language is inappropriate, as is any obscene or disruptive language. Threatening or harassing another player is always unacceptable, regardless of language used. Violating any of these expectations will result in account restrictions. More serious and repeated violations will result in greater restrictions.
So my plan, if I'm confronted with it (and have my wits about me to do it) is to mention that what the player did violates the Blizzard code of conduct and if they don't correct it, I'll report and mute them.

This way we're not arguing with their ideas (no matter how horrifying some of the things are that get spewed online) we're confronting them with a corporate entity at our backs. My weapon of choice, therefore, will be the governing company policies. There's no point in trying to get into a philosophical debate with toxicity.

Good luck my friends. Stay strong, and keep playing non-toxically.

I don't think that last thing is a word, but you know what I mean. :)

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