Language Police & the Ruination of F95Zone

[Sikisk]

Hello! I'm Piemanftw, I've been on this site since 2017 as a lurker and only started posting on here around 2 years ago.

The title of this post is self explanatory, the scrubbing of the internet of anything and everything that could be construed as offensive to be more "inclusive" to others. I never thought I would see the day that I would have to make a defense for language here on a Porn Forum, but here we are.

As set up I will explain the specific encounter and then go into the issues I have with the line of reasoning they employ, and then branch out into a generality that I have seen play out many times. I will not name names of course, but I may shoot a message at them to see if they'd like to respond.]

I browse through the New & Updated Games tab a ton, I'm always searching for new projects I might like, and the other day I came across an HTML game just starting out. Of course I'm going to peruse through the post! This is when I encountered the post that inspired this one. This specific person had a rather strange take that Hermaphrodite as a word is insulting. Whether this is something that is an actual problem or not is neither here nor there, and the advice proffered by this person was sound. The developer of the game would do well to listen.

The developer of said game used Hermaphrodite as the third option in Character Creation, the only reason I see for him to change it is because it isn't the exact word they were looking for in that context, not that it was an insulting description. The poster in question put a rather strange spin on this and stated pretty matter of factly that Hermaphrodite is an insult and shouldn't be used period. They stated that it was a dehumanizing descriptor and equated the use of the word to plants for some odd reason.

Firstly, I can't speak for the developer in this regard, but I'd hazard a guess that he did not mean it as an insult. Why would he?
Secondly, I have an issue with the precedent it could set if this line of thinking continues. If Herm is an insult what isn't? The literal word "Other" could be an insult.
Finally, if this type of reasoning continues and permeates through the site, developers banking on using F95Zone as a launching pad will have to walk on eggshells for every use case of every word that they type for their game.

F95Zone is the biggest forum for these porn games, Even if its a pirate site, if your game is good people will be attentive of you as a creator. As a porn site we have all sorts here all being catered to by very different fetishs and tastes. Just one look at our tags should show that degeneracy is inbuilt to the site.
Other than the very specific occasions when a Developer pisses off the people on here, people are usually just here to get their rocks off. It is not only unnecessary to police language that isn't straight up hateful, it is in fact harmful to the discourse of regular people.

Anyway that's my take. It isn't that big of a deal I just wanted to shine the light at it for a moment.

 

[Dicks McKenzie]

Not gonna lie, what with the name of the thread, I was hoping this would be you going on a rant because some dude corrected your grammar.

I get why you might be frustrated though; It's easy to get like that when someone takes umbrage with something you find completely normal. And that can be aggravated by a developer/author/whoever following that train of thought and making changes that you think are unnecessary.
I don't know what game you're talking about, but chances are if a developer made those sorts of changes to mitigate the risk of offending anyone - they're probably just starting out and trying to get an audience in an increasingly saturated market. These things might happen from time to time.

Let's not get ahead of ourselves and say it spells doom for the website though, this could easily just be an isolated incident (but I'll stand corrected if people have other evidence of it happening elsewhere)

As a final point, the user's comparison to plants is probably because a Hermaphrodite has both male and female reproductive organs, which all(?) plants do too.

Have a good one amigo.

 

[anne O'nymous]

This specific person had a rather strange take that Hermaphrodite as a word is insulting.

Then this regard this specific person, not the whole forum, right ?

The developer of said game used Hermaphrodite as the third option in Character Creation, the only reason I see for him to change it is because it isn't the exact word they were looking for in that context, not that it was an insulting description.

Then this regard this specific developer, not the whole forum, right ?


Don't get me wrong, I find ridiculous to consider the use of "hermaphrodite" as insulting, this even while knowing that it's a word that is more and more banned in the medical field. I understand the need for a change in regard of the medical profession, since it's a word that tend to invisibilize the near to 95% intersex people who aren't strictly hermaphrodites. But this don't mean that the word itself is an insult ; it's just not the most appropriated one in this particular case.

But in the same time, your own post feel a little ridiculous, since its title point a supposed "language police" that do not exist. It's the saying of one member, among more than 4 millions, and apparently (else I assume you would have said it), it wasn't enforced by any moderator or staff member.
One guy voiced an opinion, that, seen outside of its context, feel ridiculous, period. It don't mean that there's a "language police", nor mean that he's part of the majority. This kind of people exist since the language exist. Some are rights, the word n*gro isn't at all appropriate and is insulting, others are just too entitled to themselves and totally wrong. If we should start a global debate, and/or see some kine of "language police", every time one of them speak, even limiting to this sole forum, we would pass our days only talking about this.
If you feel this guy is wrong, say it, politely, in the thread by answering him. There no need for more, really.

I don't know what game you're talking about, but chances are if a developer made those sorts of changes to mitigate the risk of offending anyone - they're probably just starting out and trying to get an audience in an increasingly saturated market.

Don't know the game either, but it's possible that it was effectively "kind of offending", but also totally unvoluntary. Half the devs aren't native English speakers, and depending of the tool used, translation aren't always really accurate, especially if you don't really know the word you're searching.
I don't know if it's the case here, but I can see a none native English speaker searching for "transgender" while not knowing the word in his own language ; not all have included one in their dictionary. He would pass through a search that could be, "English word for someone who's not a male, nor a female", what is a poor, but not necessarily wrong definition for someone who don't really understand what being transgender mean. He would then end with "hermaphrodite" and use it, genuinely thinking that it's the right word, until someone tell him that it's not.