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Happy Hanguang-June

thunder-the-ranger-wolf asked:

Let me start by saying that I admire your campaign and think i is absolutely necessary. I understand completely where you are coming from and I support this wholeheartedly. My question: How do you think the policies you are asking for can be used fairly and without backfiring on the people who are not making racist content? I worry about the enforceability of these policies. It seems like any method of solving this problem would need tools that can be used both ways.

end-otw-racism answered:

Hi! Thanks for the ask. We've answered questions in a similar vein before but feel it worth clarifying our position as it is a bit confusing and atypical. Most of the time when people identify a problem they also are expected to have a solution for that problem. That is not what we are here for. If you'll note, we have not outlined any specific policies in our demands and that is because we are firmly aware of the risks and dangers of unforseen consequences that come with creating policy as well as our own limitations of expertise in this area.

We are not policy makers. We do not know all of the solutions. What we do know is that there is currently a problem, a problem that the organization itself has confirmed and acknowledged. We also know what we would like to have at the end of this: policies that reduce the current problems of racist harassment.

The actual policies themselves (the mechanism by which this goal is achieved) , we believe, should be crafted by experts and those with skills in crafting policy especially in regards to racism, with an awareness of current industry best practices.

Additionally, even if we did have the most perfect solutions ever that would fix all of the current issues, unless the OTW decided to take action, anything we propose is meaningless. Thus, our current action is about demonstrating to the organization that the fans using AO3 want this to be a priority.

So to answer your question, we are aware of the limitations and risk of backfire. This is why we are not asking for specific policies. We want the OTW to honor its commitment to hire experts who can craft these policies while maintaining the spirit of the OTWs founding mission.

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unrealromance

This is a common weird thing that people tend to do.

Like, if I drink a soda and it tastes like shit, I have no idea how to fix it. I am not a mixologist. But I know it tastes like shit.

Why do people think you have to be an expert to know something isn't right? Like, you don't have to know anything about color theory or web design to know when a site's design layout looks terrible, right?

And you don't need to know anything about cooking to know when something you eat doesn't taste like it's supposed to.

Why should I need to know how to make a burger to complain to the staff that the burger is bad? Why should I need to know anything about mixology or web design to point out that the soda tastes like shit and the website is terrible-looking?

The staff of a website should know how to run a website, and if the users point out a problem that effects them, those users can have input-- but ultimately they aren't going to know how to implement anything or what the best options are.