pls pls pls don't ban fish who say homophobic stuff in chat (homophobic seems to be most common), they are just so profitable.

It's always amusing watching people yell and shout for extreme measures against extremists.

I lold

Sent from my SCH-R530U using 2+2 Forums

For over 2 years I used to 'volunteer' as a PokerStars Mod, till BF came and they disallowed Americans from continuing those duties (but did allow us to cash out our FPPs one last time at least).

Despite the endless crap dished out to chat mods (especially from the boards here), there was a very consistent policy in place for how to handle chat situations, had to train for 2-3 months, and you worked for about tree-fiddy an hour unless you were adept at grinding the 280FPP 6-man SNGs. I still kinda miss those days.

Anyhow, the policy was very forgiving about most things. Progressions included warning, 3 hrs, 24 hrs, 1 week, 1 month (continue 1 month ad infinitum).

Slurs of any sort (profane insults clearly directed at someone based upon race, country of origin, religion, sexual preference, etc.) always incurred a 1 month ban without warning. No exceptions, unless ambiguous enough to fall into question (raccoons and frogs are after all cute animals, and English isn't everyone's first language, so context is everything).

Now, Stars had it's fair amount of repeat offenders. I saw many accounts with over two or three dozen 1 month bans. Some of these people made it a game to think up the most vile insults imaginable to use on their first day back from chatban, and would even call on themselves, and have backup insults ready for when mod arrived.

At mods discretion, could escalate to supervisor via e-mail to request a 6 month ban (this was very rare, and you'd literally need 50+ violations, OR the chat in question was SO BAD, SO MUCH WORSE than everything else you saw day in and day out that you knew this person had to stop, usually had to include detailed threats on top of slurs/profanity/vulgarity/staff impersonation).

Once in a blue moon, someone would earn a perma-ban, this was even more rare than the 6 month ban. And of course, 50% of chat bans were for not speaking English (capped at one-month penalty after all progressions, and always a verbal warning first).

Nobody was ever 'removed from the site' nor should they be. Nothing tilts a player more than an instant chat ban. Of course, folks knew that too, and we had our 'frequent callers' with literally over 5,000 calls each to the mod (yes we kept track of how many times total somebody called). Once they start getting banned themselves for harassment, things start getting really interesting.

Anyhow. It's the internet. There will always be trolls, whether they are falsely representing themselves with an avatar like OP does (and why does he do this? is obvious), or tossing insults to same yet in real life the player may not even be racist. Both players have the same goal in mind - to tilt the other players at the table. It's an international and partially anonymous site - if these folks were really as bothered by diversity as their comments sometimes suggest, they likely wouldn't be playing in the first place. But, just like the site wants their $5, so does the player, and no levels are off the table for many (but not all) when wanting to achieve that level of tilt, regardless of the morality involved

And if you can't handle that reality, simply turn off the chat, or accept the concept of the bat-chan.

[QUOTE=SantaCruz;40498048]The Bill of Rights only guarantees freedom of speech in the relationship of government to its citizens. Ben Franklin was referring to that relationship in his quote. There isn't and there was never meant to be freedom of speech in privately owned venues, including 2+2.



And that is the problem. Governments around the world have made laws against 'privately owned venues' discriminating against people of race,religion,country of origin, gender, sexual orientation, etc.

What if a " privately owned venue" fired or suspended someone because they converted from Christianity to Islam. Imagine the uproar.

Yet, routinely, people are fired or suspended from their jobs ( in the U.S.) because they say something that is considered insensitive, racist, improper, ignorant, stupid or whatever ( does not seem to matter if it's true or not). It seems that most people agree or tolerate those actions.

Freedom of Speech is the most important human right. " Give me freedom of speech and I'll fight for the rest". ( I forget who said it).

It makes me sad and ashamed when people allow their governments to infringe on free speech. A freedom that was not given to us: it was paid for, in blood, by our ancestors. I imagine that they too, would be ashamed of us.

P.S. Kudos to 2+2. In my previous post I stated some factual (negative) statistics about a particular race that was meant to inflame and to see if people would attack me, yet, no one did. ( There might be hope for the human race after all)

P.S.S. I will always defend freedom of speech, even if it means death. Imagine a world where any of us could become Salmon Rushdie at any moment. Not a world I would want to live in.

but i guess that the 1 month suspesion forever, could become a 2 month-then 3 month etc. until 6 months maybe? or just perma chat-banned
I use to keep getting me banned pretty much a few days after i got reinstated, now i have chat off always, but sometimes i manage to get banned for another month anyways

That would be sensible. And for all I know the rules have changed since BF. I assume Stars is still an English-only site? I've refused to logon or visit since that day, though I do still get all the big promo e-mails that come to my old mod e-mail address, all of which accts they registered in another country.

I'm telling you how it is, not neccessarily how it should be how in regards to private business.

More generally speaking, when you say that Freedom of Speech is the "cornerstone of democracy", it hasn't been, never will be, nor should it be to the extreme extent that you define Freedom of Speech. Yelling "Fire!" in a theater isn't something that should be protected; nor should someone verbally bullying a classmate or co-worker to the brink of suicide be protected. Harmful and hateful speech is not something that benefits a democracy, it is something that oppresses and therefore undermines a democracy.

I find your use of the word "bitch" in this context extremely offensive to women and I demand that you are banned from the internet.

Hello Players...

Well played for speaking out OP. Total disgrace. This guy should be banned (after he loses all his money of course )

Shame on the people telling u to ignore this. Would they have told rosa parks to sit down and be quiet? To ignore racism is to collude in its poison. Whether on the internet, in the street, at the match, at work, people who use racist language or racist abuse should face severe consequences. Otherwise they will get more confident to carry on and things get more serious. Verbal abuse leads to physical abuse.

There is no place for this at a card table.

Next time u play the guy make sure you take his rent money the poisonous bigot.

Taking offense when someone calls you 'black ****', when you're neither black nor a woman, somehow makes me laugh really hard. Thread delivers.

This whole thread is lol. It's the internet and if you can't handle the internet you shouldn't be on the internet. OP is butthurt over nothing.

Anyone else read this in Jesse Pinkman's voice?

People are too sensitive with "racial" stuff lately.
I get called "poor" or "gypsy" at the tables because I am from eastern europe.
Though I am neither but ppl see gypsies from eastern europe begging on the street a lot in their own country and don't realize that they are just a minority in Eastern Europe.
But I don't get butthurt and start reporting them to stars.


We don't have black people here so I don't know how they feel in US but I keep seeing them use terms like "white boy", a movie can have the title "white men can't jump" but if a white guy says "black boy" or "black men can't swim" he's pegged as a racist.

Like the great Al Bundy said in an episode "nowadays fat people get upset if you call them fat".

Most blacks in America are decended from slaves and have had to endure generations of Jim Crow laws, lynchings, job discrimination, bigoted stereotypes, etc., etc., etc. Whites have used certain words against blacks in this country as one of their tools to bully and oppress. A black person using the term "white boy" doesn't carry anywhere near the significance or impact as the other way around.

I hope you realize that Al Bundy was never meant to be a role model.

Everybody knows that its okay to be racist/sexist as long as it is toward white males, the whiter the better. You can see that easily on TV/newspaper, in everyday's conversation and on sites such as this one.
You can joke (a little) with white women and asian but dont even think about making fun of jews or blacks. Jokes about arabs is also a mine field, I dont suggest that you go there

Yeah man, white males have it so hard.

People get offended way too easily. They are just words.......

Putting aside the moralistic and anti-pc stuff, don't you think there's an argument for a POKER site which needs RECREATIONAL players to have fun and enjoy themselves to be strict and err on the side of caution in trying to avoid offence? You might not agree with the argument, but surely you can see why such an argument exists?

At the end of the day, who's more likely to be scared off, a rec player who sees frequent offensive slurs on their poker site and gets offended easily, or a rec player who wants to use these slurs and finds that they aren't allowed?

Ok I realize that though I didn't experience it closely.
Still, it was quite a while ago and the racism shown by them towards "whiteboys" now shows that if the places were reversed they would've done the same thing.
Last time I checked US has a popular black president, re-elected even, I'd say the past days are way behind.

They've gone from a race considered way inferior to an equal position, no need to act like they are a superior race now.
It should be an equal position in the present moment so if you don't want ppl calling you "blackboy" you shouldn't call them "whiteboy" either.(also, the tone in which they say "whiteboy" seems offensive, like he is talking to someone inferior)

they remove his chat privileges

Just because there is a black president doesn't mean that everything is OK. There is still a lot of discrimination in this country. I live in probably the most liberal city in the entire US and some of the racist talk I hear here is a throwback to 50 years ago.

Using terms that slave owners used towards blacks has a much more profound effect of dehumanizing an individual than simply saying "whiteboy". The term "whiteboy" has no history of dehumanizing white people.

Just from the many stories that black friends of mine have told me about their experiences, I know for a fact that discrimination is not way behind us.

yes and on that thought, I think we should let all homeless american die since homeless african have it harder

Yeah whites facing racism and blacks facing racism is exactly like homelessness in Africa v America. Good analogy, well done.