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Communism

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  1. Oh my god, finally I meet someone who knows about this masterpiece. Nothing on the internet has made me laugh harder than the German guy's "The pope uses Internet Explorer" call.
  2. I'm somewhere on the gay spectrum, and it's quite clear I've been that way since I was around 13 or so. But let me tell you, like Brandon and a few others mentioned, the cognitive dissonance thing is real. When I was growing up, gay issues did not have mainstream support at all in the media -- at least in my country (US) and state. I also went to a small/weird school, and I don't think I actually knew an openly gay person in real life until I was around 16. So when you grow up with certain expectations about how attraction should work, and then suddenly you experience feelings which contradict that understanding, your brain has a funny way of ignoring those feelings. If someone had asked me what my orientation was around that time, I would have said that I was straight without batting an eye. Not because I was ashamed of being queer, but because I hadn't fully internalized that you could be something besides straight. I think xat Kimi was also the first person I ever confided in some time in 2012 (shoutout to Kimi). It was a really casual conversation too, it hardly felt like a grand 'coming out' moment, but I just put my thoughts out there and that really helped me come to terms with them. I've basically been de facto out since I started university, though I still don't care to tell anyone unless they ask me first. Some things that still bother me... Finding queer people who were interested in serious, monogamous relationships was not easy. Maybe it's just a university thing that people would prefer to sleep around, but it was pretty frustrating for me. I also dislike identity politics around 'LGBT issues'. Maybe this is just me, but I feel like coming out is as much of a political statement as it is a personal one. I'm still mostly left-leaning, but I don't feel like being queer should ally me with any particular political cause.
  3. That's why I have so much free time to complain about stuff on the internet.
  4. Oh yeah, you can be sure I screenshotted and reported it to the admins. The reason I created this thread was that I couldn't, in good conscience, just do that and call it a day. I think other people need to be made aware of the kind of filth that happens in that chat. I'm glad you appreciate the gravity of it. Personally I think Flirt's name/legacy and the fact that its completely unmoderated is much of the appeal, but I'm willing to accept your position. This just really disgusted me on a personal level and I hope they do something beyond leaving it to the users to report the problem, because that clearly hasn't stopped the problem so far. I mean, it's pretty inconsistent that someone would get swiftly punished for swearing here or on a promoted chat, but a chat overrun with pedophiles and predators basically goes unchecked.
  5. Again, this isn't just run-of-the-mill trolling/cyber bullying/whatever. I'm talking about child predation which is actually illegal in xat's jurisdiction (see this), and they have a real stake in making sure it doesn't happen on their website. Having the chat be purposefully unmoderated, and leaving it up to the few decent people in the chat to report the filth (and it might not be terribly obvious how to do this for someone who doesn't use the xat platform very much, by the way), does not seem sufficient at all. Plus, reporting does not help deal with toons, and they are definitely the majority culprits. I want to also stress that this is not just a few bad users. The chat is completely overrun with these creeps. Normal conversations are not the "norm". If you have any doubts, just try what I mentioned in the OP and see for yourself.
  6. If child predators are a widespread problem on xat, then the xat admins should take the issue more seriously. This attitude in general is fine, but Flirt is full of people actually preying on minors. Forget the xat terms - this stuff is a violation of the law. If xat is going to fuss about swearing on promoted chats, I hope they care about this. I am not so sure about the last point. Flirt has a legacy on xat and is completely un-moderated, and I think that's why it gets much of its draw. And even if they reorganize somewhere else and it ends up being just as much of a problem, that place should be removed too. Just like how a user who unbans themselves on a chat just gets re-banned. Though if there are other solutions to the problem besides deleting the chat, I am open to considering that. The main point of this thread is to make it clear that this really is a problem that needs some kind of solution.
  7. We know that this chat is the unofficial outlet for people to have the kind of vulgar fun that isn't generally allowed on the rest of the site, but it has turned into an absolute cesspool. It isn't just lewd talk and "naughty words" - this place is full of predators. It's both disgusting and completely illegal. Here's a little "social experiment" I tried, and I invite you to do the same if you want to see first-hand how terrible this place is. Get on a toon account, set your display name to a typical girl name, toss a "Hi" or some innocent small talk into main chat, and just wait. Within ten minutes, your PC will probably be blowing up with people soliciting you for pictures. Tell them you're underage/not interested/whatever, and 95% of them will keep going. This is pretty disgusting already, but if you've been around the internet and are desensitized enough you might think this kind of desperate catcalling "just happens", that the people who do it probably don't expect it to get them anywhere/just do it for attention, and that nobody falls for it. Fair enough -- honestly I also kind of expected this sort of result and it didn't faze me very much. But it doesn't end there... I got a PC from one guy who had a bunch of powers -- the guy at the top of the chat's user list, not just some 4chan troll who wandered in -- who started asking me for pictures. I tell him that I'm underage/not interested, and he says that he'll give me powers or buy me things from Amazon if I comply. I still resist, and a couple minutes later I get a message from another person with a bunch of powers telling me that the other guy who messaged me is "really nice" and that "he gave her lots of powers when she gave him pictures". Seriously -- this person was trying to groom me to send illegal pictures to her(?) friend. I'd like to emphasize again that these people are not randoms in the chat, and it probably wasn't their first time trying this stunt either. It is honestly the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen on xat. I have screenshots of this whole conversation which I'm happy to share if I need to, but I'm obviously not going to post them here. These kind of solicitations aren't just gross, they're completely illegal. Flirt just needs to be nuked from xat. tl;dr Flirt isn't just for trolls, it's full of predators who do very illegal things, and xat should get rid of it.
  8. Sorry for breaking off the template (I don't have good answers anyways ), but I'm mildly intoxicated and in the mood to gush about something. The changes to the forum in 2016 have been great. Obviously things are not perfect now, but the forum used to have so many more issues. For one, it was just really hard to navigate; instead of the nice, flat structure we have now, some boards would appear on the front while others would be buried away in poorly named sub-categories. For something like 2 years, we had three(!) suggestions boards (whose suggestions -- including those to fix the problems I'm now discussing -- were never received), and no general discussion board (instead, we had an out-of-place 'Debate' board, which was sometimes fun, but really not suited for xat). The moderation was also really poor at times: issues were handled inconsistently, entire boards would occasionally be purged for no good reason, and controversial threads would be locked or deleted without any explanation. Communication with the higher-ups could also be hard, and there was no 'Contributor' rank or anything of that sort to bridge the gap. (Of course there were still plenty of good things, and some volunteers like @Christina put a lot of effort into serving the forum over many years, which I'm grateful for) So kudos to the present volunteer team and especially @Brandon for piloting the new forum. Brandon was pushing for some of these things six years ago, and I'm really happy that his vision could finally be realized. (Ironically, I feel that a lot of the problems the forum had in the past are what kept me coming back, like some kind of restless spirit. Especially with the recent dip in activity again, I feel much more at peace to move on now)
  9. This is really stretching my memory now, but I think SMF boards support(ed?) some kind of "gallery" add-on where users can post images or rate/comment on others, so there's probably something similar for xat's forum software. Generally I find forum add-ons a bit tacky, but I think it would make sense here. For what my outsider opinion is worth, it's probably a combination of both what yeti and DP suggested: mismanagement drove away high-profile members, and that talent isn't being replenished because of xat's declining activity. Some things could probably be done to nurture the graphics community a bit, but without addressing those two issues, I don't think there's much hope for a full recovery. In any case, I think it's a shame since I've always respected the people who made graphics here, and a few years ago I would have said that the graphics section was one of the few good things about the forum.
  10. Good - New forum (Brandon, how about a plug-in to make it active? ) Bad - I'm still here
  11. The admins outsource their dirty work to a group of unpaid teenagers who are responsible for cleaning up the mess of an ungrateful community that mostly doesn't even speak the same language as them. But if we all keep mumbling something about "waiting for mobile", I'm sure everything will turn out okay. Right?
  12. Hey, look what I found http://icone.goldenweb.it/index_file/l/en/d2/cartoons/c/animaniacs/default.html (I was the one who posted this on the old forum as well) However, it seems none of the Simpsons avatars xat uses are listed on that site. Those appear to have been created by a different artist, who apparently passed away at the beginning of this year : (
  13. When leaves have made the Fall descent, And birds have left their mother's tree, No more is worth than moments spent, Together in your company. And though you leave these parts behind, With love to find and dreams to make, No day will you not cross my mind, And fill my heart with warmth, dear Flake.
  14. Maybe a little off topic, but I think it's somewhat under-appreciated that the volunteers actually do anything at all. They might be compensated some, but I'm pretty sure most part-time jobs would have a better ROI for their time. I think it's safe to say that the the volunteers do this gig because they find it enjoyable or fulfilling. Now imagine an alternative universe where all the volunteers didn't find it fulfilling and just played xat pool with each other all day instead of answering tickets. The site would obviously fall apart, but who's at fault? The crux of the issue is that the admins brought on a group of people who didn't care enough to do it for free, and then didn't compensate them. The bad volunteers can't really help their own motivation, and it's hard to argue that they have some moral obligation to carry out their duties when they get nothing out of it (and the admins do). So really, the only options are: 1. The admins choose volunteers who will do the work without compensation 2. The admins start offering compensation (like giving them money or making their forum names even more exotic shades of purple) for doing the work Either way, this is the admins' responsibility, not the volunteers'. Again, this doesn't exactly have to do with this thread. Just a reminder think about who you're pointing your finger at.
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