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1. 

   Method Man

   294 Kudos

   09/21/08

   Thanks. I'm glad to see that you're among the many who agree with the decision to crack down on the degradation of women.
   
   You're right - there really were only a few people engaging in that behavior, certainly compared to our overall membership. The problem is, they were so vocal about it that their immaturity tended to characterize the forum - and the majority of us don't wish to be associated with that behavior. This very small contingent remains vocal in support of their perceived "right" to degrade women on a private message board that explicitly forbade it from the moment they joined, but I greatly prefer their complaints to the behavior itself.
   
   This really isn't a new rule - it's just a warning to those persistent few that the sexually explicit posts are indeed offensive, and if they persist knowing that their conduct is offensive to a great many of our users, we'll have no choice but to penalize them accordingly to ensure that NikeTalk remains friendly, welcoming, and respectful to our members and visitors.
   
   Original comment »

2. 

   Method Man

   294 Kudos

   09/21/08

   This seems like a reaction to our decision to crack down on disrespectful, sexually explicit comments that debase women.
   
   Honestly, it's a very weak comparison. We're talking, on the one hand, about crude, demeaning posts that offend MANY of our users, male and female, and are generally disrespectful to women. To try and equate that with "you're trying to prohibit anything that could even be perceived as offensive by a single person" would be silly.
   
   Personal attacks refer to NikeTalk members. If you want to say, "Paris Hilton is a moron," we'll let it slide. It's an opinion about somebody who's not a member of this community. The problem is, when some members make sexually explicit comments about female celebrities - those comments are offensive to women in general and the pervasiveness of those comments makes NikeTalk a less welcoming community to women - and that's completely unacceptable.
   
   That said, just because someone is in the public eye that all bets are off. For example, some celebrities have made it known that they are NT members. DJ AM and Wale, for example, have NT accounts and post every so often. If you want to say that you don't like their work, etc., that's fine - but to be personally disrespectful to another NikeTalk member is against the rules. That's pretty simple. To get into the realm of "well what if JJ Redick's uncle's cousin's stepbrother's former roommate had an NT account - could you still make fun of him" is just argumentative and without any practical merit. The rules serve a valuable purpose and help the community remain faithful to its vision: to operate a safe, friendly community that welcomes sneaker fans of all backgrounds.
   
   Much of this criticism seems to express the opinion that people who take offense to these comments are oversensitive - and that just demonstrates a complete lack of empathy or, frankly, respect for women. Every post about women should not reduce women to sexual objects. That someone - male OR female - might take offense to that is honestly a far cry from something as indirect and spurious as "well my cousin works on the McCain campaign and for you to call him a senile, racist warmonger hurts my feelings so anyone who says anything negative about McCain should be banned from the board."
   
   Honestly, this change is something that our members should have taken on voluntarily, knowing that it was offensive to so many of our members and viewers. As people weren't willing to make that change on their own, though, we had to make the decision to crack down for the benefit of the community.
   
   Our community is fortunate to have such an amazing group of members and we'd love to retain everyone while our membership continues to grow - but we won't keep people here unconditionally. If members steadfastly refuse to cease disrespecting women, we'd sooner lose their membership than we would operate a forum where the denigration of women becomes commonplace.
   
   Original comment »

   09/21/08

   Reply from SoHi 23:

   First of all, thanks for the response.
   I'm not going to lie, my question kind of drew inspiration from that thread, but not entirely.
   My thoughts on the issue were simple.
   This is a forum designed for all ages, genders, races, etc.
   Niketalk is not a men's locker room. If you want to talk about girl that you want to have sex with, they are other places for that. It's not wrong to say that a woman is beautiful or anything, but I can't tell how tired I became of opening a thread about John McCain or something and dhe first reply I read is that "I'd pee in his wife's".
   There was really only a couple of members doing/posting that, but it's not funny at all.
   Again this is a forum designed for everyone, not just these boys who think that woman are just sexual objects.
   This rule won't really have an impact on me posting wise. I was never one to run around and post "fap fap fap" to any image of a woman.
   Any rule that makes NT a more pleasant place to surf, is good in my book.
   
   

3. 

   Oranix

   7 Kudos

   09/08/08

   
   
   

4. 

   cheezybaby

   130 Kudos

   06/18/08

   yo what chirpingcrickets said
   
   im down too
   
   *my contract as a laker fan actually runs through the offseason*
   
   

5. 

   ChirpingCrickets

   107 Kudos

   06/18/08

   hey! u and ska have matching profiles!!
   
   i asked ska n he said that he had that profile first
   
   sorry dude
   
   i ur back
   
   jus lemme know and we will e-jump him
   
   

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