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What is KotakuInAction? Mission statement and TEMPORARY rules by Aurondarklord

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Gaffer 32 points 5 years ago +32 / -0

is this reddit? We didn't come here for rules

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OUR MISSION
KotakuInAction is a platform for open discussion of the issues where gaming, nerd culture, the Internet, and media collide.

We believe that the current standards of ethics in the media have alienated the artists, developers, and creators who perpetuate the things we love, enjoy, and enthusiastically build communities around. We have observed numerous incidents involving conflicts of interest and agenda-pushing within media which we feel are damaging to the credibility of the medium and harm the community at large. We believe much of the current media is complicit in the proliferation of an ideology that squashes individuality, divides along political lines, and is stifling to the freedom of creativity that is the foundation of human expression.

KotakuInAction is a community that condemns willful censorship, exclusion, harassment, and abuse. It is a community that organizes to hold the media accountable to the concept of artistic freedom by standing up for the artist, the developer, the writer, the filmmaker, and all who enjoy the freedom to create, explore, and expand. It is a community that allows the exchange of information, supports the ongoing discussion of media ethics, and protects the right of the individual to embrace their personal interests in entertainment and fandom.

KotakuInAction is built around a core focus on reasonable, friendly discussion of the issues related to gaming culture, and those involved in it. That is not all we are about, but it's where we began and will remain our core. We hold ourselves to be politically neutral ground, not forcing anyone to conform in their opinions, and permitting a wide variety of viewpoints to express themselves in a civil manner.
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. GENERAL RULES

DON'T BE A DICKWOLF Attack arguments, not people.

"Fuck off, retard," is not an argument. Neither is "Kill yourself, faggot." Regardless of whether you think someone is a shill, SJW, or whatever, stick to arguing the points. Name-calling does not contribute to discussion. Refer to the pyramid as a general guideline. If anything, just make sure your criticism outweighs any insults. However, well-reasoned arguments that end with parting shots like, "Stop being obtuse; even children understand this concept," are okay. Ostensibly, we're all adults here; a comment like that can just be ignored.

The core of this rule is primarily based on patterns of behavior, which fall into these categories:

1.1 HARASSMENT Badgering and/or baiting another user across multiple threads or baiting after disengaging (mod enforced or otherwise), including persistent /u/ mentions and/or replies. Note that this generally does not apply to people that are outside the subreddit, (e.g. "God, the guy who wrote that article is such a fucking retard."), but does apply in cases of /u/ tagging a user (e.g. "/u/reallybadpersonidontlike you're a fucking mongoloid and you should go die in a fire.").

1.2 TROLLING Posts and comments which are clearly not intended to generate discussion, but rather aimed at generating or maximizing as much drama and emotion as possible. Intentionally posting to make people angry.

1.3 CRUSADING Posts and comments intended to drive a wedge in the community, or to rally a mob to target users or communities, without the intent to hold a constructive discussion. Crusading eschews conversation, going beyond well-meaning criticism into behavior that includes excessive attacks against specific users, demands that action be taken against specific users, and/or bombarding a post with hostility towards KiA or specific users.

1.4 BRIGADING Coming into KiA from a previous sub to post virulent comments, or otherwise try to manipulate the sub. This includes (but is not limited to) uncivil comments from users who frequent (within the last ~2 months) a meta/drama sub that has linked to a specific KiA post, and users who comment on removed posts. This also applies to users who link to KiA on these meta/drama subs, either by archive, screenshot, or direct link. Any non-KiA brigadiers are subject to an expedited ban. We don't have a problem with you criticizing KiA on other subs, just don't come into those threads to start shit after they've been linked. Participate civilly, if you're going to participate at all.

1.5 MALICE Don't resort to malicious name-calling, brazen insults, and/or general hostility against any individual user. Don't use identity politics or unironic slurs (that is, language intended to advocate blatant hatred) against groups of people. Behavior that encourages, glorifies, incites, or calls for violence or physical harm against an individual or a group of people is not allowed, in conjunction with sitewide rules. Do your best to treat your fellow community members excellently.

1.6 ESCALATION TOWARD VIOLENCE Posts and comments making declarative statements about a potential civil war/boogaloo will be removed from KiA. By "declarative statements" any comments which delve into the area of "if X keeps doing Y, then there will be a violent response" or similar are to be included . These removals will not be issued warnings/bans as long as other rules are not breached, just a public statement of why they were removed.

Examples of things which will likely cause removal:

"If they show up at my place, they'll get a face full of lead"

"If they show up here and police try to shut them down, there will be bloodshed"

Other statements which can be interpreted as escalation toward an actual violent act. This list is not all inclusive, these are just examples. We will try to be lenient on it where we can, but have to step in now due to a repeated pattern of this showing up in our report queue.

More generic things like "This will end badly" will not be removed under this rule.

DON'T POST PERSONAL INFORMATION Reddit is very strict about the publication of "personal information," commonly referred to as "doxing," so don't post it.

Personal information is constituted as:

2.1 DIRECTLY LINKING TO PERSONAL SOCIAL MEDIA Exceptions are made for "public figures," including (but not limited to) journalists, actors, published authors, and public-facing company personalities. However, direct links to Facebook and LinkedIn are not allowed, due to sitewide rules. Posting archive links to personal information is considered directly linking to it. Linking your own information is permitted. Posts from accounts with fewer than 2,500 followers, or anyone who does not otherwise meet the "public figure" or "limited-purpose public figure" requirements must be in the form of screenshots with all identifying information censored.

2.2 REAL NAMES Exceptions are made for the public figures as mentioned above, also including primary subjects of articles from multiple non-blog sites (or "limited-purpose public figures").

2.3 PHONE NUMBERS OR ADDRESSES Public contact numbers/address for companies (not including individual employees) are exempt.

2.4 OTHER INFO WHICH MAY BE USED TO PERSONALLY IDENTIFY SOMEONE Including sites hosting personal information, images of homes, etc.

If you are in doubt whether what you posted may constitute posting personal information, reach out to the moderator team.

POSTING GUIDELINES Posts on KotakuInAction must focus on one of the topics included in the whitelist and may not include a topic from the blacklist. Post that do not meet this criterium will be removed. Removals due to Rule 3 alone have no consequences aside from the post being removed.

Meta Posts are excluded from this rule.

WHITELIST Gaming Journalism Ethics Censorship Official Social Justice Media Meta Tabletop gaming, comics, sci-fi/fantasy, manga/anime, and derivative media of such Sub related OC Artwork Tech Happenings

TEMPORARY WHITELIST ITEMS None

BLACKLIST Unrelated Politics Memes (as in image macros) E-Celeb Bullshit Forum Noise (random users complaining on random forums [directly involved devs are exempt from this]) Social Media Hot Takes Lets Plays

NOTES To pass unrelated pol, topics containing politicians; laws; government or major political organizations without direct relation to GamerGate, must be presented without partisan slant and the majority of the topic must focus on relevant actions or proposals, rather than their partisan or electoral implications.

Official social justice is defined as: The propagation or implementation of identity politics by institutions or companies of major size.

Tech Happenings is defined as: Significant events concerning the policies, business practices, algorithms, behavior, and corporate cultures of tech companies and social networks, especially where pertaining to free expression, identity politics, and anti-consumer activities, as well as legislation affecting tech spaces.

If you believe your post is of sufficient importance to the subreddit but are concerned that it would not pass the above guidelines, please contact the modteam for approval

POSTS MUST BE INTELLIGIBLE Non-English links must include a translation in the immediate comments from the OP. This can be either a full length translation, a copypaste of a machine translation, or a direct link to a full machine translation of the page.

All links to videos longer than 5 minutes will require either a comment by the OP or to be in a self post summarizing the relevant parts of the video to what they are trying to point out with it. Exceptions may be allowed if the title is clearly explaining what's going on with the link pointing directly at the relevant timestamp in the video.

Avoid mobile links if possible.

WE ARE NOT YOUR PERSONAL ARMY Don't post a call to action against someone or something you disagree with.

Don't make posts like "let's give that idiot a piece of our mind!" if you come across something stupid someone said on the Internet. If you want to point and laugh, then post an archive, but engineering brigades or dogpiles against individuals or other communities will not be tolerated. The rule of thumb here is to look but don't touch. If you choose to take action offsite in direct response to something posted here, you will be dealt with as having violated this rule, if not sitewide rules.

Additionally, random, stupid things said by nobodies on Twitter, Facebook, etc. should not be posted. A "nobody" is defined as any account with fewer than 2,500 followers, or anyone who does not otherwise meet the "public figure" or "limited-purpose public figure" requirements.

You are not allowed to directly link to other communities.

ARCHIVE AS MUCH AS YOU CAN Use link archivers for as many things as possible.

This is to preserve articles in their original format in case they are edited in the future, as well as to ensure that the articles comments sections are not brigaded. Record-keeping is important, and archiving pages are our way to preserve those records. Additionally, there is an active blacklist of sites that will automatically be pulled if not archived. You can find this list here.

Some links like GoFundMe and Bitchute get temp canned on reddit for a bit, whereas links to Encyclopedia Dramatica and Kiwifarms will never be approved because of reddit sitewide doxxing rules.

DON'T POST MISLEADING CONTENT We want to make sure we're not reading garbage, or being lied to about some of the claims being made here.

To ensure this, posts should be free from the following:

7.1 EDITORIALIZED TITLES These are post titles for news articles that are framed in such a way as to push discussion in a single direction, typically stirring outrage, rather than leaving it up to the commentators in the thread. Hyperbole is a form of misinformation; you don't have to add anything "spicy" to the article's headline—it's better to simply post the headline itself. Additionally, quotation marks should be reserved for the exact wording someone used. If you need to add inline context, put the words that weren't said [in square brackets].

7.2 MISINFORMATION Defined as the intentional spread of provably incorrect information, or spinning a narrative without presenting all the facts. Typically, there is a degree of agenda-pushing or soapboxing related to this. Note that well-intended posts with information that has yet to be proven will simply be given an [Unverified] flair. However, any claims that are proven false after a post is made will result in it being given [Fake News] flair, and a stickied comment correcting the information, regardless of vote totals. This is to prevent the spread of misinformation on KiA.

7.3 SPAM AND SELF-PROMOTION Users posting anything that can be considered spam or self-promotion must demonstrate a 4:1 ratio of participation/commenting in unrelated posts to self-promotion. For example, for every 1 post or comment promoting their own material (websites, videos, social media, etc.), they must have at least 4 comments or posts that are participating in KiA (or other communities) that are wholly unrelated to discussion of their material.

DO NOT REPOST We will remove reposts of the same information.

This includes posting articles on the same topic from different publications when one is already on the front page, unless there is substantial new information. If a post is older than 7 days, its content can be reposted for visibility, if the situation warrants it.

Moderators

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2026.02.01 - pv4fp (status)