Regarding gender discussion threads about RPGs

[Libertad]

I've been thinking about this a lot, and not just because I posted in one of the threads. Although not quite common, a similar trend emerges on this board, where a poster starts up a thread about women/gender issues in RPGs. The most recent example is Agrippa's "Would you tolerate a DM..." (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=302144)thread. Several months ago there was one entitled "Female warriors and physical aggression." (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=275079)

Both cases bear striking similarity; an uncomfortable attitude towards the existence of strong, martial women in a tabletop game.

Discouragingly, both threads ended up locked, the former in the case of the conversation being derailed from sexist DMs and house rules towards real-world racial issues. I believe that discussion of gender issues in RPGs is important {Scrubbed}.

[TaiLiu]

Ah, an excellent post, though I wonder what the question is.

[Rawhide]

I see no question relating the Board/Site Issues. This thread either falls under restarting a closed thread, which you should not do without asking a moderator of the specific forum first (preferably the moderator who closed it originally, if he or she is available), or it belongs in a different forum.

I'm not fully versed in the current situation with those closed threads, so I've closed this for review, and because it doesn't belong in this forum. One of the other moderators will take it from here and will decide if it gets moved and reopened.

[Roland St. Jude]

Sheriff:

1. Don't restart locked threads.
2. Starting the new thread in Board Issues doesn't make it any more acceptable than starting it in another subforum.
3. That multiple threads on a single issue got locked should be taken as a sign that the topic itself isn't suitable for this forum or is particularly difficult to discuss within the Forum Rules.
4. It should not be taken as an invitation to discuss why those threads were locked or debate the locking.
5. There are many relevant and important discussions that are difficult or even impossible under our Forum Rules. For example, religious opposition to the hobby or the political regulation of video games are both of interest to people here in a personal and immediate way and yet not discussable here. We have topical prohibitions despite this limitation on useful discussion, but it's a balance we've struck on purpose. By all means, have these discussions - just not here.
6. This particular topic is one that is not specifically and wholly prohibited, so we allow such discussions as long as they stay within the Forum Rules. Some times that's a short time and sometimes that's a long time. But when they begin to violate the rules, we have to lock them.

[The Giant]

To chime in: Topics get locked when the people posting in them violate the rules repeatedly. The fact that a topic may be interesting or valuable or socially important doesn't change that.

The topic of gender issues in role-playing games is an interesting and worthy subject, but if people keep dragging it down into areas that violate the rules (particularly the no-politics rule), then we can't let that conversation continue at this time. That's the fault of the people who started dragging Hitler and Stalin and such into it, not that of the moderation staff.