Post #62356
February 19, 2016, 05:37:47 AM
After hearing from people, I want to post my final thoughts on this, and then I'm out of this thread unless I'm tagged.
Sexual harassment is indeed a crime. While it may not be of the highest sort in the real world until it escalates...on Wintreath it is ABSOLUTELY the highest sort.
However, it's also one of the worst types because it's one the is damaging to the victims both during after after it takes place.
Those viewing this topic need to stop looking at it with witch hunting spectacles and look at it for what it is:
Someone decides to be a sexual predator and attack a victim, or multiple victims. This isn't just some simple exchange or typical argument like you might see in IRC. This is literally someone either trying to blackmail other members into something of sexual nature, emotionally abuse them to a high point, or is doing something that is putting those victims into a highly uncomfortable position.
And this isn't something that just happens in a day. This could go on for weeks, or even months, before the victim even tries to come forward. That's a long time of emotional and sexual abuse, regardless if it's the internet or not.
What this act is asking is that we get a court system to display those accounts of sexual and emotional abuse for either the public to see, or for those presiding.
Either way, it's pushing the victims to post things that are highly personal and damaging to them. It's not only disrespectful, it's downright vile to do. I don't honestly care what the reasoning is for doing it. If someone chose to be a sexual predator and chose to be such so brazenly to any of our members, they don't deserve to have fair process on here. They deserve to be thrown to the curb and let some other region deal with them if they choose.
There's a difference between the real world and here. If this happened in the real world, they wouldn't have to worry about people leaving their city because they felt uncomfortable, because you pay to live there.
In Wintreath, we have to worry that if we damage our members too much, they'll walk up and leave us for another region. I don't want to damage our members' well-being and potentially our region itself just so such a character can have a fair process. I love each of our members, and if they feel like they can't even be safe here, then there's something wrong.
I will agree that there needs to be a rule against sexual harassment, but I don't think the storting should have any place in the process of dealing with a person accused and proven of it.
The way Wintermoot handled it was completely justified, and I think it should stay that way so as to be courteous to any victims, and to keep things completely confidential.