#bullyculture

[Just a Person]

Bully Culture. Something that shouldn’t exist but is being pushed in Osiris as something fun. Picking on each other for fun, making fun of each other for fun. For a region that just signed something called the ‘Protecting Our Players Accord’, it seems a little ironic to be instituting something literally called bully culture. This seems completely innocent from the outside, but how is this policed? One day someone is going to cross a line and use the excuse ‘bully culture, it’s all in good fun!’

These put downs of people may seem innocuous, but we don’t know what they are going through in their daily lives. Logging onto a community where they want to feel safe and accepted and being met with ‘good natured bullying’ could have unforeseen consequences and cause harm.

Truthfully in my opinion bully culture is something to be avoided and causes an unnecessary rift that can drive away or isolate new players. It also forms the impression of an ‘in group’, a group of people who can do and say what they want because they are influential in the region and can further isolate new players. I’ve been in Osiris for a while, and honestly the concept is driving me away.

Osiris can take the course they want, but I sincerely hope that it isn’t #bullyculture. NationStates has strived so hard to make progress on this front, please don’t drag us backwards.

[Syberis]

Bully Culture. Something that shouldn’t exist but is being pushed in Osiris as something fun. Picking on each other for fun, making fun of each other for fun. For a region that just signed something called the ‘Protecting Our Players Accord’, it seems a little ironic to be instituting something literally called bully culture. This seems completely innocent from the outside, but how is this policed? One day someone is going to cross a line and use the excuse ‘bully culture, it’s all in good fun!’

These put downs of people may seem innocuous, but we don’t know what they are going through in their daily lives. Logging onto a community where they want to feel safe and accepted and being met with ‘good natured bullying’ could have unforeseen consequences and cause harm.

Truthfully in my opinion bully culture is something to be avoided and causes an unnecessary rift that can drive away or isolate new players. It also forms the impression of an ‘in group’, a group of people who can do and say what they want because they are influential in the region and can further isolate new players. I’ve been in Osiris for a while, and honestly the concept is driving me away.

Osiris can take the course they want, but I sincerely hope that it isn’t #bullyculture. NationStates has strived so hard to make progress on this front, please don’t drag us backwards.

You're aware the hashtag is a joke, right? In relation to the way that NSGPers generally communicate with their friends, through banter?

If friends ribbing friends was something that could damage NationStates, than NSGP as a whole would have caused the servers to catch fire years ago.

In response to the "We don't know what they're going through" well... literally speak up and people support people. Osiris has always been really good about this, actually, and has always come forward to support people who are going through a rough time. I've never seen someone say something along the lines of "Dude, not cool" or "Hey, can you stop?" Or even a vaguer "I'm having a really hard time right now" that wasn't immediately met with support and love from the community.

[USS Merrimack]

Osiris is one of the most welcoming regions I have ever had the fortune of coming across, and anyone in that community and discord would agree. This is a vast misunderstanding of #BullyCulture, and as much as I would love to Onderwall in the defense of Osiris, Syberis covers it very well.

I suggest you stop by the Osiris discord for yourself and see what the region is like.

[RiderSyl]

Hiding in the NS Gameplay Discord server and waiting for the right sort of discussion to arise in order to write a hit piece on those involved in it is exactly the sort of thing I'd expect from a player that nobody in NSGP likes nor wants around.

Now the question is, which player is behind the puppet here?

[Ghostfox]

I think that this is a reactionary outlook because of the use of the word "bully" in the hashtag. We are in no way condoning actual bullying. It's a term used to denote the way friends give each other a hard time to celebrate the camaraderie between them. This is something that happens within friend groups and circles throughout the world and we just made up a joke hashtag about it.

If you're concerned with how this is being policed, why not bring it up with Osiran moderation instead of blasting us behind an anonymous puppet on the forums? Surely you actually want to enact a change and not just try and make us look like a toxic community, right? I don't think that this is the way to go about that if you're being sincere. Any of us would have listened to your concerns with open ears had you approached us, instead of trying to make it a public debacle.

We're going to continue to be an open and accepting community as we have been.

[Salvarity]

Did they call you Kermit too

[Syberis]

Osiris is one of the most welcoming regions I have ever had the fortune of coming across, and anyone in that community and discord would agree. This is a vast misunderstanding of #BullyCulture, and as much as I would love to Onderwall in the defense of Osiris, Syberis covers it very well.

I suggest you stop by the Osiris discord for yourself and see what the region is like.

I had to return from my relaxing break to respond to this bullshit. </3

[Just a Person]

Truthfully I hid behind a puppet for the reasons in the responses. I didn't think this would go over well, and how do you think it would have gone if I'd went to the admin team? TBH, I'd probably have been ignored.

I have a genuine concern that what starts out as something innocent could turn into the very thing that NS has been fighting for more than the past year. This isn't any kind of smear campaign on Osiris, and I'm sure Lynxi will do a great job. But it isn't 'bullshit', it's a genuine concern.

[Ghostfox]

I don't think assuming our admin team would have ignored you is anything but the wrong way to treat an admin team. Ignoring concerns is not the Osiris that we've been building over here, and we've tried to exemplify that in many, many ways. If you've truly been around in Osiris, that's pretty evident.

But also, we have been very clear and very straightforward about the actual intent of #BullyCulture the entire time it's been around. Part of that clarity is to prevent the situations you present as eventual outcomes. We've had entire community days based around the subject that have gone off without a hitch because we are very clear on the guidelines of the hashtag. No actual bullying, but a way to express your endearment through giving friends a hard time.

[Cataluna]

Nice memes, Jocospor and friends. If only you could have pulled a prank this good for April Fools

[ShrewLlamaLand]

Nice memes, Jocospor and friends. If only you could have pulled a prank this good for April Fools

Nothing to do with us, but great job jumping to conclusions without any evidence as per usual.

[The Black Party]

Nice memes, Jocospor and friends. If only you could have pulled a prank this good for April Fools

What does this have to do with..

nevermind.

[Altinsane]

Truthfully I hid behind a puppet for the reasons in the responses. I didn't think this would go over well, and how do you think it would have gone if I'd went to the admin team? TBH, I'd probably have been ignored.

I have a genuine concern that what starts out as something innocent could turn into the very thing that NS has been fighting for more than the past year. This isn't any kind of smear campaign on Osiris, and I'm sure Lynxi will do a great job. But it isn't 'bullshit', it's a genuine concern.

The idea that the admin team would've just blown you off and let you suffer with a legitimate good faith concern is pretty insulting. That isn't how any of us operate... overbearing concern for the feelings of others is a personal weakness for like, over half of us. I don't think we're capable of not going full mother hen mode and not trying to fix something like that. But.

#BullyCulture doesn't exist as a random, innocent idea that just got memed into our culture one day. It exists because I went out of my way to make it happen. If you have any complaints about why its here or the dangers of it, I'm your girl!

When I showed up to Osiris, it was a boys' club. They weren't drawing in many new people in the first place, but the new folks who did happen to meander in the door immediately knew their place, and it was on the outside of a clique of about five or six who controlled everything in the region. And were mostly (former/future?) NPO subversives, but that's a different story. Anyway, I was never able to wiggle my way into their little clique, and honestly I can wiggle my way into just about anything, so the group was tight. All of us felt that exclusion and Osiris as a whole suffered for years because of it. Osiris wasn't a mean community, it just... didn't feel like one that particularly cared about you and if you disappeared tomorrow would never notice. It was run by people motivated by power and the whole culture of the region was steeped in a weird, aloof selfishness because of that.

Now backstory, I work in HR irl, so like. Culture perpetuation is my irl occupation. When I see harmful trends, I snuff them out and replace them with healthier alternatives for the community. That's what I do. In Osiris, to get rid of the outsider mentality, we brought out #BullyCulture not as a randomly evolved meme, but as a carefully and purposefully curated cultural addition leading to acceptance and friendliness in the whole community. I can see where it could lead to the incidents you describe if it had been a less purposeful process. But #BullyCulture is specifically marketed as an inclusionary tactic. Like that isn't the big secret of #BullyCulture, the region talks about openly often. It's hard to make new people feel like a part of a community that they know nothing about and hard not to spook them when they're speaking to what they perceive as big, scary, important government officials. But we seem a lot less big and scary when we greet everyone with a loving "Hallo nerdlings ♡" and just speak and conduct ourselves like we're all regular people and all on the same level. And it's a lot easier to feel comfortable getting in on regional "inside jokes" with one that's so intuitive to understand and not be awkward about. #BullyCulture isn't just overreaching meanness, it has specific phrases and ideas that categorize it. Which feels really dumb to lay out in writing on the gosh darned NS forums. But it's stuff like...
Ur mom
No u
Nerd
*steals socks*
Ew, who let Res in?

Like we're not going to town on new people. Lol. This is stuff that we all use already as random banter, Osiris just gave it direction and used it to positively expand our community. #BullyCulture is specific to Osiris and it binds our community in a way that's fun, friendly, and innocent. And you know what, sometimes there are days when you don't want to deal with banter from your friends, and we get that. On those days, we all know how you would normally respond to being called a nerd, and if you respond outside of your norm, we will notice and check to make sure you're okay. And there are some people that banter isn't their style, so we are respectful of that and reach out to them in different ways. I understand from the perspective of someone not involved in Osiris what it could be. But as the person who so carefully defined it and gave it direction, I can assure you that the spirit behind #BullyCulture and the specific category of behavior that has been selected to define it won't get to that level. Behind it all is just a lot of genuine people looking out for each other and trying to create a community that puts people first and power somewhere after that. #BullyCulture is just a tool in their arsenal. And it's a good one. Osiris is a place today that's easy to feel like you fit in, easy to feel accepted, easy to feel like the community cares about you. We are being, with the good help of #BullyCulture, exactly the kind of community that we want to be.

Y'all should pop by sometime and see it in action, maybe it'll help you feel better about the whole deal. Or DM me! Heck. DM really any of us. We're here with whatever questions you may have. Hope that clears things up a bit for you!

[Altinsane]

Oh God I text walled over #BullyCulture.

D: What have I become.

[Big Bad Badger]

Oh God I text walled over #BullyCulture.

D: What have I become.

Alti Kelkia?

Truthfully I hid behind a puppet for the reasons in the responses. I didn't think this would go over well, and how do you think it would have gone if I'd went to the admin team? TBH, I'd probably have been ignored.

I have a genuine concern that what starts out as something innocent could turn into the very thing that NS has been fighting for more than the past year. This isn't any kind of smear campaign on Osiris, and I'm sure Lynxi will do a great job. But it isn't 'bullshit', it's a genuine concern.

It doesn't take much looking into Osiris to know this is a meme that has been going on for some time and it is a joke that is meant out of camaraderie. You are either completely not paying attention or trying to stir up shit.

As for the Osiris admin team, I can promise you that there aren't many in this game that care as much for the protection of their region as Koth and Syberis. Any legitimate concern brought to them would be looked into or explained clearly to alleviate your concerns. I have had some IC disagreements with Koth over the years but OOC he is one of the best people for admin concerns or judgment. He is available, caring, and consistent. Anyone in Osiris or other regions Koth is involved in would agree. And there's no one in this game that works harder to protect players safety OOC safety than Syberis.

You may not get Osiris and it's humor. But to call into question the integrity for safety of their admin shows a lack of effort when making these claims.

[Lord Dominator]

Oh God I text walled over #BullyCulture.

D: What have I become.

Better than LKE?

[Cormactopia Prime]

If you think #BullyCulture is a serious thing in Osiris worthy of concern, you don't know anything about Osiris. The community is very supportive.

I think I know who's behind this, and your multi-venue, anti-Osiris smear campaign based on a years long grudge against me is petty, to say the least.

[She-Wolf]

- very long snip -

I enjoyed reading this description. I've never really known what the Sinkers were like. Sounds like a very nice region you've got there

[Zaolat]

I haven't really seen any sort of issues since the KRO. Any issue that's usually arised was due to an outsider looking to troll or someone accidentally misstepping. The former gets banned immediately and the latter gets pointed out they landed on that line or crossed it and talked to.

[The Notorious Mad Jack]

Osiris bullies me. It's delegate steals my socks!

[Ghostfox]

Osiris bullies me. It's delegate steals my socks!

I'll never stop!

[Vanquaria]

Lmao as long as you dont rp as a fascist it should be fine

[Lord Dominator]

Osiris bullies me. It's delegate steals my socks!

*Its
Git gud MJ

[Grater Tovakia]

Oh God I text walled over #BullyCulture.

D: What have I become.

A true GPer alti

[Altino]

Oh God I text walled over #BullyCulture.

D: What have I become.

A true GPer alti

Nooooo.