What is the appropriate course of action if I have encountered someone with a political username?
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I would be wary of opening up this can of worms… Everyone has different views on what is and isn’t “politics”. What stuff you see as being in the realm of “politics” is really just as variable as the political views themselves. I mean, obviously “___________ for President” is unquestionably “political”, but what about politically-charged slogans with connotations that make it very obvious what someone’s political views are? I would certainly hate to be the person who had to draw the lines as to “how politically-charged is too political” for usernames…
Personally, if I see someone with a profile that’s all about their political views, I just ignore them and move on. Sometimes I suspect that they’re just doing it because they want the attention of someone “calling them out”.
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I think “political” is a pretty broad term, as @paul_dennehy just wrote. The main thing is that we don’t want usernames to be endorsements or basically used as a way to spam something that’s clearly offensive or not at all relevant to iNat.
But you can submit a ticket if you see something that you think goes over the line: https://inaturalist.freshdesk.com/en/support/tickets/new
I tend to agree. Unless there’s clear hate speech, etc., I think in general it’s best to move on.
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I like this discussion, as it shows how to function in a society as a mature adult. In this thread, we’re talking about the “digital society” of iNaturalist, but it’s the same in real life.
Most of us are saying that yes, there will be people who p*ss you off. Most of them are harmless. Ignore them and move on.
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@paul_dennehy I was really just talking about the names that are blatant endorsements, like “___ for president” or “vote yes on prop ___” I agree that trying to police political connotations in usernames beyond this is a bad idea
So should usernames that are “___ for president” be reported to staff or not?
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Sure, happy to take a look.
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Palestinian flag, Israeli flag. If the person is from one of those two countries, that is a different matter; but the use of these flags by persons not from one of these countries is taking sides in a controversy.
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Could also be that they are from that country, but yes these are the 2 flags that I see used to express an opinion on controversial matters
However flags are technologically impossible to put in iNat usernames
We’re not going to be removing profile pics unless the flags/symbols/photo are clear signs of hate, insulting, or contain nudity, etc. I’ve removed ones of things like photos of Hitler, Nazi flags, cartoon genitalia, and the like. Most flags are generally fine and I don’t think it’s productive to discuss every edge case or possiblity here.
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Expressing support for a country is different to expressing support for an individual politician. I think maybe the issue could be addressed on merit under existing policies; but if cases come up where existing guidelines don’t cover, then modify or add to existing policies.
Maybe this is going against the grain a bit, but I think it depends on the candidate endorsed. If the politician in question is known to promote extremely hateful and discriminatory views, for example, endorsing them and implying that one condones their behavior should be considered tantamount to hate speech, and content doing so should be removed immediately.
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I agree. As distasteful as a user name might be to some of us, unless it constitutes hate speech or a slur, I would suggest the person be allowed to keep it. If I find a handle offensive, I just won’t interact with that person. Ultimately, the more we try to police these things, the more we’re going to be monitoring everyone. I don’t think that’s a good road to go down. Just my opinion.
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In practice content glorifying historical dictators known for violence against their people is already removed (whether that violence was identity based or suppression of dissent). I think formally taking sides on contemporary electoral matters will cost iNat credibility, and possibly stigmatize iNat users in areas where large majorities support whichever candidate iNat deems bad.
In the US taking a side in the presidential election could immediately cause 1/3 of the population to label iNat as an opposition organization (about 1/3 of adults voted for each candidate)
I also wonder if taking sides woudl create campaign finance legal issues around iNat funding, and in repressive countries taking sides in politics could make iNat the target of politically motivated legal action
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I don’t think iNaturalist should police political user names, etc., except in the most offensive cases that it already addresses. We have better things to argue about.
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I personally think that everyone should be able to put their political opinion on their profile if they so desire, unless it’s 1) discriminatory and/or promotes hate or 2) contains blatant disinformation.
I know politics are always a hot topic, but if that user doesn’t engage in fights or campaigns elsewhere on the site, I don’t see a reason for a flag or a ban.
To me it’s the same situation as with people whose profiles contain a “Jesus will save you, convert to Christianity” message (assuming that message doesn’t outright condemn non-Christians).
I am very opposed to this kind of stuff, but if it’s just on their profile and they don’t push it anywhere else, then whatever… I don’t really mind.
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I’ve always felt it’s more productive to build bridges than walls, and that a shared love of nature is the best possible potential bridge between people, even those with radically different political or belief systems. I personally may feel strongly about the way someone thinks or acts (and often do), but if I can share an appreciation of beauty, or a fascination for the curious with that person, then maybe (just maybe) we’ve become a little less of an impervious “monster” to each other, and surely that has to be a good thing. So I’m more than happy to dialogue with anyone on the neutral ground of a love of nature, even if we radically disagree on just about everything else.
As long as someone limits expression of their political/religious/philosophical mindset to their username and profile, I believe that is their right (unless obviously it is deliberately offensive or clear hate speech), just as it is my right if I REALLY feel upset, to move on and ignore them in the future. Much more dangerous in my opinion would be introduce the thin end of the wedge of censorship.
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I think, it depends on the situation. If it does not contain something against iNats guidelines, I have no problem with usernames and profile texts in most of the cases. However, when a user gets regularly flagged for inappropriate and nature unrelated behaviour/comments, gets warned several times and then apparently starts to use username and profile text to go on with that kind of stuff, then I think it’s indeed appropriate to react. I only met this situation once and to my knowledge, it was long way to a final suspension.
Btw. In that particular situation, I wasn’t able to figure out the actual political orientation of that user because so many things were “mixed up”. At the end I just thought that the political references might be probably some kind of (unintentional) diversion /provocation in order not to get suspended too soon.
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Users can currently change their usernames as often as they’d like, a fact that I dislike. I wish it was more restricted. There is one user in particular who changes their username, profile, and profile photo very frequently, a user I’ve blocked and has been suspended from the forums. I don’t think their username change is malicious but I could definitely see it being misused.
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I and other curators have had to make username changes to evade harassment from trolls we deal with, so I think it is important that names can be changed
So far I have never encountered a problem caused by username changing (and I am aware of the user you speak of, they are now suspended from iNat as well)
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I don’t mind users changing their usernames at all, It just feels like there should be some limit on it, like only a few times a year or having to submit a request.
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