Topic: (TRIGGER WARNING) How strict is Rule 1.1 in relation to comments made on suicide-tangent posts?

Posted under General

TheGoonGuardian

Member

TW: MENTIONS OF SUICIDE

Can't believe I'm actually using trigger warnings, but I am not in the mood to make some random person scrolling the forum get freaked out if they see this. By the way, I am not discussing the actual actions of suicide but instead loosely discussing the concept and its relations to Rule 1.1 (note that I do provide a link to a safe-rated post that has said themes, a comment to said post, a song based upon said concept AND an excerpt from said song), so if none of this is something you wish to read then I recommend to not open this section.

The actual text.

For context, I am talking about this excerpt from the Code of Conduct here which will be relevant to what I say:

Do not mention any actions of suicide, self harm / mutilation, depression-induced pain, or other malicious acts directed towards the self.

Around a month or two ago, I came across a post (post #6104662 if further context is needed) that clearly implicated themes of suicide (along with the artist of said image later posting a different version of it). Because I am severely brainrotted, I quoted an excerpt from a song by Kanye West that directly mentioned suicide in a comment I made (comment #9557442), as I believed said excerpt would fit the post contextually. Over time, I forgot about the comment because I practically doomscroll this site. However, with a short discussion I had with a janitor with an unrelated matter a month ago, I decided to take the opportunity to ask them about said comment and whether or not it would pose a risk of violating Rule 1.1, to which they said it probably would. As such, I decided to edit the comment to remove the quote, albeit with a bit of context explaining why I edited it and what used to be there. Nonetheless, I am still curious if the comment I made would actually pose a threat of being moderated due to the comment I made being related to the post's expression of suicide, some other posts and comments on this site going slightly more into depth than I did with suicide and how the janitor in question just said it was probably a violation.

The excerpt in question.

I love myself way more than I love you
And I think about killing myself
So, best believe, I thought about killing you today
Premeditated murder

If this very forum post constitutes a violation of Rule 1.1, I would prefer to simply have this forum deleted as a warning rather than me being punished for asking this question.

Updated

TheGoonGuardian

Member

thebraixentrainer said:
I don't think Off-Topic was the best board to post this in. General probably would have been better.

Good point. Then again, I was going based off of the help page and this didn't directly impact the site as it was just a question I had. Regardless, I should've posted it in General now that you mention it.

(Note: I have since edited this forum to be in the General board)

Updated

regsmutt

Member

I can't comment on the lyric in question, but I'm pretty sure there's a bit of common sense at play in the enforcement of this rule. Think about what the intent probably is- avoiding bad-taste suicide jokes/comments and insults. It is probably not intended to block reasonable, good-faith comments directly discussing the subject matter of an image.

TheGoonGuardian

Member

regsmutt said:
I can't comment on the lyric in question, but I'm pretty sure there's a bit of common sense at play in the enforcement of this rule. Think about what the intent probably is- avoiding bad-taste suicide jokes/comments and insults. It is probably not intended to block reasonable, good-faith comments directly discussing the subject matter of an image.

I would say my intent was not to make a joke, as I have both dealt with some struggles with mental health myself in the past and I personally somewhat relate to the song in question. Despite that, I can understand if the lyrics (and, by extension, the comment) would be in bad taste.

TheGreatWolfgang

Privileged

That clause as part of the Disruptive Behavior rule is meant to dissuade people from either talking about self-harm or asking people to harm themselves.

I don't want to overgeneralise things, but making light-hearted comments like 'I don't want to live on this planet anymore' should not get you into trouble.
However, anything beyond that could get you reported, even if it was a "theme appropriate" joke.

For the specific comment you have posted, I would have reported it if I didn't know it was an excerpt from a Kanye West song.
Perhaps linking the song to the lyrics would have made it obvious, but I personally wouldn't even go near anything Kanye-related due to how edgy his comments/lyrics have become lately.

A better rule of thumb is to steer clear of making references to any controversial figures.