You are assuming rationality with the person you are arguing with. If someone is in your face saying, for example, "WTF is this woman doing on the podcast spreading her gay agenda", how are you going to convince them they are being ignorant? Pointing out the fact is just going to get you more of the same. You need to wait for them to be banned or their comment deleted and then, with the idiots gone, maybe you can have a reasoned discussion.
Understood. But my point wasn't about merely convincing ignorant people they are, since as you say, it is unlikely that will be productive. The benefit of doing this is for the tone and atmosphere set by the community and seen by others. Whether you agree with it or not, the Giant Bomb community is gaining a poor reputation because of incidents like this. Sure, some of it is probably coming from other sites exclusively, but I'd also bet there's cross-pollination there as well; it's the internet, it's likely people belonging to multiple communities. It's not only because of what happens but how the community responds to it.
If you really don't think we have a bad rep, just look at what EmCee had said recently. IIRC, this is a no man's land no other mod wants to touch, and we probably wouldn't even have it weren't for EmCee vouching for and keeping us from going off the tracks.
If we wait for people being obnoxious to be banned by being silent, it gives the impression that we either implicitly agree with, allow, or tolerate ugly behavior.
Think of it this way: if you see a group of people, and one of them is saying vile things, what does it imply, or what would you infer, about everyone else mostly silently waiting for someone else to come and remove that person? It certainly wouldn't make me want to join that group, because especially if I'm the target of that vile nonsense, what would make me think anyone but security would have my back or make me feel welcome? By not calling bullshit out, we give it the power to shape impressions and the conversation people have about us.
We can't control what some people associated with the community will say or do, but we can control our reaction to it.
If I'm unclear, let me know. It's tough to get these thoughts on mobile while working, so something may be lost in translation.
This is why Rorie is reviewing their mod policy. You can actually have a discussion on GAF because, agree with it or not, there is a zero tolerance and mods have no problem banning people.
I love GAF's tight moderation. I lurked here for years because it's one of the few gaming board where there is no tolerance for bullshit. It's ugly sometimes on other forums.
I mean ... they are not wrong.
