Why is Mafia~ an offensive term

[~Bad]

Hello I registered on this forum about 1 year or so ago haven't posted since, but our members have been having trouble in your servers.

Your admins say that our clan tag Mafia~ is offensive in one form or another. I read through your rules and found this;

Offensive language includes racist words or remarks, sexual references, words offensive to generally recognized religions, words involving substance abuse, or words involving illegal activities. We may choose to make exceptions if certain words are generally accepted in common speech.

and this;

All of the language rules apply to your player name. If an admin asks you to change your name, you may do that by leaving the game and selecting the Profile item from the main game menu.

Which I believe may explain your admins concern. We have many members who come into your servers regularly most of the time not under Mafia~ tags but we've now had many members banned from your servers for not removing the clan tag. I would wish to look at this part of one of the rules We may choose to make exceptions if certain words are generally accepted in common speech.


If you were to give 100 people a list of potentially offensive words with Mafia~ on it I could bet none of them would check it off as offensive.

I would wonder if you guys would be willing to make an exception to Mafia~ in your server name. Due to the fact that it is a common historical word that children hear and use in school when learning the history of the U.S. (refering to U.S. students). If you wish to decline however that is your choice since the servers are yours. I will say though that Mafia~ will no longer attend your servers in any way shape or form if that becomes the case.

I hope we can be reasonable in this I would prefer if Mafia~ members weren't required to remove their tags when going into your servers as this makes it so our members can't take pride in wearing their tags and being in Mafia~.

Thanks for your time and consideration.

p.s. on a side note, a Mafia~ was told that if they were to register on this forum with Mafia~ tags they would be banned... I hope this isn't the case and that I won't be banned as a result of this since i've had this account on your forum for almost a year if not longer. Thanks for you time.

Sincerely Mafia~Bad

[Wic]

Hello... a higher officer will get with you as soon as they are able, but in the meantime, this question has been asked before by another member of your clan.

You can read the discussion <<HERE>>.

It may help answer some of your query  

BFM_Wic

[~Bad]

Thank you for the link, Wic it was enlightening to the situation. I understand your guys policies in this issue and I hope you guys see from my point of view what I'm getting at.

Many bfm's come into our server on a regular basis we enjoy having you there as well if for some reason our admins found your name offensive and decided to ban you for it you would be more than welcome to come into out forum and state your case. BFM is obviously not an offensive term and we wouldn't ban for that or ask you to change your name. But assuming another person came in with a offensive tag, (I won't state one) and we banned them for it or asked them to change their name and the petitioned I would let them know that their name was offensive and explain the situation.

I know you give your admins much wiggle room to judge. I also know that what is offensive to one may not be offensive to all or vice versa.  Saying that one of our admins might find your name offensive and began to ban the BFM's from our server and you petitioned us wouldn't you state the same case I have? The name isn't offensive and you think we should make an exception to it? Or should we just let the obviously non-offensive tags remain banned simply for representing their clan. Or should we just make it up to the admin who happens to be in the server at the time. I know some people might find someones name offensive when it really is or isn't and that you leave it up to the admins to decide but you can make a rule change in this instance to allow Mafia~ tags.

I believe many of your admins simply follow the rules your clan has stated and don't find this particular tag offensive, if they do however I respect what they think.

To end this long post I would just appreciate a re-consideration here.

Again thank you for your time and consideration and to point out a particular spot in my previous post

"I will say though that Mafia~ will no longer attend your servers in any way shape or form if that becomes the case."

I don't want this to come off as a threat "oh you better listen or we'll not come in your servers" I know you have large numbers of people who come in your server and one clans members would make little difference, and that your servers are for your members for the most part.

Thanks for your consideration.

Sincerely Mafia~Bad

[BFM_Booyah]

Regardless of what you guys mean by it, the term Mafia will be understood by most people to be a reference to a morally corrupt and illegal organization.  It is unreasonable to think that the attachment of that term to the name of a gaming clan could in any way change the already universally understood meaning of the term Mafia.  It is also unreasonable to equate the term 'BFM' to the term 'Mafia' in their potential to cause offense.  Anyone who could find offense to the term BFM is being unreasonable and is just searching for a reason to be offended.  We are not concerned with such insincere displays.  You are free to disagree with our position on the term Mafia but it is a decision we have long since made and will stand by.  You can choose to take offense to our policy if you like but what you should understand is that our policy has nothing to do with you or your clan.  We don't  know anything about you or your clan and it is of no concern to us what you name your clan or what tags you choose to use.  We care about the term mafia being used in our community in any form.  We would not allow the name BFM_Mafia in our servers any more than we would your name.  Even if you disagree with our policy I hope you understand why we have it.  I hope you also understand that since this policy has nothing to do with your clan there is no real reason to offer your clan a special exception to our policies.  We would not expect or even ask your community to compromise it's standards on our behalf...we would (and do) simply respect your community's standards if we want to participate in your community.  I would hope that you could offer us the same respect in return.

[~Bad]

Thanks for the speedy reply though I must disagree with you. Would you find it so odd for someone to come into another clans forum and request the change of a particular rule they found unfair? Of course not I believe you encourage questioning of the admins in your rules section. As for BFM if you do a little web searching you will find several un-tasteful meanings attributed to it as text abbreviations commonly used, such as lol and rofl.

And while you may say these definitions are unfair and not attributed to you BFM. others might be inclined to point out its now common meaning in texting and many people would find it offensive. You may call that unfair or not, that is not the opinion I hold of your clans tags however I was just pointing out that it not unreasonable to compare the two. Since text slang or chat abbreviations are becoming more and more accepted in today's culture especially online.

"what you should understand is that our policy has nothing to do with you or your clan." That our clan members have to take off their tags when joining your servers? Of course it has something to do with us.

As I said originally though I respect your clans policies, and questioning them in a forum dedicated to questions to the officers I thought that would be accepted. I didn't expect that my questioning your rules would be taken as "disrespect" considering you encourage it in your rules. Respecting a policy does not mean you to like it or agree with it. Nor does it mean that you will not question it.

Like I said I respect your clans policies on this matter, though I still disagree with them, and I appreciate your consideration in this matter and that you put the time in to discuss it with me, albeit that you took my bringing up the topic negatively. BFM is always welcome in Mafia's servers and I hope this discussion hasn't caused any negative feelings between us.

Sincerely, BadBoy

[BFM_NavyJHk]

As I said originally though I respect your clans policies, and questioning them in a forum dedicated to questions to the officers I thought that would be accepted. I didn't expect that my questioning your rules would be taken as "disrespect" considering you encourage it in your rules. Respecting a policy does not mean you to like it or agree with it. Nor does it mean that you will not question it.

I'm not sure where you're getting at that we found it disrespectful.  You asked an important question regarding your clan - and we answered it with utmost honesty.  We do feel it is a term that many view as offensive - so we simply ask it to be changed in the servers and our forums.

Now, regarding your "respecting" the rule.  Whether you choose to do so or not represents you.  Your other clan-mates on the other hand are showing their maturity as of now.  Coming into servers with profane names, typing out trash to us, and trying to imposter our members too.  It's a pity they aren't as mature as you've shown yourself on the forums. 

If members of your clan choose to be this immature because of a respectful decision that we made for our servers - then perhaps they didn't deserve to be here in the first place.  Our decision was made for our community, and the more that members of your clan tries to attack our servers - proves exactly why we were correct in the decision.  I'm locking this thread as there isn't any more need for discussion on the topic.  You're welcome to PM any of us if you still have questions.