I completely agree that people should be held to a high standard of conduct and shouldn’t intentionally cause others distress. At the same point in time, when you engage in the silencing of others, you tread the very murky waters of circumstance. Did the person truly mean harm, would the same thing said be taken differently in a different context, was the original statement taken out of context? Don’t get me wrong, private entities like game/story websites are well within their bounds to take disciplinary action, as the first amendment only concerns governmental organizations. However, this is not to say that such measures in these circumstances are without consequence. When you stifle opposing ideas, crude as they may be formulated, you deprive yourself of valuable insight into other people’s views and so sharpen or challenge your own. Isn’t the truth most important?
Happy Birthday then 
Happy Birthday! I wish you all the best in the coming year!
Happy birthday! I do love this forum. Thing is it is incredibly inclusive to social mintory. And I love this place for that. If you’re going to talk about something controversial you got really back it up here otherwise are going to jump on you like flies onto shit. That being said occasionally this forum can be tad elitist and there is a different form of bigotry on here but doesn’t come out often. What even with all that being said this place is pretty wonderful.
I just want to say welcome to CoG @Ryder123! This is an amazing place to meet people, make friends, and see a lot of amazing WIP’s going on that might one day become their own games.
By reading some of those comments, I can’t help but feel disgusted and cringe at the toxicity.
Just know that you’ll never be treated like that here, and if in any instance you are, the Mods will be on them. Just simply report whatever someone said that you find racist/sexist/malicious.
With that said, enjoy your stay, and we’re happy to have you here!
Happy birthday!
Bucky, consider this. Even if I were a complete troll it makes no difference on the sheer amount of homophobia, transphobia, racism, sexism, on the site. Part of the entire reason I trolled on there was because of the bigotry.
You and the others are just as bad, if not worse than me Buck. I may have trolled but there was a good reason for that.
Happy birthday! 
There’s never a reason for trolling, mate.
Just leave the page and tell others not to go there.
It’s like with a minefield. You don’t go pogostick jumping on there. you leave and tell others ‘yeah, dude, that’d be a bloody minefield over there. don’t go there.’
The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
CoG community is far from perfect, and I don’t mean it in a derogatory way. I think that is just an unfortunate aspect you can expect from every forum on the internet, as it is impossible to create a community or environment that suits everyone, and we as humans can be naturally biased towards certain things.
Forums need to decide how to handle these aspects and no one has a perfect solution. Personally, I think that CoG can be too strict sometimes, leaving little place for disagreements on some controversial topics. However I think that this is for the best, if the activity of the mods or the rules were more relaxed, it would have probably lead to a more toxic place than it’s today.
CoG has provided a “safe place” for a lot of marginalized groups and individuals (myself included) that rarely can get access to content where they feel they’re represented and communities were they feel they are listened. I love interacting with the forum members and I feel that I can really enjoy myself here, I had to suffer a lot of stress in other sites. It also helps that the community is generally friendly and small.
The biggest complaint I can have about this site is that… well. People who dare to offer different points of view are sometimes treated with certain level of disdain which is neither helpful or healthy. I think that this is a kind of behaviour that everyone can take part once in while, again, as a natural part of being human. I am also guilty of this behaviour. However, I feel that my time here has also allowed me to explore different ideas and viewpoints that I would have not considered otherwise.
I am glad that you, @Ryder123, have found a place where you are comfortable. Please have a wonderful time here.
And really, I love you, guys!
Happy birthday, @The_Lady_Luck.
That’s how I feel I definitely think you said it much more eloquent way thank you for that.
Trolling will change nothing, other than - for some - to cement their own views, regardless of what the subject is. Better to leave them be and only engage in discussion with them should they themselves seek it out under better circumstances and location. You would probably not enjoying someone trolling you, would you?
Do onto others and all that - and no, I do not mean ‘shoot first’ with this. 
lad, we all can see the shite for ourselves. No need to link it and potentially stress someone out on here.
Sorry, I’ll edit the link so it has a trigger warning. I didn’t mean to offend anybody, but I thought people who could handle it should see what kind of people they are.
Yeah my advice is to just keep out of the site or stay away from obvious trigger topics like that one and don’t post them so that they get more exposure. You’ll get people trolling or using forums as outlets for hate speech where ever they’re not well moderated. Topics have been brought up in the past from this site for having a go at aspects of COG games or the content of forum topics. (which is not to say it’s the view of everyone using that site, remember that). Don’t let them upset you, just choose not to read them. You’ll likely never meet the people who wrote them, and replying to them is just feeding the trolls.
What did I say about the pogostick?
Seriously, stop it. You might sooner or later get the trolls on to here by that.
I think this thread has run its course, so I’m going to close it.
Welcome to the community @Ryder123 - I hope you find a supportive and tolerant community here. If there is a post that needs moderator attention, please flag it so that a moderator can review it.
Let’s not focus on other communities but rather concentrate on our own here.
I am sorry for those that have experienced negative pressures here. Hopefully that will get better over time and we all grow as a community.
If a thread starts shifting in tone to a negative or elite manner, please let a moderator or Leader know. They should take things from there.
Also remember that all moderators and Leaders here are volunteers themselves and are often not able to see things right away. Most of us are working on our own games - writing, developing testing and what-have you.
One last thing - no one is perfect and every human I ever met has made one mistake or another. Hopefully we all grow together in a positive and healthy manner.