Forum:Addressing a serious problem

Forums: Yew Grove > Addressing a serious problem

This page or section is an archive. Please do not edit the contents of this page. This thread was archived on 3 April 2014 by Suppa chuppa.

Hi everyone. I wanted to draw attention to a serious issue on the RuneScape Wiki, which is the lack of minority participation on the site. According to Quantcast, black people only make up 6% of the visitors to RuneScape Wiki in the United States, even though they make up more than 12% of the population! Similar disparities are noticeable for the racial breakdowns in other countries -- in fact, in the last month, we don't have a single visit from Burkina Faso or the Central African Republic!

After a lot of reflection, I think I have figured out the root cause of this. Everywhere on the wiki, all we see are pictures of white people! Abyssal whip? White dude. Zaryte bow? Whitey. Seismic wand? You guessed it! White man. The wiki is so saturated with white imagery that whenever we get non-whites visiting, they are immediately bombarded with pictures of people who don't match their ethnic background. It's offensive, and it's having a negative effect on the overall diversity of the wiki.

I think you'll all agree that this problem needs to be addressed with the highest priority. After much thought and consideration, I've decided the best course of action is to start replacing a sizeable portion of the white person images with more ethnically diverse pictures. Here's an example:

Good	Bad

Do you see the difference? One is more diverse than the other. We need to learn to celebrate our different cultures.

Since it's unlikely that this will happen on its own, I am attaching a concrete proposal: do not allow any new equipped images showing white people until 14.1% of equipped images are of black people. The cutoff between black and white will be the halfway point in the Makeover Mage's skin color chooser. This may be controversial, but I think you will all agree that this course of action is affirmatively necessary to make the wiki a better place.

Discussion

Strong support ʞooɔ 22:17, April 1, 2014 (UTC)

Support - I can't name a single brother on the wiki; that's a problem. MolMan 22:18, April 1, 2014 (UTC)

Strong support - We need more diversity, help any kind of people in the world. User:Jr Mime/Signature 22:31, April 1, 2014 (UTC)

Support - Per (nub) Mime. User:ChaoticShadow/SigReal

Support - Today was a good day. Template:Signatures/Everystat13 User:Everystat13/Sig/Datetime

Strong support - I have been forced to take images of models who are white people. I need new models that are black to increase minority participation. -- Spine^Talk 22:55, April 1, 2014 (UTC)

Support - --https://i.imgur.com/ytmxy.pnghttps://i.imgur.com/jMNyg.png 23:03, April 1, 2014 (UTC)

Support - Support where it can be done - as long as it doesn't affect the image. Example: Don't take a picture of a blood necklace with some guy with a shirt that's either a dark colour or shirt chat clips through the object on the character model. I have no problems with white/black/male/female models. As long as the item can contrast from the character model and display it well in the image, I'm fine with that. Anyone agree? -- Bren 23:04, April 1, 2014 (UTC)

Support Feminist Approach To Problem - You're all sexist. User:Urbancowgurl777/Signature 23:34, April 1, 2014 (UTC)

We need more proud, independent black women. MolMan 23:36, April 1, 2014 (UTC)

I read that as "You're all sexy". User:Jr Mime/Signature 23:37, April 1, 2014 (UTC)

We are though. Template:Signatures/Everystat13 User:Everystat13/Sig/Datetime

Lol Everystat User:ChaoticShadow/SigReal

Extremely Strong Support - As an American, I would need to turn in my freedom badge and eagle if I didn't support this. -- Megadog14^Talk 01:36, April 2, 2014 (UTC)

Also, don't even get me started on the fact that a white guy is holding the whip. -- Megadog14^Talk 02:00, April 2, 2014 (UTC)

Conditional Support - This definitely marks progress. But they must also be redheaded. Otherwise, no support. User:Haloolah123/Sig 01:45, April 2, 2014 (UTC)

Extremely strong oppose - All equipped images should feature ghosts. Temujin 02:02, April 2, 2014 (UTC)

If you're seeing things, runnin' through yo head, who you gonna call? -- Spine^Talk 02:14, April 2, 2014 (UTC)

A psychiatrist.... Mike111b (talk) 02:16, April 2, 2014 (UTC)

Support - Stick it to whitey! Elune (talk) fetus is a good boy 02:17, April 2, 2014 (UTC)

Support How else will my children know they exist? User:Walrus068/Signature 02:25, April 2, 2014 (UTC)

• figure 1 of my proposal - photoshop to save time
• figure 2 of my proposal - remove player

thank you for your time --Iiii I I I 02:28, April 2, 2014 (UTC)

Strong neutral - meh

1. REDIRECT User:-Matt/sig 04:55, April 2, 2014 (UTC)

Weak Proposal - You say we haven't had visits from the Central African Republic. There is a UN mission to the Central African Republic. We should all contact them and ask them to make every CAR citizen a Wikia account. Oil4 ^Talk 07:16, April 2, 2014 (UTC)

Excellent idea. I have sent them a message and I await their reply. [1] -- Megadog14^Talk 19:54, April 2, 2014 (UTC)

A user has requested closure for Addressing a serious problem. The reason given was: April Fools Day is over.

Wahisietel (Talk) 16:20, April 2, 2014 (UTC)

What? Just because I proposed something on April 1st, that does not make it a joke. This is a topic I am very passionate about and I am offended that you think it is. ʞooɔ 19:32, April 2, 2014 (UTC)

My black friend saw this closure request. He was offended by our lack of diversity, and even more so that some user considered it a joke. Congratulations Ben, you made us lose a black viewer. MolMan 19:33, April 2, 2014 (UTC)

Forum:Battleben and his racism Oil4 ^Talk 19:57, April 2, 2014 (UTC)

Don't make me go and make a serious response to this thread, please, it achieves nothing when we both know it's a joke. It serves no further purpose. Wahisietel (Talk) 20:08, April 2, 2014 (UTC)

Also, even if Cook's initial post isn't a joke (and by the way he's worded certain parts you can tell it is), a large portion of the people who responded to the thread probably thought it was, and thus gave joke responses. Not sure why I'm bothering to defend myself, TBH :P. Wahisietel (Talk) 20:15, April 2, 2014 (UTC)

Your behavior is more offensive than the N-word. MolMan 23:46, April 2, 2014 (UTC)

Neutral - Personally, I have no issue either way of what "model" is used. I've often felt that it is first come, first serve on the images used. If you feel that the image you take is of a superior quality to the existing picture in the article, then by all means, replace it. Many equipment images do have male and female views. --Deltaslug (talk) 19:52, April 2, 2014 (UTC)

A large chunk of the problem with this is that blacks assume they have no opportunity to model because of our predominantly white foundation. I did a small survey; 87% of black people believe even "if [they] showe up first, a white man would be given the opportunity to model". Even if we truly are non-discriminating, it does not appear that way. I talked it over with Cook a bit, and we agree that we are not intentionally biased. No, that is not the source of the issue. Regardless of what is, we need more blacks to pose. I'm just glad someone finally decided to tall about the elefint in the room. MolMan 23:55, April 2, 2014 (UTC)

""Question"" - If ethnicity of an avatar is at issue, do we need to account for ideology/beliefs? --Deltaslug (talk) 19:52, April 2, 2014 (UTC)

Comment - YES. RuneScape religions are serious business, and must be treated as such. Therefore I propose banning anyone who's worships the color blue and has a belief that Dragon armour smithing is taboo from taking images. --Jlun2 (talk) 20:18, April 2, 2014 (UTC)

Oppose on the grounds of the statistics used - Change the statistics to British ones and I'll support. After all, RuneScape is a British game, we use British spelling and grammar, and use British flooring. Why would we then go and use American statistics for stuff like this? Template:Signatures/Ciphrius Kane 04:48, April 3, 2014 (UTC)

Strong oppose - While it's true that not many black Americans visit this website, and we don't make have many equipped images of black people, correlation =/= causation. The reason we don't have many equipped images of black people is probably because we don't have many black editors, not the other way around. The reason we don't have many black editors is probably because not many black people play RuneScape, and those that do aren't going to refuse to edit or view the wiki just because the wiki has too many white people. If that is indeed the case, we shouldn't be catering to racists anyway. Furthermore, disallowing equipped images of white people until we make more images of black people is completely moronic, we can't not upload images because of the ethnicity of the subject. Not sure why I bothered giving this a serious response but here you go. Wahisietel (Talk) 07:54, April 3, 2014 (UTC)

Closed - Successful. All images of white males will be deleted to ensure complete equality in representation. Suppa chuppa ^Talk 08:05, April 3, 2014 (UTC)

RS:SNOW clearly states that the discussion must be at least one week long, yet this discussion has lasted for less than half of that. Therefore, this thread should not have been closed. -- Megadog14^Talk 19:36, April 3, 2014 (UTC)

RS:SNOW also states that it's for threads that have no chance of passing, not a massive chance of passing. Haidro ^(talk) 06:27, April 4, 2014 (UTC)