by 0x9f3d842b08f83a85b3ce5cf31fb5635a6e133f0c (Unabomber)
Votes to ban names go against one of the few major tenets and use cases of blockchain: Censorship resistance. We are very disappointed to see this being embraced so early in what was touted to be a censorship resistant environment.
Being offended is subjective so even the most innocuous names could be perceived as being offensive by any individual or group at any time. E.g. Snowflake, Cracker, Yellow, Red, Brave, Monkey just to name a few.
The idea: Unban all banned names and switch to a user controlled ecosystem where each individual has the ability to decide on their own what they want or don’t want to see similar to chat. This gives users more control over their experience without anyone being subjected to or coerced by reddit/twitter style outrage mobs, while preventing endless future dao votes on the subject as people start to add or change characters over time to circumvent these blanket bans.
We believe this to be the most reasonable solution to restore censorship resistance and confidence within Decentraland while granting ALL users the ability to have control over who and what they want to see. If you deem something offensive all you will have to do is press a couple of buttons and it’s no longer an issue.
To allow name banning in such a frivolous manner is to allow and reinforce prejudice by definition (not to mention the inefficiencies that come with voting and banning each name that someone happens to find offensive) As citizens of Decentraland, we believe users should be blocked and/or ostracized based on their actions; not what they refer to themselves as while also leaving the door open for any individual user to block any username/user they don’t like without any time being wasted on feelings based votes and blanket bans that are far too often passed as a result of a single user having sufficient vp to get their way. This is neither healthy nor sustainable; the slippery slope is very real.
There are many recent examples that support our assertions.
To allow such censorship is to repeat the very mistakes blockchains intended to solve, thereby making it directly contradictory to the Ethos of Decentraland and cryptocurrency in general. If you made it this far, thank you for taking the time to read and don’t forget to vote!
- switch to a user controlled blocking mechanic
- keep status quo
- Invalid question/options