Hello, everyone. You might’ve noticed earlier tonight that the pet that recently won pet spotlight was in bad taste. I’ve deleted that post and will be working with staff on how we are going to handle the pet spotlight win tomorrow due to the fact it’s the middle of the night for most of us on Staff!
We appreciate everyone messaging us on our social media platforms and comments here about how inappropriate this pet win is.
it was a big old yikes
The pet profile is still up in its entirety. Its racist, ableist, anti-social distancing, anti-quarantine, and all around terrible. It tries to pretend the virus is over and now we can move on, yay! Happy sunshine positive vibes time! The words "tone deaf" and "factually incorrect" don't even come close to describing it. The opinions expressed on this pet profile are awful and dangerous. They're not things that Subeta should be supporting or promoting.
covid isn't controversial. making a subeta (BAT) pet about it with a flowery fiction story about the pandemic and giving it the pet spotlight is controversial.
The pet was a Lasirus, and there was a bat and mystery soup in the TC "Bat soup eaters" is a harmful stereotype.
Add to it anti-social distancing and anti-lockdown rhetoric, and that's no bueno
i think it's fine to make the pet to process your feelings or whatever but it doesn't need to get awarded the pet spotlight and be shown to everyone
Wonder what the pet was (I was asleep) but judging by the comments it sounds like another anti-mask crybaby sad they have to consider other people.
Probably going to get a lot of hate for this, but maybe I read a different story. To me, it was this persons opinion of how the pandemic was going for them. I didn't see anything racist, but again, I understand that some things will go over my head and I might not understand them, while to another it was a clear sign. The racism from this pet profile is why it should have not been allowed, nothing else. Talking about how people who get the influenza are more likely to die with underlying conditions is a fact. I can see how this person wrote the story almost trivializes that fact, almost acting like death in those cases is no big deal. I had a grandparent die from influenza related causes, so that cuts close to home. But I really don't see why people are up in arms over this. TBH, Covid 19 shouldn't be controversial. It's out there. People are sick, people are dying. Having an opinion, one way or another, should be allowed. If we start telling people their opinion is wrong just because it's not our opinion, where does that leave us? You might be saying, but it's a FACT that such and such works, or whatever statement you want to make about the virus. Truth be told, this virus is so new that not much can be stated as a one hundred percent fact right now. All doctors agree, it's so new we just don't have enough information about it yet.
Please don't hate on me, I'm just stating my opinion. Subeta is usually a pretty friendly place, and I've always felt welcome to voice my opinion. I'll continue reading comments and try to figure out why some are so upset. I recognize they have valid feelings too, I am just not sure why they feel that way! <3
okay 's summary of the pet was way more succinct and funnier than mine, the noise i made when i read it lmao 5/5
to anyone wondering what the deal was and what they missed, basically imagine your bog standard trite facebook post about covid-19 from your conservative aunt dressed up in a heartwarming reader's digest story about how we can all just overcome the virus (which is totally dying down now, it'll all be over any day now! what do you mean exponential growth) laced with a rant about how the mean ol' scawy gummint is oppressing people by doing lockdowns/social distancing on a backdrop of thinly-veiled racism in the form of the pet's species and treasure chest
it was, as the kids say, wildly inappropriate given current events
If anyone's left wondering what they missed, just imagine a 'Live Laugh Love' sign hanging around the neck of a corpse. Something like that.
So far only one, hopefully it stays that way. -lol- I don't mean to be offensive, I just don't understand things sometimes, not because I'm literally slow, just sometimes I can read something and an hour later it just hits me out of the blue.
Comments are on a cache so they are slowly showing up about 30 seconds later or more I'd say?
@blackwolf_2009 My bad! The posts are showing pretty slow for me, so I didn't see that someone had already explained it to you. I'm sorry to hear people blocked you over just asking a question.
Great way to put it! I wish they had explained their side to me rather than just outright block as I have no idea who this person even is in the end, never seen them before in my life on this website, I thought I did something outrageously horrible besides just skimming a story and not understanding it, even some parts of it wasn't clicking until some of the comments pointed out somethings I just flat out didn't realize.
Yeah, like I said, I skimmed it but re-reading it again, yeah I can see the bad taste of it, the TC being pointed out was helpful as well, I totally neglected the TC cuz I keep forgetting those are a thing on this website. I was working on one years ago and stopped.
@blackwolf_2009
My time is not wasted, I'd rather tell people how that kind of rhetoric can be harmful and triggering, rather than just block.
EDIT: I Don't need an explanation, people explained it well enough in comments. I should have read more thoroughly, it's just there were a lot! <3
Yeah, I'm getting it now, I just regret even asking if this was going to get people upset enough to block me over trying to even understand the situation in full. shrugs Sorry for wasting your time.
Thank you. I know I appreciate it, as do many others.
Like I told someone else
"The recount was actually anti-lockdown, anti-social distancing and minimized the current state of the situation, where we have more cases than ever. It was tone deaf and patronizing."
As soon as I saw that the news post was up to 120+ comments in the span of an hour, I was like “oh no”, but then I scrolled through to see what was up and I just... oh... oh no......
Thank you for the swift response!
I didn't see it, can someone explain how/why it was racist? Or what it was, exactly? Just wanting to be in on the loop.
@blackwolf_2009 My personal biggest issue with the pet is that it's making light of a very serious situation. It talked about the pandemic like it's something that's already over and the world is now recovering from, even though we're stick in the thick of it. Like talking about how 'the panic is dying down', even though it's no less severe now then it ever has been, and the panic dying down is actually a huge problem because people are taking it less seriously.
And, like people have said, there's a lot of racist undertones, though as I'm not apart of the group in question I'm not comfortable talking about that. I'm sure someone else can explain that in a more educated manner. And someone also pointed out that saying the flu isn't as bad because 'it only kills sick people anyways, so it's not a big deal' is. Pretty gross. Overall the whole pet is just in very poor taste.
I hope that helps you understand a little better why people took such issues with it! I totally get missing a lot of the subtext, I didn't know how bad it was my first read through, I just found it uncomfortable because I know people who've lost friends to the virus. It was only after reading other peoples comments that I realized how bad it really was.
@blackwolf_2009
The recount was actually anti-lockdown, anti-social distancing and minimized the current state of the situation, where we have more cases than ever. It was tone deaf and patronizing.
Add to it things like "flu only kills ill people so it's ok" and the entire association with bats, and it's a giant pile of yikes.
Apparently missed something, only an hr into the new day, lets pace ourselves
Thank you and thank you to the staff member who reached out. You're appreciated. ❤️
I am confused. I caught the pet's name, looked it up and quickly read the story. I cannot see, how there is anything of bad taste? It's just a run down of our current situation? Not even names or countries are mentioned.
Ah, well that explains it all then. What's upsetting me is I asked about this and I have been blocked by someone already for it. Simply by asking what was wrong with it because I didn't understand what was wrong with the story (neglected the TC entirely) and apparently that deems me bad enough to block. :/ Going to have to rethink asking anything in the future.
this is a violation of my civil rights and i'm gonna lick the mcdonald's toilet in protest >:(
(i kid. thank you for dealing with this so swiftly because that pet was extremely a layer cake of Very Bad Choices)
logs in What... What could be so offensive that it--
Good, I was about to leave a very angry, very profanity-laced comment...glad I don't have to now. But yeah, there needs to be a loooooong and thorough discussion about what gets approved for the Pet Spotlight from now on. I know y'all wanted it to get more attention, but...not like this.
Thanks for listening to the gathered concern and disdain. I was actually pretty surprised that a pet like that got so far into the spotlight queue. I hope this means better monitoring in the future, because I'd hate to see this happen again. I saw the pet name and had hoped for it to have been about getting through these times as a community, and not... the racist social distancing hate garble that it was...
@blackwolf_2009 the concept of a making a subeta pet about a pandemic that is still killing people every day is already cringe imo. there were issues with the species of the pet and the mystery soup item of the TC relating to racial stereotypes and myths about the virus that are harmful to asian people. different things about the way that the lockdowns and precautions were talked about, the tone of the story in general.
Not once did I say it was bad or not, I just said it seems like a recount, I may be missing some chunks of what is going on from all over the world but if it was bad and there is things I'm just not catching, as I said to KiaArra, glad it was taken down.
agreeing with : that pet never should have made it into the queue. thanks so much for taking it down.
That's not very helpful in explaining it but thanks, I guess? :/
Good riddance
Skimming over a story is the equivalent of just watching the first twenty minutes of a movie, and the final fifteen minutes.
Look at the whole picture before saying it wasn't that bad, please.
Whoa what did I miss? O_O; What pet was it?
I posted my comment before this one showed up due to caching but that helps with it. It looked to me like just a mere recount of the history of it so far. Glad it was taken down then.
thank you for responding as soon as you could, at least. i understand that it's super late for you guys, but also seeing that this is stuff that's (usually?) proofread afaik.....
that said, anyone who posts or agrees with tepid takes going against the very basic concept™ of caring for other human beings can kick rocks, please and thanks
@blackwolf_2009 highly suggest you do less skimming and more active reading.
Thank you for your prompt response to the situation. It really should have been evaluated on many levels before being approved and going live and while I understand that mistakes happen...there's kind of a moment where as a site runner you gotta ask yourself "is this truthfully in the best interest or taste and if the image I want to be promoting on my petsite?"
I think that "rule-breaking" was more the kind of wording I expected for the removal's justification; but fair enough. Sleep tight!
- you can still go read the story on the pet profile. The last paragraph was about the only thing that might have been considered ok. If you read the whole thing, there are a lot of undertones of racism, and belittling of the disease and the measure we have been taking to prevent it's spread.
Again, a big shoutout to every user who has vocalized concern over this; you are true rockstars and I'm so proud of you.
You pointed out some things that I skimmed over originally, and I'm just...so impressed to see that the notes imploded, but we didn't turn on each other. That was true solidarity, and I'm so proud that the HUGE majority of the community stood as one.
Way to go, Subeta Userbase. I'm proud of you.
Thank you for removing it. I know it's late, and I'm grateful for you being on top of things as always, Amber. I hope in the morning we can get an official statement addressing the main issues with this, but the fact it's been removed is more then enough for me right now.
Not trying to be to dense or anything, but why was it even taken down? Skimming over the story now it seems to just be a recount of what's happened?
I was just about to go to bed, . A night owl on staff messaged me like UHHHHH PLEASE CHECK THE SITE. I'll try to be more detailed and more articulate tomorrow!
Thank you for taking it down promptly and as others have said I hope there is a larger discussion from this that will help prevent something similar in the future
Glad you removed it, thank you for doing so quickly. The fact that it got past an approval process is still horrifying. The name alone should have immediately disqualified the pet; add in the racism, ableism, and overall downplay of a pandemic that's already a huge danger in part because of how it's being downplayed, and I'm baffled as to how anyone could think that was a good thing to reward - and then showcase to the entire site via the news update popup!
The staff owe a massive apology for doing this, especially to the people who have lost loved ones, the ones who are struggling with the virus themselves, those who are still battling the side effects months later, and the healthcare and essential workers who have to stare this and the risk of contracting it in the face every day. This was a horrible thing to subject them to - a horrible thing to do to all of us, really. What a slap in the face.