Kaymyth

The cake is a lie.

1 hour ago, CoderDrag0n8 said:

Chicken butt >:D

Man, that was old when I was your age. xD

19 minutes ago, KnightSkye Reforged said:

...I would promise that I'm done with my shenanigans, but I don't like lying, so at least let me say sorry, and I'll try to stay more in check and offline when I'm on this much caffeine.

I mean, mostly I follow this thread so I can make sure no unpleasant people infiltrate and start blabbing anti-LGBTQ+ things. Though it does get harder to spot any problems when y'all are so active. xD

That is not in any way me telling you to keep it down, just a reminder that we can't always catch everything, so don't be afraid to submit a report if you ever think something is getting iffy.

11 minutes ago, KnightSkye Reforged said:

@Hoid Slayer YOU DID IT!! HOORAY!! THE COURAGE OF MEN SHALL NOT FAIL!!

@Hawks HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE A FALLEN GOD!?

 

Ooh crap, is that another mod lurking? 

more than one

1 minute ago, Ruku said:

Yes Ma'am, sorry for that.

Not a problem! Our rules are a lot stricter than most of the internet, so sometimes it takes a minute to calibrate. I constantly have to remind myself which Discords I can swear on and which ones I can't. xD

55 minutes ago, Ruku said:

What- in the gosh dang heck is aroace? I keep seeing that everywhere but... what is it?

Ahem. As Hawks said, harder swears are not permitted on the Shard, nor is using creative spelling to get around the swear filter.

I've taken the liberty of editing the problem word. Consider this a gentle warning, and please make sure you read our full Code of Conduct: 

5 minutes ago, Kansas Stormcursed said:

The kids at the summer camp have decided I am actually a purple unicorn named Abacablabagus

It's been referenced in class since the middle of the summer

In all seriousness, I have a pink inflatable unicorn suit. I have added a rainbow mistcloak. I am...the Mistcorn!

Wore that getup to the dance party at Multiverse last weekend. I was not emotionally prepared for the rounds of cheering that happened every time I entered the dance floor. xD

1 hour ago, #1 Taln Fan said:

I def do this too lol. I was shocked when I met a bunch of Shard staff IRL and found that Rosemary is not a unicorn, Chaos isn't a terrifying zombie, and Ene is not a glowing dragon

Don't be ridiculous. Of course I'm a unicorn. I just have a very, very realistic human suit.

Your friendly neighborhood mod lurker here:

I can see what's coming, I would like to gently remind you all that political discussions are not permitted on the Shard.

What happened was a big deal, and people are definitely going to have Opinions about it, but this is not the place to discuss it.

(For those of you who don't know what people are referring to, check the breaking news headlines. You can't miss it.)

50 minutes ago, SpartanBrigade said:

Thank you

How much modding do you usually need to do for this channel? Nearly everyone I’ve met on the Shard has been really kind thankfully 

Truly, very little. I simply prefer to be vigilant so we can nip problems in the bud before they have a chance to grow too large. We don't want any of you put into a position where you feel unsafe.

55 minutes ago, CoderDrag0n8 said:

Yes... YESSS!!!

xD

Don't mind me. Nothing to see here. Just quietly keeping an eye on things to protect my Shardkids from homophobes and transphobes.

Man, y'all been chatty these past few days. Not a criticism at all, just amused. 

So, there are a couple of points I'd like to counter here.

1. Dalinar could not have retained Honor after breaking the truce. The Shard has already yeeted one Vessel for breaking promises, it wasn't gonna tolerate its brand-shiny-new one doing the same thing in the first fifteen minutes of holding it.

2. Taravangian had no intention of announcing his freedom to the wider Cosmere*. He planned to stay right where he was. His intent from the start was to get free and then keep it quiet, looking to all the other Shards like he was still trapped so he had time to scheme and prepare.

Combining Shards is many things, but quiet ain't one of them. He might as well have erected a neon sign over the system that flashed "COSMERE-LEVEL THREAT HERE" in bright gold letters. It was like blasting an air horn in the middle of your six-year-old's piano recital. Imagine a rainbow of nearly a dozen Eye of Saurons swiveling directly toward Roshar. Dalinar got exactly what he was aiming for: Nobody Is Ignoring This Anymore.

Heck, we're likely to see otherwise-antisocial Shards willing to forge alliances with each other to handle T-man.

Had he remained a single Shard, I would not have been surprised if when, eventually, rumor leaked out that Odium wasn't trapped any longer, the other Shards would have each put their own personal plans into motion to counter him. I have doubts as to the efficacy of those theoretical plans. (Endowment's plan likely hinged on Nightblood and we all saw how that turned out. After taking out his predecessor with that sword, I doubt Todium is dumb enough to allow himself to fall into similar circumstances.)

In fact (Mistborn Era 2 all):

There's nothing quite like an existential threat to everyone to get folks onto the same page.

*Well of Ascension spoilers:

He announced at Dragonsteel Nexus that he will be at Celsius 232 in Avelis, Spain in 2025. He also said that they're working on him attending something else on the Europe side of the pond in the next few years, but no details have been hashed out yet.

Ah, good, there's already a thread.

For those of you not on the Discord (or who may have missed it), we have a roster of 17th Shard meetups planned, thanks mostly to @Cosmeregirl!

Group Plans for Dragonsteel Nexus 2024

Wednesday 12/4/2024

• 3:45pm Meet @ South Temple Entrance for dinner at City Creek Mall Food Court (or join us at the food court if you’d like to walk over separately)

Thursday 12/5/2024

• 12:00 noon Meet @ South Temple Entrance for lunch at Crown Burgers
• 9:30pm Meet for Caroling Session #1 in Hall 4 just outside of the Book Distribution area.
• 9:45pm Sandersonian Filk Caroling Session #1 at Book Distribution

Friday 12/6/2024

• 9:00am Breakfast at Eggsburgh
• 11:15am Meet for Caroling Session #2 at the 17s Booth
• 11:30am Sandersonian Filk Caroling Session #2
• 12:30pm Caroling Photo with Santa photo at 12:50p

Saturday 12/7/2024

• 4:00pm Meet @ South Temple Entrance for Boba Guru
• 7:45pm Hoid Jam Session at the Komashi Meet-up Area (Music by the Hoid Trio)
• 8:45pm Harmony’s Nexus at the Komashi Meet-up Area Filk music and pizza

Love me some Graphic Audio.

*switches on the Mod Voice mic*

Okay, I want to be perfectly clear: this thread is for the LGBTQ+ members of the Shard to chat, bond, commiserate, and generally support each other.

This is not -- I repeat, NOT -- an appropriate venue for asking questions of them. I am asking everyone to please stop doing that here for the sake of keeping this a pressure-free environment for our LGBTQ+ members.

Thank you.

1 hour ago, Through The Living Glass said:

Totally random, but did they change it last year as well?

We did do a Pride theme on the Discord last year. We're expanding, bit by bit, year by year.

By 2054 we'll have taken over the entire internet! Muahahahaha!

1 minute ago, Cataclysm said:

Okay, I want to make clear first and foremost that my intention is not to argue or debate, but to learn how to navigate the world and the internet in a positive way. I thank everyone involved for their input and advice. 
I also have my beliefs, some of which differ from yours, and in some ways my vocabulary can be affected by that.

I don’t think an argument about intersex and its definition can benefit my intentions here. I have learned what a better way to express what I mean on that is, and I thank you for that.

Now, I’m quite naturally a human. I have flaws like all people. One of those is that I’m extra confrontational. Perhaps I will in the future be able to state my thoughts on topics such as this in a more good mannered way. I have received the answers and thoughts to my original question, as well as any other information I was seeking. Once again, I thank you all for your patience with such an internet novice, as I am only 14 years old (hence the awful grammar).

Til next time,

Understood. And while there are a number of people on the Shard who are probably happy to have these conversations with you, this isn't really the thread for it.

This is for LGBTQ+ members to bond with and support each other, and we want them to continue to feel safe to do so. Too much challenging can compromise that. We would appreciate it if you (and anyone else of a similar mindset) were to take a step back and perhaps refrain from engaging  on this thread.

6 minutes ago, Cataclysm said:

I don’t think that when we talk about sex as a whole we should be relying to greatly on intersex cases. It’s really quite rare, and I don’t know a perfectly non-offensive way to put this without simply saying I mean no harm, but it’s kind of a physical (ugh I can’t think of a better word, I would love to use one that better describes what I mean) “defect” or “disability”. Intersex people are still beautiful children of God, but were born with a condition. Exceptions often can prove rules, and I think that can go for this case.

1. It doesn't matter that it's "rare." These people exist and are a natural part of humanity.
2. A difference is not a defect or a disability.
3. "The exception that proves the rule" is an absolute nonsense saying and has no place in scientific discourse.

Furthermore:

We don't actually know how common or rare intersex people are. Estimates range all over the place, depending on who's doing the estimation. The issue there is people disagree on what counts as "intersex" as there are a huge number of different conditions.

https://isna.org/faq/frequency/

The widest net cast is, "Total number of people whose bodies differ from standard male or female: one in 100 births."

So that's 1 in 100 people born with some sort of deviation from "standard." 1% of the population. Through the magic of large numbers, take 1% of 8 billion and you get...80 million people.

80 million people alive on this planet right now who don't perfectly fit the "standard" genitalia model. Doesn't seem like such an exception anymore, does it?

My point is, you cannot simply dismiss a portion of the population's existence because it doesn't fit with your preconceived notions of what things "should" be. And if there's that many who are easily identifiable, how many other differences do we have going on that we can't see at all? Hormonal balances (hi, that's me), internal developmental differences, chimeras. There are so many things we just don't test everyone for, so we have no idea how many people like that exist! It's wild. Humanity is wild. Biology is wild.

Also, you can pry my spiro from my cold, dead fingers, because the benefits to suppressing my testosterone production are insanely fantastic. Reduced cramps! A more even temper! Virtually no PMS! Reduced acne!* When I think about what my life could've been like if I'd had access to this medication in adolescence...gods. My body might have developed a little bit differently. I might've had hips. I rusting long for wider hips.

My point is, medication and surgery is between an individual and their doctor, and you really don't get a say.

*seriously I'm 46 freakin' years old I am too old for this acne crem

26 minutes ago, Cataclysm said:

So would I be correct in saying that AMAB/AFAB is, for lack of a better term, just a PC way to describe biological sex?

I'm just gonna add here, if your idea of using respectful language towards individuals is "PC" then you're already stumbling into offensive territory. It's not political correctness -- it's basic human kindness and good manners.

38 minutes ago, Cataclysm said:

Thank you for your perspective. I personally think that some speculation can be healthy in this ever-changing world, as we try to understand those around us, but I respect your position that we should listen to credible and involved sources for deeper understanding when possible. 

Okay, I'm going to expound a bit more.

Gender AND sex exist on spectrums. Genetics and endocrinology are complicated.

You can have stuff like gene switching, where the X and Y chromosomes trade the gender genes out. You can have XY women whose bodies just...ignore male hormones. And there are a dozen other things that can effect how genes express.

Do all trans folk fall under these exceptions? Dunno. Does it matter? Not a whit.

And as AonEne said, intersex people exist. You can also have cisgender people with different hormone balances (i.e. I produce more testosterone than an average woman, and it does wonky things to my system. I take spironolactone to suppress it. Many trans and cis women do the same).

So, am I a cisgender woman? Yeah. Am I a textbook case of the female sex? Definitely not. Do I have an XX genotype? I mean, I think so, but I don't actually care. I am who and what I am, and if a test were to come back with XY, I'd probably just shrug and move on with my life.

Some trans people are men, and some are women. Some are nonbinary or genderfluid on a wide range of variability. The idea that anyone can say, "All A are B," are ignoring everyone and everything that is G or H or S or something else.

So I refuse to try to make those sweeping statements, because I have a bare inkling of how complex it all is. The closer you look at it, the more detail you investigate, the fuzzier it all becomes. So honestly, my recommendation to everyone is save yourselves the headache, and just accept people for who they say they are, because chances are we're never going to have all the whys and wherefores figured out. It's just too complex.

7 minutes ago, Cataclysm said:

I actually am somewhat curious about that. Do you consider cis and trans women to be the same gender but not sex, or something like that?

I consider a trans woman to know who and what she is better than anyone else who isn't her, and when she tells me, I listen and accept.

Beyond that, as a cis woman, I don't really think it's appropriate for me to sit down and try to categorize people whose day-to-day existence I do not -- and cannot -- have firsthand experience with. These are discussions for trans people to have amongst themselves, not for people like me to speculate on.

11 minutes ago, Thaidakar the Ghostblood said:

 

(just so noone's confused, I mean "no, I won't respond, I sense I've made a mistake of some kind.")

I'm not gonna lie, you are testing boundaries that really ought not to be tested.

I recommend being more mindful in the future.

9 minutes ago, AonEne said:

They aren't two separate genders, that's simply not how gender works. I don't need to give it thought because the answer is easy. I don't see a single merit (if you're thinking of "superstraight", that isn't a thing, it's an excuse for people to be transphobic; happy to explain more if needed). In addition to being factually incorrect, it's rhetoric used to harm trans people, and there is nothing good about it.

I'm going to add on a bit to this and point out very clearly to everyone reading that there is no functional difference between saying "cis women and trans women are different genders" and "trans women aren't real women." They mean exactly the same extremely transphobic thing, and neither are acceptable.

3 hours ago, The Stormfather said:

This makes sense. Honestly, i think with all the WoBs and everything, as well as SiSG you're all recording so much stuff rn.

My RL schedule in 2023 did not help matters in the least. But I think I'm done Chairing conventions for the foreseeable future (burnout'll do that to ya), so that's no longer a limiting factor.

But we're all busy people with jobs and lives and crap, and this 17th Shard thing is entirely a volunteer gig. Sometimes life be like this.