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p5play Discord Rules Explained
Unfortunately, many computer programming focussed Discords do not have a friendly vibe lol. On quite the contrary, they can be downright hostile, especially to beginners.
It blows my mind how creators in the open source community can so nobly dedicate their lives to developing software for the public, but then act like know-it-all jerks to the very people interested in using it.
Since the p5play community is primarily made up of students, I take seriously my responsibility to make this a good space for them.
"A few have asked about our stance on NFTs:
NFTs are a scam. If you think they are legitimately useful for anything other than the exploitation of creators, financial scams, and the destruction of the planet the we ask that please reevaluate your life choices.
Peace ✌️" - itch.io on Twitter
If you're interested in NFTs or cryptocurrency, I highly recommend watching this critical analysis video:
The most relevant information for artists provided in the video is that the vast majority of artists on mainstream platforms like OpenSea that create and sell NFTs lose a very significant percent of their sale via paying for Ether transactions fees (called gas).
In summary, NFTs were created to increase liquidity in the crypto markets. Big crypto owners ran February 2022 Super Bowl ads for crypto and NFTs to get average joes to invest before they cashed out big time with working people's hard-earned money. In May 2022, Luna, which was marketed as a "stablecoin" tied to the US dollar, lost $60 billion in value, with each token becoming worth $0.000001. In November 2022, FTX, one of the biggest crypto exchanges, crashed spectacularly and will undergo criminal investigation for being a Ponzi scheme. Cryptocurrency transactions are also incredibly bad for the environment, requiring thousands of times more electricity than an equivalent credit card transaction.
Cryptocurrency developers inundated the media with a bunch of flowery libertarian nonsense about their tech, but its true purpose is to facilitate devastating financial scams and horrible crimes like hard drug sales and human trafficking. Sam Bankman Fried, Vitalik Buterin, etc. are villains and the fact that they were idolized by the media is a symptom of a pervasive societal ills. I view any legitimization of cryptocurrency as tacit support for the crimes that it facilitates.
The Processing Foundation has directly promoted and enables others to promote crypto and NFT scams on the p5.js Discord. I do not support this.
I welcome those with opposing views to join the server, but the p5play Discord is for playing and creating games and interactive art, not a place to discuss or sell NFTs and cryptocurrencies. 🙅🏻♂️
Users are allowed to promote games and interactive art on the p5play Discord as long as they use p5play. 🥳
Part of the reason why I created p5play was so that it could be used to make art with political messages, without risk of that art getting removed or shadow-banned by a corporation.
I'm not an apolitical person, I'm a socialist. I do occasionally use p5play.org to platform support for causes that I believe transcend the left/right divide.
In early Summer 2024, p5play.org displayed a banner of support for student protests against Israel's genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. The Israeli military has destroyed 85% of school buildings, murdered over 20,000 children, and has forced millions more to become malnourished and homeless. Our students may become future tech workers, soldiers, and weapons contractors. While I don't wish to impose my political views on anyone, I believe that all students should be taught that the value of human life is high.
Sometimes students don't get the help they need simply because they're too embarrassed to ask for it. So I can't tolerate users mocking others for asking "dumb" questions or posing a question the "wrong way".
Part of why I made the p5play discord separate from the p5.js discord is because they censor negativity. But I understand that programming can be frustrating! It's totally valid to just get angry at the computer sometimes. So when users voice their frustrations to me about p5play, it's useful feedback, not something I would ever take as a personal attack. I'd like to encourage others to think this way too.
It's not like these problem are unique to p5.js either, but it's unhealthy, almost cult-like, that so many online communities are ruled over by power tripping mods that demands people placate them, or get banned for posting valid criticism of their work and decisions.
I recognize that I'm a human being, so I make mistakes, and I actually appreciate being called out on them!
Note that I don't have a hard rule against swearing. If you're a teacher I encourage you to tell your students that if they wouldn't say something at school, they probably shouldn't say it on the p5play Discord, but I'm not going to go around policing people's language. I'm running this discord under the assumption that most users will be 14-18 years old.
Also I'm just one guy, so I'm not gonna be online all the time moderating. Like any online community, members interact at their own risk.