Gynx's argument:
Currently there's a rule regarding the usage of the word 'nigger'. This rule is such that you are not allowed to use it in what the staff has defined as "public space" - this refers to the entirety of the forum, official servers in-game and the IRC channels #toribash & #support. Using 'nigger' in any of those places allows a moderator to infract or ban you at his or her discretion. Staff justify this kind of policing of servers as they believe removing 'nigger' from the vocabulary of officially endorsed Toribash Community mediums is a small price to pay for a more cohesive community experience. It is worth noting that any private channels (i.e: private IRC channels or private servers in-game) are not policed and we are free to do as we want there regarding the language we use.

Ele's argument:
My argument is that context is everything. It doesn't matter that you use the word, what matters is how you use it. There are certain contexts in which somebody might use the word when they aren't using it to offend anyone. For example, a friend might say to another friend "What up, my nigger". In the context of that usage, I'm sure nobody actually believes there's any hatred behind that word, nobody believes that guy is being racist to his friend. How can we tell that? We can tell by the context.

Should we be banning and infracting people for racism in situations when they clearly aren't being racist? Racism is all about being prejudiced. My point is that if there's no prejudice behind the usage of the word (which you can determine by the context it was used in), then it's not racist to use it. It then follows that we shouldn't punish people for racism when they're not being racist. I'm calling for common sense moderation of the word, instead of censorship.

What are your thoughts?

In my opinion, no word should, in and of itself, be banned. Using a word, any word should be okay... However using words, regardless of what they are, to harass should not be acceptable.

In Austraila, as I am to understand from friends of mine, that the word "cunt" is regularly used in public. In the US you would be scorned for this. The mixing of many cultures is an important aspect of any online community. What is acceptable in place is taboo in another.

I will put this simply. The options are limited. There is not enough manpower to search for true context of every situation. Banning certain words is useless without an automated system. So why don't we get a forum filter to filter out profanity? I personally don't think that would help much. People would still be just as mean, but they would be more verbose about it.

There's always the people who you can sarcastically approach with this though.
You can type it like a nice guy but still get the message across, if there's a larger context of the two people disliking each other.
Who's to say if it's a genuine greeting or sarcastic poke at someone?
I can't see this ever being in the clear. The rule against it will be broken for sure, and at least in this day and age there will be people sensitive to that kind of word.

Absolutely. When somebody is using the word and intending to offend somebody by using it, they should be punished... harshly. When they aren't though, or when it's unclear, a little more care and a lighter touch should be used.

In that same breath though I feel it is important that we moderate our passions and remind ourselves of something. We should not punish someone simply because they upset someone.

That's true buddy.

But then again it's true of any word, for example was I being friendly when I called you buddy, or trying to belittle you and be condescending?

Unless you can show that nigger has a unique property that causes such ambiguity, I don't think there is any reason to ban it because of that.

Lets face it, we live in a generation where the term has completely lost it's meaning (to an extent). As you were saying if you were to use it in the sense "Whats good my nigga" then it's not directly aggressive. The problem here is that we have a generation gap and (at least in the US) people will get offended over anything. One reason that the word is infractable on this website is because toribash doesn't want to be associated with "racism". Even though in certain context the word is benign people will find a way to label it racist.

Can I just ask one simple and direct question? What is your urgent need to use the word? What is the benefit it brings to your linguistic arsenal?

The answer is none what-so-ever. If there's a chance it's going to degrade the quality of the community to new users or offend someone and there is no perceivable need to use the word, why allow it? That is what I cannot get my head around anyway. The word nigger has been disallowed since forever and I can't recall there ever being an issue with this rule in the past.

To debate the meaning of the word outside of Toribash and how it has evolved is an interesting topic. I just don't see how changing the rules surrounding it will benefit you in any way.

Going on from what Fee said, context doesn't change the fact that someone's bound to get offended.

I get what you're trying to say...
"Political correctness gone mad!"
"Censorship? I thought this was a free country!"
"FREE HAT"

But there's plenty of other stupid words for you to use.

Also: http://forum.toribash.com/showthread.php?t=533991

Very tiny answer to a tiny part of what you said above here

Pretty much everybody uses language to communicate what 'group' they're part of in some way.
Groups/subcultures/communities whatever you want to call it, have different words used frequently, such as your Tumblr users spewing 'literally' all over the place.
I'm not arguing for either position here, but I guess the benefit could be seen as a way of expressing where or to what you identify yourself.. loosely.