About war in Ukraine

[Polegge]

I do not believe players from Russia should be banned from it

Please, stop talking about the ban of Russian players. There is nobody asking for this, at the moment. We are asking at least for the existence of White-blue-white flag on this site.

Every player on BGA can play, or not, with Russian players according to their own positions - the options are there to avoid players we don't want to play with

Are you sure? I was an Arena player, and i know no way to avoid Russian players in Arena mode. Maybe i don't know some options: would you indicate how I can avoid Russian players in Arena mode? I cancelled my premium membership beacuse i felt forced to play with Putin supporters, while some Ukrainian players are killed or refugees but are still paying their premium memberships if it is automatically renewd, since during a war it is not always easy to cancel a subscription.

[Great_Martini]

I refer to numerous discussions where people have called for bans on Russian players, and I mention it in my comment only to illustrate the strength of feeling that some players clearly have. I'm happy to support an alternative flag for Russia as long as this does not lead to discriminating against those who wish to keep their existing flag because we cannot be sure why they haven't switched - it does not necessarily mean they support Putin. After all, my "normal" flag would be that of UK (I've changed my nationality to Ukrainian to show support), but that doesn't mean I support what is done by the leaders of my own country - far from it in fact.

The only way I know to avoid players is with the red thumb when you play them, and one of the options you have then is to say you don't want to play with them again. I confess I don't know if that works in Arena mode - I don't spend much time playing Arena games - and if I'm wrong, I thank you for correcting my misunderstanding.

[AnKuzichev]

Currently, around 80% of Russian population support Putin, statistically the number also reflects on players on BGA, especially considering the lacklustre response from them against the war in this thread.

The numbers are from here: https://www.levada.ru/en/ratings/, as I previously provided them in this thread if you have alternative numbers please share them. I suspect that you will likely say again that we can't really know what the support truly is in totalitarian country, but this is an argument without any actual evidence. Of course we don't know how many on BGA support Putin but if follow the numbers from Levada Centre, the support should be statistically significant on BGA as well. I think the lacklustre response from Russian players to this thread is not coincidental.

Why should I distance from my old statement if the the bombs with Russian flag are falling on the homes of my loved ones? The fact that I change my demand is not indicative that I changed my opinion. My proposal to add the white-blue-white flag with a new statement from BGA I think is very modest, but it will help at least to problematize the Russian flag on this site that I think it deserves. Why not focus on the substance what I say now, rather than attempting to derail the discussion by focusing on my comments from 2 months ago? I suspect though that derailing the discussion is your main goal.

My English is bad... This is Google Traslit.
I know that Google sometimes makes mistakes, for which I even got a ban, because Google, according to its algorithm, chose an extremely rude word, although I didn’t want this and the phrase even starts with YOU (respect), and not with YOU (Thou)

But I would like you to hear the answer. About our life... Yes, in our neighboring country everything is much worse, but even here you can already get punished for one word, and when you already live badly, any punishment greatly complicates your life. And already now, there are situations when children suffer for the position of parents, and parents suffer for the position of children.

But still about your reference to this survey. 1600 participated in it!!! people out of 150,000,000 people. Questions are asked only to those people whose passport details are known. The questions in it are in such a form that the answer against means automatic punishment. It is also known that only 5% of people answered this poll to the end ... I understand that this is inaccurate ... But let's think that 95% are those who would like to answer differently ... This means that people who support this war are no more than 4%. And those 20% that in the survey answered against are already heroes .. for me.

Yes, they began to refuse more in the game with the RU flag, in chats they write that the Russians were silent and I understand why this is so ... Although sometimes it's a shame, but against the background of the horror that my government creates, my troubles ... no trouble ...

[belfaunder]

Currently, around 80% of Russian population support Putin, statistically the number also reflects on players on BGA, especially considering the lacklustre response from them against the war in this thread.

No, it does not reflect the players on BGA. Speaking about statistics, this 80% are the people who responded in support of the war among those who answered. The response rate among the Russian population is low and has decreased significantly since the beginning of the war: only 1 in 20 people agrees to answer questions (see e.g., https://russianfield.com/beregiterossiy, sorry, the link is in Russian). Given the situation with human rights in Russia, I would argue that the samples in the poll that you mentioned are biased. A more valid claim would be to say that 80% of the 5% of people who agreed to answer support the war (gives the lower bound of 4%). Then from this point, you can extrapolate to BGA.

[Pushkiin]

No, it does not reflect the players on BGA. Speaking about statistics, this 80% are the people who responded in support of the war among those who answered. The response rate among the Russian population is low and has decreased significantly since the beginning of the war: only 1 in 20 people agrees to answer questions (see e.g., https://russianfield.com/beregiterossiy, sorry, the link is in Russian). Given the situation with human rights in Russia, I would argue that the samples in the poll that you mentioned are biased. A more valid claim would be to say that 80% of the 5% of people who agreed to answer support the war (gives the lower bound of 4%). Then from this point, you can extrapolate to BGA.

The data that I cited is collected by a well known organization that has collected data for the Putin's approval rating for years, since 2002. You can see how over the years Putin rating has changed. When Crimea was annexed in 2014, Putin rankings went up significantly, and there were hardly any protests in Russia in solidarity with Ukraine. To me it's not surprising that Putin's rankings went up again when he got involved in another conflict. If you can show me the numbers that indicate a significant decline in Putin's support, I would begin to believe that attitudes in Russia begin to change. I don't see it right now and I don't see any evidence for it. The survey you cited did not discuss the relationship between Putin approval ratings and the support of the war.

I think surveys for the approval ratings are more credible precisely because in the current context there is a lot less risk for the respondents to answer general questions about the approval or disapproval of the government and Putin rather than specific questions about the war in Ukraine. It's no surprise to me, like you said that many people refused to answer questions about the war.

[thousanferno]

As a Russian player, I am not at all offended by the fact that everywhere and everywhere they are trying to ban or "cancel" Russia, or whatever else they all come up with. For me, as a Russian player, the main thing is to play, and with whom to play - it doesn’t matter at all. Someone talks about Russian propaganda, but he himself does not see his own propaganda brain, stuffed with what any non-Russian smi want to show him. People who do not know history and are trying to fight on their computer chairs cannot say anything at all.
The board game site is not related to Ukraine. It has nothing to do with Russia either. Let's do what we have to do, okay?
I am not going to remove my flag, otherwise everyone who lives in a country that bombed seven sovereign countries at the same time for eight years should do it.

[tboard]

Considering that Russia will likely be labeled as a terrorist regime by the rest of the civilized world, I don't think it's appropriate for the Russian flag to be shown ANYWHERE.

I am curious as to when BGA leadership will finally realize this. We have already seen mass murder of Ukrainians committed by the incompetent Russian military. What happens if the Russians were to invade Finland and commit mass murder there? Still no response? Or if Poland is invaded next and mass murder is committed there? Would BGA take a stance then? Has no stance been taken because Ukrainians are not seen as important as the other nationalities? How sad.

[19890535]

there were 1-2players spreading terrorism in this thread, but 1 of them has gone, and only 1 remains.

[xxerox]

As a Russian player, I am not at all offended by the fact that everywhere and everywhere they are trying to ban or "cancel" Russia, or whatever else they all come up with. For me, as a Russian player, the main thing is to play, and with whom to play - it doesn’t matter at all. Someone talks about Russian propaganda, but he himself does not see his own propaganda brain, stuffed with what any non-Russian smi want to show him. People who do not know history and are trying to fight on their computer chairs cannot say anything at all.
The board game site is not related to Ukraine. It has nothing to do with Russia either. Let's do what we have to do, okay?
I am not going to remove my flag, otherwise everyone who lives in a country that bombed seven sovereign countries at the same time for eight years should do it.

I am from bulgaria and i know russia and russian history very well considering we have been under socialsm and know a lot of history even better than most russians living in russia.

We are flooded by russian propaganda by people who are already brainwashed and just spread lies everywhere.

I can say anything i want because i know personally whats going on and i was on the ukrainian border few months back.

BTW Most russians do not even know english lol.

USA may have bombed countries, same way russia did to many and killed many, but how many countries they have invaded?

As a non-russian player i am offended by what you say. You clearly do not know your own country if you are russian to begin with lol

[xxerox]

Honestly, Thousanferno, I Urge you to play with ukrainian players and spew your * to them. Lets see how they respond.

Since you said you don't care who you play with after all.

*Moderator edit: please remember BGA is a family-friendly site.