Delusionallinnea, I know you’re new here, but this type of post is against the rules in this forum. If you want to insult other members or express your moral outrage over another poster or post, you start a thread in the BBQ Pit.
I will laugh at family names like “Kuntz” without shame. That is not the same as besmirching every individual with these names. Yours requires Old Testament knowledge and is less extreme, and 80% of people probably don’t even get it. But if they make jokes about nonspecific people with that name, don’t freak out.
So, insulting is against the rules? Think about this… if the members posts weren’t so degrading and insulting… I wouldn’t have joined or said anything in the first place. Maybe you should think about deleting this entire thread because all it is is an insult.
We draw a distinction between insulting other members of our community, for instance by saying “HOLY SHIT YOU GUYS ARE MENTALLY HANDICAPPED,” and making jokes about people who are not members of our community, as was the case in the thread that happened several months ago.
I understand that you would prefer that people not make jokes about your family’s name, but we have no rule against that.
If you don’t care for our rules, you’re under no obligation to stick around here. If you do wish to stick around here, we ask that you follow our rules.
Saying “you guys” is not a specific name. It’s not just my family name they’re talking about, it’s specifically MY family. I would have deleted that post by now, but there is no delete button. (I understand I shouldn’t have written it in the first place, I’m sorry that I overreacted, but how could I not be upset?) Once my posts are deleted I would be more than thrilled to leave this site and never return.
It’s fine to make fun of the name/word Onan… But when it’s directed toward Onan of Onan generators I feel the need to stick up for my family because our name is completely unrelated to the act of “onanism.” Saying that my great grandfather was a “jack-off” because the word onan means masturbation is completely unacceptable.
No one did: they joked that the first person with the name Onan was “some jack-off”. Lot’s of people’s last name can be twisted into something funny, mine included as it happens. Don’t let it get to you, it’s nothing personal, it’s just people joking around.
No. It’s something you can be sued for, meaning it’s a civil tort and not a crime. This is also written communication, so it would be libel and not slander - but that’s all technical stuff. This is not even close to libel. It’s people laughing at a name. I understand why it upsets you, but it’s not illegal, it’s not libel, and it’s also really not a big deal.
This doesn’t make sense. If you think it’s fine for people to make jokes about the name, then let them have the joke. If the Onan generator family was unrelated to you, the jokes would not be any different.
Nobody said that. And Hypno-Toad is right: by posting about this, you’ve drawn attention to it. This thread had been inactive since August. Now it’s back on the front page on the forum and people are more likely to remember it.
The etymology is interesting- Onan looks like it could be Irish O’nan, but wham! it’s French. My french is miserably bad; is Aunan(t) a place name or something, I wonder?
delusionallinnea– my last name is goofy in english and worse in German. It’s irksome, but look at it as a teaching/public relations opportunity.