Trying to take back the term KYS, by turning it into something else...

DOUBLE TAPPED E·Feb 24, 2019·3 votes·3,453 views

And I guess that's disrespectful to the players who want to use the term maliciously, my bad.

"Keep Yourself Safe" is what I've been saying, spelled out in full, as a way to turn a negative into a positive whenever I encounter this term, but my post was removed for... reasons I guess.

So, that said, you better go find the rest of my posts where I said this, because we wouldn't want anyone to keep themselves safe, now would we?

23 Comments

limebusterFeb 24, 201911 votes

Hey x9cat, I was the one who removed your posts. "Reclaiming" KYS is not a thing. It's common knowledge what the term means and mocking or making light of that is not permitted. It's not clever. It's just mean. Comments like this are not funny and never will be, they are simply not permitted on the boards and therefore i removed them

DOUBLE TAPPED EFeb 24, 20191 votes

I mean, fair enough, I just think that ceding power to such a negative term is cowardly, when it could so easily be reclaimed.

kingDeDeDariusMar 1, 20191 votes

No, it couldn't really, just make a new acronym then. You don't "reclaim" something like that. It's not like it was originally a food phrase that was turned bad. It was always bad and everybody understands it as such. What's more, it's not the specific words. If it were possible to "reclaim" it, a new phrase would simply pop up in its place. Instead, just say something nice that isn't a corny and insincere alternative to the original "kys"

ModUlanopoFeb 24, 20196 votes

{quoted}

Hey x9cat, I was the one who removed your posts. "Reclaiming" KYS is not a thing. It's common knowledge what the term means and mocking or making light of that is not permitted. It's not clever. It's just mean. Comments like this are not funny and never will be, they are simply not permitted on the boards and therefore i removed them

This response is Ulanopo approved (limebuster is one of the new mods). :)

MyrmironFeb 24, 20192 votes

{quoted}

This response is Ulanopo approved (limebuster is one of the new mods). :)

where's his badge of shame all mods have to wear?

ODiiiiiNMar 1, 20191 votes

{quoted}

Hey x9cat, I was the one who removed your posts. "Reclaiming" KYS is not a thing. It's common knowledge what the term means and mocking or making light of that is not permitted. It's not clever. It's just mean. Comments like this are not funny and never will be, they are simply not permitted on the boards and therefore i removed them

ahhh a mod with a "regular" account. so the rumors are true, they do have an army of phantom accounts to down vote people.

limebusterMar 2, 20191 votes

i'm actually a mod in training, a "provisional" so i do not have the moderator badge yet :)

ModThe DjinnMar 2, 20191 votes

{quoted}ahhh a mod with a "regular" account. so the rumors are true, they do have an army of phantom accounts to down vote people.

If that were our goal, don't you think they'd be told to...oh...not give up the game? We honestly don't give two fucks about downvotes in about 99.99% of situations.

The actual situation is that we just brought on some new moderators, and we don't give them board flair until they're fully trained.

DrCyanideFeb 24, 20198 votes

When "stay safe" is shorter, faster, more established, and less likely to get mistaken, why would you ever say "keep yourself safe"? "Keep yourself safe" doesn't even flow right.

DOUBLE TAPPED EFeb 24, 20192 votes

Because it eliminates the original meaning of KYS, negating it, and turning it into a positive thing, the goal is not to tell someone to stay safe, but to blunt the edge of the original term.

EDIT: It's unfortunate the goal and intent don't matter, but perception does. It's funny because you can really tell a lot about a person by the way the perceive things.

DrCyanideFeb 24, 201910 votes

Except it doesn't, not while people still primarily think of the negative thing.

A nice example for you: In 2010, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon formed ISIS. They got additional backing from American Express, Mastercard, and Visa. In 2014, they renamed to Softcard, because ISIS had become too commonly associated with a terrorist organization.

DOUBLE TAPPED EFeb 24, 20192 votes

Thus giving ISIS even more power than it already had.

mike in the boxFeb 25, 20192 votes

I got to aggree with Dr on this one. Although Noble your intentions, it is near imposible to remove the stigma of a word. It has to fall out of use before it can be changed.

DynikusFeb 24, 20198 votes

It just comes off as a very low effort way to code that you're telling someone to kill themselves.

DOUBLE TAPPED EFeb 24, 20191 votes

Well if that's the way people want to perceive it, I can't force them to have a positive attitude.

SchoenbergMar 1, 20191 votes

[{quoted}](name=x9 Kat,realm=NA,application-id=6heBIhQc,discussion-id=X3YOn4mk,comment-id=00010000,timestamp=2019-02-24T03:33:40.888+0000)

Well if that's the way people want to perceive it, I can't force them to have a positive attitude.

You calling everyone around you negative makes you positive. I'll keep that in mind next time I argue with that one old lady (she likes to argue) at the senior home. She does the exact. same. damn. thing.

If we were to follow through with your perception of things, I'd say you need to be more understanding of others, not they be more understanding of your theory. The way you gave is definitely how definitions/other change (with time and usage amongst x group), but given current internet culture, the acronym would more than likely just fall out of usage then.

KelgFeb 24, 20194 votes

You're not clever, and you're not fooling anyone. Just stop.

ChaosReynFeb 24, 20193 votes

From a psychology standpoint, the practice is not a faulty one. However, "kys" has been around for awhile...it's pretty solidified. You're not going to simply take this one back. If it were a newer term and you applied this practice, it could work, provided enough people joined you in doing the same but there's still two problems with that.

The first is "a load of other people do the same"

And the second is "you manage to get more people saying it your way than the negative way."

While it's still technically possible for you to reclaim "kys" using this method, it's highly improbable, and even more highly improbable due to the severity of its meaning. So yeah, I'd still have to strongly advise against the idea, since it's been made clear at this point your reclamation is simply not going to be taken as anything more than coding it nicely and getting you in needless trouble.