board77

Since there is some debate about this, I'm going to start a nine day poll thingy, and ask people to discuss and vote and whether or not we should have a seperate forum for explicitly sexual conversations.

Voted yes, for the reasons I gave in the thread in Turf.

Not only did I vote yes, it is my opinion that it is necessary to do so, or ban all talk of sex altogether (which I seriously doubt this group would go for), or maintain this as a closed board with a strict 18 (and perhaps even 21) year old age minimum.

And yes, you can call that a "legal opinion" if you like.

Prim, I love your picture.

Voronwe - I agree. Perhaps I'm a bit biased, but when it comes time to move the boards, it will be on an American Server, and owned by Steve. I really don't want him or I to get in trouble because people under 18 can see things that, according to US laws, they shouldn't be able to see.

Call it selfish self-protection on my part, but it's more important to me to protect my family and have everything in a protected forum than to have it out in the open where all can see.

Voted yes for the reasons I gave over in the Turf thread.

I voted no, for the reasons I gave in the other thread.

I think it is unfortunate we feel the need to do this. Once this happens one of the biggest differences between B77 and TORC will disappear, leaving the administration of it, and the fact it has a naughty forum for all that seperates the two.

I would rather see this kept an invitation only board, feeding off the TORC, kiddy atmosphere than restricting our freedom and our interaction. This will greatly limit conversational interaction and the scope of conversations.

Alassante_Estel wrote:

Voronwe - I agree. Perhaps I'm a bit biased, but when it comes time to move the boards, it will be on an American Server, and owned by Steve. I really don't want him or I to get in trouble because people under 18 can see things that, according to US laws, they shouldn't be able to see.

Call it selfish self-protection on my part, but it's more important to me to protect my family and have everything in a protected forum than to have it out in the open where all can see.

I appreciate the democratic nature of this board, but as far as I am concerned this shouldn't even need to be discussed and voted on.

Guruthostirn wrote:

I think it is unfortunate we feel the need to do this. Once this happens one of the biggest differences between B77 and TORC will disappear, leaving the administration of it, and the fact it has a naughty forum for all that seperates the two.

I would rather see this kept an invitation only board, feeding off the TORC, kiddy atmosphere than restricting our freedom and our interaction. This will greatly limit conversational interaction and the scope of conversations.

If you're willing to have the board be in your name, and deal with the consequences of a pissed off parent, that's your decision.

I have to say, I agree with Voronwe on this one - it really shouldn't even be up for a vote. It should be decided by the person who will have to live with the consequences of their decision. The fact that it is up for a vote is a reflection of the "nature of this board", and the fact that no one person can make a decision for the whole thing.

The filtering has to take place at either the board level or the individual forum level, if we are going to have frankly sexual content. There is no legal way around it. But there is an important difference--with a segregated forum, we can have minors on the rest of the site.

The subtext of the question is whether or not we want minors on the board. If not, we make the board 18+ only and its not an issue (at least legally) where the stuff goes. If we do, we pretty much have to have a restricted zone.

Do we currently have any members who are minors?

Related discussion:
http://www.phpbber.com/phpbb/viewtopic. ... um=board77

Yes Ax, we do - by U.S. Standards anyway.

That sort of forces our hand. If we want to keep them, which obviously we do, we will need to make some legal allowances for their presence when the move comes...

...unless they turn 18 in the interim?

People under 18 can and do contribute to this forum.

Even if those people turn 18 soon, I would hate to rule out the opportunity for other interesting and intelligent younger people to join us in future.

So that would imply we need a segregated forum, with some disclaimer in addition to the generic one discussed in the other thread?

Hmm.

I think that Estel and Steve should have the final word on how this is done because it's their asses that will be in a sling.

We do have folks here who are <18 and I don't want to lose them, nor close ourselves off in the future to the most energetic voices of the future. So I voted 'yes' for a filter at the forum level.

If we find this is not working, we can always change policy to an >18 board ... but hopefully the separate forum will suffice.
Jn

Officially confused as to where I should post this, I'm afraid.

I read the thread in the Turf and this one, and they seem to be the same, so I'm posting here.

I'm afraid I have no idea what we are discussing here. What IS pornography? What exactly would have to be taken off the public boards if pornography is such a delicate issue for future members?
Ok, threads like Ax's recent ones - yes, they would go in such a forum.
But what about normal threads osgiliating into sex talk? Would we have to stop that?
What about things like lidless's "hold still"-pic? Would that be disallowed then?

What I'm saying is that I simply don't know what we are talking about here.

Apart from that: I suppose it would be ok to have a separate forum, if so, I want to be able to see it and post in it, even though I probably wouldn't.

My main problem, I think, is that having a hidden forum for sex-talk is - well - having a hidden forum. And I thought we didn't want that.
Personally, I'd rather not have sex-talk at all than hiding it away.

I think I also fear that having a separate and hidden porn-forum would encourage people to go over the top in porn talk.
At the moment, although there is more sex-talk than I can understand people actually wanting to share, everything is still within acceptable limits, I think. No one has yet ever posted a really pornographic pic, for example. But if there's a special place for it, things might get excessive.

I ain't going to fight this...because clearly, people's attitudes are in the opposite direction. However, my point remains valid...with this, how are we different from TORC? Maybe it was inevitable...and now I think we can all understand why the TOS exists on TORC.

V is right...it's up to Estel and Lidless. 'Cause they Are the ones who's butts are on the line.

Here are the options:

-Age Limit, unlimited content
-No limit, content limited to TORC levels.
-No limit, content limited to that which is determined legally (truehobbit's post above).

What's it going to be?

P.S. I'm not going to comment on the issue of complaints about the content here, made by members of this board...it'll just piss people off.

I don't think things will get excessive truehobbit. I can't imagine people starting to have erotic conversations or some such. As for the forum being hidden - it wouldn't be hidden - it would simply require people to say they are 18 before they can see anything other than the title of the forum.

After the board opens, we'll have to have it a little bit more protected - not for the sake of people outside the board, but for the people in it. We wouldn't want pervy types coming in just because all they would have to do to post in the forum is register - they should be active members of the community before they have access to a forum with as delicate a subject as sex.


As for content elsewhere on the boards... well - I'm not going to say we should have a TOS like TORC - that's ridiculous. I would simply limit it to what you see on TV - say, "Friends" or "Desperate Housewives." I wouldn't say those shows are too PG, or even PG-13 for anyone on these boards.

Sex is a part of life - I don't think we should ignore it on the rest of the boards and try to be TORC like. Teasing, innuendo and flirting are some of the best things that we can do here, that we couldn't do on TORC. That should be able to stay on the normal part of the boards.
It would be better, in my opinion, if the explicit conversations we are having were in a forum for that type of... explicitness.

Why don't I make any sense this week? No matter how much I type, I can't seem to get my idea's across with any sort of clarity.

Gur--

Like I said in Turf, I can't imagine TORC with a sex forum. At all. That's what the difference is.

truehobbit--

When a thread veers off into sex, it's going to be up to the posters involved as to when or if it moves. Or is it? Will this be something that Lidless and Estel have to decide, as it's their collective butt out there?

I'm increasingly glad we're addressing this now rather than later.

Guru, although the legal issue applies to what minors can read and is extremely important, it is also important that this this board be a welcoming place for its members. Some current members are uncomfortable wiith the sex threads, enough so that they welcome not having to encounter them. What is wrong with collecting such threads into one forum that those people can avoid? That lets those threads and others continue, lets us put them behind an age test so the legalities are satisfied, and lets everyone feel at home here.

I do not see how this is anything like TORC's TOS. There is no language limit, topics can be adult, innuendo is not just allowed but positively encouraged--all that is utterly different from TORC. As would be having an entire forum devoted to frank discussion of sex.

Thanks Prim That's what I wanted to say if my brain had been working