3. England is tame. There's no pornography (by consensus); there's no explicit roleplaying or cybering (by consensus). IMO there's more hoopla about it than it deserves.
I submit (and yes, I'll go read up on the Convention after this and possibly resubmit this there if there's an appropriate place to do so): England should not be visible to ANYONE on registration. That way no strays of illicit bent will be attracted by it and minors (and parents of minors) need have no problems. It will simply not exist for those who do not actively seek registration and permission for that forum.
Those who subsequently enquire can be advised of the nature of the forum (standard statement can be drafted for this purpose) and following appropriate signing in blood (proof of age, waivers with regard to adult subject matter, and clear guidelines of what is acceptable in that forum ie it is not a free for all) access can be granted.
In other words, gated and locked unless very clear understanding is reached.
I think that is a good idea.
Do we know if that complies with the
phpbber TOS that Laureanna mentioned?
I see it as tricky, however, to write down clear guidelines for that forum and to have people stick to them. What is considered offensive to one person maybe be perfectly ok to some other etc. And bearing in mind that some people like to bend the rules and stretch them to see how far they can go with it, a pretty nasty situation could arise.
I don't envy those who will have to write the guidelines and to see they are followed.
One more question regarding the opening of the boards. I find opening the boards to be a good thing and I support the idea once the necessary steps are taken. But as I don't have much experience about internet communities I wanted to ask the following:
Do we have a rough idea of whom an open board would attrack?
Bearing in mind that B77 is not a board with a theme (unlike TORC) but a place for general conversation who do you think would like to visit?
Will it be populated by the friends of the existing members here or will new (unconnected) posters will arrive? And for what? What do we have that will attrack outsiders?