This is a private website and the owner and those who moderate (assumably chosen by the owner, so representative of him and his wishes) have the right to decide what is permitted and not permitted. It's like going to a store/bar etc and having the management kick you out for unwanted behaviour, same thing- private property, private rules.
And in case it matters, my personal opinion is: I think that linking nudity or disturbing images should be allowed, as long as it's a link and not a direct post of a photo and there is FAIR warning. Swearing should be permitted to a degree that it already is, for example no F bombs but bitch is allowed because I'm talking about my female dog. Remember that legally, 13 year olds can sign up for a handle (I think?). If you had a 13 year old kid, you'd want some of the stuff on here blocked. The only way to allow anything is to permit 18+ only. (NOT happening for a hockey site- I think there's a lot of kids who should be able to check out the forums for inside info and good hockey talk!)
This site is MOSTLY made up of grown men. But we have to be aware of the ladies among us, as well as the minors.
__________________ REDVAN!
The Following User Says Thank You to REDVAN For This Useful Post:
My only gripe with respect to this sort of stuff is the hardline that *some* of the mods take in regards to swearing. I mean, if they can say the F word on broadcast TV, you'd think I could say sheet on CP without getting an infraction.......I mean, come on. This isn't the disney channel forum or anything.
It's one of those things that either you limit it outright, or you end up being overrun by it because otherwise there's no other line that can be reasonably and clearly drawn.
Excessive profanity is abrasive to some, and we'd like all Flames and hockey fans to be welcome, so it's one of those things that it'd be nice to not have to have a rule about it if people could use properly, but there's just no way that'll happen, so the line starts with zero.
__________________ Uncertainty is an uncomfortable position.
But certainty is an absurd one.
And in case it matters, my personal opinion is: I think that linking nudity or disturbing images should be allowed, as long as it's a link and not a direct post of a photo and there is FAIR warning.
Personally that's the level I think would be ok, but as you say with the ages (and values) of some people that visit the site it's probably better (more inclusive) the way it is now.
Plus I think with the nudity thing that's also a function of what we agreed to for the advertising package.. or at least it wouldn't surprise me, lots of advertising contracts I've seen have stipulations about what kind of content is on a site showing the advertising. They have different packages and tiers and stuff for sites that have different content.
__________________ Uncertainty is an uncomfortable position.
But certainty is an absurd one.
This is a private website and the owner and those who moderate (assumably chosen by the owner, so representative of him and his wishes) have the right to decide what is permitted and not permitted. It's like going to a store/bar etc and having the management kick you out for unwanted behaviour, same thing- private property, private rules.
That's true, but it's also a business and is presumably somewhat concerned about customer service. I imagine if the vast majority wanted swears, there would be swears. Or maybe not I guess - some people seem to have an irrational (IMO) sensitivity to swears.
It probably has everything to do with the way you're raised - in my house swears were just another word but some people act like they're a slap in the face. If the people running this site hate swears, we can't swear, so I guess you're right .
And in case it matters, my personal opinion is: I think that linking nudity or disturbing images should be allowed, as long as it's a link and not a direct post of a photo and there is FAIR warning. Swearing should be permitted to a degree that it already is, for example no F bombs but bitch is allowed because I'm talking about my female dog. Remember that legally, 13 year olds can sign up for a handle (I think?). If you had a 13 year old kid, you'd want some of the stuff on here blocked. The only way to allow anything is to permit 18+ only. (NOT happening for a hockey site- I think there's a lot of kids who should be able to check out the forums for inside info and good hockey talk!)
This site is MOSTLY made up of grown men. But we have to be aware of the ladies among us, as well as the minors.
Thats a pretty dated view of society as a whole.
a) Ladies should be subject to swearing
b) 13-18 crowd shouldn't be subject to swearing.
Are you kidding me? As mentioned before, virtually every swearword is freely used on broadcast TV (the standard for censorship) including the F-word.
I guarantee you every person (incl. ladies and minors) who is on the internet browsing these forums is not offended by these words, they're part of daily life. Just because they were offensive back in the 60s, doesn't mean they still are.
But at the end of the day, ya, its a private site and whatever the owner wants will rule the day, but doesn't mean we can't have a debate over it.
I think there should be a filter for the F-word, and then everything else is up to the mods discretion. (To maintain a level of civility). Posting the s,b or other words shouldn't be filtered nor subject for infractions (if they even mean anything).
The problem with "discretion" is that's difficult to define, and even more difficult to enforce. Not every post gets read, so right off the bat there will be posts with excessive profanity that exceed civility (however you try to define that) that get missed.. so other people will instantly jump to the "well he got away with it so so should I" position, and the level of perceived acceptable profanity will increase.
And yes people jump to that "well he got away with it", that's by far the number one complaint of people who want to whine discuss infractions.
In general personally I agree with you, I don't mind some profanity, I don't see it as a big deal... but everyone has a different level they find acceptable, and since we want the primary focus to be talking hockey we want to have all kinds of people feel comfortable talking hockey. Would we rather have those who swear exercise a little self control, or have those who find it distasteful and distracting from actual discussion leave?
__________________ Uncertainty is an uncomfortable position.
But certainty is an absurd one.
Some advertisers also care about whether or not there is swearing on a site. If you want to attract a higher level, more credible level of advertiser then you need to present a more mature web site.
Honestly there's thousands of words to use - people should be able to manage not dropping f-bombs and what not.
Location: In a land without pants, or war, or want. But mostly we care about the pants.
Exp:
My understanding of the forum rules was that before posting pictures with explicit nudity, they should be sent to photon so he can save them if they aren't already in his private collection. Well NOW his story changes, I see!
__________________
Better educated sadness than oblivious joy.
It's definitely a slippery slope as has already been mentioned. I agree with pho, either you just have to set your bar (zero tolerance) and make posters come up with other words to use (which is pretty easy), or you let stuff slide and lose posters who aren't comfortable with that kind of language.
I'm not a prude by any stretch, I'm one of the more liberal people I know in my personal life. I usually don't get offended by anyone's language (usually it's the context in which it's used that is more offending), but on here you do have to draw the line. I've been to a few other sports forums that let pretty much anything go and it's not appealing. You're definitely going to lose potential viewers/posters in that environment.
I think for the most part posters here know what is acceptable or not and have been great about it. And even in cases where questionable language has been used we almost always give out warnings or infractions. It's not like a poster has gone over the line and been banned (unless his/her posting history warrants it).
Swearing isn't the end of the world, but there are other words that could be used instead.
The Following User Says Thank You to KootenayFlamesFan For This Useful Post:
a) Ladies should be subject to swearing
b) 13-18 crowd shouldn't be subject to swearing.
Are you kidding me? As mentioned before, virtually every swearword is freely used on broadcast TV (the standard for censorship) including the F-word.
I guarantee you every person (incl. ladies and minors) who is on the internet browsing these forums is not offended by these words, they're part of daily life. Just because they were offensive back in the 60s, doesn't mean they still are.
But at the end of the day, ya, its a private site and whatever the owner wants will rule the day, but doesn't mean we can't have a debate over it.
I think there should be a filter for the F-word, and then everything else is up to the mods discretion. (To maintain a level of civility). Posting the s,b or other words shouldn't be filtered nor subject for infractions (if they even mean anything).
The F word has never been freely used on broadcast television. You can hear it sometimes on Canadian broadcast channels but never freely as in uncensored Hell's Kitchen.
They are a part of daily life but not acceptable in every situation. Some places require a certain level of decorum and this place is one of those.
The Following User Says Thank You to Barnes For This Useful Post:
Suggestion time! Link to that thread in the "Forum Rules" content. I think you can edit the template for the rules and add the link. Sounds like a job for photon. That way, these forum rules are technically agreed to by all users when creating an account.
Since profanity's getting brought up... would it be possible to change up the swear filter to be a replacement filter instead of just leaving out the word completely?
Examples could include:
'f*&^' could be replaced by 'gently caress', etc, etc
or heck, even just leave something like *bleep* instead of just removing the word.
In cases where someone slips up and accidentally throws a swear into their post, just taking out the word can sometimes make things kinda confusing.
The Following 3 Users Say Thank You to Phaneuf3 For This Useful Post: