Forum content and language restrictions

[spacey]

What's a good forum without a little controversy right?  

I figure getting everyone's input on the subject is much better than me calling the shots, I mean I was asked to help moderate this thing and not to make the rules. The question is whether the forum should be rated 18 and older, or like any major public forum PG rated when it comes to content and language.

I edited a post of a fellow member containing what I and many others would consider a swear word and simply replaced the word with a collection of "*"'s. The message was still in tact and serves it's original purpose in the state it's currently in in my humble opinion. Following a small exchange of PM's the conclusion is this person is not at all happy with my actions but ok let's not get into all that. I will also refrain from reposting the replies from said party as I deem them rather unconstructive in the whole matter and to be honest a little hard to near impossible to understand as is. I have not taken any action other than a friendly request to "mind the language" if you will.

Now the issue is whether we consider the forum a family friendly place as I deem the hobby to be as such or do we only cater for the adults in the community. If adults only apply then I reckon a simple "Are you over 18 or not" question should be added to the sign up pages to avoid possible future legal action towards the website. There are forums I belong to like www.theprofilebrotherhood.com with all this in place where you can speak your mind with no restrictions but on most if not all major RC Forums like RCUniverse, RCGroups, Runryder and the likes a PG rating on language is in place. Acronyms of course and simply replacing a few letters of a swear word with special characters is somewhat allowed to the moderator's discretion but guess what everyone just simply avoids using foul language.

I deem our hobby to be one of very few that mother/father can actively enjoy with son/daughter and thus feel the forum should be a place for the younger generation as well and a place where parents will be happy for their children to browse/use. Can I please have everyone's comments on the matter? Even if short and sweet.

[spacey]

I also want to quote the site policies below the registration page as this somewhat answers the question already but ok still I think a clarification may be a good thing.

You agree, through your use of this forum, that you will not post any material which is false, defamatory, inaccurate, abusive, vulgar, hateful, harassing, obscene, profane, sexually oriented, threatening, invasive of a person's privacy, adult material, or otherwise in violation of any International or United States Federal law. You also agree not to post any copyrighted material unless you own the copyright or you have written consent from the owner of the copyrighted material. Spam, flooding, advertisements, chain letters, pyramid schemes, and solicitations are also forbidden on this forum.

[Steve Smith]

We are all grown ups here and must respect the fact that we will have younger members as well.  If simple respect is not followed, we will ban the user in question

[spacey]

Hey Steve!

Thanks for the reply, the answer has been given to the above then and I will continue doing what I'm doing like I was doing it. Like I said to the culprit in private we're not here to babysit everyone. Kinda like RCGroups IRC online chat I hang around in practically everyday. There are no mods, because everyone displays courtesy and respect to others. It's a simple concept, the mods can be summoned if deemed absolutely neccesary but we have maybe one incident every 6 months where this is needed. Nice and easy.

By the way afaik we're at the field on Sunday! Haven't spoken to Dawie in a while but I'm sure he's going to be back in Pretoria either today or tomorrow.

Beste groete,
A die-hard Handsome fan! Yeh, I still got my T-shirts. Hahaha

[Steve Smith]

OMG, i have one but it's only worth washing the car with.  I am keen to fly on Sunday and see if you guys can help with my vibration.. tell me where and when

[spacey]

LOL...yaa true mine don't look too good anymore but their still in the cupboard. Haha. I'll get in touch with Dawie morning first thing and find out where he is in the world, he's spent the week in PE or something and I haven't heard from him. I'll report back as soon as I got more.

[spacey]

Alright we'll all be at the field tomorrow if you wanna gooi 'n visit?

[Fluffy-ZN]

"Like I said to the culprit in private we're not here to babysit everyone"  Looks like u not old enough to grow up if concerned about babysitting.

[spacey]

"Like I said to the culprit in private we're not here to babysit everyone"  Looks like u not old enough to grow up if concerned about babysitting.

Once again, like I said 

I will also refrain from reposting the replies from said party as I deem them rather unconstructive in the whole matter and to be honest a little hard to near impossible to understand as is.

Give me one good reason why I would want to come onto a discussion forum focussed on RC and spend the whole night editing and reviewing posts of people with poor forum ethics?  Thanks though after two weeks for finally coming to the discussion. I hope you didn't spend the last two weeks only coming up with that? You have a chance to state your point on the matter, even though the decision has already been made. Even before the start of the thread.

[Fluffy-ZN]

It took me 2 minutes to come up with it, for two weeks I was removed from your site but it seems the system don't want me to leave. U come across very strong spacey. You should try bringing adults to this site not kids then you won't have to be so worried about your babysitting  . There is no doubt that flying heli's or planes etc in Durbs in not as big as JHB or Pretoria and beyond but you make it very unpleasant for someone who is trying to find interested people in it, even if they are many kms away. In todays times the average langage that your kids learn at school and on the DSTV is nothing to a few adult words in an adult forum / chat site. Listen to yourself and buddies when having a beer infront of the kids next time, think of what they hear. A site with a bit of spice is better than a bring cabbage dish.


If anyone is offended with the words anyone uses, then ask them to refrain but don't edit someones post.

Anyway u carry-on babysitting. Enjoy everyone.

Please see to it that my account is completely removed from this site.

[spacey]

It took me 2 minutes to come up with it, for two weeks I was removed from your site but it seems the system don't want me to leave. U come across very strong spacey.

I was not aware that you did not have access to the forum for two weeks, sorry I just didn't know and I did not have anything to do with that.

You should try bringing adults to this site not kids then you won't have to be so worried about your babysitting  . There is no doubt that flying heli's or planes etc in Durbs in not as big as JHB or Pretoria and beyond but you make it very unpleasant for someone who is trying to find interested people in it, even if they are many kms away.

That is your opinion and I will respect it. However I still believe like I said in the original post that this is one of the very few hobbies in this world young and old alike can all enjoy together, thus I feel the forum should depict that and so does many of my friends. So I'm not in the minority on this matter. For goodness sake anyone who's been flying for a generous amount of years will tell you they all welcome the younger folk into the hobby because they have the fingers needed to inspire all of us to fly/drive/float better. You will also learn this as you spend more time in the hobby, take my word for it. On your comment about me making it unpleasant for you, if this is the case I apologize but I fail to see how this comment is valid. This whole discussion was about a minor thing and a friendly request from my side, the forum rules are in place and quoted above. You read these rules when you created your account with the website.

In todays times the average langage that your kids learn at school and on the DSTV is nothing to a few adult words in an adult forum / chat site. Listen to yourself and buddies when having a beer infront of the kids next time, think of what they hear. A site with a bit of spice is better than a bring cabbage dish.

That still does not make it right I'm afraid. DSTV has language filters in place. All movies that utilize foul language has age restrictions etc in place. So does this site as far as I'm concerned and thus it is PG rated when you look at the rules and regulations in place. It's like the old saying "When your friends jump in the fire will you go out and do it?". You are correct in that I sometimes have to drop my head in shame for things that slip out in conversations with friends while having a beer but guess what that still doesn't mean I applaud it. And on that subject I have to add that if you come hang out with me and my friends you'll quickly realise alot of them actually change conversation modes VERY quickly when a youngen comes into the picture. Going out and saying something along the lines of "Everybody's doing it" is admitting we've already lost the fight, I don't feel this is a good approach.

In closing I volunteered to help keep the content on the site informative/constructive and related to the topic at hand if it is still of importance. I stated I felt your post even after I edited it still brought across the original message exactly the same. On a major forum your post would have simply been deleted and you would have been issued a stern warning or possibly be banned from the site. I made a friendly request that you mind the language, that's where I would have left it. If you choose to leave then that's your decision, as long as it is clear not me or the owner of the site requested you do so as far as I know. You are still very welcome here and nobody holds a grudge or anything that I'm aware of. Of course the final say does not lie with my but with the owner of the forum.