Change Forum Guidelines

[Coleman]

Problem:
I was wandering the forums (something I do a lot) and came across a post from Die Humanity Die. At the time of posting he has the most god awful avatar I had seen in a while.

http://www.conquerclub.com/forum/images ... 7f2103.jpg

My perception of the picture was that it was a baby with its head blown open. Other people upon review suggested it was a medical procedure and that it was cut open. Regardless it is something that I found offensive to view. I posted a topic in abuse expecting this to be like most other sites I frequent where the avatar would be changed the instant a moderator saw it.

I was mistaken.

Wicked, the only moderator I am aware of to have even responded to the issue suggested there were no rules against the avatar. Then, Wicked moved the topic out of abuse and into general discussion without explanation as to why. Later (after my initial post of this) she posted that she had moved it so more people would discuss it.

My opinion, and I believe this strongly, is the current policy needs to change. Wicked said the pornography line was placed at exposed breasts or genitalia. I saw we create a rule for violence/gore and place the line at open wounds.

Thank you for reading, I am hoping for a fairly quick response.

Proposed Solution:
Include under Actual no-no's: under pornography line or as part of it.

Option A

Code: Select all

Pornography or gore in posts, avatars or hyperlinks;

Option B

Code: Select all

Excessive violence/gore in posts, avatars or hyperlinks;

Priority: Extreme (5/5)

[Rocketry]

Your kicking up a bit to much of a fuss about this i think. I dont think the forum guidlines need to be changed. I think the ability to block other peoples posts on the forum (rather like the ignore list) is going to be brought in. Hopefully that will help.

Why not add a poll to this - i would be interested to know if my view is representative of the majority.

Rocketry

[Coleman]

That doesn't protect members like myself that before now had an expectation we are now finding to be incorrect to never come across that stuff in the forums.

[Rocketry]

Though you may find it repusive, i dont imagine it wil actually affect you as a person will it?

[Coleman]

No, but I'm 20 years old. There are younger players. And if you want to go with the this is a mature site argument then pornography should be acceptable, which it is not. If lack really wants cut up people then that's a party I'll bow out of, but I need to know if that is the case or not first.

[PerkinsRooster]

That doesn't protect members like myself that before now had an expectation we are now finding to be incorrect to never come across that stuff in the forums.

I concur. Stuff like this is way beyond decency, and I'm a fairly liberal person.

There needs to be a better policy. Think about it" people can't have breasts on their avatars, but they can show somone's brains spilling out?

PR

[Coleman]

Just to add a bit here, if you want to say that kind of thing is acceptable in flame wars, I'm okay with that. God knows enough allowances are made for that forum already, but an avatar is something the entire site can have unwanted access to. It isn't just posts, people leaving feedback are going to see it most of the time too.

[Rocketry]

Its difficult to enforce rules like this as there can be much debate on what is 'decent' and what is not.

I wouldnt have thought a child would be mentally scarred by the avatar. There are far worse things to be seen on the internet as a whole, TV and if course, in that good old fashioned realy life. Remember that much just passes over a childs head. If they don't like or understand it, they are good at blanking it. Lets not get too overprotective.

Rocketry

[Coleman]

I agree. With pornography the line was created at breasts. As hecter discovered for us, not even classical art is safe from that line.

I proposed with violence/gore we put it at open wounds. Seems like an easy enough thing to discern. It can be moved higher if we want, like visibility of internal organs via open wounds perhaps? Like classical art for pornography, medical procedures shouldn't be exempt. Why you'd want to post pictures form surgery here is beyond me anyway.

I couldn't care less really about children. I want to be protected from it.

[gimil]

Im definetly voting yes on this one. It may not be a "rule" but wicked should of used some kind of common sence to realise this should be removed. The fact that:

1. This is aloud to stand despite people of a very young age paly this game

AND

2. It'll take a ruke chance before anything can be done is a very sad story indeed.

[reelkmcn]

I have to agree with you guys. There are younger players on this site that really shouldn't be exposed to this stuff unless there parents showed it to them. I have 4 younger children, and would find that bothering if they were seeing that avatar. It would only want them to find something else that pushes the line.

Make the stand now, before it gets out of hand!

[Aerial Attack]

Just to add a bit here, if you want to say that kind of thing is acceptable in flame wars, I'm okay with that. God knows enough allowances are made for that forum already, but an avatar is something the entire site can have unwanted access to. It isn't just posts, people leaving feedback are going to see it most of the time too.

I agree with Coleman here.

My only question is that seeing as how there is no distinction in ACCESS to Flame Wars, why the differentiation in CONTENT?

I don't ever go to Flame Wars, as I don't really find the need to flame someone. However, based on what I've read in other Forums, the language and other images may be quite crude, crass, and downright foul.

I don't really want to limit access to the Flame Forum. And, seeing as how we only have one "age verifier" (ability to pay via pay pal/credit card). Limiting the Flame Forum would require usage of another age verifier or access granted to Premium only.

Well, there are two more ways (both require a lot of initial work for the mods). They could password protect the area and only give out the password to people who PM asking. OR the mods could use an Access Control List (ACL) whereby - if your user name isn't on the list, you don't have access. Both of these scenarios would require that the mods establish criteria for who receives the password or is added to the ACL.

Finally, if we limit access - do we continue to limit what may be posted?

[Coleman]

Okay, I don't like what I opened up with that offhand comment about flame wars being a possible exception. But I like that more is being added to the discussion. I'm still just after a simple line in the guidelines that will get this picture in question and subsequent pictures removed.

[Herakilla]

Though you may find it repusive, i dont imagine it wil actually affect you as a person will it?

IM SCARRED FOR LIFE!!!!

MY EYES!!!! IM BLIND!!!!

but on a serious note VOTE YES

another horrible avatar was beastly's old one that showed a girl bashing her head in the tub and this got me really badly cuz a good friend of mine tried to suicide doing just that

[wicked]

The funny thing is no one has mentioned The Weird One's avatar, and it's pretty much the same kinda thing, and he posts a LOT in the forums.

Even funnier is Die Humanity Die has posted ONCE in the forum, to say he'd be out of town for a week, and no one who responded to his post said anything about his avatar. So unless you're playing him and happen to click on his profile, or just randomly click on people's profiles, you won't see it.

So all this hoopla for an avatar only a handful of people would have ever seen. But of course, now almost everyone has seen it. It's not like this guy is shoving this avatar down our throats.


(disclaimer: I'm NOT saying just b/c an avatar might not be seen that guidelines shouldn't apply to it, if there ever were such ones to cover graphicness)

[Wisse]

The funny thing is no one has mentioned The Weird One's avatar, and it's pretty much the same kinda thing, and he posts a LOT in the forums.

Even funnier is Die Humanity Die has posted ONCE in the forum, to say he'd be out of town for a week, and no one who responded to his post said anything about his avatar. So unless you're playing him and happen to click on his profile, or just randomly click on people's profiles, you won't see it.

So all this hoopla for an avatar only a handful of people would have ever seen. But of course, now almost everyone has seen it. It's not like this guy is shoving this avatar down our throats.


(disclaimer: I'm NOT saying just b/c an avatar might not be seen that guidelines shouldn't apply to it, if there ever were such ones to cover graphicness)

first of all, i saw the wierds one avatar, it wasn't that big, it also is drawn.
secondly the guy with the ugly avatar, has only posted once you said, is that a reason why not to change it? no

i think this should not be tolerated...

[Coleman]

Well I saw it, I'm complaining about it...

Also, his post was in flame forums, most of the types that frequent there wouldn't be complaining about it. But if I played a game with this guy and went to leave feedback I'd be seeing it.

[wicked]

Nope, not with the new way of leaving feedback; you're never taken to the person's profile page, and can't even leave it from the profile page anymore.

And actually, his one post was in General Discussion.

Now that probably doesn't change anything with this request; I was just putting it all in perspective.