What is a forum for?

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What is a forum for?
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Downsizer Forum Index -> Site guidelines, Announcements, Problems and Suggestions

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Brownbear

Joined: 28 May 2007
Posts: 14929
Location: South West

Posted: Tue Sep 15, 09 4:57 pm Post subject: What is a forum for?

I'd like to raise a concern about the use of language such as 'sluts' and the many references to drinking to excess, and to drug-taking that are made on the forum. In light of the timely reminder about naughty words, is there any guidance on this?

The rules on the watershed are for 'under-15s', so is it to be frowned on to discuss, say, the ethics of punishing sexual criminals which would seem to fall foul of the code? The enjoyment of riotous drunkenness? War, for example, is a very upsetting topic, ought that to be avoided? Avoiding swearing may be easier for some than others, but what about what may be termed 'offensive ideas'?

And when people say pre-watershed and therefore under-15s, are we talking Telly-Tubby levels of non-offensiveness, or East Enders levels, in which case few depths of human depravity might not be plumbed. I normally find DS quite a relaxing place, but I'm now feeling that there is a seething mass of offended people out there, their evenings ruined by some unintended aside. I am asking merely for information.

Last edited by Brownbear on Tue Sep 15, 09 6:23 pm; edited 1 time in total

jema
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28246
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Tue Sep 15, 09 5:09 pm Post subject:
As I'm sure you know we manage to tackle just about every issue going on downsizer and do it pretty well most of the time. There are not really more restrictions now than before, we simply remind people that there is no need to deliberately offend.

Brownbear

Joined: 28 May 2007
Posts: 14929
Location: South West

Posted: Tue Sep 15, 09 5:16 pm Post subject:

jema wrote:

As I'm sure you know we manage to tackle just about every issue going on downsizer and do it pretty well most of the time.

There are not really more restrictions now than before, we simply remind people that there is no need to deliberately offend.

I was more asking about accidental offence. I mean, if you used the word 'slut' in most places, it's taken to mean a woman of very loose sexual morals, and I know a lot of women who object very strongly to the mere use of the term.

Perhaps more thought needed here.

snowball
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 6246
Location: swindon

Posted: Tue Sep 15, 09 5:20 pm Post subject:

These things are not easily definable. I agree with things like sluts, but on the whole that has been changed to MDS now.
Common sense is what is required, although that is a commodity that is sometimes lacking.
We are not going to produce a list either.
There are one or two obvious rules though. Anything that is posted with the clear aim of being deliberately offensive will be removed.
We will not tolerate anything illegal either.
Apart from that, the mods look at the site as a whole. There was a period when, for slightly mischievous reasons, as well as genuine ones, the latest posts was filled with drug related threads.
The mods decided that this was not what we wanted people to think that the site was about, so locked some, merged some, and possibly deleted one.
The guiding principle, apart from be excellent to each other is the impression created by some one coming across us for the first time.
Many people get a lot of this site, information, support and business opportunities. We want it to grow, and continue being a pleasant and informative site, that is the only reason for guidelines. On the whole, we can trust the membership to work on those principles too. The occasional troll is dealt with, spammers don't stand a chance because of the sterling work of one or two mods.
Anything else, can be dealt with and discussed with the mods, hopefully in a mature way.
Jean

Brownbear

Joined: 28 May 2007
Posts: 14929
Location: South West

Posted: Tue Sep 15, 09 5:32 pm Post subject:
I think this translates as the main intention being that this is a forum for serious matters, and that anything else, for example humour, irreverence etc, ought not to obscure that, and that there are other places on the internet more suitable for all that sort of thing. Sounds like a perfectly reasonable guiding principle to me.

lettucewoman

Joined: 26 Sep 2006
Posts: 7834
Location: Tiptoe in the Forest!!

Posted: Tue Sep 15, 09 5:43 pm Post subject:

Brownbear wrote:

I think this translates as the main intention being that this is a forum for serious matters, and that anything else, for example humour, irreverence etc, ought not to obscure that, and that there are other places on the internet more suitable for all that sort of thing.

Sounds like a perfectly reasonable guiding principle to me.

Brownbear

Joined: 28 May 2007
Posts: 14929
Location: South West

Posted: Tue Sep 15, 09 5:48 pm Post subject:

lettucewoman wrote:

Brownbear wrote:

I wasn't suggesting that it all ought to be dull and boring, but that it seemed to be suggested that the useful resource was the primary intention of the site. 'Avin a larf is secondary to that.

After all, it's called 'downsizer' not 'chuckles aplenty r us'.

Silas

Joined: 29 Oct 2004
Posts: 6848
Location: Staffordshire

Posted: Tue Sep 15, 09 5:50 pm Post subject:

Brownbear wrote:

lettucewoman wrote:

Brownbear wrote:

Well, you could do what they did on the RC site and banned any chat topic that was not RC related.

That worked well. Not.

Brownbear

Joined: 28 May 2007
Posts: 14929
Location: South West

Posted: Tue Sep 15, 09 5:58 pm Post subject:

Silas wrote:

Well, you could do what they did on the RC site and banned any chat topic that was not RC related.

That worked well. Not.

I think they made the mistake there of letting the chat become the most popular part of the site, and of course it took over from the other sections in importance. Then when they tried to throttle it back, everyone got in a huff and left.

It may be very timely to point out that the resource part is the most important part of Downsizer, and the funny flippant bits should be just a minor sideshow. I thought it was a mistake at first and would just encourage inoffensive dullness, but the more I think about it, the more I agree with that sort of slant on things.

Silas

Joined: 29 Oct 2004
Posts: 6848
Location: Staffordshire

Posted: Tue Sep 15, 09 6:07 pm Post subject:

Whilst I can see where you are coming from, I think each person gets something different from this site, some people will only look at what is happening in the poultry section, others only read and contribute to the foraging etc. Chat is something of a common ground for everyone and, personally, I like it as it is, the moderation is, generally fairly good (at the moment!) and it is pretty much self policing. Does it matter if Chat is the most popular forum? Does it detract from the other topics? I don't think so.

My views on the swearing issue are fairly well known so I wont go into that again, but I would really not like to see this turned into a sugar and spice forum.

Brownbear

Joined: 28 May 2007
Posts: 14929
Location: South West

Posted: Tue Sep 15, 09 6:12 pm Post subject:

I agree that it can be fun, and I prefer it fun, but we're not responsible for the overall direction of the site, there are plenty more out there after all where one can 'act the goat' to one's heart's content. Lots of stuff - for example a thread on picking berries at the moment - ends up in 'chat' that more properly ought to be elsewhere, which detracts from the other areas of the site.

I think, on sites like this, there's actually a very good argument for not having a 'chat' section at all.

Silas

Joined: 29 Oct 2004
Posts: 6848
Location: Staffordshire

Posted: Tue Sep 15, 09 6:16 pm Post subject:
Interesting idea, but where would you and I go for our virtual punch-up?

sean
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 42219
Location: North Devon

Posted: Tue Sep 15, 09 6:17 pm Post subject:

I don't think that anyone's trying to turn it into a 'sugar and spice' forum. Everybody has different views on what they're comfortable with (personally you'd have to drag some of the stuff that people post on here out of me using a set of pliers), what the mods and admins do is try to keep everybody happy(ish). It's generally a useful and pleasant place that isn't too full of internet nutters, we don't ban or moderate people just for the sake of it, most of us (apart from me) have better things to do than be on the interweb all day.

jema
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28246
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Tue Sep 15, 09 6:18 pm Post subject:
I would miss chat, a "social side" is an important part of the forum. We all have a responsibility to keep the site balanced though. Think of new comers to the site and if there are already a couple of offtopic arguments in chat, then resist starting another one!

Brownbear

Joined: 28 May 2007
Posts: 14929
Location: South West

Posted: Tue Sep 15, 09 6:23 pm Post subject:

sean wrote:

we don't ban or moderate people just for the sake of it, most of us (apart from me) have better things to do than be on the interweb all day.

Who's talking about moderating and banning? I thought we were just discussing overall tone and whether it's a good or bad thing to have a lot of wittering. In fact, I thought the new name of the thread gives a better idea to what strikes me as having the makings of an interesting and informative discussion.

jema wrote:

Think of new comers to the site and if there are already a couple of offtopic arguments in chat, then resist starting another one!

If I may say so, that is nonsensical. Given that 'Chat' hasn't actually got a topic and is just, well, 'chatting', hence the name, how the Devil could one be 'off-topic'?

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