Mature/Trusted Section?

[shaymin]

From the beginning, it was decided that PXR would be a child-friendly (PG-13) forum. It's part of who we are. I don't agree with allowing mature topics. With stories and art, there is a little bit of lee-way as long as what's posted isn't too graphic and there are clear warnings. But that's on a case-by-case basis. Most topics can be discussed in a PG-13 manner by limiting details and using appropriate language anyway. I don't feel we're limiting people that much.

That being said, a VIP board would probably be the only thing we could really do, and yeah, I'm not sure we want to encourage that kind of elitism/the formation of cliques and stuff.

(The following post is going to sound a bit rude, but bear with me! I suck at wording)

You have to realize that this is the internet. As we grow into a big community, we're going to be getting all sorts of members, and chances are some of them are not going to be kids. It's fine if you want to be child-friendly, but at the same time, be flexible and know that everyone from children to adults use the forum! If you want to make a hidden forum to discuss things that are 18+ or whatever (as long as it's not pornography, but if it's a topic discussing porn, then eh), then that's something I can roll with.

It just seems like we're bending over for children when in all honestly it does limit people: It limits people who want to discuss adult topics. If we want to grow, how are we supposed to do that without at least attempting to reach a compromise so that both sides can be happy? Children don't have to go there, and adults have a place to discuss mature content in a sensible, non-idiotic manner. I do not see any negative implications in regards to our forum as a result of this.

[[Desolate Divine]]

To be honest, I somewhat agree with Shaymin about bending over backwards for children. I think that it would be cool to have a board for more mature topics. Maybe 16+ or something.

[Apollo]

Could someone please elaborate on what they mean by Mature Discussion? Is it about debatable topics like Euthanasia and other very opinionated discussions. Or do you mean about stories which involve heavy swearing and content which isn't really appropriate for children?

[Pokemon Trainer Sarah]

(The following post is going to sound a bit rude, but bear with me! I suck at wording)

You have to realize that this is the internet. As we grow into a big community, we're going to be getting all sorts of members, and chances are some of them are not going to be kids. It's fine if you want to be child-friendly, but at the same time, be flexible and know that everyone from children to adults use the forum! If you want to make a hidden forum to discuss things that are 18+ or whatever (as long as it's not pornography, but if it's a topic discussing porn, then eh), then that's something I can roll with.

It just seems like we're bending over for children when in all honestly it does limit people: It limits people who want to discuss adult topics. If we want to grow, how are we supposed to do that without at least attempting to reach a compromise so that both sides can be happy? Children don't have to go there, and adults have a place to discuss mature content in a sensible, non-idiotic manner. I do not see any negative implications in regards to our forum as a result of this.

I do see what you mean, but when it comes down to it, this is a Pokemon forum. There are plenty of other places you can discuss mature topics if that's what you want to do. I just don't think that a Pokemon forum is a good place for them. But you are entitled to your opinion of course!

Here's another (related) idea - on a forum I used to be admin at a long time ago, we had "teams" based on the evil teams from Pokemon games. Members could join one team of their choice after being active for a certain amount of time, and each team had their own hidden board that only they could access. They could discuss whatever they wanted in there as long as it followed the forum rules. There would sometimes be competitions and roleplays held between the teams as well. Maybe having some kind of groups like that would be another way to have hidden boards without making it about elitism? I'm not sure if it's a good idea or not, just throwing it out there.

We also have Social Groups which can be made private, so you can always use those if you just want to discuss things with certain trusted friends. :)

[[Desolate Divine]]

@Pokemon Trainer Sarah, I understand what you mean about that, but PXR has something that no other forum has. It's community. I value the opinions of people here more than almost anywhere else, and sometimes wish our discussions could be more mature. However I do like your idea of the teams!

[Caite-chan]

Child friendly? Technically you have to be 13 to join the boards. That's not a child that's a teenager and most 13 year olds are in middle school going into high school. You can't say we are child friendly and cater to all ages. We're either child friendly OR we cater to all ages. I'm not saying we make it rated R all over the place but if something is a bit more mature or graphic we just put warnings at the top. We can warn but we can't prevent people from looking and reading that's their choice.

[Pokemon Trainer Sarah]

@Comatose - I get that, but I guess that's what Skype is for. I mean, the forum is technically PG-13. It was something Harry himself decided, after taking into consideration the opinions of the community. So I don't think that's going to change. There are very few topics that would be completely banned at a PG-13 level, as long as you discuss them tastefully. It's just really anything overly violent, sexual or illegal that can't be discussed. And those are the kind of things you probably don't want to be posting on a public messageboard for the whole world to see, anyway. I don't think it's that difficult to steer clear of those topics. You can still have discussions/debates about things like religion, euthanasia, current affairs etc. if that's what you wanna do.

[shaymin]

Child friendly? Technically you have to be 13 to join the boards. That's not a child that's a teenager and most 13 year olds are in middle school going into high school. You can't say we are child friendly and cater to all ages. We're either child friendly OR we cater to all ages. I'm not saying we make it rated R all over the place but if something is a bit more mature or graphic we just put warnings at the top. We can warn but we can't prevent people from looking and reading that's their choice.

To me, I feel like it's a bit child-friendly, or at least the forums seem a bit "kiddish", yknow? A large problem I have with Sarah's argument that "it doesnt belong on a pokemon forum" is that it applies to our off-topic sections too! Like, what belongs in a Pokemon forum? Obviously Pokemon sections, but you want to make people happy who don't always talk about pokemon and add off-topic sections, also. Like music, forum games, and other stuff like that. But do we get rid of them, because they have nothing to do with Pokemon? Of course not, we keep them because we're flexible and it'd be boring and stale talking about Pokemon all the time. It's possible some people would join that arent even interested in Pokemon and want to just for the community itself. There are many things we have to consider here before making that argument.

I'm going to go a bit off-topic here (but for good reason) and say that we really need to be more flexible as a forum. The more open we are to topics and discussions, the better off we'll be in the future, and that's what it is when concerning Pokemon forums. PXR is literally the only forum I frequent that has such strict limitations on what you can discuss and what you cant discuss. Being a forum admin of this place, even I don't know whether or not debates belong in General Chat, and I think it would be ludicrous if debates like marijuana legality or abortion or sex before marriage couldn't at least be discussed there.

How I see it is this: If you want to look at it, absolutely no one is telling you to. If you're curious enough to browse threads that arent suitable for the typical child/early teenager, then that's on you. That's your responsibility. And heck, to even enforce this further, I'd go ahead and make [18+] or [Mature] tags myself on threads that are mature in content. If you want to ignore the warning and look there, and you get offended by what you see, that is your fault, and you cant yell at anyone for it. There was a warning, you chose to check out the thread anyway.

tl;dr we need to stop being so restrictive and overworrying about whether or not people would get offended by the content here. If we put warnings or disclaimers, then we'll be fine, no one has any right to get mad at anyone if they get offended anyway. I really feel we're not really going to make much progress as a forum if we keep being like this.

[Corey]

Few of you will know this, but there was a huge spill about this in the planning stages of the forum. It was then that Harry decided PG-13, which was surprising because he never wanted his word to be the final say, he wanted everyone to discuss and get the majority to agree. He eventually had to rule with an iron fist and say that PG-13 was the limit for the forum (it was that bad xD).

Caite is right, no one SHOULD be on the forum if they aren't 13, but I was on PE2K when I was 9 ha ha. There are tons of kids on the internet whether they should be or not, so we have to take them into consideration. That doesn't mean we have to dumb down the language we use or the content we post, it just means we have to set a limit on what can and can't be posted (PG-13). It's not solely because we want to keep the kids shielded, but also because many people find this content distasteful. As an example, even though cursing doesn't personally bother me in the slightest, the rules state that such language is allowed in moderation. Not just because kids on our forum shouldn't see those words excessively, but also because a lot of people frown upon the use of cursing.

I don't think we really need a section to put sexual, violent, or otherwise inappropriate content because this is a Pokemon forum and there's not really a need for it. xD I don't see a problem discussing/debating social disagreements such as religion, politics, abortion, marijuana legalization, pre-marital sex, same-sex marriage, or other controversial topics as long as it's kept civil. I mean, if there was a discussion on the morality of watching porn (or something to the tune of that), I think that you're right shaymin, it's be okay so long as there were no pornographic images, links, or descriptions involved. I don't even think a warning would be needed for discussion, since it's common sense that other people will have opinions contrary to your own and that you shouldn't get offended by it. No one should be offended as long as it's kept civil anyway, since we're not going to allow members to insult one another's opinions.

No one really brings controversial topics up even though we allow it, so I guess I can see why some might think we're catering more to kids. I think people just don't want to offend. I encourage people to bring those topics up, though. I'd love to have some civil discussions with other members. :)

[shaymin]

I mean, im not jumping up and down for topics like "how often do you have sex pxr??" but something slightly more mature than what we allow currently, or maybe something that'd fall within a grey area.