Let me post my original reply to CodeTrucker when he raised the issue as a way of giving my feelings on the matter. I hasten to add that these are just my opinions, and i have no intention of forcing the forum to conform to my views:
Here is my original letter to Mouser, too
Hey Mouser,
First off, I hope you feel honored that I am even offering the following post for your consideration. If you hadn't impressed me with your dexterity of thought, wise counsel (to me and others) and your genuine care I wouldn't waste my time or yours.
I have a dilemma that is mine and any others that have to pay a great price in continuing daily at DC.
My dilemma is I love the community and the relationships that have made it worthwhile, but the profanity, coarse/sexually-oriented jokes and graphic content that has come across my feed today alone is becoming untenable. As one that kept outside for the last year I have perceived an ever-increasing slide to the toilet in terms of quantity and content. Let me illustrate...
It is like coming to a very nice restaurant where I've dined numerous times a month. Recently, I've noted that rotten food is being served with ever-increasing frequency and foulness. Some of the foulest has even been disguised to make it past the watchful eye of the maitre d'. Yes, the food of the overwhelming majority is tasty and nutritious. At least for the present, but it has become painfully obvious that continued patronization of this present 5-star establishment could soon be downright dangerous. Once it was simply a matter of avoiding certain situations and sitting down at the table was an anticipated high-piont. Regrettably, this experience is now rife with taint. The choice has now become hard. You begin to wonder if the excellent cuisine is worth the risk? Not if, but when it gets worse the obvious answer will demand a verdict. Like so many, many others before, the once great paragon of quality will erode to a head-wagging byword because the proprietor would not risk losing customers by placing limits on what could be offered to all the other patrons.
Jessie, if you are uncomfortable with the parallels, good! Not because I wish to put anything on you, but because you now know what I feel. In short, I am watching the Fall of DC and if the slide towards decadence isn't reversed Cody's Home will just become another slimy porn site. "CENSORSHIP!" Well, what's wrong with it anyway? You're a scholar so you know that the context when censorship was an evil exists outside of our present state.... yeah, right! You know as well as I do that censorship has become the tool of those that manipulate our everyday lives. If I was to even hint in the forums at cleaning up the experience you know what kind of reaction there would be, but no one seems to care what an affront it is to those that still have a modesty in their character. I could go on at length, but unless you require examples, I'll spare you the filth, but I will share a perceived statistic of my own observation. On Jan 6, 2007 (one year ago) I became aware of some subtle uncleanness in the forums and I decided I would become a proficient Proxomitron user as I would then be able to enjoy DC without having to be accosted by vulgarities. It was wonderful! I became even better at designing my filter to the point I have also acquired the ability to design regexes as my need defined. After a year of building my filters and gaining the experience with this marvelous little tool, I cannot now keep up with the ever-growing flood of grotesque postings. The frequency of inappropriate postings is more offensive to the senses now with my bulwark of Proxo filters, than it was in the beginning when I had no filters! I can't imagine what it would be like if I had to face it in the raw. Even with my filtering I have not and can no longer let my children have access to DC. This in itself is a tragedy.
Like I said, I have a dilemma and it is because I have invested so much into what DC was at the beginning. I have spent much more time attempting to master filtering as a compromise than I have done either coding or participating in the forums. What I am saying is I've done all I can do. I cannot compromise further. As I see it, I have only three choices...
{1} I sit and watch DonationCoder become a brothel and see my beloved community enter the tragedy associated with malignancy with the inevitable outcome.
{2} I just cut my losses and leave everyone to fend for themselves against the rabid wolves.
{3} Take a stand and use my skill at the logos to dismantle the attacks that would come against me and anyone that believed the people we have come to love are worth the fight.
Ok, you know me and you already know my answer, but this time I would unsheath my sword as a scalpel rather than a broadsword.
My intent is to rewrite my tag line and make it larger litle by little each week. I don't have the verbiage completely crafted, but it goes something like this...
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It is respectfully requested that participants in the community at DonationCoder please respect the rights of all that wish to enjoy the oasis that we have crafted together by refraining from public vulgarities and sexual content. Such verbiage and subject matter is inappropriate in public and can be offensive to the point that it will drive others off at the very least , vexing their modesty and at worst, spurring the zealots to have DonationCoder added to the ban lists. Even today, DC could not pass the defenses of NetNanny or CyberSitter. Etc., etc., etc.....
Anyone who finds posts with offensive content, please make use of the "Report to Moderator" link at the bottom right of each post. If you don't tell the Moderators, they will never know.
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This doesn't really say what I want just yet, which is why I have offered this lengthy missive. I am requesting your help in this effort. I am persuaded you have felt a similar grief at times, unless I am completely fooled. I am persuaded you and I can win back DC for all of us, but no battle was ever won without bloodshed and figuratively, there will be losses, but if there is a viable alternative, I'm all ears.
My next plan of attack would be to simply post some posts in varied forums to ask if anyone else finds the vulgarities, sexual content and the profanity in poor taste and unwelcome? This would have the dual effect to encourage the modest to express themselves and it would be a subtle nudge that could cause some to feel a gentle shame for their mis-doings that would urge them to make an appropriate change. Who knows, maybe just such a "nudge" could change an eternal destiny?
Perhaps you are too close to perceive the glacial current? You wouldn't be the first. It is for this possibility I am offering my thoughts from a distant perspective.
I am cognizant that my letter requires some rumination and I welcome a dialectic to the beneficial future of DC. I also realize I am somewhat tampering with your wallet, but it was the ideals you offered in my genesis at DC that made me look deeper. At leat in some ways, you and DonationCoder have created this virtuous "Frankenstein." I hope you like your handiwork. I do.
In closing (for this part of our conversation), I do not have an axe to grind. I do not have any monetary agenda. I have no handle to notch. I have no mean-spirit or grudge. I have no one I wish to ostracize. I do not wish to manipulate DC for personal and arrogant self-righteousness. I wish to annoy no one. I do not desire to offend anyone. I am not Billy Graham, but I am a champion of that which is wholesome and good. I perceive that to allow people that have found a refuge here to continue in the same behavior that made them lonely in the first place is to forever entomb them to despair. If someone suffers the pain of loneliness because they never take a bath, it is the purest of love and the kindest charity to make it plain to him that he stinks. If someone is forever desparing because they always see themselves as a "victim," that one is forever doomed to their own personal dungeon. BUT, if one can accept the truth that they are "culpabalis prit," they will have the means to unlock the heavy door and walk into a brighter experience. Since they were the ones that put themselves in, they can be be the ones to take the first steps to get themselves out.
Jessie, my pen flows freely from my heart as I have a great passion firing my zeal! I believe we can effect a paradigm shift in the status quo. It's a good thing for us that a hundred guys felt the same way when they were in a small mission in south-central Texas.
I hope you share my passion and will dialog on what can be done. One thing is for certain... "All that is necessary for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing."
Let me hear from you,
Recent Posts
As far as leaving? I've already stated I've come to love you guys and gals and there really is something special here. I'm not going anywhere. smilie. Sure... Sometimes it's a real pain in the
) but I didn't see how the example explained what you think has happened to DC.
