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What is appropriate content for DonationCoder?
CodeTRUCKER:
Greetings to Everyone!
After more than a year of doing all I can from my end and having some private conversations with moderators and Mouser, I now have been given leave by our overseers to take my appeal to the masses. It is not that I needed their collective permission, but that it was my desire to exhaust every available option to compromise all the way to where I could go no further without eroding the core of my person and purpose. I am persuaded that it was my commitment to maintaining harmony at Cody's Home and my love for our DC community members that has provoked the leadership to encourage me to express my concerns in the open forum. I am honored by this. It confirms to me that my intent is devoid of selfish ambition that would manipulate others for its own narcissistic ends. So with that disclaimer and endorsement I submit my case.
Unfortunately, my aforementioned limit has now presented itself and I am faced with a terrible dilemma. The dilemma is...
On one hand... I have come to love this community. I have felt at home here. I came here because there was a special spark that made the coding alive. In my experience, I have found no other computing forum where every bug is pursued by a relentless posse until succinctly squished by such a cerebral and compassionate community. My coding skills and system thought processes have grown quickly and substantially greater in my participation. I anticipate greater growth is yet to come. I have even found a sense of my own vicarious exultation when one of our members succeeds!
On the other hand... The environment has degraded to where I am vexed with ever increasing frequency by the profanity and graphic content that is so accepted in the threads and is so distasteful to me.
Let me share a hypothetical example...
ClickLet's say that I have found a local meeting place that is not advertised as a bar, but a common place of association. When I first arrived, I sensed no smoke and no bottles were visible on the nicely rafted shelves and the general appointments were most pleasing to the senses. A delicious aroma wafts up to my nose and I am anticipating sharing a sumptious dining experience with an admirable and congenial group of folks. I am taken in ambush by my heart to gather all these people in without reserve. I find myself a willing victim of this coronary onslaught. After some more meals shared between us and my sense of being home is now set in,
I arrive one evening to discover a couple of whiskey bottles , their levels lowered due to being dispensed into various shots. Beer mugs also are now present with thier white-headed yellow contents, some being illuminated from behind as the setting sun pierces through the slits in the shades. "Hmmm... " I think to myself. "this is a new wrinkle," but as I was so warmly allowed to enter their ranks I can not find it in myself to criticize. I even offer my services as a dedicated driver so the integrity of thier safety will not be compromised. In the process of learning of these new surroundings, I discover other rooms with other attributes and like the alcohol, while it is not my preference, I still can hold in higher esteem the greater character of my new friends. Unfortunately, when I return to my accustomed theatre, I sense the smell of cigar and cigarette smoke. Now, I have a dilemma. If I remain, I will suffer as my respiratory health will suffer, but how can I leave such a nurturing place? I can't, so I acquire an invisible breathing filter at significant personal cost which I can adjust to my needs. It works successfully for the present and I can still dine on the most satisfying cuisine. I also am made aware by the host and some of the others that I was really missed while I was gone for a time and that it was really good having me back. Indeed the absence of my contribution had left a noticable hole. I had never been aware that I counted that much. It felt good!
As time progressed and with some particular instances the quantity and quality of the now smoke-filled rooms had grown to the point of overpowering my invisible filter. My respiratory health was being adversely affected. After discussing my plight with the storekeeper, I was advised to let them know how the environment was harming me and to have confidence that they knew me, cared for me and would do what they could to make some accomodation for my needs. I agreed and on the next occasion I submitted that I loved them dearly and was keenly aware that there was mutual benefit to be had, but that as a non-smoker, it had become untennable for me to remain iin the present environment as it would eventually remove me anyway as my health failed even if I tried to stay. I waited for their response.
Please note that the references to drinking and smoking are not intended to be character judgements. They were used to offer an unreconcilable juxtaposition. Lastly, Thank you for taking the time to read my short story. :Thmbsup:
So, I am needful of finding out if others share my vexation or if I am a relic of a by-gone day and not compatible with the community at large. Now that you know my thoughts, what are your thoughts?
TucknDar:
The environment has degraded to where I am vexed with ever increasing frequency by the profanity and graphic content that is so accepted in the threads and is so distasteful to me.-CodeTRUCKER (January 03, 2008, 04:50 PM)
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Sorry, I don't understand what you mean by this? I read your story (try making paragraphs, it was kinda hard to read ;) ) but I didn't see how the example explained what you think has happened to DC.
Maybe a real example from DC would be more helpful.
Or am I missing something? :huh:
CodeTRUCKER:
The environment has degraded to where I am vexed with ever increasing frequency by the profanity and graphic content that is so accepted in the threads and is so distasteful to me.-CodeTRUCKER (January 03, 2008, 04:50 PM)
--- End quote ---
Sorry, I don't understand what you mean by this? I read your story (try making paragraphs, it was kinda hard to read ;) ) but I didn't see how the example explained what you think has happened to DC.
Maybe a real example from DC would be more helpful.
Or am I missing something? :huh:
-TucknDar (January 03, 2008, 05:05 PM)
--- End quote ---
Thank you for the grammatical pointers. Here is an example. Here is another one sort of close to home. As close as the verbiage under your member name. I hope you will not be offended. You asked for a real example.
mouser:
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:
"First of all, thank you for the heartfelt message.
And let me say I completely understand that you have only the site (and its readers) best interests and concerns at heart.
For me, the issue of sexuality stuff on the forum is a bit tricky.
Let me say that i am very interested in the site being a friendly place for young kids to be able to hang out. We had a poll recently of reader ages, and id say we have a definite demographic that skews older, we do have some younger people, and young coders.
So i always am on the lookout for things that are not appropriate for young people.
And politics is pretty much forbidden, because of the animosity it can entail. You and i may be on different sides of the political spectrum. I'm pretty far left of center and i'm not a fan of what i view as an out of control corporatism that i see as pervading and corrupting this country. I'm also a pretty vehement atheist.. though i don't think arguments over religion have any place on our forum either.
I'm saying all of this just to lead up to the fact that i think you and i share the same basic desire to keep the site a welcoming place for everyone. I am not one of those people that believes you need to scream censorship every time a site makes a decision that some content isn't appropriate.
However, and here comes the more tricky part, i have a fairly lax view about what is inappropriate, and i tend to view consensual sexual stuff as being mostly harmless and non-offensive. if you search the forum you'll find i've made quite a few posts about some interesting computer-related sexual stories and "products". It's been a long time since i have posted about something like that, but i would be inclined to do so again if i found something interesting.
The youporn post you found is actually something that another site admin "complained" about because i blogged it and he felt that was inappropriate, and i took that to heart -- that may have been a case where i crossed the line into bad taste and wouldnt do that again.
But like i said, my inclination is not to try to keep the forum free of all such content.. personally i think that would be too severe a restriction on content.
However, i do view the site as a community site, and since you feel strongly about it, i do encourage you to make a post about your thoughts and see what others feel. I suspect some will agree and some disagree. One of my favorite people on the site is zaine ridling, who maintains the incredible Great Software list, and he is seriously seriously into pictures of women. i can't think of a nicer guy on the forum, married, and with a great heart and smart, etc.
There are many things we have to take stands on, and not compromise. I hope that if you look at the content as a whole of the forum, you'll decide that this isn't one of those all or nothing times and that while you might disagree with the occasional post, or even find the occasional post offensive or immoral, that it doesn't mean you have to stop participating in the site.
One thing we absolutely can and will do, is make sure that any topic about such questionable material be marked as NSFW (not suitable for work), and i have never allowed nude pictures on the forum, so at a minimum we should be able to make it very easy to filter out and avoid such content."
jgpaiva:
I can definitelly see the problem.
While i rarelly find a post "offensive" (and when i do, i post a reply saying so), i can see what you mean about some threads being a bit inappropriate. I often don't reply to avoid getting more attention to the material.
Still, i don't think we should go with the "this thread will be deleted, it's against forum regulations" kind of approach.
I think this very thread is important to discuss what is appropriate and what isn't, so that frequent posters can be alert and avoid going that way.
Just to reiterate, i don't think there's need to be anal about this, because that also causes a bad environment, let's just have a talk about it.
One thing about this that i consider important is that threads/posts that are NSFW are marked as so, or have the spoiler tag.
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