"Profane Language in First Life Profile"

Why are the forums supposed to be areas considered PG, the same as PG areas in the game, and yet the rules are enforced completely differently?

People in the game can and do get suspended for saying "f you" to someone else, or even for just having profane language in their profile. Yet here on the forums saying "f you" to someone is perfectly okay. This despite the fact that the guidelines say the forums are to be considered the same as the PG areas of the game.

Here, from the Police Blotter today (and the same sorts of offenses have been constantly on the police blotter since I arrived in SL in February of 2005):

Date: Friday, June 9, 2006 Violation: Indecency: Global Standards: Profile Region: — Description: Profane language in 1st life tab or profile. Action taken: Warning issued.

Date: Thursday, June 15, 2006 Violation: Indecency: Global Standards: Group Information Region: Ahern Description: Obscene group name. Action taken: Suspended 3 days.

(This has nothing to do with levels of hostility involved, either. On the forums, "f you" has been said with PLENTY of hostility.)

My questions:

1. Don't you think it's about time to label the forums "Mature" instead of pretending all this profanity - against other residents or even LL - is somehow within the rules? For consistancy's sake, if nothing else?

2. Are you worried about pictures? If so, you could always state that M-rated pictures aren't okay on the forums.

3. Why does one person get suspended three days for a thread that includes pixel boobies from the teen grid (to illustrate what is there that shouldn't be), and then starts another thread to ask why, yet other posters can tell each other to get f'ed and nothing happens to them? (And I don't mean as a joke.) Again, the lack of consistency is appalling here.

4. I prefer that you just make the forums mature rated. But if you don't want to, don't you think you should look at the fact that they actually AREN'T, and start enforcing the same rules for PG vs M that you enforce in the game? Or stop enforcing the language rules in the game if you aren't going to enforce them here?

It's inconsistant to have the same rule for both places but enforce it in only one. And it's unfair to punish some on the forums but not others for breaking the same purported rule.

coco

coco, you're right--there's inconsistencies in between the forums and inworld (the actual Second Life). Some of that is simply due to their medium. For example, inworld, if someone shouts out "FUCK!!!" in a PG region and you come by a minute later, you wouldn't know they said that unless they told you so--and even then, you'd have to take their word for it. Whereas, on the forums, text is searchable, communication is asynchronous, and a lot of 2004 threads look exactly like 2006 ones in this regard. In the latter case, we don't possibly have the time--or desire--to edit out every single cussword here. :\ And *that* is one of the reasons why there's a difference!

Speaking of 2004:



CONTEXT: /120/a6/30104/2.html#post307508

Again, with differences like that, things can't be the same.

The forums, however, can't be considered Mature on the whole. PG is a "general guideline", and posting porno isn't allowed. I mused before about having a Mature area of the forums (e.g., "How come we have Mature regions but no Mature forums?", and brought up several other ideas like the addition of a Rants forum--which were already historically tried and didn't work out for the best. Addition of more rules just makes more ways to get around them. The more rigid something is, the easier it is to break.

As for differences in discipline, here's something that's often missed: history. Sometimes, people look at two infractions of the same general type... what's not shown is that one account is a repeat offender and has a disciplinary history, while the other isn't.

We strive for consistency. Realistically, however: 1) we're human, with a broad diversity of viewpoints; 2) our resources are limited; 3) the forums have too much noise, too little signal--and that's why we're happy to have the help of the ResMods. *tips hat* Some say that this makes for more inconsistency due to different styles, but then again, it's about learning from experience--if we haven't done it, we have no empirical say in the matter.

I've learned the value of allocating time wisely. There are only so many hours in a day. Time I spend closing threads takes away from me corraling the gosh-awful bugs that also come up on the forums. There are so many existing problems; why compound them? So, I've learned to prioritize better, and focus.

It's my plea... I hope people would be nicer to each other and use the Ignore button instead of engaging in shameful public brawls, but that's not the way it's gonna be: humans are human. Still, better than any "forum nannying" by me, I'm all for control of one's self. It's the finest moderation of all.

And, further in the future--more Resident-run forums where they can do as they please. That's one of my dreams.

Thank you graciously for bringing this up, coco. I hope you are doing alright.