Membership Manual Change: Age Requirements Revised

[Alexstrasz Ruskein]

You're welcome, and I'm sorry I wasn't more clear the first time around. And yes, I can absolutely understand not wanting to be misunderstood or misrepresented (accidentally or otherwise), especially about such a topic.

I joined in my early 30s, but a lot of my friends here joined 5-10 years before me, and I know that those years meant the world to some of them. So I want people to know that I respect that, and I hope teen fans today have life-changing spaces available to them... but, spaces that are better able to keep them safe than this one was.

 

[Morgana Arakos]

Thank you, I really appreciate you editing it and clarifying. Sorry to respond harshly -- I'm clearly not completely over what happened.

 

[Elia LePhant]

I fully support this change for reasons already mentioned. Primarily though, adults deserve a space too and our membership has aged. And teens rarely join forums anymore…

 

[Raevyn Tsornin]

I do support this change. Not because I think we need to do more “adult” things, but for liability and protection of the site.

I also think we need to emphasize - again- to everyone that if anyone is creeping on you or making you uncomfortable, no matter your age, please report it. Please.

 

[Alexstrasz Ruskein]

Thank you, I really appreciate you editing it and clarifying. Sorry to respond harshly -- I'm clearly not completely over what happened.

No worries; it's totally understandable.

 

[Satara al'Caelahn]

First, I just want to say that I am loving this display of clearing up a misunderstanding. I love that for us.

Also.

I also think we need to emphasize - again- to everyone that if anyone is creeping on you or making you uncomfortable, no matter your age, please report it. Please.

This.

I know the rule change is more specifically to protect minors, but someone doesn't have to be a minor to get harassed, and sometimes it's still hard to report something as an adult. Moreso if the perpetrator is a respected/prominent member of the community.

 

[Ruslan Rynar]

Just going to add my two cents...

I'm literally one of the newest members on this site; I joined a week after the Amyrlin posted the announcement, and one of the reasons I joined was because of the rule change. I deeply appreciate that only a few teenagers are running around the forums. I'm a male in my mid-30s, and being on forums with a bunch of teenagers creeps me out so much.

A lot of talk has been about the loss of potential teenage members, but when there were a lot of teenage members y'all probably lost out on a fair number of older potential members who did not want to hang out with a bunch of teenagers.

 

[Ajailyn Morrivinna]

A very very very important reason I think 18+ vs age of consent (other than clearly needing to know every states age and every country's).. is the very problem people think age of consent means someone who is age of majority (18) can have relations with a minor who is age of consent. In the US you can't, you absolutely can not. Age of consent means with others in their age group of consenting age. Very very few states have Romeo and Juliet rules to the age of consent vs age of majority. Because sooo many people don't fully grasp that age of consent isn't free reign on the age of the other partner... yea im good with not going that route. I know it wasn't brought back up since the original comment on it, but I wanted to point out why age of consent in the US shouldn't be used as a guideline.

 

[Idine Espanyas]

I do support this change. Not because I think we need to do more “adult” things, but for liability and protection of the site.

I also think we need to emphasize - again- to everyone that if anyone is creeping on you or making you uncomfortable, no matter your age, please report it. Please.

💯

 

[Seryse ni Cousland]

Not trying to be confrontational or beat a dead horse, but if we are moving on with this decision to keep membership at 18+, I would like to know why our official discord is a family friendly place with the expectation that it should be kept PG 13. The divergence is somewhat confusing.

 

[Satara al'Caelahn]

I can't say for sure because I'm not in the know here, but I would imagine that the increase to 18+ is for liability reasons, and for all the other reasons listed here, to protect the site and to protect younger members.

But that doesn't mean that it's okay to just be showing p*rn in all the Discord channels, either. Not because people are underage, but because some people don't want to see those things, and keeping things more family friendly is just the polite thing to do.

Raising the minimum age to 18+ just means that if something isn't family friendly, or someone curses in chat, it's not as big of an issue because we're all adults who can consent to the risk of seeing mature material.

 

[Seryse ni Cousland]

But that doesn't mean that it's okay to just be showing p*rn in all the Discord channels, either. Not because people are underage, but because some people don't want to see those things, and keeping things more family friendly is just the polite thing to do.

Raising the minimum age to 18+ just means that if something isn't family friendly, or someone curses in chat, it's not as big of an issue because we're all adults who can consent to the risk of seeing mature material.

I think it's appropriate to ban porn without making sure that the chat is PG13. If we're going off the membership manual and the request that we honor our membership who want adult only spaces, I'm not really seeing the logic here.

 

[Ananke Ruadh]

I think it's appropriate to ban porn without making sure that the chat is PG13. If we're going off the membership manual and the request that we honor our membership who want adult only spaces, I'm not really seeing the logic here.

+1

18+ does not only apply to pornography! It applies to language in general and the sorts of conversations that already happen in the Discord's Wandering Woman amongst other scattered discords about mental health, religion, relationship issues, and stressful life circumstance. A frank adult discussion does not equal a conversation about sex or depictions thereof. It can be inclusive of them, but it is not and should be assumed to be a direct correlation.

 

[Nadezhda al'Lanahrin]

I agree on the point of swearing. I would be happy to make a Community Feedback thread if that is the more appropriate venue.

 

[Cassie Dainar]

The “rules” of discord are going to be reviewed and frankly I expect PG-13 to change to something more generic. Reading through and making notes for changes is on my todo list after Anni.

 

[Satara al'Caelahn]

18+ does not only apply to pornography!

If it wasn't clear in my post, my reference to people going wild and flinging porn all over Discord was hyperbole, not something I would actually expect to happen. There is plenty of adult content and topics that have nothing to do with that.

The point that I was making was that some rules for appropriate conduct need to be in place because regardless of someone's age, everyone has the right to have a space where they're not being bombarded with adult content all the time, and likewise people have the right to have those adult spaces, as well, where they don't have to censor themselves to create a family friendly environment.

I think it's appropriate to ban porn without making sure that the chat is PG13.

I'm hoping for a happy medium somewhere, somehow. Like I said above, I think we should have a few spaces that are family friendly for people who don't want to see adult content, but we should also open up a bit and have more generalized adult spaces where there is less censoring than just relegating everything to one forum or one discord channel.

The “rules” of discord are going to be reviewed and frankly I expect PG-13 to change to something more generic. Reading through and making notes for changes is on my todo list after Anni.

The efforts are seen and appreciated. Qam got 10 Lan butts for her discord updates. I'm sure we can get you... let's say 50 Lan butts, I think.

 

[Morrighan Daghdera]

I would be happy to make a Community Feedback thread if that is the more appropriate venue.

Honestly disappointed that this entire conversation didn’t begin in CF. Not that the entire community has any kind of authority on the final decision. But putting the topic in CF or at least with the Community Council would have minimized the pushback in this public SA thread. This was a pretty significant change to be unilaterally implemented with zero advance community awareness.

To be clear: I have no opinion on the policy itself nor do I question the CEO’s authority to enact the change. The pronouncement without any forewarning was jarring and the public thread fallout should not be a surprise.

As far as Discord, I will provide historical context in that Discord itself is 13+, so that’s where the behavioral expectation originated.

 

[Veluene al'Myr]

I came here as I had the same question as Seryse of why the discord was PG-13 and I am glad to hear that is looking to be reviewed because some of the topics that can come into our DnD games are certainly not that and the occasional swear word will fly from my mouth in voice chat.

In addtion, reading back on previous posts I also want to say I 100% support this site being 18+ for all the reasons others have previously mentioned.

 

[Leese Sulan]

I joined this community at age 15 and I'm grateful I had the opportunity to be connected with so many lovely adults who quite honestly helped me through my teenage years. I lacked emotional support in my own home and community, but the folks here filled that gap for me.

With that said... I heavily support this change. My high school friend and I were as 16 year olds internet-dating members of this community who were 6 and 8 years older than us and as an adult I now find that incredibly cringe as we were minors. I share that dirty laundry as proof to support the notion we need to help prevent it for the youth of today and future.

Thankyou for this update.

 

[Calen Velervron]

So just because I have to be uber aware of this all the time working around children.

If I am in a car alone, I have my phone camera and recorder on. I call in my starting and ending mileage.
I refuse to travel alone on a plane even if its to drop a kid off.
I dont want to be alone in office spaces with kids.

It is not my fault, or the kids fault- Its the fact that one allegation and my life is over. Really true or not, I have to be above reproach all of the time. If there are going to be underage people at events, at the very least I would like notice and the option to not be there. I feel a lot better if a parent or another safe adult is there.

The world online is a scary, scary place. Sex trafficking is huge. I dont like having to restrict anything- but I do want to minimize anyones ability to hurt a kid