Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-3293219-20150511230631/@comment-3293219-20150512121259

Well, so much for 'we'll figure this out in the morning...'

First off, I want to apologise properly for not thinking up the obvious (Lazarus' point) at the time of creating the post. I can't believe that I watched every episode of Penn and Teller's: Bullshit! and that still didn't manage to occur to me.

First of all, I want to address why there wasn't a consensus and the reason for this was that this isn't a new rule, that is just being introduced, it has always been a rule, that has grown out dated and inconsistant. However, the rule should have been amended based on the community's view of it, I see that now.

Anyway, I have thought about this a lot and my original basis for making this thread was that the rule was a little dated and was technically not being enforced. At the start of the year, we had banned several RPs of a pornographic or an erotic nature, such as this one but the rule didn't really cover for this and so this was only seen as a minor adjustment.

Last night, I spoke to Lazarus and we eventually decided on creating a checklist, like Kenyon's which ticks off all of the reasons that we can allow these scenes in our RPs. The stuff that I was afraid of, such as illegal or down right messed up stuff is definitely a no go as is described rape or anything not consensual.

I personally think that this is the best way to update this policy, I personally don't see the harm in sex scenes, I think that they're trashy, if I can be honest but that's just my opinion and it shouldn't influence the decision. If A lot of community are in support of writing such scenes and even more are either tolerant towards reading them or support their existence and I don't feel that we can ignore that.

As far as underaged users go on the wiki? I've thought on that as well and to be honest, I don't understand how it is our responsibility to shield other people's children from sexual material. Their parents should either install software on their kid's computer or sit them down and make it clear what they should and shouldn't be accessing. I mean, think about it, that kid has the whole internet at their finger tips, if they don't read sexual/explicit material here, they could just as easily go off and find it elsewhere. No one over the age of thirteen should be here anyway and users over the age of thirteen can decide what they do and don't look at online.

I think that Lazarus is right on the whole 'this wiki is for everyone' thing, surely allowing this content is the only way that the wiki can be for everyone as the people who don't like it can avoid it. The other way around? We're isolating members of the community who haven't really done any harm and restricting their right to express themselves, because we don't like something. A wiki for everyone should cator to everyone, those who we agree with and those who we don't or else, as Lazarus again rightly pointed out, we'll end up like TES wiki, who damned themselves by kicking out the entire RP board because it 'embarassed' them.

As some people have stated, some find it offensive but people also find violence offensive. I personally have designed some pretty graphically violent scenes, to a Tarentino level in the past and it reminds me of what Stephen Fry said about profanity, how Murder isn't a taboo word, even though it's a horrible act but the word 'fuck' is, in spite of the fact that it gives people pleasure. (Yeah, I guess Stephen Fry was George Martin before George Martin. :P)

If I can be honest? Every user, that I have ever RPed with has 'offended' me at some point or another with their content. Made a decision that I didn't like or explored somewhere where I don't want to go but that's what makes RPing better and more interesting than story writing on your own and I find that I'm mostly glad that I had to explore these new areas. Though there were a few examples like with Rollywheel's stuff, which clearly did take it too far.

I think that all content, even TES Vanilla content can be described as 'offensive' in some way or another and therefore I don't really see it as a strong enough reason to be an it. I'm a major fan of the Voltaire quote: "I detest your opinion but I'll fight to the death in your order to have it." (Or something along those lines, Politics class was a long time ago. >.>) and I see this as s such a situation. I don't like these scenes and I'm aware that a lot of other people don't either but I don't see that as reason enough to ban them.

Overall? I think that we can make a compromise based on Lazarus/Kenyon's checklist idea and that we should make such a compromise. Or else we'll be doomed to make the same mistakes again.

So long as the content isn't solely pornographic or illegal or messed up, I don't hold an issue, just so long as there's a clear understanding demonstrated as to what is okay and what isn't.