Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-3293219-20150511230631/@comment-29458028-20150512100915

I have read through this thread, and I'd voice my opinion on this.

Let's step back a moment and discuss the pros and cons, won't we? We shall start with the negatives of banning explicit content.

1. You see, as had been mentioned, banning any form of content is a form of censorship. An attack on the Freedom of Speech. As this has been mentioned by Lazarus Grimm, I quote him: " I have nothing against erotic content as long as it is done by the book, which means no underage involvement or unconsensual sex. But to cut it out entirely, even when it is meant to bring a certain scene in a story to life? That just feels way too restricted. Right now it feels like someone cut off my hands, and no it's not because of the erotica thing, but because of a restriction of what people can and can't write? I know where my line goes, but who is to say that line doesn't match with other peoples ideals? Should I be "forced" then to reduce my writing for their sake, since there is a fine line what is considered to be pornographic content and erotic writing?"

You notice that to remove the option of writing an erotic/sex scene is as good as telling a writer that he/she cannot write a certain type of scene for whatever arbitrary reason. You curtial the freedom of expression. Since Lazarus' point pretty much speaks for itself, I shall not elaborate. The bottom line is - we all have a certain limit, and to base this limit on anyone's arbitrary definition of what should be the limit, that is a downright attack of the Freedom of Expression, and the implicit rejection of opinions for another group of opnions, without legitimate justification of why you have to implicitly reject the opinion. You don't want sex in your RP? Just don't write it in! How hard is it to do that?

2. Another dangerous path we potentially travel down is this - we can ban sex/erotica today in terms of prose, based on the arbitrary reason of "well, let's keep it kid friendly". This opens up in itself a plethora of unnecessary worries for the RP community. While we might not be banning ultra violence, intense swearing or other forms of things not considered "13 friendly", it makes it possible that someone can just as easily push for these to be phased out.

It's almost as silly as saying "let's ban Skooma for Khajits since it's teaching 13 year olds to do drugs. Oh, sleeping tree sap is contraband and not allowed in RPs." Seriously, guys?

We might not be banning any of these in this discussion, but it opens the avenue for such. Note that I'm not saying we should ban all of that, or that we are going to ban all of that, but removal of one aspect of free expression, is to say, an unhealthy psychological slipperly slope. It makes people feel the possibility that more blocks can be curtailed. It's not so much the act of banning it, but the possibility that will mentally irk people.

3.Lets make it clear here. You want to keep the thing safe for 13 year olds, and I'd say 13 year olds aren't that immature and innocent nowadays. Yes, you can attack this for being an opinion, but please, I have enough evidence. Every person in my country already learns the basics of sexual reproduction at ten, and they know what's going on. Case in point, I already know how men and women made babies since I was seven. Also, there is an implicit assumption that 13 year olds can't protect themselves, or are innately disgusted/corrupted by sex. I for one knew how to close and turn away from sex scenes/unsavoury content since I was a 7 year old. You think every other kid can't do that? I'd use HLL as an example. She's fine with the ban, but she's also fine without the ban. Why? Because she knows how to discriminate what she wants to read, and what she doesn't. I'm pretty sure most people have enough brainpower to do what HLL does (no offence meant).

4. I know some people are using TNK as an example of the perils of sex, but I think it also shows us another side of the story. Firstly, every scene in it was perfectly consensual, despite the potrayals of certain scenes. And in the end, TNK folded, like it should, since the RPers were mature enough to shut it down and trash it for all it's inglorious nature. I'd even use an anecdote - Karonor asked me to set up a scene between his character and mine, of unsavoury nature. I told him in his face NO! and did he force it? He didn't. Karonor did ask for consent and it was given. In fact, everything in TNK is pre planned. So do we have issues with unconsensual sex? No. In fact, that is stopped by the "powerplay rule".

Now, for the benefits:

If we ban it, of course we appease a very select group of people. The people who initiated the ban, and the so called "innocent, clean 13 year olds." Sounds pretty good, no? We are such a kid friendly wiki, right? So we think.

Except, think about it. This wiki is pretty obscure and limited to us, this tiny RP corps who don't really tout this everywhere or make it well known. We all are self regulating and limiting to an extent. Do we get much AWC traffic? Not really, except for the occasional wanderer who leaves as soon as he realizes this isn't TES wikia and never comes back. Do we get a glut of "innocent" 13 year olds? Nope, except for the ones who were already RPing on TES wikia and seen enough of the scenes to be jaded already. So is this benefit really a legitimate benefit, seeing that is achieves nearly nothing, besides the fact we can assuage our conscience with "kid friendliness"? I doubt it. Oh, and doesn't curtailing the Freedom of Expression tickle that same conscience?

Conclusion:

Think about it, guys. Do we really want the loss of freedoms and story plots, which would ultimately lead to people leaving in favour of upholding a rule which hardly makes anyone better off? I mean, you are always entitled to your opinion on that, and I'm not one to tell you what to do.

Let's think about it a moment. We hardly have new people joining, if at all, and we all know each other. How many people will really benefit from this rule? Or is it just a white elephant that brings no good?