TOPIC: Website Policy

After a few PMs to other people and a long discussion with Jeff today, I discussed some things that have been occurring on this website and how things should/could be addressed.  A long list of suggestions were discussed, but I have decided to keep the rules simple and have narrowed the rules of this website down to two:<br /><br />1.  Don't piss Fritz off.<br />2.  Referr to rule number one.<br /><br />Now that I have your attention, this is the jest of what was discussed:  Over the past few months I have encountered several situations were I was asked to make a judgement call on a post, a link, a photo, the useage of a word,  or whatever.  Being a morality police person is not my thing.  If you must know, though it may come as a surprise to some of you, I am not perfect and have said bad things, cussed, been negative, or been a bad example for someone.  I don't like conflict and I don't like telling other people how to behave. But a few weeks ago, I had a forum visitor complain to me that this site does not have any rules posted - this being PMed to me after I removed a link from their post - and I had to concede that they were right.  I might also add that this same person made a very agreeable compromise after I explained why I did what I did.  (Thank you!)  So I passed this information to Jeff, saying that I thought this person was right and we needed rules posted. The discussion progressed to the fact that rules posted means that there would be some people who would break the rules or do as much as possible to see just how far they could go - yada yada yada yada.  Jeff finally said to me, "OK, you want rules, here's the rules - Don't piss off Fritz. You are now officially the Pope of the website."  And I had to look at him to see if he was kidding.  He wasn't.<br /><br />The one thing all the directors agree on is that this site is PG-13, so I looked up a few things to get an idea of what this really means.  I'm not going to list what it said, but it brought me to this thought.  A favorite "chick flick" of mine is What Women Want.  I looked it up to see what the rating was and found that it was a perfect example of PG-13.  It has sexual harassment in it, a guy talking to his thing, a sex scene that shows very little but discusses much, lying is used, etc etc etc you get my point.  I am NOT ADVOCATING any of this behavior on this forum, but what I want to say is that this subject of what is acceptable behavior could go on forever, and never come to any type of agreement from anyone.  In the "real" world, I am faced daily with ethics and what is acceptable behavior in providing services to people. I am going to attempt to give you guys some guidelines to start with.<br /><br />1.  You have the right to disagree with other forum visitors.  You do not have the right to call them names or put them down in the process.  State your personal oppinion in a courteous manner.<br /><br />2.  Respect your directors and the other forum visitors.  If a forum visitor says that they are offended by something you have posted, have the decency to apologise, and edit your own post accordingly. <br /><br />3.  Remember this site is open to children.  This means that what you would normally say to your buddies is not appropriate for a child.<br /><br />I have the right to edit, change, remove, lock, etc etc etc, anytime I feel that what you have said or done is not appropriate for this site, wheather you intended offence or not, and I do not have to explain why to anyone but the owner of this site - that would be Jeff.  I will strive to my utmost to be fair and respectful to everyone.  That's about the best that I can do.<br /><br /><br />Thank you,<br />Fritz

<br />1.   You have the right to disagree with other forum visitors.  You do not have the right to call them names or put them down in the process.  State your personal oppinion in a courteous manner.<br /><br />2.   Respect your directors and the other forum visitors.  If a forum visitor says that they are offended by something you have posted, have the decency to apologise, and edit your own post accordingly. <br /><br />3.  Remember this site is open to children.  This means that what you would normally say to your buddies is not appropriate for a child.<br />

<br /><br />Fritz,<br /><br />First, while I realize and fully anticipate that it will be difficult and trying at times to enforce this, thank you for posting rules to the TD forum.  <br /><br />But could you please explain a few things?  If this site is as you say "open to children", shouldn't it be "PG" or "G" instead of "PG-13" as "all the directors agree on".<br /><br />And if I am offended by it, shouldn't you change you change your post above simply based on that offense?<br /><br />While I FULLY understand the need to have rules for these boards, I think it is important to balance logic, the rights of expression, and the desire to keep the boards "PG-13" with the rules.<br /><br />Thanks again for the post,<br />Douglas<br /><br />

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<br />1.   You have the right to disagree with other forum visitors.  You do not have the right to call them names or put them down in the process.  State your personal oppinion in a courteous manner.<br /><br />2.   Respect your directors and the other forum visitors.  If a forum visitor says that they are offended by something you have posted, have the decency to apologise, and edit your own post accordingly. <br /><br />3.  Remember this site is open to children.  This means that what you would normally say to your buddies is not appropriate for a child.<br />

<br /><br />Fritz,<br /><br />..........<br /><br />But could you please explain a few things?  If this site is as you say "open to children", shouldn't it be "PG" or "G" instead of "PG-13" as "all the directors agree on".<br /><br />And if I am offended by it, shouldn't you change you change your post above simply based on that offense?<br />...............<br />Thanks again for the post,<br />Douglas<br /><br /><br />

<br /><br /><br />Douglas,<br /><br />At my age, if you are under 40, you are considered a child.  No offence meant. <br /><br />But seriously,  I would say that if you disagree, you may not necessarily be offended.  It least, I am seldom offended when I disagree,  Wouldn't you agree?

<br />Douglas,<br /><br />At my age, if you are under 40, you are considered a child.  No offence meant. <br /><br />But seriously,  I would say that if you disagree, you may not necessarily be offended.  It least, I am seldom offended when I disagree,  Wouldn't you agree?<br />

<br /><br /><br />LOL Fritz, you are too funny.  =D  <br /><br />How can I argue with that logic. 

:icon_biggrin: Thanks!

<br />But could you please explain a few things?  If this site is as you say "open to children", shouldn't it be "PG" or "G" instead of "PG-13" as "all the directors agree on".<br />

<br />This is a "semi-universal" forum guideline. I know there are laws about very young kids accessing websites, but have to be honest that I don't know exactly what they are. I do know that many websites or forums I have signed up on require you to give your age, and state something to the effect that if you are under 13, you must have a parent or guardians permission to join/post. This is why the PG-13 guideline, as it's intention is that a parent should decide if the material is appropriate for a person under 13. <br /><br />Make sense?<br /><br />And Suzanne - Great rules!

That's right people, KFH!<br />Keep Fritz Happy.  =D<br />hehehehehe *bribes TD forum pope Fritz with gummy bears to stay on her good side*

I know there are laws about very young kids accessing websites, but have to be honest that I don't know exactly what they are. I do know that many websites or forums I have signed up on require you to give your age, and state something to the effect that if you are under 13, you must have a parent or guardians permission to join/post.

<br /><br />The COPA (Child Online Protection Act) forbids sites from collecting information on kids under 13 which includes name and e-mail address.  That is why sites require parental permission.  It doesn't mean young kids can't access sites, it means that they need their parents to sign up.  (Or it means they have to click "Yes, I'm over 18" when it asks...) 

<br />The COPA (Child Online Protection Act) forbids sites from collecting information on kids under 13 which includes name and e-mail address.  That is why sites require parental permission.  It doesn't mean young kids can't access sites, it means that they need their parents to sign up.  (Or it means they have to click "Yes, I'm over 18" when it asks...)  <br />[/quote]<br /><br /><br />lmao  vary nice

Thanks for putting thought and attention into this to help keep this a great forum.<br />

You are welcome.  Though.... there are some days I'd rather just let someone else be the guy who makes that hard choises. 

It's your willingness to put so much thought into the hard choices that you have to make that makes you good at this.<br /><br />Kim