MrGenie
07-07-2005, 10:28 PM
Today, like most days, there have been several threads of the following variety (I am not quoting anyone here, just making up a general example):
"OMG, I was in the [insert room name] today and all of a sudden this guy walked up to a girl and said [insert most horrible thing you can think of to say that is still allowed by the VMK dictionary]. ISN'T THAT SO WRONG???!!1"
This post will inevitably be followed by one or both of the following replies:
"OMG that is the worst thing I have ever seen! Report it!"
or...
"Well that's nothing..the other day I saw someone say [insert even more horrible example of something that is allowed by the VMK dictionary]. EWW!!1"
I understand why some of you feel the need to start threads like this or post replies to threads like this, but please take a minute to think about what you are doing...
1) You are providing an example of something that is inappropriate in VMK. Even though this is not the same as you actually saying the inappropriate things you are quoting, would you be willing to walk up to a Cast Member in VMK in a room full of people and type, "Guess what I just heard- [insert nasty comment of your choice]". I dare say you would not, for fear of being banned. I fail to see how quoting the same comment in a "G"-rated public forum is that much different; in fact, the potential audience is much wider here.
2) Though most forum members and guests browsing the forum are probably upstanding VMK citizens, do you really want to provide additional examples of unruly behavior to the small percentage of forum browsers that will likely head straight into VMK with this new information and test it out? I believe this compounds the problem.
3) Rather than posting examples of bad VMK behavior on the forum and opening it up for discussion, wouldn't your time be better spent reporting the incident to VMK? I know some of you routinely do both, but if you are only posting it to the forum I fail to see how this will help to alleviate the problem in any way; to me, posting it can only make matters worse.
Thus, when I run across a post similar to the examples above, and usually with the replies I've also shown above, I am more likely than not to ban this thread in an attempt to avoid issues #1-3. Occasionally, there is some other valuable tangential discussion in the same thread, and I will attempt to edit out any inappropriate examples in an effort to not "throw out the baby with the bathwater"; however, in my experience these are few and far between.
I don't really expect to slow down these types of threads from being started, as it would appear that they are irresistible. However, please try to understand my rationale for banning some of these threads, and I wish you would give some thought to my arguments before posting a thread of this nature to see if it is really the type of thing you ought to be quoting in a "G" rated forum.
Thank you for your time. If anyone has a counter-argument to why these threads should be allowed, I'd love to hear it. :)
"OMG, I was in the [insert room name] today and all of a sudden this guy walked up to a girl and said [insert most horrible thing you can think of to say that is still allowed by the VMK dictionary]. ISN'T THAT SO WRONG???!!1"
This post will inevitably be followed by one or both of the following replies:
"OMG that is the worst thing I have ever seen! Report it!"
or...
"Well that's nothing..the other day I saw someone say [insert even more horrible example of something that is allowed by the VMK dictionary]. EWW!!1"
I understand why some of you feel the need to start threads like this or post replies to threads like this, but please take a minute to think about what you are doing...
1) You are providing an example of something that is inappropriate in VMK. Even though this is not the same as you actually saying the inappropriate things you are quoting, would you be willing to walk up to a Cast Member in VMK in a room full of people and type, "Guess what I just heard- [insert nasty comment of your choice]". I dare say you would not, for fear of being banned. I fail to see how quoting the same comment in a "G"-rated public forum is that much different; in fact, the potential audience is much wider here.
2) Though most forum members and guests browsing the forum are probably upstanding VMK citizens, do you really want to provide additional examples of unruly behavior to the small percentage of forum browsers that will likely head straight into VMK with this new information and test it out? I believe this compounds the problem.
3) Rather than posting examples of bad VMK behavior on the forum and opening it up for discussion, wouldn't your time be better spent reporting the incident to VMK? I know some of you routinely do both, but if you are only posting it to the forum I fail to see how this will help to alleviate the problem in any way; to me, posting it can only make matters worse.
Thus, when I run across a post similar to the examples above, and usually with the replies I've also shown above, I am more likely than not to ban this thread in an attempt to avoid issues #1-3. Occasionally, there is some other valuable tangential discussion in the same thread, and I will attempt to edit out any inappropriate examples in an effort to not "throw out the baby with the bathwater"; however, in my experience these are few and far between.
I don't really expect to slow down these types of threads from being started, as it would appear that they are irresistible. However, please try to understand my rationale for banning some of these threads, and I wish you would give some thought to my arguments before posting a thread of this nature to see if it is really the type of thing you ought to be quoting in a "G" rated forum.
Thank you for your time. If anyone has a counter-argument to why these threads should be allowed, I'd love to hear it. :)