City of IF

[Shillelagh]

Before the dark forums existed, the best you could do was to put a warning at the top of your story, explaining what questionable content may be found within. Even then, the whole site was rather kid friendly, and so there was only so much one could write and still get away with the understood code of decency.

Then we got the Dark forums. Thanks to the magic of age restrictive hide settings, you can pretty much post whatever you want, as long as it still resembles literature when you squint. Of course, we also got a dark forum for every freaking forum out there. And if we're going to say that we have too many general forums, then we definitely have way too many dark forums.

So what should we do with them? Do we keep the normal to dark ratio equal? Do we combine all of the dark forums into one, uber dark forum? Do we get rid of all of it, and go back to warnings at the top of the page? Where's the line between 'warning at the page's top' and 'needs to be in the dark forum'? Any other thoughts pertaining to this subject?

[misterbiz]

If elected, I will most likely dispose of the dark forums. They are useless and frankly, I've never liked the idea of them. I know that having this place all nice and "kid-friendly" is rather appealing and helps draw in some more people and that could help stimulate activity (COULD...NOT WILL). But I think a return to warnings might be the way to go.

Especially since Dark is a very vague and relative terminology. Some people think that Stephen King is really dark and I just say he's twisted. Bentley Little is dark. It really differs from individual to individual. Some could consider Eternia or Alice darker than Kissing the Darkness, the latter of which is in the dark forums.

In my opinion the line is too fuzzy to decide between normal forums and dark forums, the only stuff I think that should be restricted to an age-restricted forum is anything bordering on the erotic, because believe it or not there is some excellent erotic fiction out there that is truly literature. (not Kalyssa Summers or whatever her name was...her stuff was just literary porn...there is a difference).

And while I am talking about this, I will also promise that the opening of any new forums will first be discussed by me, my vice-mayor and the council beforehand, just to ensure no more wasted space.

[Andolyn]

I completely agree with Biz here. Look at the dark forums. Outside of fantasy and horror, they're empty, and even in those, there arent many SGs. The warning system has been perfect for what is written here...being that most of us sort of stick to an unspoken code of writing mostly with nothing more than violence and foul language. I would perhaps keep one dark forum for erotic materials ((agree again with Biz on the difference in erotic literature and written porno)) and other such mature themes, but for the most part, a simple warning will suffice, methinks.

[sagittaeri]

And, let's not forget that it's really easy for anyone to fake their birthday, so, it's not really going to stop anyone from getting to it either.

[Andolyn]

That's very true, but it would save us from any legal responsibility should a minor look at it & get caught.