34 replies to this topic

[Radien]

Today we have opened up a new forum called Mature Discussion. This is a forum reserved specifically for our members who are at least 18 years old and would like to talk about topics that are of little interest to the younger crowd. Since only members age 18 and up are admitted, you will be required to sign up for access before you can view the forum. There are, of course, some guidelines and restrictions on what kind of content is allowed. If you'd like to know what it's all about, I suggest visiting the Mature Discussion Sign-up Forum and reading the topics there.

In case you'd like to find it from the forum index, look for it under the Staff Dropbox parent forum. Once you are approved, you'll be able to see Mature Discussion near the bottom of the forum index. If the Debate Forum is visible for you, Mature Discussion will be right below it.

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to post them here!

[Russ]

Um, do we really need this? A large percent of Pure ZC's population is under 18, and the percent that's above doesn't exactly talk about it so much that it needs its own forum. What caused you to make it?

Edit: Nevermind, just read the rules for it. I mistook Mature Content to mean "M rated".

Edited by Russ, 12 October 2009 - 08:41 PM.

[Silver]

Hm...this looks like a good idea. Need to wait a year for it though DX

Just curious, but what brought about this new forum?

[Evile]

That link you provided doesn't seem to work Rad. I might be interested in this though, I'll be sure to check it out.

[Radien]

Um, do we really need this? A large percent of Pure ZC's population is under 18, and the percent that's above doesn't exactly talk about it so much that it needs its own forum. What caused you to make it?

Edit: Nevermind, just read the rules for it. I mistook Mature Content to mean "M rated".

You aren't reading very carefully... I never said that the purpose of the forum was mature content. See topic.

Hm...this looks like a good idea. Need to wait a year for it though DX

Just curious, but what brought about this new forum?

Well, there are certain topics in the past that, when brought up in pubic on the forums, would simply receive a bunch of blank stares. There would be a few older members who might be suited to talk about it at length, but doing so while surrounded by underage members would end up making them feel uncomfortable. I proposed we try a Mature Discussion forum to address this, and see how it goes. The idea is that to provide forums where people of all ages feel comfortable, the older members eventually need a place where they can talk more freely. Think of it as that time during a party when the teens and adolescents split off from the adults.

That link you provided doesn't seem to work Rad. I might be interested in this though, I'll be sure to check it out.

I had another look at the forum permissions and tried to make them identical to those of Debate Forum Sign-up (since it's a sign-up sheet, regular members should have access to both).

I hope it'll work for you now, but if it doesn't, please PM me. Fortunately, other members have been able to access it so far, so if there's a problem, it should be easier to isolate it.


Edit:

I think I found the problem. People who had signed up for the Debate Forum were given a whole new set of permissions, rather than just tacking the Debate permissions on top of the regular set of member permissions. So when I gave regular members permission to access MD sign-up, it didn't extend that permission to Debate Forum participants.

I've solved the problem for now; hopefully we can have it more organized before something like this happens again.

Edited by Radien, 13 October 2009 - 02:17 AM.

[Eddard McHorn Van-Schnuder]

While you've got a point Russ, there still is a lot of people over the age of 18 that DO want to talk about certain topics not suited for minors. It doesn't have do be about, say sex, but anything that could be harder for a younger mind to have an actual and serious discussion about too.

I'm not saying everyone under the age of 18 is too young to have a mature discussion... I know for a fact that it's not the case, having had a number of great talks about serious and mature topics with more than one member that's under the age... but the limit is there because we can't make a psychological profile on every single user that would like to participate... that and the fact that some parents may not be very happy to hear that their kids could include themselves in something like this.

Or at least, that's how I understand how it is... but don't worry though, those without access probably won't see any difference at all to PureZC. I mean, it's just another subforum, and it's not gonna change anything community-wise. It's not like everyone over the age of 18 will just stop posting in the other parts. Hehe.

[Radien]

I forgot to mention that the large number of younger members on this forum is actually one of the reasons we're trying the MD forum. If older members feel outnumbered and out of place on PureZC, they might leave. And that'd be bad, because a good number of those older members are running the site.

[CastChaos]

I forgot to mention that the large number of younger members on this forum is actually one of the reasons we're trying the MD forum. If older members feel outnumbered and out of place on PureZC, they might leave. And that'd be bad, because a good number of those older members are running the site.

Yes, exactly. That's why I give this forum a try.
Something such with ZC (and an "author is 18 or older" search filter in the database) would seriously own, too. Oops, sorry, I didn't think into the fact that it wouldn't make difference now, especially not the filter.

Edited by CastChaos, 14 October 2009 - 03:47 AM.

[NekoArc]

What a pleasant surprise waiting for me when I finally have time to be around. I wish the board good luck, and hopefully should go a lot better than GM did

[Snarwin]

What a pleasant surprise waiting for me when I finally have time to be around. I wish the board good luck, and hopefully should go a lot better than GM did

GM was, essentially, a forum designed to bring out the worst in people. I can hardly imagine any other forum on this site--much less one that appears to be modeled after the heavily-moderated debate forum--going anywhere near as badly as GM did.

Then again, I also forsee it being roughly as active as the Debate forum. But that's not necessarily a bad thing.

[Radien]

What a pleasant surprise waiting for me when I finally have time to be around. I wish the board good luck, and hopefully should go a lot better than GM did

Hey, thanks for the well wishes. I guarantee this will be nothing like General Malcontent.

GM was, essentially, a forum designed to bring out the worst in people. I can hardly imagine any other forum on this site--much less one that appears to be modeled after the heavily-moderated debate forum--going anywhere near as badly as GM did.

Then again, I also forsee it being roughly as active as the Debate forum. But that's not necessarily a bad thing.

The application process is modeled after the Debate Forum, but I don't expect it will need to be policed nearly as much. The Debate Forum has strict rules to prevent it from blowing up, whereas MD's rules are mostly to keep it over 18 and to discourage annoying behavior from those who qualify. General Malcontent was modeled after General B****ing on the AGN forums, which was likely the main problem.

I expect it will be a little more consistently active than the Debate Forum, because the atmosphere is meant to be more casual, whereas DB is typically fueled by current issues. But hey, that's just speculation.

[Schwa]

This is a fantastic idea, actually. You know, I seem to remember it being proposed one time years ago and the idea getting shot down. Heh heh, I guess times change... ^^

I might sign up, but not right now at least. No reason to just yet for me. I'm sorta a kid at heart anyway; I'd have been fine with or without such a place. Great idea though.

[Lemon]

Oh cool, so we can talk about boobies now?

[Ben]

Here follows a completely serious post with no negative intentions:

I forgot to mention that the large number of younger members on this forum is actually one of the reasons we're trying the MD forum. If older members feel outnumbered and out of place on PureZC, they might leave. ...

That's one of the several reasons why I decided to actually leave my staff position. I haven't "left" PureZC yet, but there was very little to hold my interest here, and very little that I could contribute that could not also be done by the other staff.

In the meantime I've been having a great time over at jul. To be frank, before the Mature Discussion forum popped up a couple days ago, PureZC was so overflowing with really young people that it was getting a "My First Internet Forum" kind of feel, especially because the staff actually are a bit more strict here than other places (though that is not necessarily a bad thing.)

I would like to see this succeed. But if WildBill can't find motivation to work on the site again (I know how hard that is,) and a new stable version of ZC doesn't come out, MD might not be enough to resurrect the general forums.

Edited by Bengal, 14 October 2009 - 12:15 PM.

[Twilight Knight]

Oh cool, so we can talk about boobies now?

Mommy and daddy told that is bad to say! You is bad person!

I wish older members a nice conversation over there, see ya guys in 1 and 1/2 years!