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Too Vague! This Needs to be Cleared Up!
The Terms of Service state:
"Users may not post any material which is knowingly false and or defamatory, inaccurate, abusive, vulgar, hateful, harassing, obscene, profane, threatening, invasive of a person's privacy, or otherwise violative of any law."
Now, how are we to determine, for instance whether a certain response is "profane"? And what constitutes a "vulgar" response? Where is the line drawn? It seems quite lame to say that the the maintainers of the web site can remove user accounts for these violations without even giving an example of what would constitute vulgarity or obscenity. Some people, for instance, consider the mention of private parts very, very profane, in which case EVERY question and answer in the "Sex Advice" section would have to be banned. Obviously that's not profane, so I have assumed I can mention things like my penis, which I will now do: Penis. But can I mention my penis in cruder terms? This may be seen as "vulgar", but who knows what people consider vulgar? In the 1920's, the word "liar" was considered vulgar! And, what with curse words like "asshole" being allowed on Prime Time television, I don't see any adequate reason to determine vulgarity! If we can be removed from the site based on these "rules", they should at least be specific enough to let us know what would constitute a violation. They are too vague to be taken seriously!
Not only that, but why are inaccurate responses reason for banning? What if I don't know if the response was accurate or not? In the case of "spiritual advice", you will occassionally get an atheist saying "God doesn't exist" and a theist saying "God exists". Obviously, ONE of these statements is inaccurate. So which one should be banned? Or is the adjective "knowingly" supposed to carry on to all the items listed? So something has to be knowingly false, knowingly vulgar, or knowingly inaccurate? In that case, then you can't really ban people for obscenity or vulgarity, because that's entirely relative, and obviously no one will "know" they are vulgar under YOUR standards, because under their own standards their prose may be perfectly prim and proper!
And what is this web site's view on humor? Humor is often vulgar, and sarcasm is often inaccurate...that's the nature of sarcastic responses! One of the most famed sex columnists, Dan Savage, (He writes the column Savage Love) is routinely sarcastic and humorous in his responses, and he's a paid professional! If we aren't allowed to do what the professionals do, I hardly see how this can bee seen as a good "advice" community! Who says advice has to be all pomp and seriousness? Why can we not have some joyfulness?
In short, it would be nice to have these issues cleared up. I am a very blunt, sarcastic, and vulgar person at times. I am worried that someone may whimsically decide to delete my account after I have put forth a lot of effort to answer many questions. So I'd like to protect myself and know exactly what all this entails!
Thank you.
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Maybe give some free advice about: Advicenators?
You know, at the start, I really did not agree with you, but I can see where you are coming from. I suppose they don't want you to just use 10,000 swears in a sentance, or tell a person who says "The sky is blue" that the sky is purple. If it is an opinion-like based question such as "Is there a God?", it would probably not matter, as it is individual opinions, not wrong facts.
With the vulgarity, I am assuming they only mean big swear words that everyone considers to be swears. Like, personally, I do not consider "Hell" to be a swear, yet I consider "Damn" to be one. Really, I think they are only refferring to S, S, F, A, B, B, N, C, and maybe D/H. Sorry, but I can't swear. Guess what each means, it's the best I can do. :)
Though I must tell you, this site is a lot more relaxed than the last one I went onto (www.teenhelp.org). "You may be banned for any reason as deemed by the admins". And they banned people for critisising another person's works, making a website that is supposed to help people, or a person who called another town's police because the person they were working with was beyond hope with suicide. Heck, I was on staff and they removed me for "Providing advice that is out of the ordinary." AKA, I tried to actually help the person instead of saying "You can stop cutting! I believe in you!"
Ug. You tell me.
Anyways, I do see what you are saying. I think this site appreciates humor and sarcasm in the lighter issues if it is easily detectable. Such as saying "And that is why cutting is good for you" would probably not go through too well, but "And make sure you put the egg shells in" would be considered acceptable.
Well, these are my views. Disagree if you feel, but I think this is a bit better.
-Steven
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I would suggest you take your concerns to DangerNerd as he is over Advicenators. You can find this column at the link below.
[Link](Mouse over link to see full location)
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If you tell someone to kill themselves or others...you will be banned.
If you answer a question with details graphic enough to be considered porn...you will be banned
If you ask a question wanting blow by blow details on any Sex act...repeatedly, you will be banned.
If your advice suggests an illegal act you may get a ban.
Basically, try and remember a lot of our users are young. 13 and up. You don't tell a depressed teen to off themselves. You don't suggest they use bleach on their acne. Use common sense. If you have none...you may be banned.
We are here to give advice but we aren't here for horny teens to ask or give advice to just get their jollies. I think anyone with enough wit can answer questions (as you do) without getting themselves into trouble.
Dangernerd has been with us for a month. I am sure he will come up with some guidelines of what is "legal" for us to do soon. We are currently kind of under reconstruction. :)
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