Rules for the Boardworld Forums - need your input!
Hey guys,
Personally, I don’t like other forums with really strict rules and moderators who delete half the posts on the forums. That is not what this thread is all about. I believe in open discussion, regardless of whether we agree or not. We should all have the right to voice our opinions.
I’ve tried to push this off for as long as possible. However, as the site grows, and more and more people join the forums, I think it’s going to be important to have some ground rules which we will all respect and adhere to. We have such a helpful and friendly community here, and I want it to stay that way. I want everyone to feel comfortable here, regardless of age, gender, or level of knowledge or experience.
This isn’t because we want to control you or the content. We just want to make sure everyone is comfortable and happy with the content on this website - and that includes the website sponsors. Big brands don’t want to sponsor a website which displays inappropriate content. There’s a lot of horrible content and images available on the internet - I just want to make sure we are not one of those websites.
We want your input on the rules. Do you have any suggestions? Once we make these rules public, it makes it easier on me and the moderators, because you guys can help us by letting us or the person know that they have broken one of the rules.
I have been chatting with some of the moderators and so far this is what we have come up with…
- No pornographic material, softcore or otherwise. If you wouldn’t be happy with a 12 year old daughter seeing the image, then please don’t post it. *Please see my post below for examples*
- No violent material, images or otherwise.
- Absolutely no racist or sexist material!
- No personal attacks towards any member. This is a friendly community. We are entitled to opposing opinions, however don’t make it into a personal attack on another member. Make your point, but keep it friendly.
- Censored words. When Boardworld launched, I censored a bunch of words. I didn’t censor too many, because I believe in free speech, however I did censor the really bad ones. If a word is censored, please don’t try and get around the censor by substituting one letter. If it is censored, it has been for a reason, please respect that.
I think most of those are standard and common sense. Please let me know what you think or if you have any suggestions. I truly value each and every one of you. Please understand why we are doing this. Your co-operation and input is much appreciated.
Thank you,
Jeremy.
I spose that rule about porn soft or otherwise means we are left posting pics like this then?
I hope you guys know what I mean by ‘soft porn’. I’m not trying to fully censor the content, nor would I want to. The pictures in ‘Babe Thread’ are fine. Anything you would see in a non-R-rated magazine is fine. However, images which are very suggestive of explicit sexual activity are probably not appropriate for a young audience. I guess we just need to use our common sense.
I’m opening this for discussion, so if you think I’m wrong on anything, please let me know why.
Having moderated a forum for a few years now I agree with most of what you’ve said there Jeremy, as you said it really does just all come down to common sense.
I see nothing wrong with it, I have been on boards with and without censorship of sorts, by far and away the more successful forums are the ones where there is a balance between sharia/nazi style censorship and allowing some latitiude towards the members posting. Once on that path and a track record of what is and isn’t allowed the board will in many instances moderate itself to a certain extent. What I mean by that is the board will have long term senior members who will warn/admonish idiotic posters in threads and if necessary ask for it to be moderated. Boards like that tend to attract more level headed people. On the flip side if it gets to heavy handed no one will bother with it, just gets to damn boring without any edge or provocative discussion.
I don’t know the perfect formula to achieve a happy balance but so far so good, maybe a few more interesting/provocative/polarising topics would be good. Seems in some respects that the board isn’t big enough for that just yet IMO.
Yeah, I know what you’re saying, and I agree with you. That’s the main reason I let the forums run for over a year without even mentioning the word ‘rules’. I believe our moderators are a great representation of our community and I trust their judgement. There is a fine line between provocative posts and being offensive. Equally so, there is a fine line between moderating and over-moderating.
We would never edit or delete a post without letting you know why. I don’t want anything changed on the forums, I want our community to continue in the same friendly and helpful way as we always have - that’s why I want to put the rules out there now, so things don’t have to change. I hope you understand what I’m trying to say… 
Makes perfect sense Jeremy. The other forum I moderated I’ve pretty much given up on because there was one admin who was ‘running’ the show and he would contradict the moderators actions and let a small group have free reign over the place which just drove it downhill. Basically all started from a lack of ‘rules’ in place so that there wasn’t a specific right/wrong way to post on the forum which created the opening for some people to pull it down.
- No pornographic material, softcore or otherwise. If you wouldn’t be happy with a 12 year old daughter seeing the image, then please don’t post it. *Please see my post below for examples*
- No violent material, images or otherwise.
- Absolutely no racist or sexist material!
- No personal attacks towards any member. This is a friendly community. We are entitled to opposing opinions, however don’t make it into a personal attack on another member. Make your point, but keep it friendly.
- Censored words. When Boardworld launched, I censored a bunch of words. I didn’t censor too many, because I believe in free speech, however I did censor the really bad ones. If a word is censored, please don’t try and get around the censor by substituting one letter. If it is censored, it has been for a reason, please respect that.
I agree with all the above, I guess the porn bit is the one I find the hardest to figure.
Stuff like this; (examples from Babe thread)
I think are fine, nothing you don’t see on any music video or magazine cover, target catalogue (can only be beaten by the Bras n things catalogue) or at the beach.
on the other hand, I find these are right on the borderline;
these images I don’t want my sons or myself to been seen viewing by the ladies in our home, I think it sets a bad example to the girls on how we view women.
In saying that, the girls don’t venture onto this part of BW much and have been taught well enough to know what to expect if they click on a thread titled “Babe thread”, whereas the men in the house will click on that thread first !!!!!!!
The next one about violence is a no brainer.
Same with racist stuff, but the sexist one has some grey areas, maybe the babe thread could be, but I see that Just Giver sneaked a few blokes in…........ (one of them is a funny looking bugger, the last two pics 
) so it can’t be then.
The next one about attacking each other is spot on, like we would anyways, we all slide, roll and surf, so why would we?
I think with the word censoring, if you place the correct amount of **** for the world you wish to use, the average BW member should figure it out and if you get offended, you probably shouldn’t know that word anyway 
I think this place is great, a little more traffic will make it even better.
I think someone should nominate me for member of the month for getting all those pics of Hot ladies into a thread about rules. 
fair enough i guess…it is a snowboarding forum, and people can find stuff like the babe thread in other places if they are that keen.
might be a tad ambitious to accommodate 12yr olds and 30year olds in the same forum and not have the line crossed though.
- No pornographic material, softcore or otherwise. If you wouldn’t be happy with a 12 year old daughter seeing the image, then please don’t post it. *Please see my post below for examples*
- No violent material, images or otherwise.
- Absolutely no racist or sexist material!
- No personal attacks towards any member. This is a friendly community. We are entitled to opposing opinions, however don’t make it into a personal attack on another member. Make your point, but keep it friendly.
- Censored words. When Boardworld launched, I censored a bunch of words. I didn’t censor too many, because I believe in free speech, however I did censor the really bad ones. If a word is censored, please don’t try and get around the censor by substituting one letter. If it is censored, it has been for a reason, please respect that.
I agree with all the above, I guess the porn bit is the one I find the hardest to figure.
Stuff like this; (examples from Babe thread)
I think are fine, nothing you don’t see on any music video or magazine cover, target catalogue (can only be beaten by the Bras n things catalogue) or at the beach.on the other hand, I find these are right on the borderline;
these images I don’t want my sons or myself to been seen viewing by the ladies in our home, I think it sets a bad example to the girls on how we view women.
In saying that, the girls don’t venture onto this part of BW much and have been taught well enough to know what to expect if they click on a thread titled “Babe thread”, whereas the men in the house will click on that thread first !!!!!!!The next one about violence is a no brainer.
Same with racist stuff, but the sexist one has some grey areas, maybe the babe thread could be, but I see that Just Giver sneaked a few blokes in…........ (one of them is a funny looking bugger, the last two pics
The next one about attacking each other is spot on, like we would anyways, we all slide, roll and surf, so why would we?
I think with the word censoring, if you place the correct amount of **** for the world you wish to use, the average BW member should figure it out and if you get offended, you probably shouldn’t know that word anyway
I think this place is great, a little more traffic will make it even better.
I think someone should nominate me for member of the month for getting all those pics of Hot ladies into a thread about rules.
OMOGMOMOGMOGOGM, Kaley and Carla are the fricken hottest babes.
Jeremy,
I want to commend you for doing an awesome job on this site! Obviously we all love it, and keep coming back.
You have done a great job at including all members ot have an opportunity to feel as if they are part of the development team for the website.
It is important that these rules be stated, sure, but they really arent rules at all, just common sense.
I dont mind and I even like the limitation/restrictions of “babe” threads, cause there are many other venues to access that material online if one so chooses.
One place we have crossed the “family safe” line may have been in the babe thread, and I think the lower half of images reposted above, should probably be deleted. Again NSFW (not safe for work), not safe for your 12-yr old daughter, etc. That is a good indicator. I’d not want to be seen viewing many of those images at work.
Language censors, it’s normal, and others will find a way to get around it… of course if the person posting thinks it necessary to differentate from one 4-letter word to another so that the point may be taken.. then “leet speak (which could be written: 1337 5p34k)” with substituting numbers for letters etc isnt preventable.
I think you are right on with this, I dont think you are taking it too far AT ALL.
Keep up the good work, and thank you for all you have done, and continue to do!
Yeah, what they said.
I’ve run a number of forums myself and found that the majority of members at any given time will have a good deal of common sense about these matters. It does however pay to have a policy to refer to when someone comes along or an existing member loses the plot and upsets the apple cart. As long as common courtesy and respect for fellow members takes place, you’ll find it rare that such rules need to be enforced, but it’s always necessary to have them there in the first place…
Wildman tried to get into the babe thread for a look, but because of the parental controls we put on his Macbook, he is blocked. He can’t get into this thread either, but we tried many others and they are fine. Must be something in a tag on one of the pics.
So maybe we leave censorship up to parents…....................... wait a second, is that common sense ? 
The outcome of this discussion depends on;
(snowslider’s post made me realise this) - Who is going to restrict access to this site ie: work place.
And - What social norm are we going to moderate it by.
eg: The US tend to have heavily opinionated social values, then we have right wing Muslim values (Burka) - thanks NrthBG.
IMO
Disregarding work place restriction; the mods should discuss, democratically, in the moderator forum any censorship that needs enforcing. Any other censorship should be governed by the country Boardworld is hosted (Australia) - this censorship can’t be broken anyway.
My opinion comes from the fact that the boarding community (Surfers, skaters, snowboarders) are a very liberal bunch when it comes to social standards world wide and Boardworld.com.au was (I take from the content) intended by Jeremy (the owner) to represent our community in a professional approach.
Upholding the professional standards and leading the future of this industry for the younger crew.
Are we going to breakaway from the soul and history of what made boarding? Lets face it we were born out of the Punk era where sex, drugs and the rock and roll lifestyle are standard.
Do we want to breakaway from that or be true to it origins? < serious question to consider.
I’ll repeat what has already been stated - there are other sites to get your fix (porn).
If we adhere to discussing what we would in public (it is a public arena) and not what we do in private - sex, drugs, rock ‘n roll. And the mods take heed of members and our own concerns, censoring will take care of itself.
Personally; I’m content to discuss and post - sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll. I do with my 7yo daughter but that’s my choice in my home. But this is boardworld - it’s not MY HOME, but it is where I socialise.
If members don’t hide behind their avatar and are open and honest about who they are; moderating will be much easier.
I agree that Rider is doing a great job running this site…definite thumbs up.
I also agree that the 2nd set of images is pretty borderline/a tad over the line. Its not something I come to this (or any) website to see. But as is always the case with the internet, if you don’t want to see it - don’t look! If images like the above started appearing in too many other threads though, apart from the babe thread then it would start to get annoying….particularly in anything not on the social pages. I think that if particular members post such stuff then its a reflection on them, more than on boardworld itself.
my two cents.
Hey guys,
Firstly thank you very much for your input and support.
I’d like to make a few points:
- I don’t want things to change around here. So far there has been no issues with any content posted, minus a couple of isolated incidents which were dealt with very smoothly. I have deleted a couple of things here and there, with the poster’s permission/knowledge. In every incident, the poster knew exactly where I was coming from, and did not mind me talking action.
- I am not introducing rules because something has already happened. I am introducing the rules so we can continue in the same we we always have, but with public knowledge of what we as a community consider common sense. I have been using snowboarding forums for a long time - once in a while there is always an idiot who comes along and tries to ruin the community on purpose. I feel if the ‘common sense rules’ are public knowledge, then when that idiot comes along, it’s easier to deal with.
- In regards to the censored words - trust me, I didn’t censor all ‘swear words’. Personally I hate censoring, I only censored the really rude and offensive words. Feel free to type the word you want, if it’s censored it’s censored, if it isn’t then don’t worry. I have not changed any censoring settings since the day we launched.
- Boardworld has industry sponsors, solid industry support, and we represent the professional side of the industry. Just because we are snowboarders, skaters, and surfers, doesn’t mean we can’t set a good example to others. We can be liberal, we can be honest and have fun, without crossing the line or offending our fellow Boardworld members.
- The rules I posted aren’t set in stone. The reason I started this thread was to get your opinion and to see if I was on the right track. It looks like I will have to amend and change the wording on a few of them.
- Just for public knowledge, we do have a hidden Moderators forum. It allows the moderators and myself to talk about the right course of action before any action is taken. This ensures no one is making harsh decisions without the support of the other moderators. We will never delete a post without letting the original poster know why.
- Please always feel free to contact me directly with any concerns. Boardworld is a fun place, I consider this our community. I want everyone to enjoy the forums, and I want everyone to feel comfortable.