Some background: This past weekend, I overheard a couple of kids at a diecast model booth at a car show identifying Ferraris, since there were only a few at the booth. 12 year old boy and his somewhat younger sister, with mom and dad. I asked the kid if he had ever heard of FerrariChat.com, and told him he could learn alot about Ferraris here. His mom somewhat jokingly said "oh, don't tell him about that" but then it dawned on me that I was a stranger, and I was standing there by myself, and that I might have come off a bit creepy. I said "I'm sorry, then, I shouldn't have brought it up" and the Mom asked "Do you have to chat if you're on the website? I told her no, it was just a website with 20,000 users who talk about Ferraris. The kids didn't have to "chat" with strangers to learn about Ferraris. She was a bit more at ease and the Dad asked me to repeat the name of the site so they could look at it. And as I walked away, it dawned on me that they may stumble into Off Topic. My personal opinion: Off topic "Works Blue" to a point that it's starting to make me feel uneasy. I can't exactly put my concerns into words, it just does. Heck, I'm no saint. As Darth said it once, we're all "In it for the joke" and to crack each other up. I love that about this place. But does every thread need to contain posts with JPGS of Boobs and JPGS containing bold, colorful words that are ****'d out if you post them on the forum, but there they are in all their glory on the JPGS? Not trying to bring down the party, I just think we should all consider that what we post is public in off topic, and if we want to keep "Working Blue" we should consider taking it into subscribed areas.
yea i agree. i always try to hide the bikini thread from my little brother and the such. i dont look in it. i just dont want him to ask me about it. i think the bikini thread should be moved to the subscribed section. there should at least be a warning or disclaimer. like (Off Topic May contain inappropriate language) and im probably gonna be murdered by lamour for saying this, but do we really need a bikini thread?
Yeah, I tend to agree. In addition there's some younger folk who are Rossa subscribed and that has it's own problems with the forum that doesn't exist. Fortunately, it's not my site I do sometimes wonder if pointing people to Fchat is the right thing to do, but then again I don't usually talk to 12 year olds...
Definately understand your concern and it's an admirable one to have. I've actually thought about it before. But remember if you are not a member you cannot view any pictures. The mom may not find the threads funny, but it may poke an interest for the father. Heck the dad may have a slight interest in Ferrari's as well and it could be a good Father-Son bonding for them to check out the site together. If he decided to make them a member he could put the site on the 'ban' list so the kids can't log on without a password, but when he's home sign on so they can check it out together.
That's a great point, I didn't think of that. I'm not saying we should do parent's jobs for them. It's ultimately their responsibility to be aware of what their kids do online.
I knew it.....He's ALREADY blind!!! ______________________________- Hey Dave, you can't please everyone. How do you know the guys dad won't be in here busting your balls tonight while having the time of his life? Hell, he might come in here, read a little and buy a Ferrari before UroTrash!!! ...and YOU would be the reason!
The accessibility of "raw" content on the Internet creates nightmares for concerned parents, and ultimately I think parents have to work out solutions with their own families I agree with your concerns, but I'm not sure moving it to subscribed solves the problem. After all, some teen could be so enamored of the site, they get their parents to pay for a $15 sub or pay for it themselves. Now the same material is accessible. I do think that the simplest thing to do for a responsible Internet site would be to eliminate "raw" content; but if it is willing to incur the headaches, it should at least make it "hard to get to" and clearly identified. Right now it does seem to be fairly well contained to some well-marked "bikini threads". So how about this: * Create an "Off-color" forum, separate from the "Off-topic" forum. * Clearly state in the TOS and the new registration notice that the Off-color forum may contain PG-13 and R material, but X through XXX is never allowed. * Police the other forums religiously (yet another burden on the mods) to move off-color threads to "Off-color" * Optionally, create a no-charge "Nickel" subscriber and encourage kids to sign-up under that with their parents endorsement. Nickel subs would not be permitted access to "Off-color" (can this be done under V-bulletin?), but perhaps would be allowed access to a special "Karting" forum just for kids where they would feel free to talk to each other w/o feeling like they're talking to adults.
go to yahoo. write bikini in the search engine. you can choose from websites, images, or videos. if a kid wants to see the stuff. then he can just do that.
I acknowledged that. The point is, if F-chat wants to be a "parent-friendly" site, it needs to take more responsibility than saying "it's available all over anyway". A lot of parents manage their kids content by reviewing their site visitation history and blocking non-approved sites or only allowing approved sites. If F-chat cares about being "parent-approved", which it may not, then it can do more.
You will never be able to completely remove all the "bad" pictures or get members to stop. If a kid wants to learn about Ferrari's why go to off-topic. People here are mature adults who have for the most part have been well behaved. Antony
While OT can get a little hairy sometimes, it's still labeled as non-Ferrari related material and is at the very bottom of the forum listings. To our credit, most of the pranks around here are clever (and inside) enough that they'd probably fly right over the head of anyone under 13ish (there are exceptions on both sides of that argument however). Don't you have a Keystone you could've consulted about this first?
dave, i actually agree with you on this, i must be high on crack right now, but you make a good point. the last thing i need is some kid opening up a thread with a big set of fake tits staring him in the face and my name above it. or any one elses for that matter.
