"My predominant feeling is one of gratitude. I have loved and been loved;I have been given much and I have given something in return...Above all, I have been a sentient being, a thinking animal, on this beautiful planet, and that in itself has been an enormous privilege and an adventure." O. Sacks
Granted. And Thank You Susan and Moderators for providing us with this great forum. I sincerely mean that.
But consider this: with all due respect, TE is packed with thousands of helpful, informative posts. Will one off-colour (albeit hilarious) thread break the business?
If the answer is "yes", it will be a sad day indeed. Very sad. In extremis.
~Sherry (still awaiting the feel of hard leather on my tender tush as I get drop-kicked outta here)
All vintage, all the time.
Falcon Black Diamond
Gitane Tour de France
Kuwahara Sierra Grande MTB
Bianchi Super Grizzly MTB
+1 to all of the above.
This is not a criticism of Susan. DH used to be a forum moderator, way back before they were even called that, back when we had 300 baud modems and ASCII interfaces and liked it. So I fully appreciate the overwhelming amount of work it takes to moderate a forum.
But that said, I have to comment on the sentiments that prompted Susan's actions. In the Health section we've talked about our genitalia when they've been bleeding, abscessed, hairy, swollen, and lumpy. Any of that would've gotten us TOS'ed from most other moderated sites. Here, it's considered perfectly appropriate, and in fact, if that kind of discussion got TOS'ed here, I don't think I'd bother staying around. We have those discussions knowing full well that there are males who identify themselves here, and in all probability there are hetero males here who just get some kind of sick thrill from pretending to be women on a women's forum (I'm assured of this by the above mentioned DH, who is not one of those lurkers).
So then we have a couple of laughs with far less explicit discussion of other people's genitalia, and that gets TOS'ed? That's stupid, and it's sick.
Anyone who was offended by the discussion could've chosen not to read it, as some apparently did, and that's their privilege. For the record, I told the intercom joke to my aerobics class, consisting of a dozen women aged 55-70, and they all thought it was hilarious.
'Nuff said.
I do believe in the forum guidelines it says that anything "nsfw" should be labeled as such, just to prevent this sort of thing. There was an incident many years ago here, based on some images posted, not labeled, that caused a big blow up ( and me to resign my moderatorship here) for the exact same reason,and for that clause to be added to the forum guidelines.
Not everyone agrees on what is offensive.
On one of the other forums I participate in, we had a similar conflict a few years ago. The owner of the board was concerned that anyone just coming by the site looking for legitimate information, including children, might stumble upon the material. So the solution was to create an "Adults Only" section that required you to PM the mod for permission to view. I personally don't have any problem with colorful humor, but I totally understand the opinions of the other side. I don't know if this kind of solution is something worth considering here, I'm just putting it out there.
Considering what floats around out there the cause of the brouhaha is rather tame. There's only one way I can think of that someone would accidentally stumble upon the subject matter (through a search, anyway) and that would be no accident.
But the horse is dead. I'm not going to beat it anymore.
Last edited by Zen; 01-09-2008 at 11:31 AM.
2008 Trek FX 7.2/Terry Cite X
2009 Jamis Aurora/Brooks B-68
2010 Trek FX 7.6 WSD/stock bontrager
I enjoy participating with a forum that is civil, respectful, and diplomatic--like TE. There are far too many forums that don't respect their members.
I enjoyed the thread break, I knew what the off-color interpretation was, and had to figure out what the "legitimate" acronym stood for. It cracked me up that someone would use those initials! Oh well, best to err on the side of not offending I guess, but I thought it was funny! Carol
All,
I have been away from TE for two days now and apparently a lot has happened.
I feel responsible for the whole thing because I am the one who started the thread. When I titled it I did it in complete innocence, believe it or not. For those of you who followed the thread, you know I eventually had to ASK what the heck everyone was joking about. I'm slow like that, you know...
I was feeling quite proud of myself for inadvertantly starting a thread in which people were having such a good time. My, how things change in an instant.
Susan and all who were offended - I apologize. I promise to write out EVERY word from now on. No acronyms! I can see, from a business standpoint, why it had to be done. From a fun standpoint, I am sad.
Crawling back under my rock now......
"When I'm on my bike I forget about things like age. I just have fun." Kathy Sessler
2006 Independent Fabrication Custom Ti Crown Jewel (Road, though she has been known to go just about anywhere)/Specialized Jett
I'm with those who are saying this is Susan's business
My personal apologies, Susan, for my part in placing you in an awkward position.
It was fun, but it was venturing into non-TE-typical territory - and there are plenty of fora out there for that kind've banter.
Yeah there's nothing preventing us from holding BOTH opinions at the same time: fun thread + respectful of the owners of the forum.
Karen
"My predominant feeling is one of gratitude. I have loved and been loved;I have been given much and I have given something in return...Above all, I have been a sentient being, a thinking animal, on this beautiful planet, and that in itself has been an enormous privilege and an adventure." O. Sacks
lph: Can you PM me the joke? I missed it. I only just barely had time to catch the innuendo and chuckle over that (jeg har litt lang ledning i blant). Then I saw on another thread that things had gotten more explicit and opinion was divided, but the thread got pulled before I made it back for a peek. Oh, and btw, I'll be in Oslo again mon-tue next week, but dinner with the commission monday nite and flying home straight after the meeting tuesday. Still ... there'll be a meeting a month til summer. One'a these times I've gotta rent a bike and make a ride date with you ... well, except that I'm a lot slower than you are![]()
Half-marathon over. Sabbatical year over. It's back to "sacking shirt and oat cakes" as they say here.
Last edited by Brandi; 01-08-2008 at 08:26 AM.
Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be bent out of shape.
> Remember to appreciate all the different people in your life!