"It's a shame that you have to be told a child is present before you will "behave appropriately". If you are able to behave appropriately for children, why not do it for everyone just because it is the civil thing to do?"

Do you think that behaving appropriately in front of children is the same thing as behaving appropriately amongst adults?

I don't.

The funny thing is, that he actually behaved very childisch amoungst adults :-)

*Hi, I'm letting my child play now, if you guys could be respectful of that, it would be great*

Chivas, here's the result of that approach. It doesn't work. A player named "Phallus ElGrande" had a statue of an erect penis.

Anniecanoe: Elgrande, do you mind removing your avatar? It's not appropriate for minors. Thanks!
Nikolai is here
Toffles is here
Phallus ElGrande: just use adblock
zippskie: im placed in 666th position
Phallus ElGrande: you can filter any image you want
hediouspb has left
Anniecanoe: It's not appropriate to display overtly sexual images where children may be present
Phallus ElGrande: there is nothing vulgar about the human body\
Anniecanoe: It's in the eye of the beholder. And I think it's inappropriate
zippskie has left
Nikolai: is there not a rule against it?
Phallus ElGrande: are you policing the rest of the internet as well?
Anniecanoe: You are here, I am here, and I am objecting to it.
Phallus ElGrande: ok
Anniecanoe: I don't allow children on "the rest of the internet".
Phallus ElGrande: then don't allow them here
Phallus ElGrande: there is far worse than my avatar
Anniecanoe: Is this site adults-onlu?
Anniecanoe: er. Adults-only?
Phallus ElGrande: free speech and all that ya know
Anniecanoe: Look, I'm not objecting to your user name, that's over the heads of a lot of kids, but the image is overtly sexual. I'm asking you to remove it.
Phallus ElGrande: common sense should tell any parent not to allow their kids on ANY site where chatting is taking place
Anniecanoe: It's not the chat I'm talking about, it's the sexual image of your avatar
Phallus ElGrande: your kids can't read?
Anniecanoe: Actually, no. They're young.
Phallus ElGrande: you aren't worried about the sexual language that is present in chat sites?
DougJunior: my english is not very god
Phallus ElGrande: there are those who would say my image is art
Phallus ElGrande: it is a carving from africa
Anniecanoe: Art is in the eye of the beholder. I object to it. And you're refusing to change it, despite my polite objection.
Phallus ElGrande: I object to your objection. Who do you think you are imposing your skewed morality on me?
rNO75: purpule truce ?
Phallus ElGrande: i am truced with red
DrNO75: ok i am dead ;)
Anniecanoe: Exactly. We are supposed to be operating under the assumption that people wouldn't have to have their "art" reviewed by a moderator, as long as people would respond to objections
Phallus ElGrande: Annie, if you want your kids to play this game, have them play Dice Wars....same game, but single player

Annie, Phallus El Grande was obviously NOT trying to argue, while you were. I think that you were mostly right, but, alas, this is where the pro-porn av vs. no porn av comes to conflict. You were politely trying to get him to rethink his actions, and he threw the standard "don't police" and "free-speech" crap right at you.

Now, I have many thoughts about this issue and one of the best things I can say are this: If those "offenders" suddenly didn't like something individual of the game, they may come to the forum and complain about it. Now, They would do the same that we're doing now.

I think those who are rather inhibitionless on this site really don't care what the fuck we complain about or argue against with their actions. They'll throw "free-speech" at us, or use any other one sentence arguments that brush us heavier thinkers off.

The fact that there is a negative, bitching or complaining air around us towards the truly offensive actions of these people brings them defense. Ryan, if you haven't noticed, doesn't seem to be a frequent on the forums. But, I don't know. He may just be reading these, not posting and allowing us to work it out. But, who am I to know, and there's that saying about those who assume...

Anyway, the only way to do control any of this is to get someone they will listen to and go "ok, yeah, I won't be a piss-off anymore". But, there is a variety that doesn't ven care who takes offense, and one person even called Ryan offensive gay remarks according to one forum thread...

I think maybe the best thing to be would to let it get so huge that (more than) enough people say, "OK, we're done with this shit" and give them hell, so much they won't want to fuck around anymore. Anywho, that's my piece...

I meant if I was told in a specific game that there would be a child there, not in general.

Fuzzycat, I admit that I was acting childish. However, it is my right to act as immature as I wish, as long is it does not infringe on anyone else. Nowhere in that conversation do you see anyone requesting me to stop. Every player in the game at that point was participating. I saw no reason to restrain my language, which I would have been more than willing to do.

I never would want my actions to make someone feel uncomfortable. I do care about others and would respect any request to behave. I think I have shown that by actually responding here. I apologize for making anyone feel uncomfortable. That was not my intention. I hope that comes across.

If you have a problem with an avatar, click on it. The avatar will change to the default smiley face.

If you don't like the chat, resize the window so the chatbox isn't visible.

I do think Ryan should at least add some filtering (or an option to filter) to the chat.

Guelph, filtering won't do.

Chat will filter "porn" people will write "pron"
Chat will filter "sex" people will write "se><"

and so on. filtering just doesnt work.

StunnedFazer,

In response to my question about appropriate behavior, you asked,
"Do you think that behaving appropriately in front of children is the same thing as behaving appropriately amongst adults?"

I do not think that it is always the same thing. However, just because behaviour is not appropriate in view of children, it doesn't mean that it is appropriate for adults who want to act civilly towards and around each other.

There is no objective standard for what is appropriate or inappropriate in all circumstances. However, when a player chooses an avatar which he knows will be offensive to a substantial number of people, he is typically doing so for the specific purpose of provoking a negative response. I think that comes about as close to an objective definition of inappropriate behaviour as you can get.

Anniecanoe said: I'm blocking this site from my kids, now. Sorry, whoever runs this place... It looked like a nice multiplayer game. But if you have no facility for screening out offensive material, this is no place for anyone under 18.

Which I think is very wise, and also closes the topic. The game is not safe for work or kids. So don't play it at work and don't have your kids playing it. Done!

There's a whole Internet out there. Go somewhere else that better suits your wants and needs.

Well said ScaldisNoel