T&C Items 15, 15a, 15b - An Honest Question

Has ATS simply chosen not to enforce these three T&C items as of the last few months or so?

Did I miss an announcement declaring that we no longer had to restrict ourselves to "not posting material that we know is false, misleading or inaccurate"?

Does ATS no longer care about profanity, and or its cousin that directs that users "not use common alternative spellings or net-speak alternative for profane words."

Just curious.

originally posted by: Gryphon66
Has ATS simply chosen not to enforce these three T&C items as of the last few months or so?

Did I miss an announcement declaring that we no longer had to restrict ourselves to "not posting material that we know is false, misleading or inaccurate"?

Does ATS no longer care about profanity, and or its cousin that directs that users "not use common alternative spellings or net-speak alternative for profane words."

Just curious.

They care ,trust me . I just had post removed yesterday for using the "B" word when referring to Hillary Clinton.

Not the best choice of words on my behalf.


Was their a particular topic you can reference ?

Also for anyone who is curious about the T&C section Op is referring to .


15). Posting: You will not Post any material that is knowingly false, misleading, or inaccurate. You will not solicit personal information from any member. You will not use information gathered from this website to harass, abuse or harm other people. 15a) Offensive Content: You will not Post forum posts, private messages, PODcasts, blog entries, videos, images, and other supported content, links to images or use avatars and/or signatures that are unlawful, harassing, libelous, privacy invading, abusive, threatening, harmful, hateful, vulgar, obscene, and/or disruptive. You will not use text, images, avatars or link to images or domains that contain gore, mutilation, pornography or illegal content. Doing so will result in removal of your Post(s) and immediate termination of your account. 15b.) Profanity: You will not use profanity in our forums on the Websites, and will neither Post with language or content that is obscene, sexually oriented, or sexually suggestive nor link to sites that contain such content. You will also not use common alternative spellings or net-speak alternative for profane words.

a reply to: Kapusta

I had "Oh Dear God." removed.

Thanks for the responses.

I know that we ATSers are a vast unruly horde that a few brave and (generally) under-appreciated souls try to tame temporarily and teach not to urinate on the furniture ... but it just seems like we've thrown all respect for the requirement that we not use any of the well-known "dirty words" or replacing them with the same word with a letter or two "asterisked" out.

At the same time, although I know that we all rhetorically overuse the requirement for providing "evidence" (at least, I know I do) to back up claims of fact, still, it seems a lot of just broadly obvious lies are allowed to stand.

I know, also, that these are fine lines that rely on interpretation, I know that there are thousands of us and only a few mods ... I was just ... curious ... if I had missed an announcement of policy change.

originally posted by: Gryphon66
Does ATS no longer care about profanity, and or its cousin that directs that users "not use common alternative spellings or net-speak alternative for profane words."

It's never a good idea to presume that even our rather large staff is capable of seeing every post. In fact, I'd guess that expecting they see 20% of all posts would be ambitious. That's why we have tools for our members to alert the staff to anything that they should look at.

originally posted by: Gryphon66
Thanks for the responses.

I know that we ATSers are a vast unruly horde that a few brave and (generally) under-appreciated souls try to tame temporarily and teach not to urinate on the furniture ... but it just seems like we've thrown all respect for the requirement that we not use any of the well-known "dirty words" or replacing them with the same word with a letter or two "asterisked" out.

At the same time, although I know that we all rhetorically overuse the requirement for providing "evidence" (at least, I know I do) to back up claims of fact, still, it seems a lot of just broadly obvious lies are allowed to stand.

I know, also, that these are fine lines that rely on interpretation, I know that there are thousands of us and only a few mods ... I was just ... curious ... if I had missed an announcement of policy change.

I recall something some time back about them relaxing a bit on certain things , but Keep in mind if T&C has not changed then the orders still stand until otherwise .


I just don't think mods have enough time to go through every thread and every post to catch some things . I know a few slip under the radar ...That's why we have the alert button ..lol , I only try and used that when it is really needed .
I have this vision in my head of Mods behind the green door rolling their eyes every time one of those complaints come rolling in. Must be the cookie you get after sending it lol.

a reply to: Gryphon66



Whelp I stand corrected , Looks like the Overlord has clarified.

It's never a good idea to presume that even our rather large staff is capable of seeing every post. In fact, I'd guess that expecting they see 20% of all posts would be ambitious. That's why we have tools for our members to alert the staff to anything that they should look at.

If the mods wished they could check the language of every post. This software does exist and isn't unreasonable to rent or lease. However, the do rely to some extent on the common sense of posters to be reasonable or for viewers to report things. I for one have no problem with gore so long as the poster warns viewers in advance of what the link contains. Having been a photographer during the SEA War there's very little that top what I've seen in my lifetime. Mans inhumanity to his fellow man is already legendary and each day that passes we think up new ways to be more inhumane. My best,

a reply to: Gryphon66

I had a post removed for spelling the A word with 2 zs. Not the entire word, just the first 3 letters. The explanation was that I was 'trying to avoid the censor'. Odd, a mod had used the full word in the same thread, so there is no automatic censor for it. I use that word often on forums, blogs, in video game chat..with the 2 zs. Not to avoid a censor, it just seems less harsh.

I saw the B word used so much in one day here, I couldn't believe it. It was mainly in 1 thread. I didn't look back to see if there were edits. It was offensive.

I have been more alarmed that extremely rude responses that are OT go unchecked and they are posted by a couple of the same people constantly- just to derail threads. I am not talking about 1-liner sarcasm...there is one member that does that a lot and sometimes it is funny. I am talking about outright attacks that are OT, usually not spelled right or grammatically correct and seemingly just there to be mean.


I got an actual warning for not sourcing my material. I certainly had and in the same post, the link did not show up in the 'text cloud' and I could not get it to do so, it was a formatting error caused by the site.

It seems to depend on whom is on to Mod.

I have not used my word with '2 Zs' ever again, it just seemed a contradiction that a mod was able to in the same thread and it wasn't in reference to my post.

It seems to vary from mod to mod,if a mod has a personal problem with a member its likely the member will be scrutinized more ....

I had a post removed with a warning for posting a pic of a dogs butt that looked like a picture of jesus,i am not sure why it was removed other than a christian who took offence to it

a reply to: hopenotfeariswhatweneed
Yes, that is a problem. And try to get a response when you ask why. I have on occasions for post removed without warning and received reasonable responses. Other times, no response. Often I realize right away why it was removed or moved and learn from it, so I don't ask why each time. It is not like I am obsessive about it.

For the warning, I asked by clicking on complain, I got a cookie and no answer. Though it says ''you will get a response'. That is frustrating when it is about a warning.

a reply to: Gryphon66

They care and if they notice they will remove it. I had a pic on the funny pic thread with the F word on it. It was removed, like it should have been.
If you see something like that that bothers you, hit the "Alert" button. I'm don't intend to be snippy by saying that; just offering helpful advice.

Pretty sure the profanity clause went out the window with NLBS. I might be wrong, though

originally posted by: ~Lucidity
Pretty sure the profanity clause went out the window with NLBS. I might be wrong, though

You are wrong, and it has been explained a nauseating number of times: we've always allowed profanity in member podcasts and videos because it's a user-initiated action to play.


Original question asked and answered.