Reminder : ATS Is A Family Friendly Site

As of late, I've noticed more and more profanity and sexually explicit discussion taking place.

Please keep in mind when posting :

1b.) Profanity: You will not use profanity in our forums, 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.

Terms and Conditions

Thank You and Happy Posting.

ATS is sort of a lone venture of mine. The family has never been involved with it, and I wouldn't want my younger relatives to be exposed to half the stuff here -- not because it has explicit content, but because some of it is just completely off the wall wacky and I would be up all night having to explain things.

We have a lot of members who are under the age of 18 here. Also I'm sure some of the guys and most of the ladies we have posting here don't really want to read the profanity.

reply to post by elevatedone


You are so right, I have noticed a general lowering of the tone of late, as well as manners, decorum and general common decency.

I haven't been here too long but even in the short time I have, I've seen some really nasty, closed minded posts, people stooping to low levels of name calling and behaviour.

What ever happened to 'agreeing to disagree' and manners?

Phew, rant over!

Hope I wasn't too rude!

I have seen a few things that have offended me a little in the past month.
I will also admit that I have made a few posts where i could have put the filter on a tad higher because it is a family freindly site.
I hope people start respecting the fact that they are allowed here...its not a right...its a priveledge.
I don't use the alert button but should start...I just don't like bugging the mods.

Don't you snip all the profanity on this site already??? A family orientated site!! Your having a laugh aren't you? Its ok for under 18's to be able to read all kinds of "sensitive" material on this site, but profanity as meek as it is here on ATS is unacceptable? Me thinks you have too much time on your hands!

reply to post by kcfusion


I don't understand the point you're trying to make? Which part of ATS do you feel isn't "family friendly"?

Thank you very much for keeping this place together

This website has a whole lot of information and good research to be found within it's pages, and I am thankful that there are guidelines that keep the place in respectable and decent standing.

That way I can use ATS as an educational tool to help teach my own kids about subjects that are only discussed here, showing them how skepticism is useful etc.

Because you kept this place clean, this place has great potential as an educational tool for children. Thank you for the hard work!

As an avid user of the alert button for posts which contain such profanity and in-appropriate discussion, thanks for bringing it to everybody's attention.

I have seen the rise of such rhetoric and have children who visit the site and who are members, so I like knowing they can educate themselves in a setting which doesn't include topics or discussions which you would generally find a strip club.

Again thanks mods..

~Keeper

My point is profanity isn't allowed on this site and is covered up or removed very fast if its used, so why come out and say there is too much here happening lately?? Also the family friendly remark kinda threw me a bit, I mean there are threads that discuss repitilian baby eaters, graphic alien abduction stories, assassinations, mind controled sex slaves (MK-Ultra), the world ending, judgement day etc etc etc, I just dont get where you come up with family orientated site?


(Edit to Add)

And if parents allow their children to access everything and anything on this site, surely those children are capable of recognising and handling the little amount of profanity on this site. Its nothing near as bad as what they come across in the school yard! Just saying!

[edit on 24-6-2009 by kcfusion]

Originally posted by DrumsRfun
I don't use the alert button but should start...I just don't like bugging the mods.

Bugging the mods sometimes helps out.

What I mean is, if you see a violation of the T&C, no harm in alerting staff to it.

If it's simply a one liner or a little off topic, we'll most likely catch it.

Its hard to say anything on the internet is family friendly when porn is literaly five seconds away. But yeah , ... I do get a lil sloppy sometimes, ... especialy when I've had no sleep. ......... such as today, ... I'm going on 48 hours ..... maybe I should be assigned my own Mod.

Allow me to interject another section of our beloved terms and Conditions which I believe are pertinent to the discussion-

Terms & Conditions Summary: The below specific and itemized rules not withstanding, all members are expected to participate with the same common every-day social graces used in civilized mixed company. Our desire is to foster an environment of civil decorum that enables our members to discuss highly provocative and intensely speculative topics without concern over personal attacks or insults.

Civility and decorum. The ability to have a serious discussion about topics which interest us without having to dodge the garbage you find on many other sites. There are numberless forums you can go to which have virtually no requirements for civility and decorum. I'm very pleased we strive to maintain an atmosphere free of hostility and pointless invective.

I appreciate the reminder. I've been at a popular weather site for several years. Last year, according to a few members that are also teachers, it was removed from school access due to some of the "vulgar" or "questionable" content. This site also has a T&C similar to here, and as with ATS, their mods can't watch every single post.

At the risk of sounding like a self-appoint thread police (EW!) I think it's up to all of us to alert on things that are in conflict with the T&C.

I have seen some posts that were a bit questionable so thanks for pointing it out. I myself just ignore it but that's me. It takes a lot to offend me but I still believe one should follow the terms and conditions.

This is an honest question.

Can't we just have profanity filters that just replace obscenities with "*"s?

I know I have seen other forums that do this. It wouldn't solve the problem of rudeness but it would save the mods from having to edit/delete posts with swear words.

A little code that could save countless hours of work.

Just a thought.

Vas

I know in my earlier days, I sure had a knot jerked in my butt when I'd get out of hand.

Still, it took a few times for me to more fully understand what was tolerated and what was not.

It's likely very true that there are those on here under age 18. Their idealism shines like a beacon. Good for them. They should hang onto it as long as possible.

Reality will be setting in soon enough.

While I was usually responding in kind when I got popped, it seems to be a whole lot better now.

Good for you Mods and SuperMods.

reply to post by Vasilis Azoth


I don't really think ATS has a requirement to "baby" it's membership that way. People are intelligent and I would hope we attempt to discourage the dumb ones from being active members here.

Putting such a thing in place would only allow people to use profanity and have a excuse for it. My children aren't stupid they know what they are reading even if there is a *** in the post.

It's also against the T&C.

~Keeper

And . . . none of these under 18 year olds have never seen or uttered anything bad . . . lol

Question . . . I know the seven words are snipped . . . what about others (ass, etc.), and what about abbreviations (SOB, etc.)

[edit on 24/6/2009 by xxpigxx]

Thanks for the reminder.

I love the fact that this is the case with ATS. I have a 12 year old daughter who is fascinated by the paranormal, so now and again we'll have a little look through that part of the forum.

Supervised of course, just in case, but it's reassuring that this place is so well moderated that i can do that.

I know there are some threads on here that contain graphic content, but the warnings help a great deal and most of the topics are no different than we'll see on the tv news anyway.

As for the profanity, thats usualy nipped in the bud pretty quick.

CX.