Dave2112
Level of Cherry Feather
- Joined
- Apr 17, 2001
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Greetings one and all. As many of you know, the subject of minors within the realms of fictional artwork and stories has come up quite a bit lately. Rather than answer each individual question and concern, I will explain it here once and for all.
Minors are not allowed on the TMF. In any way, shape or form. Period.
"Magically ageing" minor characters is also not allowed in any way, shape or form. Period.
There are many Stickies and threads throughout this forum that have explained over and over the lengths we have gone to in shaping our policies, so there is no reason to go into that again, other than to say we do not take this level of strictness with a particular rule lightly.
I have heard the arguements/complaints that ageing minor characters is an inalienable right of free expression and that it doesn't hurt anyone. These arguements are not being dismissed, they are simply being disagreed with by the Administrators and Staff of this Forum. Here is why:
There is no way to enforce a No Minors rule, especially a Zero Tolerance one, if we allow this loophole to be exploited. We all agree that we do not want the TMF to become a place for pedophiles to go to see/read about kids getting tickled. However, if we take a 14-year-old character and allow him/her to be "aged" arbitrarily, we all know that people are still thinking of the character as they've become accustomed to them....a 14-year-old. The character has been drawn as a kid, been created as a kid and it's a very thin and weak stretch to just say "Oh, just imagine they're older." Now, we know that in the realms of fiction and artwork, there are no real people involved, but this is not the point and will not be debated. This is not the Supreme Court, this is a privately owned (and free to join) website with rules of its own that supercede people's rights of expression when those rights interfere with the overall mission of the site. We strive to allow people to express themselves however they want, but as in any civilised society, there must be limits.
And speaking of expression. There's one thing I've noticed in the recent threads where folks have chimed in about ageing minors or even allowing them outright. They usually have a statement like "I'm no pedophile, but..." or "I don't condone sexual activities with kids, but..." in them. Let me ask you this, as this really does concern me to a great degree...
...then why are you making a stink about not being allowed to utilize minor characters? With the utter wealth of inspirational material out there from movies to television to music to books to God-knows-what-else...why does someone make the conscious decision to say "No, I want to write a story/draw a picture of this 15-year-old girl." Why is it so important that you choose a minor to start with, especially since by attempting to "age" the character, you've pretty much assumed that utilizing the character was wrong in the first place? And please save the "But that's my right of expression" arguement. It holds little water with me. The fact that someone's "right of expression" must include minors again concerns me a great deal.
And now for the final topic. Over and over I've heard the arguement "Well, this story is allowed to stay!" or "This picture is still up! You guys are hypocrites!" No, we are small in number and cannot be everywhere at once. If a post or thread with minor content is brought to our attention, we will deal with it. If it's there, it's because we have not caught it. If people are fired up enough about a minor post to let us know that we've left it there in the open forum, they can surely click the feature that says "Report This Post" so we can take care of it. That's it. If you don't let us know, we can't always catch everything. But, NOTHING is being left up out of any sort of preferential treatment or loophole in the rules. Period.
So, that's it. This is the deal. No Minors. No ageing of minors. We are not debating these rules, nor are we listening to arguements to attempt to persuade us to change them. Violations will receive a warning from the staff via PM, as we know not everyone reads all the stickies. However, a second violation after having already been made aware of the rules will result in a ban from posting in the appropriate sub-forum. We are serious.
So, NO Sailor Moon, NO Totally Spies, NO Simpsons kids, NO Winx Club, NO Kim Possible, NO underage Disney characters....
NO.....MINORS......PERIOD.
Thank you for your time and I hope this explanation has answered your concerns.
(P.S. This thread was originally not locked in order to give the community a brief opportunity to understand the topic and have any final questions resolved. As this is a rules thread and not a debate, the thread is now locked. The following post by Myriads is left intact as it answers some of the legitimate questions asked. No posts were removed because of any violations, the thread has simply been restored to its original intention...a Rules thread. - Dave )
Minors are not allowed on the TMF. In any way, shape or form. Period.
"Magically ageing" minor characters is also not allowed in any way, shape or form. Period.
There are many Stickies and threads throughout this forum that have explained over and over the lengths we have gone to in shaping our policies, so there is no reason to go into that again, other than to say we do not take this level of strictness with a particular rule lightly.
I have heard the arguements/complaints that ageing minor characters is an inalienable right of free expression and that it doesn't hurt anyone. These arguements are not being dismissed, they are simply being disagreed with by the Administrators and Staff of this Forum. Here is why:
There is no way to enforce a No Minors rule, especially a Zero Tolerance one, if we allow this loophole to be exploited. We all agree that we do not want the TMF to become a place for pedophiles to go to see/read about kids getting tickled. However, if we take a 14-year-old character and allow him/her to be "aged" arbitrarily, we all know that people are still thinking of the character as they've become accustomed to them....a 14-year-old. The character has been drawn as a kid, been created as a kid and it's a very thin and weak stretch to just say "Oh, just imagine they're older." Now, we know that in the realms of fiction and artwork, there are no real people involved, but this is not the point and will not be debated. This is not the Supreme Court, this is a privately owned (and free to join) website with rules of its own that supercede people's rights of expression when those rights interfere with the overall mission of the site. We strive to allow people to express themselves however they want, but as in any civilised society, there must be limits.
And speaking of expression. There's one thing I've noticed in the recent threads where folks have chimed in about ageing minors or even allowing them outright. They usually have a statement like "I'm no pedophile, but..." or "I don't condone sexual activities with kids, but..." in them. Let me ask you this, as this really does concern me to a great degree...
...then why are you making a stink about not being allowed to utilize minor characters? With the utter wealth of inspirational material out there from movies to television to music to books to God-knows-what-else...why does someone make the conscious decision to say "No, I want to write a story/draw a picture of this 15-year-old girl." Why is it so important that you choose a minor to start with, especially since by attempting to "age" the character, you've pretty much assumed that utilizing the character was wrong in the first place? And please save the "But that's my right of expression" arguement. It holds little water with me. The fact that someone's "right of expression" must include minors again concerns me a great deal.
And now for the final topic. Over and over I've heard the arguement "Well, this story is allowed to stay!" or "This picture is still up! You guys are hypocrites!" No, we are small in number and cannot be everywhere at once. If a post or thread with minor content is brought to our attention, we will deal with it. If it's there, it's because we have not caught it. If people are fired up enough about a minor post to let us know that we've left it there in the open forum, they can surely click the feature that says "Report This Post" so we can take care of it. That's it. If you don't let us know, we can't always catch everything. But, NOTHING is being left up out of any sort of preferential treatment or loophole in the rules. Period.
So, that's it. This is the deal. No Minors. No ageing of minors. We are not debating these rules, nor are we listening to arguements to attempt to persuade us to change them. Violations will receive a warning from the staff via PM, as we know not everyone reads all the stickies. However, a second violation after having already been made aware of the rules will result in a ban from posting in the appropriate sub-forum. We are serious.
So, NO Sailor Moon, NO Totally Spies, NO Simpsons kids, NO Winx Club, NO Kim Possible, NO underage Disney characters....
NO.....MINORS......PERIOD.
Thank you for your time and I hope this explanation has answered your concerns.
(P.S. This thread was originally not locked in order to give the community a brief opportunity to understand the topic and have any final questions resolved. As this is a rules thread and not a debate, the thread is now locked. The following post by Myriads is left intact as it answers some of the legitimate questions asked. No posts were removed because of any violations, the thread has simply been restored to its original intention...a Rules thread. - Dave )
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