Currently there's a disclaimer for those 2 forums that you have to be 13 years of age or older to post in them. I'm willing to take it a step further and making it so that anyone 12 and under cannot post in this forums. Those members will still be able to view those forums, they just wouldn't be able to post in them.

Who is all in favor of this? Please vote in the poll above.

I liked the second option for "little kids should be able to go there too" lol...

I think that Cafe Corner is typically for more adult issues, so I am in favor of this. The only people who tend to post there are generally the more mature members anyway, so I don't think we will be missing too much.

I am in favor of the younger users being unable to post in the Cafe Corner. However, I think we should allow them to post in the Debate forum. There's some smart kids out there.

NotJon : I added that as an option to the Poll.

I am going to object to this for the fact that this is a family friendly site. It doesn't make much sense to ban your core audience and then say your family friendly.

I understand why you would allow them to view the forum (search engines) but if your putting age limits on stuff then you should not have it open to the public in first place. Not only can they lie about their age it also defeats the purpose if 13 year olds and under are still able to view the forum. Its like having a nude bar saying adults only but at the same time letting little kids in to watch but not play.

Why not just make it trusted members only can post in there? Or what about users who have an "X" amount of posts? Or why not make it so you have to have an "X" amount of words for the post to submit? Or what about having them take a debate test to see if they are serious about it?

Let's look at twitter or facebook as an example, those sites prove you can be old and still post like a 2 year old so age limits don't fix much. Is that the reason why your blocking 12 year olds and below?

I say keep it open to everyone... plus 12 year olds and below have good imagination and can spark good debates. Anyone above 13 can still post like a 5 year old, has nothing to do with age though it depends on how they use their brains and what their objective is.

yeah, I'm with Jigsaw on this one. I don't see how putting the restriction on either of those forums is going to accomplish much of anything.

Although I will say that there is not a whole lot of activity in either of those forums that is too "adult" for a 10 year old to see when in 3 clicks of the mouse they can be watching porn too.

geeogree :

point taken.

When I made that comment I thought a lot about some things I myself have posted.

For example, I was concerned about something in my real life, and I don't think I feel confident that many 12 year olds could honestly tell me anything all that helpful.

I mean there are a few members over this age limit with the maturity of a 5 year old...one member comes to mind... but for the most part, I think that the users that will be of help are those who have been there before. Typically adults who can pass off their life experiences.

That said, I can understand where you and JigSaw are coming from. It doesn't take much to get information you want if you want it bad enough. In this case, it would just take lying about age, and that's it.

I don't think the debate forum is much of a debate ironically. When I was younger I liked to debate, and I was quite good at it. It's healthy and fosters growth in kids. My main concern is with Cafe Corner personally. It's not terribly active, but I still think some of that shouldn't allow input from those under 13.

I think if we're going to have an age restricted forum it should also be restricted by trust points or something. If there are conversations going on that are too "mature" for the younger members then I don't know why we're allowing them to see these conversations but not have any input or be able to ask any questions.

Ok I might be new but what I am seeing is that you all think the two forums are too grown up for the younger members, and maybe we should just put them for only trusted members to see and use. Well mostly I think the cafe corner, kids should be able to see the debate forum. It is good for kids to get into debates and to learn about the world around them as long as it's not inapropriat.

So boiling it down I think we maybe should have the Cafe Corner for trusted members and leave the debate form alone.

geeogree : A forum that the public can't see doesn't help the site when it comes to search engine ranking.


I'm just sick of people complaining about vizzed being full of noobs so I just wanted to find a solution to satisfy those people and to filter out some of the noobish posts from some of the more serious forums (because usually the noobish posts come from the very young members).

fair enough. I'm not totally opposed to the idea, but I understand where Jigsaw was coming from with what he said.

Although we're talking about 2 forums on the site. Not a whole lot happens in those forums.

That is what mods are for They help maintain the quality of site. Any restriction that is put up there is always a way around it. Your best bet is not age but using another alternative that I mentioned whether it be trust points, or amount of posts, or something like that.

Trusted members or anyone who has more then a certain amount of posts should know the rules well enough that is why it will work better then age limits. They should also know that debate and cafe corner are used for more serious conversations. If a 15 year old registers and spams the section it doesn't really fix the problem. The ideas I listed wont fix everything but it will probably be a more reasonable way of going about it.

Judging members on their dedication instead of some sort of outside element like age (which we have no control of) is always the way to go if you want to maintain quality standards.

JigSaw :

This sways me "Judging members on their dedication instead of some sort of outside element like age (which we have no control of) is always the way to go if you want to maintain quality standards."

It's not the users fault they are under age, however, if they are dedicated, they are more valuable than the most mature of adults.

I think now, if we did change anything, it's to add a page for the first time you click on cafe corner and debate.

The page should say something along the lines of, "This forum, _________ is notably more serious than the rest of the board. The topics are mature, and contain real life issues, with real life people. Proceed at own risk."

To advance past it, the user would click Proceed or something.

Not only does this almost force (there will always be people who skim it to find the end sadly) the userbase to acknowledge it is a mature issue, but it also removes liability from the userbase in case of a complaint like "This user argued with me, and made me upset. He went too far arguing."

This is also a way of doing something, without really doing anything. I think this would at least satisfy the bulk of people.

legacyme3 : Those proceed with risk pages never work. Most porn sites use them and the chances of someone denying it are slim to none. Also mature game sites use this method as well they ask for your age before you can enter site but I find that way rather pointless cause anyone can bypass the warning. Sure it tells the user what they are about to view but it doesn't fix the main problem here and that is spammy noobs

JigSaw :

It won't get rid of them, but can you ever truly get rid of spammy noobs?

There is no real way yet, because:

-not everyone under 13 is spammy
-not everyone over 13 is non-spammy
-not everyone over 13 is mature
-the TP system (which could show how mature a user was) is broken to the point some of afforementioned spammy noobs have become trusted. In turn they make their other spammy noob friends trusted.
-Age, TP, and post count would have no impact, since anything is true and anything is false regarding the maturity of any user who has ever joined this site.

I don't think there is a way to really get rid of them.

legacyme3 : Close the site that is how you get rid of them or disable the forum altogether But yea there is no way to get rid of them but there are restrictions that can assist in blocking them.

It's not necessarily the content that is being restricted just the ability to post. So there is no need for warnings or anything unless they are attempting to post. Perhaps we could use your idea for when someone is about to submit a post. Something like "The post your about to make better be serious and have some decent contribution to a thread or you might get banned from this section." That could be a good idea might scare off some of the 1 liner spammers, I doubt it though but its worth a shot

JigSaw :

Worst case is that people don't take it seriously, and end up getting banned.

I think it's a bright idea to try to restrict them somehow. It's just a matter of... how.

Disabling the forum... meh, not too sold on that.

I think the best option would be actually the latter bit of what you suggested. Since there's no way to keep them out if they want to see, then just warn them that if they don't take it seriously they could get banned. At least from the forums in question of course.

Well I've got another planned that might possibly reduce the noob spam, if it does work, than I can trash this idea. The other idea should be implemented sometime today or tomorrow.

I think that disabling the two forums from users >13 would hurt the sites activity there more then anything else.

How about as you're creating a thread, you can have a choice whether you want younger members posting on it? Like, for example, a thread about a midlife crisis would have no purpose for a little kid to be posting in, however a thread about your stances on a current issue should be open to younger people. I think if we leave the choice to the users, then everybody will be happy.

Davideo7 : couldnt you just add it as an option when you are creating a thread?e.g allow ages under 13 to comment:yes/no
Must be trusted:no/yes.