Beau Geste (imported) wrote: Sun Sep 16, 2007 1:53 pm I think that, if any girl or woman told me she was going to sign up as a member of this archive, I'd tell her to disable private messaging right away, and maybe do a second signup with a male identity, if she wanted to chat (although I guess that's considered against the rules). If she wanted to talk to somebody directly through messaging, she could enable the messaging long enough to exchange email addresses or some other means of communication with the person. One of the disadvantages of having an open membership policy, is that every kind of predator (psychological as well as physical) can, and probably will, sign up.

I also wonder if the general tone of the archive might be a little friendlier to potential female members, if the raunchy avatars didn't show up right away when somebody accessed the message boards. I presume similar avatars are used in the chat room. There are less than a dozen rude avatars that show up with any regularity in the message boards, but only one is enough to make a certain type of impression on somebody who accesses the message boards for the first time. If I understand it correctly, there are already some restrictions on what avatars are acceptable--I think that avatars showing sex acts are prohibited. Possibly the coding for the avatars could be changed so that the default setting for the archive was to have the offensive avatars hidden, and then there could be a box that a user could check if he wanted all the avatars to be visible. Shouldn't take a whole lot of coding, since there is already a check box to hide all avatars.

Of course, a number of avatars might be objectionable to certain folks for other reasons. Kristoff's might be considered disrespectful to the regular clergy, and there might even be some Buddhists who would think Jesus' avatar represented a misuse of Buddhist iconography. Maybe there are fans of Marc Antony who would take offense at my avatar. But those avatars don't convey the same impression as the sexually suggestive ones.

kristoff wrote: Sat Sep 15, 2007 6:25 pm I have been hearing from a few of our female members. Once again, I need to remind members to keep your fucking fantasies where they belong. That is, not in the email box or PM box of such female members. All female members who are being harassed by ANY member here, requesting that you cut them, torture them, or whatever, please feel free to do either of the following: Post a scathing message on the boards naming the offender, after which I will ban the bastard; OR, forward to me the offending email or PM, including name of the offender, and THEN I will ban the bastard.

Women members ARE welcome on this board. They are NOT, however, here for the amusement and abusement of anyone else. If you wish to engage someone in conversation, a POLITE private message requesting contact would be most appropriate…..

I think enough said on my part