Forum Content Rating, Allegations of Hostile Purging

[Ryan D]

Forum URL: TBD

Concern: Forum Content Rating

Ever since Proboards moved up to v5 in 2013, I have been beside myself with joy. I have enjoyed the immersion I get from a built-in WYSIWYG BBCode Editor, and the ease of building and organizing and rearranging Boards, Sub-Boards, Categories, etc.  While other forum software requires you to use these clunky features, no real GUI to speak of, Proboards V5 has earned every bit of the hype I have generated for it.

Unfortunately...

People I write with, who would like to start their own forums, are skittish about going with Proboards because of some alleged tyrannical and systematic purging of boards that have a thread or post where a couple embraces each other and holds their lingering kiss for too long, or someone grabs another person's butt, or there are allusions (albeit subtle, with no graphic mentions of any textures or appendages, etc.), which has people going to absurd lengths to discourage people from using Proboards and moving to other providers who allegedly "allow adult content".

Now, I can't foresee me or my friends ever writing stories that even allude to graphic adult situations, but is this Proboards Anti-Hype true? Are people getting shut down for having private sub-boards where their 21+ (in many cases 35+) year old members RP out romantic makeout sessions that make allusions to adult activity?

I keep trying to find posts on the subject, and it looks like people are just complaining that their forum got taken down, or they're trying to see what will happen if there's objectionable content on their forums.

Me? I'm just trying to find out if a board can have a private section, out of the public eye (and only among consenting adults who know one another offline), where strings of letters can be exchanged that let people express themselves sensually and intimately, without the fear that the forum is going to come under attack by Proboards Admin.

If I could get some formal testimonies and statements from users who have been down this road, and maybe even from Support Forum Staff and - could I be so lucky? - Proboards Administration too, I would appreciate it a lot!

PS: I have sent a link to this thread to a number of my writing partners, and writing communities I am part of. If someone can debunk this 'anti-hype' (as I call it) about Proboards shutting down forums over mature situations that still fall within the generally accepted PG-13 book rankings for Teen, Young Adult and Adult novels and comics.

I have seen a lot of great forum software come and go over the years, so I really hope this information is false, can be quickly debunked, and I can get people to stop saying "no" to hosting their forums here.

[Michael]

Hi Ryan,

I love hearing these stories that we deleted a forum for someone making an allusion to adult activity. You can kiss, hug, makeout and grope each other to your hearts content. With that said, per the TOS and Community Guidelines, anything you wouldn't see in a PG-13 movie shouldn't be on the forum.

We have no interest in deleting forums, your success is our success and deleting forums in no way makes us any money, quite the opposite. When we find objectionable content on the forum we send a message to the admin of the forum to remove that content. We absolutely do not delete a forum if we find objectionable content unless the forum appears to be expressly created for the purpose of only posting content that would violate our TOS.

I would like to point out that just because a board or sub-board is private it is still not ok to post content that would violate the TOS or Community Guidelines. We ask that you fade to black or take true adult-RP off of ProBoards.

Edit: After checking that list, I have read some of, but not all of the books you linked. From what I've read of that list, I don't see any reason why the content of those would be an issue here on PB.

Edit 2: Of course if you have any questions regarding this topic please let me know, I'm the best person to ask!

[saltin]

So  we can confirm PB is not part of any evil empire then?
For sure not deserving of any coal, ok fine Merry Xmas to all the goody two shoes

[silvermoone]

Hi, 

I manage hall-of-the-gods.freeforums.net/ and we've just noticed that all posts containing adult content have recently been removed from the site. These were part of an RP storyline and it's really screwed things up. You say you notify the site and ask that such posts are removed, but this certainly didn't happen to us. 

All our members are old enough to read and write such content so I don't understand why we're restricted in what we write. In the RP thread, any adult content is spoiler tagged so people can avoid that section if they don't want to read it. 

There are only two people on our site who have access to delete posts and as we wrote some of these posts, we certainly didn't delete them. I've also checked the security log and there have been no deletions made, so I can only assume that ProBoards has removed them. 

Can you confirm this? 

[Scott]

silvermoone, if you have an issue you should start your own thread, as per the rules of this board.

You say you manage this forum, but are you the main admin? This is who would be contacted if there were an issue. Have you checked with them?

That said, if you believe content was removed by ProBoards then you would need to contact the Abuse Department at [e-mail], however they most likely will only discuss this with main admin as it is their forum and their responsibility.

Just an FYI - Whether or not your members are "old enough to read and write such content" is irrelevant. The terms of service agreed to by all users state that content must be PG-13. Using spoiler tags, labeling content as NSFW, or any similar action does not supersede the ToS.

[silvermoone]

Right, I missed that. I'll go and start a new thread then.