Comic Genesis Forums

Yes, I put my foot down. I changed the title of a topic.

I am fairly certain that I have never locked a thread, and if I can at all help it, I never will. I am a raving free-speecher, so this should come as a surprize to no one. I want everyone using the thread whose name I changed that I wholeheartedly APPROVE of the discussion, and consider frank discussions of sexuality to be a very positive experience, and entirely appropriate for this board.

That said, I do know not everyone will like it. So I've started a policy of putting warning lables on threads. I've decided not to censor, and I will try not to censure, this board.

Ahthankyou.

hmm. There exist people who read Umlaut House that would be offended by anything ever posted on this board? :)

Don't forget, it's also the ergonomic keyboard thread....


--Randy

Well, maybe not -offended-, but perhaps made less likely to frequent (and thus, post on) this board. And I wants more visitors, dagnabbit!

Moderating, and now administrating the FWF message board, has taught me that moderation is definately needed.
Granted, there are 104 members of that board and they are a great deal less mature than the people on this board. If the topic in question has appeared on the FWF message board, I would have either had to delete the adult only posts, move them to rants section which is the only place that adult only posts can be made, or make an abult only section of the board which I'm not sure the owner would approve of. Still, I'm all for moderation, UH maybe a mature comic, but it's not as explicit as a lot of the stuff in the thread in question, so it stands to chance that readers would not come to the board expecting that sort of stuff. Therefore it's only fair to give them a warning. I've learnt to not check this forum when my mom is in the room, it might be a bit embarassing to read that thread know that me mom's behind me checking what I'm reading nowadays. So if I was knew to the Forum, and I just clicked on that topic, it could cause undue embarassment, so the warning is doing nothing but helping people, so it's cool.
Also, I think I'm to blame for the cause for moderation. The first post that started the whole sex-ed thing off was mine, and although it was linked in with the rest of the topic, which had already gone off topic, it was mainly one of those weak links, that are just made for the sake of being able to post something in a certain topic. Really I should have just made a new topic, that way people would know what to expect of it so could not look if they didn't want to see that sort of stuff.
Well this post is now way too long, it wasn't really anything greatly important and now I'm sure I've bored you all to death.

Trust me, Maximus, with the number of furverts on this board, you were little more than a lit match in a gas-filled room. Think nothing of it.

And a few words on self-censorship!

Umlaut House was self-censored. No nudity, no harsh swear words. Plenty of VERY sugguestive dialog, but basically a "clean" comic. Future works by me will be similarly self-censored.

Why? Because, as I've stated before, I don't want the first image that pops up when you google my name to be a drawing of two skunk girls doing the nasty. Seriously.

I don't mind people with only a casual interest in me discovering that I'm bisexual and draw comics about other bisexuals. I'd just like to make sure a person has a fair shot at getting to know me before they find out what a truly sick individual I am, that's all.

allan_ecker wrote:with the number of furverts on this board

:(

I had a long, and slightly nasty rant here, which I just deleted and typed this instead. I decided allan didn't deserve it, as that was probably a joke. I'll just summarize it instead by saying furvert is a term I do not agree with.

I'd just like to make sure a person has a fair shot at getting to know me before they find out what a truly sick individual I am, that's all.

I need to remember that quote. :)


--Randy

Oh, CRAP! Sorry, randy!

Like the word "queer", I've kind of inducted it into my lexicon as a word with no negative connotation, despite any negative connotation in popular context.

NO disrespect was meant, and no, I didn't get to see your rant, although I'm sure it would've made me feel even more terrible about my word choice than I do already. Again, REALLY sorry.

It's not that we need to be PC. It's just that the people who actively aren't go around poisoning words with hatred, cruelty and stupidity. And it is those attitudes, not the words themselves, that deserve to be expunged from the world.



Sorry! -hugs-

It's not your fault; furvert is just a term I don't like.

A fair part of it is that it hurts to be called a pervert... Perverts (to me) are the people who get off on hurting others, or other equally unpleasant things, and it's not a term to be used lightly. I work hard to try never to hurt anyone under any circumstances, and being called a pervert doesn't feel good.

Furvert, at least to me, has very strong negative connotations. I don't think I've ever met someone I'd call a furvert, and I've met some pretty odd furs. Even some of the people who might qualify as furverts (I met someone on IRC with an obsession with being crushed to death by giant lion paws during sex), I wouldn't call them ones unless I was in an argument. It's the type of term you use in the third person to refer to someone with an actual problem. "Those furverts who blather on TV about their fetish for penetrating the neighbor's cat" would be a good use of the term.

Furvert also implies that being furry and being perverted are somehow related, and aren't independent properties a person could have. This goes contrary to everything I've ever seen, and logic like that is way the fandom gets so much crap from everyone. (And I'm still dealing with daily as I try to get the UCSC furries registered as a campus-sponsored organization)



I'm really not sure why that hurt so much, but it's really _not_ your fault. *snuggles allan until he feels better* It's my problem, not yours, and don't worry about it.

I didn't mean for it to come out sounding as mean as it did; I guess I just don't write well when feeling hurt. The original rant had about the same content as the one above, but was worded a bit sharper, and I decided it really wasn't appropriate at all.

And I know this one isn't nice either. But I have to say something, otherwise I'd probably hurt you more by not responding. I just can't find a pleasant way to word it.


Sorry, and I hope you'll accept my apologies,
--Randy
*snuggles allan more, since he certainly didn't want to hurt him*

As long as you're feeling better, I'm feeling better. And thank you for sharing. It's worth it.

Another reason for moderation: unintentionally bruised feelings. Although of course, there's only so far moderation can go in this fight.

allan_ecker wrote:As long as you're feeling better, I'm feeling better. And thank you for sharing. It's worth it.

*snuggles more anyway, just to make sure* :)

Sorry again,
--Randy

Oh yeah, we're a bunch of dangerous critters, aren't we?

How many appologies is that for a rant that never actually got posted?

Which, I think, just goes to show that furries are a really civilized, pleasant bunch of people. I've never been, but I hear stories about the rest of the internet being full of "flame wars", where people hurl insults over the internet for no good reason at all.

Thank you, all of you, for making this forum a civilized place in the wild wild web.

8)

allan_ecker wrote:Oh yeah, we're a bunch of dangerous critters, aren't we?

How many appologies is that for a rant that never actually got posted?

Which, I think, just goes to show that furries are a really civilized, pleasant bunch of people. I've never been, but I hear stories about the rest of the internet being full of "flame wars", where people hurl insults over the internet for no good reason at all.

Thank you, all of you, for making this forum a civilized place in the wild wild web.

8)

heh. welcome. :)

I've either been involved in or seen just about every form of flame war under the sun... hanging out in news.groups will do that. Decided it just wasn't the thing for me. Haven't been on usenet since the late 90's, except to check (and promptly give up on) the furry groups when I learned about furryness...

The apologies weren't as much for the rant, but for hurting you, which I really shouldn't have done.


--Randy

Let me start by saying I fully agree with Allan changing the topic title.

There is a line that divides moderation and censorship, and I for onewill never have a problem with moderation, or even in specific instances censorship (more on that later). Moderation to me is when topic titles are changed, possibly threads moved, or other such changes are made in order to keep rules or guidelines (spoken or not) from being breached. It's a matter of courtesy to warn someone that what they about to see is of an adult and possibly offensive nature (in most case also a legal requirement, but I consider it a courtesy as well).

Censorship comes in when things are specifically changed, altered, restricted, or removed in order to prevent one from expressing free speech. An example of bad censorship is the attempted badding of pornography on the internet. An example of good censorship would be, as Allan pointed out, Umlaut House itself. Self-censorship is still censorship, but often of a good nature. Allan's self-censorship allowed Umlaut house to deal at times with adult and sexual situations, without ever breaking the line where I would show a 7 year old his comic.

I had some sort of point when I started writing, but I can't seem to remember anymore... so... *hugs Allan, then Randy... then Jarylan, out of the blue*

allan_ecker wrote:. . . I've never been, but I hear stories about the rest of the internet being full of "flame wars", where people hurl insults over the internet for no good reason at all.

If you'll all remember Randy's venture a while back, we were the subject of a flame war, although we never returned a shot..

Something Awful's forum is little more than a flaming forum in the first place, though.. you have to take anything put up there with a huge, colossal grain of salt...

And as for the like 3 or so apologies.. you should see me when I mess up... I'm nothing but a can of "I'm sorry"...

Besides, it's important to be sure that we don't accidentally tread on each other's toes, if we want this forum to remain constructive and a pleasant place to discuss ideas in.

allan_ecker wrote:Well, maybe not -offended-, but perhaps made less likely to frequent (and thus, post on) this board. And I wants more visitors, dagnabbit!

If anything, I think it might get more visitors. Just not of the quality we are used to. And I for one, think this forum is one of the best on the internet. We get a small section of people who are of very like mind about certain issues...and then we run the gamut on the rest. The translation is that we can discuss certain things we don't agree with while being diplomatic, because at the end of the day, we've got a lot of common ground to come home to. I've actually stated before that you meet the most wonderful people here.

Nyamaza wrote:*hugs Allan, then Randy... then Jarylan, out of the blue*

*hugs Allan, then Randy, then pounce hugs Shakal*

- Jarylan Vulpine

Ah. 'tis good to be reading a topic like this. It makes me feel all good inside because I know I made a good decision to make an account and start posting.

Go you guys.

*Gives a batch of all-around hugs*

The_Fox wrote: If anything, I think it might get more visitors.

See, it's a maximization function. Forum with no purient discussion, one group of visitors. Forum with purient discussion, another group. Forum with properly labled purient discussion gets the -union- of those two sets.

With of course some loss due to accidential squickage.

EDIT: Before the D-Bear catches me on it, it's spelled PRURIENT. I'd only heard it pronounced, and that r is kinda hard to catch.

allan_ecker wrote:With of course some loss due to accidential squickage.

Oh come now Allan, let's be honest. Very little of the squickage is accidental ^_--

Pardon my limited knowledge of strange words, but........

What's a squickage?

Why, one of Umlaut House's modal themes, of course!

Squick: verb. To cause significant psychological upheval due to a rapid acquisition of information concerning a topic normally outside one's sphere of experience.

For example, whenever Saundra emits her trademark "EEeeewwww..", she may be considered squicked.

Squickage is the noun form of squick.

I have been known to use "squink" as this is a fair onomonopia for the sound of a squeaky door, about the same sound one imagine's one's brain making under such circumstances.