Town of Odyssey Mission Statement and Audience

Come here to voice your comments, concerns, and questions with the mayor and their aides!
Post Reply
Wooton

Town of Odyssey Mission Statement and Audience

Post by Wooton »

My question for Shadowpaw, or any one else who could answer with the correct answer would be,
  • What is the intended age group for this website?
  • What things are allowed and disallowed when it comes to content on this website?
Based on the answer of these questions, I think we all need to consider what we post and what our conversations hint, point to, and just plain talk about. Considering some content on this site, links to another site, and promoting other sites. Image
User avatar
Rachael Blackgaard
Dr Blackgaard's Girl
Posts: 4807
Joined: April 2005
Location: IT!!!!!!!
Contact:

Post by Rachael Blackgaard »

And I would expect that list would vary from forum to forum-- some things might be acceptable in the Blackgaard Mansion or the Campus, but not in Finneman's Market, for example.
User avatar
Shadowpaw
Town Founder
Posts: 2777
Joined: March 2005
Location: Calgary, AB
Contact:

Post by Shadowpaw »

What is the intended age group for this website?
As is the nature of Adventures in Odyssey, the aim of this website is to appeal to all ages... I think when you look around, you'll find just about every age category between 10 - 50 has at least one or two representatitives.

What things are allowed and disallowed when it comes to content on this website?
Obviously there's no place for adult content on this message board (or any message board) and that won't change. There is also no tolerance for spreading hate about other people's beliefs or religion, though disagreement with certain belief systems is allowed (and expected). Many things would also be allowed to be posted in the Campus or the Town Hall that wouldn't be acceptable elsewhere.

As for a lot of the other content that could be considered offensive by some, there's also a problem with the demographic and audience this board has. No two people were brought up in the same way and everyone comes to this board with a different set of experiences and expectations. There's a great deal of grey area when it comes to offensive content and there's no magic "offensive content" filter or rules that would satisfy everyone. The more limits you oppose on what people can talk about, the less freedom people have. Again, I'm not talking about the obvious no-nos... I'm talking about discussions about Harry Potter or Christian rock music or that kind of thing.

While in a perfect world this board would have a clear set of rules about what can and cannot be posted, there is no way this can be done without stripping away the heart of what makes this board special. I don't think real relationships can be formed in an environment where everything is regulated.

So, in short, I expect members of this board to use common sense when posting material and that's really all I can ask for. And as always, I encourage members who DO find material offensive to come speak to myself or other members of the administration. We still want this place to be comfortable for people to visit, and more often than not the people who posted offensive material were not aware that the material could be viewed as such but are more than willing to take it down (or let us remove it).

The system seems to work, and I think we have a relatively good thing going here. When I look around and just see how much this board enriches people's lives on a daily basis, I'm not willing to tinker with a good thing ;).
Wooton

Post by Wooton »

Awesome! Thanks, Shadowpaw! ;)
Post Reply