Imp- for every member. Please read.

This MOTW seems to have sparked off a debate on whether members below the age of 18 can participate in it. As per IF rules, members of all ages are welcome here to participate in the discussions and we encourage members over the age of 13.

Once a person has registered and becomes a member here, they are equal. Everyone has a right to participate in every event on IF and the posts are open for all. This is purely a voluntary thing and it is for the individual members to police themselves. IF cannot distinguish between members neither can IF be party to any distinction based on age. Yes, we as moderators or members, sometimes request members to go easy on others based on either their age, sometimes mental state, sometimes nature of thread etc. but that is just to keep the friendly atmosphere on.

Another thing observed is the tendency to keep giving advices in the name of "senior" or "di" or "da" and adopt a patronizing attitude. We have received complaints from many of u about many of you. Each one of us who come into IF has our own set of intelligence and are capable of taking our own decisions, are aware of our responsibilities on India Forums and our lives and will be guided by our own policing. Moderators are here to keep an eye on members to ensure there is no profanity, that there is no unnecessary trolling, spamming, chatting etc. We would therefore request all member here to be their own guide and be aware when they post on IF, so that others need not police them. Self policing is the best policy.

We also received complaints that members are flirting on IF and that should not be encouraged. IF does not encourage flirting, at the same time IF is not averse to two members flirting with each other, if they choose to do so. However, do not do so on threads and do not change the tenor of the thread. Flirting on topics where the flirting comments are incidental to the comments on the main thread is not a bad thing.

We do not want to make too many rules and regulations for more rules means, more breaking of rules. If each one of us exercise our own precautions and care and we are within our self imposed decent limits, we will not feel the need for external moral policing.

Thanks,

India Forums Development Team.

Priya,

I think you all are giving too much importance to that member who always has a problem (sorry I forgot her ID).

Originally posted by: apparaohoare

Priya,

I think you all are giving too much importance to that member who always has a problem (sorry I forgot her ID).

I know Appa. We too do not want to give importance. But with the increasing number of complaints, we are finding it difficult to answer other members.

Every member of IF is important to us and sometimes, we cannot risk 100 members getting offended because of one or two of them.

Thanx Priya for the much needed post.

Originally posted by: apparaohoare

Priya,

I think you all are giving too much importance to that member who always has a problem (sorry I forgot her ID).

Appa it is not just a matter of that one member but many members. many hav objection to such posts and thy r now complaining.

we cannot stop anyone from becomming motw. yes we can try to just keep an eye on the questions if the member is a kid. but further dev team cannot do anything. same goes for flirting. if thy r carried out on threads and found having no bearing to the subjct of the thread we can tak action. but as Priya said if thy r found to be incidental then dev team takes no responsibility.

patronising attitude is again somethng the dev team cant help. it is a request that such attitude be taken up on PM and not to use the threads for such activities.

Thanks for the post Priya. I totally agree to what you say.

Whoever joins IF does that at their own will and in their own responsibility. IF is an open forum where all are free to express within the limits of CoC, and in the virtual world - age, experience, occupation etc are never any differentiating factors for communicating! We are our best monitors and should know what works best for us!

i agree with all of you IF is a forum open for all and at the time of registration we dont see whether the particular person is below or above 18 it is for their parents to see.A classic example is Payal di who not only has registered herself on IF but after seeing the nice atmosphere here has allowed her daughter Nupur to join in too.Likewise all parents should guide their children we are not their parents yes we do certainly forbid children sometimes to spend a lot of time on comp and that is all we can do.

Flirting as Priya di said is always done on fun threads and not on serious threads so i guess there is no harm in it and any misconduct or profane language is beautifully handled by the moderators.They try their level best to keep the atmosphere of the forum congenial and friendly to all age groups.I think the moderators are the heros of this forum as they are the only one who guide the members to the correct path.But mods cant be parents whether a child should sit on the comp or not is entirely the parents headache and not the mods'

1. As long as posts and matters are within the limits of CoC of IF, the Dev Team is helpless. Be it anyside.

2. Flirting on threads randomly is wrong. If it is not related to the topic may even be taken as spamming. But the issue of flirting itself is not a concern to be taken care of by the Dev Team if both sides are indulging in it.

3. Similar to flirting patronising posts if unrelated to the thread will be again considered as spamming.

Thats my POV. Please don't take it as advise or CoC. Yes I can say, this is possibly the POV of the Dev Team too.

Thanks Priyadi for this post..

In my experience in the Virtual World, I havent seen a well maintained forum like IF... So, what if a kid becomes a MOTW... They too can showcase their talent with the help of this opportunity.. These MOTWs also help themselves to know them better.. We too come to know about other people's hidden talent.. For had it not been the MOTW, we would ve not known who is good at what... And the MOTWs are asked before they are made one.. And if and only if they accept it, they are made else they are not... So, its their own responsibility to decide if they want to become one or not... Dev Team can only ask them, the decision is also theirs..

Regarding other issues mentioned, I would only say that we have to be self-monitor ourselves and see to it that others do not get offended by our actions..

Patronizing attitude neednot be expressed in the open forum.. They can be taken to PMs if necessary.. Moreover, each and everyone can self-monitor themselves and even if people are caring and want to express their concern, that can be done in PMs instead of in threads..

Flirting - I think we all are much matured to take care of it by ourselves.. Continous flirting in all the threads is wrong.. I think we can self-monitor ourselves regarding these issues...

Recently you can see Sameer supporters flurting on every post without any hasitation and this is a bad trend. Hope you all look into...