PORN FILTER Yes or No?

[andydes]

It's human nature to want the freedom to post whatever they want. But my question is, why here? There are porn forums. There are political forums. There are religion forums. But there is only one official Ableton forum. Shouldn't it be dedicated to, well, a certain piece of software and the music people make with it? A porn thread is the same to me as a political thread... wasted screen space to be avoided. Lets get some mods and if nothing else, separate the General forum from the garbage with an Off Topic section. Moderation is not big brother or taking away your rights or anything else... it simply makes forums like this more useful.

The reason people don't go to political forums to discuss politics is that people here aren't here specifically to post on political subjects. People on politcal, religous or whatever forums will have an agenda, or other strong motivation to be on there in the first place. So any kind of resonable debate is impossible. At least here, by having similar interests you at least have a little idea of what the people you're talking to are like and I think they're generally pretty well rounded. If a bit opinionated.

Not to mention the fact that some of the long term posters here are actually pretty good friends.

But, yeah, a spam filter seems reasonable.

[sporkles]

But, yeah, a spam filter seems reasonable.

The only filtering that's needed is a captcha verification. This community
wouldn't be what it is if we weren't allowed to discuss off-topic stuff. In fact, I
dare say it wouldn't be a community - it would simply be a place where people
stopped by whenever they needed some information. There are many helpful
users here who don't hesitate to offer help to novice users - but would they be
hanging around here if that was all the forum was about? I think that would
seem just a little bit too much like unpaid work.

I for one come here for three reasons:
1 - the banter. There's almost always some interesting link to be followed,
funny post to laugh at, etc.
2 - other users' questions. Often I realise they're asking about things that I
didn't know I was wondering about myself.
3 - getting help with Live related problems.

[the Fearsome Fearful]

It's human nature to want the freedom to post whatever they want. But my question is, why here? There are porn forums. There are political forums. There are religion forums. But there is only one official Ableton forum. Shouldn't it be dedicated to, well, a certain piece of software and the music people make with it? A porn thread is the same to me as a political thread... wasted screen space to be avoided. Lets get some mods and if nothing else, separate the General forum from the garbage with an Off Topic section. Moderation is not big brother or taking away your rights or anything else... it simply makes forums like this more useful.

The reason people don't go to political forums to discuss politics is that people here aren't here specifically to post on political subjects. People on politcal, religous or whatever forums will have an agenda, or other strong motivation to be on there in the first place. So any kind of resonable debate is impossible. At least here, by having similar interests you at least have a little idea of what the people you're talking to are like and I think they're generally pretty well rounded. If a bit opinionated.

Not to mention the fact that some of the long term posters here are actually pretty good friends.

But, yeah, a spam filter seems reasonable.

To each his own. I guess I get all those conversations out with people face to face and use the forum for learning the software and vicariously experiencing how people are using it in settings other than my own. My desire for the forums is probably different from most, I'll admit. The idea that people here don't have an agenda is like saying people who comment on Digg don't have an agenda... hard to believe. Like you said, "a bit opinionated." I understand people here are friends and want to talk/complain/attack various people and topics, that's great, I just wish we had an OT forum in which to carry out those interactions.

[Dominik]

i would say simply.
IT IS A JOB.
so ableton can spent i lttle bit of the SHITLOAD of money they earn.

[headquest]

I teach younger kids than the OP and I definitely think there needs to be a porn filter on this site. The Ableton website should imho reflect eh professionalism of Ableton as a company (and its users), and at present it just doesn't fulfil that.

Schools in the UK generally use an ISP that pre-screens sites, and I suspect that the Ableton site might not even be available to schools as a result of the intrusion of spammer here. Obviously a shame.

Having said all that, I wouldn't vote for a moderated forum such as Steinberg's one. That's a seperate issue. But a Spam and Porn filter - DEFINITELY YES.

[beats me]

If the original concern here is exposing kids to the kind of things that go on here even beyond pornbots then why doesn't somebody start a forum moderated for and geared towards kids?

[Hypomixolydian]

And I vote no for banning of curse words. I don't know any music forums that have banned curse words, so I don't know who came up with that brilliant idea.

Frank Gambale's site bans all swear words. The moderator, at least when I used to frequent those pages ( I don't anymore), was a total fascist. You couldn't even use the word "crap."

It even got to the point where any kind of criticism of Frank Gambale's music was not tolerated and led to a total ban from the forum. It just got too far. The moderator was basically a beaurocratic, power driven fucking wanker. Plus if parent's argue that kids will see links to undesirable content, then they should educate their kids to make the right choice. It's not Ableton's obligation, or responsibility.

Keep the forum open, as all forum's by definition should be.

If parent's feel angry at Ableton because of an unmoderated forum, tough. That's the nature of a free society with freedom of speech. Anyway, there are loads of ways to get "corrupted" by internet and forums other than Ableton's forum

[lunabass]

Me, I like discussing politics and anything under the sun with other music obsessed fools.

What I don't like is robots swooping in and leaving turds behind. There's a difference.

+1

the OT banter is one of many reasons i come here.

being able to type fuck when thats exactly what i mean is another reason i like this forum.

links to an incest site...well that just a big steaming turd that has no place here

[Lazos]

I agree with the general concensus here. I plan to use Live and other software as educational tools and would not want to direct children to a forum that hosts links to porn. But I also appreciate being able to have an unmoderated and uncensored (in terms of language not porn) forum.

[lunabass]

i emailed them yesterday and got a very quick response back stating they are aware of the problem (porn) and are looking into what to do about it...

[forge]

If the original concern here is exposing kids to the kind of things that go on here even beyond pornbots then why doesn't somebody start a forum moderated for and geared towards kids?

no it's like headquest said - some schools have automatic filters that could just block the site

it's definitely not in Ableton's interests to exclude schools

anyway, Ableton have responded saying it;s high on their radar - so our work here is done!

[nowtime]

It never bugged me until just now. 1 out of every 5 posts is an eyesore.

[beats me]

After really thinking about the question here and all the chatter on the matter I have to laugh at how much this reminds me of the slow pace and red tape involved in the US government.

Of course the only answer here is yes we should have porn blocked but then we have to discuss who/what that could possibly hurt and what other kinds of rules and regulations that could further lead to. It's a small miracle anything ever really gets done when you allow everybody to have a say.

I would much rather have them fix the search function but the porn/spam problem is a lot harder to fix.

[forge]

After really thinking about the question here and all the chatter on the matter I have to laugh at how much this reminds me of the slow pace and red tape involved in the US government.

Of course the only answer here is yes we should have porn blocked but then we have to discuss who/what that could possibly hurt and what other kinds of rules and regulations that could further lead to. It's a small miracle anything ever really gets done when you allow everybody to have a say.

I would much rather have them fix the search function but the porn/spam problem is a lot harder to fix.

I have to say Ableton have a habit of mulling over things forever looking for the perfect solution

as far as I can tell the problem is they dont want to potentially compromise security by installing mods/plug-ins

I dont think any of this will lead on to further moderation or anything like that, on the whole I think most people just want the obvious spam gone - the foru is fine other than that