I noticed there have been discussions here from time to time about erotic content on boards. I have managed boards for about two years and had initially allowed some erotic content. The boards I manage now do not allow it. We are PG-13.

I am not against erotic per se but I found that it attracted writers who only wanted to come on and write erotica. They contributed nothing else to the board and would often sort of "stalk" new members in hopes of writing more of it with others. The erotica was rarely ever well written or had any depth of story behind it.

I personally find that when you swing open those erotic doors you basically attract sort of exhibitionists and not really people who enjoy story writing.

So I feel that for our boards, erotica hasn't got a place. We have a lot of sensuality, sexual tension etc, but we don't shine a big light on it and beckon everyone in to watch us screw.

So what has been your experience either managing or playing on boards that allowed erotica?

well put! I'm considering this rule myself. I love erotica, when well written and following a story line, but they don't want a story line, it's just sex sex sex random, passionless, boring sex, it makes me wonder what they're doing... haha!

personally, as i am a christian, i would never allow erotica on any site that i manage just for personal reasons. i dont think personal views should play a major part in managing a roleplay but i am there for my own enjoyment and for me endorsing or having to see erotica would make me feel really bad.

my sites have always been pg-13 and i plan on keeping it that way. there is enough slash and erotica out there as it is. as a more practical less personal view i also see erotica as unnecessary as it takes away from the writing.

SCRT,

Yes. I agree. We just stopped it. We made an announcement and said "Sorry. No more."

Sure, we lost a few members, but who cares. They were the ones only writing the erotic rubbish and not even writing it well.

Adios.

If you truly love story and writing and you manage your boards, it's up to you to turn it around and set really strong AND VERY SPECIFIC ground rules if you are going to allow it. You can't be shy or vague at all. You have to spell it out-- or they will.

People can write passion, real passion without having to show us the National Geographic version of humanoids mating. Really, we are not all that exciting. haha. What is interesting in an erotic scene is the tension of what is occurring in the mind of the character. That's why all those lame romance novels are such a success. First they have a story and then they let us inside the real emotional lives of the characters so that the erotic scenes make sense and are steamy.

But for us, it was way too much trouble than it was worth and we were glad to see it go. The writers we get now seem better quality all around.

I'm not for it personally, only because I hate romance novels and wouldn't know what the hell to write. I stay away from it as far as possible.

I've generally had the same experience as you, Ryan. The worst "erotica" idea I've ever seen in the management of an RPG was to make a hidden "adult folder" that players had to request access to and prove their age to the admins (sometimes that didn't work out properly and someone requesting access would actually be 17, but that's a whole new can of worms). The big problem that sprang out of that was some of the people you mentioned - the ones who only want to write erotica and not really contribute anything else - were staff members, and they would play out a lot of major storylines that affected the whole game in that folder, away from 2/3 of the board's eyes. That was a real nightmare.

When I branched off and started running my own games, I thought the adult folder was nice in concept, but I put my foot down on writing full threads in there. I didn't want to duplicate the previous situation where most of the action would take place in the "honeymoon suite" and everyone else is left wondering what's going on.

Haha. I never thought about that hidden forum thing becoming a mess like that but, yeah, wow, that would suck. Half your forum's plot and story tucked away where no one can really read it. GAH!

I ran into a situation of a girl being on my board who identified herself as at least 16. I had threads tagged, not locked, if they had mature content. This girl didn't write anything but innocent threads with one of her friends (usually boychasing crap: "oh, do you like my hair. I grew it out over the summer. And look at my tone navel that I just had pierced with a ruby....)

Anyway, her stuff was harmless even though a bit dull. Then one night she suddenly logged off the board and off AIM. (The Admins had an AIM to keep in touch with all our members). Well, suddenly it appeared I was dealing with this girl's dad. He told me she was 12! He called my board and me a bunch of names and said he was going to report me to AIM and the board host ..blah blah blah...

I didn't take the mature content out at that point. I just locked it, like what you were doing. And mind you, in over 2000 posts, we had maybe two theads with mature content.
But after the other admins and I got together for the new board we were working on, we went PG-13.

Well, I think I have adressed this before but I will post again to let new members know of my issues. I never had any problems with my mature content threads, in fact, it went rather smoothly except for the odd member who wrote 90% mature threads. Quite awhile ago, myself and a group of members (including those over and under 18) had a chat and discussed the possibility of moving to a seperate permission mask for mature topics.

Though not every member was able to be contacted and we did end up loosing one member, I think it was a good move. We have gained several members since then that said they were hesitant to join when we had an open mature section. Though, it is rarely used now, and a summary is required on the open section for anything plot related.

For the main board we have a set 14A rating with a list of what is expected to fall under that rating. The 14A rating is really quite lenient, when you compare it to the actual rating, we would still fall under it with how I have it set up.

For those who are old enough, they can added to the permission mask for mature content BUT they have to be an established member who has been posting regularily for at least 2 months. This has completely cut out the people who join just for mature threads. Also they have to send a little agreement that they understand the rules of the section, they are of legal age and that we may restict their access if they are not following any of the rules, such as not posting in the regular sections of the rpg. Not that it would likely be legally binding but it is token proof that we are under the impression that they are of legal age and being lied to ourselves if they aren't.

I have also recieved a fax of someone's driver's license before.. not that it couldn't be someone elses's but its still something. COPPA agreements are only a faxsheet too I believe.

The system has worked very well for us in the past, though I do say past since it is very rarely needed and since opening the new board we have yet to even set the permission mask up since no one had needed it yet. It has kept our rpg more friendly and open to new, younger members and I am happy we made the change.