What can I say about the state of this forum? I see so many 'goodbye' threads and posts, and mostly from some really great, contributing members. Quite sad really.
Anyway, I posted an age poll, just to get an idea of the age groups on this particular forum, and was surprised to see that there really are many young people on here. It didn't really strike me when the mods informed us about explicit/mature content, but I can see why now.
Nevertheless, I feel as an adult, a mother, and someone who has grown quite fond of both this forum, and many of the members, that it needs to be pointed out how adult content in posts can and should be stretched to include no tolerance of bullying as well. In the last week alone, I've seen thread after thread started with clearly antagonizing posts, words specifically used to target the younger members on here, and then blatant threats by those same TMs who claim to be adults, towards other members, many of whom are young girls, below the age of 18. And, THAT in my opinion is completely unacceptable.
The results of those same threads is like the proverbial can of worms, which triggers defensive threads, written in haste and anger, by the younger members on here, and that leads to misunderstandings, hurt feelings, and then loss of members.
So, my humble request to the Development Team/Moderators (all of whom I think do a fantastic job here btw, and deserve more than the praise they get) is to please become aware of people on here, whose only intent seems to be creating trouble, disguised as "freedom of speech" and all of the rubbish most bullies are famous for using to make their cases.
In the same way we protect the young members here by attempting to not use adult language, we should also try to keep out other forms of posts which they don't need to be reading and/or pushes them to react negatively.
Thank you. I did not mean any offense with this post, and hope it's taken for what it is. A little nudge towards awareness of an issue which could spiral out of control.
