[Discussion] On the age limit

[Ethel mermania]

1. is there an age verification system here?

You have to say you read and agreed to the TOS, and the TOS say you have to be 13 to use the forums.

2. what personal information do the collect?

None is required, but a lot of people voluntarily provide it.

i dont think either, count as age verification or required personal information. no real names, addresses, or credit cards are required to use the site. i know the site collects IP and mac addresses, but i dont think that counts as personal info.

then again i dont want the age lowered, i want to see at least in one forum, the age raised.
and that turns out to be me and you, and a few others, that would be fine.
(aint gonna happen i know).

[The Most Glorious Hack]

Make it 30. *nods*

[Bezombia]

Make it 30. *nods*

Make it 64.

[The Most Glorious Hack]

Make it 30. *nods*

Make it 64.

Will you still need me, will you still feed me?

[Ethel mermania]

Make it 64.

Will you still need me, will you still feed me?

you'll be older too, grandchildren on your knee...

[The Blaatschapen]

Will you still need me, will you still feed me?

you'll be older too, grandchildren on your knee...

If you say the word, I could stay with you

[Dread Lady Nathicana]

I have a better idea.

We'll set up a forum and let the mods decide who gets to participate in it. We'll base it off of player record, illustration of ability to post cohesively, civilly, and maturely. Take into consideration the varied backgrounds, viewpoints, beliefs and such to balance it out a bit ... maybe proof of identification with ID and pic and a handwritten note involving Nationstates and your online persona, though that may be a bit overly paranoid. Still. Only two kinds, neh? Gotta maintain that forum integrity. And if a player gets in trouble there, we just boot 'em outta the 'cool kids club' and back into the general populace.

I'm sure nothing could go wrong with that system.



(Delivered very much tongue-in-cheek. Let's see if anyone gets my point.)

[Totally Not Leningrad Union]

I have a better idea.

We'll set up a forum and let the mods decide who gets to participate in it. We'll base it off of player record, illustration of ability to post cohesively, civilly, and maturely. Take into consideration the varied backgrounds, viewpoints, beliefs and such to balance it out a bit ... maybe proof of identification with ID and pic and a handwritten note involving Nationstates and your online persona, though that may be a bit overly paranoid. Still. Only two kinds, neh? Gotta maintain that forum integrity. And if a player gets in trouble there, we just boot 'em outta the 'cool kids club' and back into the general populace.

I'm sure nothing could go wrong with that system.



(Delivered very much tongue-in-cheek. Let's see if anyone gets my point.)

For a second I thought that was serious and i'm happy it's not. It would be extremely detrimental to the forums and website.

[Bezombia]

I have a better idea.

We'll set up a forum and let the mods decide who gets to participate in it. We'll base it off of player record, illustration of ability to post cohesively, civilly, and maturely. Take into consideration the varied backgrounds, viewpoints, beliefs and such to balance it out a bit ... maybe proof of identification with ID and pic and a handwritten note involving Nationstates and your online persona, though that may be a bit overly paranoid. Still. Only two kinds, neh? Gotta maintain that forum integrity. And if a player gets in trouble there, we just boot 'em outta the 'cool kids club' and back into the general populace.

I'm sure nothing could go wrong with that system.



(Delivered very much tongue-in-cheek. Let's see if anyone gets my point.)

I would not be opposed to that if the moderation staff could show reason in choosing players.

[Ethel mermania]

you'll be older too, grandchildren on your knee...

If you say the word, I could stay with you

i could be handy, mending a fuse, when your lights are gone

[Ethel mermania]

I have a better idea.

We'll set up a forum and let the mods decide who gets to participate in it. We'll base it off of player record, illustration of ability to post cohesively, civilly, and maturely. Take into consideration the varied backgrounds, viewpoints, beliefs and such to balance it out a bit ... maybe proof of identification with ID and pic and a handwritten note involving Nationstates and your online persona, though that may be a bit overly paranoid. Still. Only two kinds, neh? Gotta maintain that forum integrity. And if a player gets in trouble there, we just boot 'em outta the 'cool kids club' and back into the general populace.

I'm sure nothing could go wrong with that system.



(Delivered very much tongue-in-cheek. Let's see if anyone gets my point.)

they must face grave peril at the castle anthrax.

(and yes i get it):

[Dread Lady Nathicana]

I have a better idea.

We'll set up a forum and let the mods decide who gets to participate in it. We'll base it off of player record, illustration of ability to post cohesively, civilly, and maturely. Take into consideration the varied backgrounds, viewpoints, beliefs and such to balance it out a bit ... maybe proof of identification with ID and pic and a handwritten note involving Nationstates and your online persona, though that may be a bit overly paranoid. Still. Only two kinds, neh? Gotta maintain that forum integrity. And if a player gets in trouble there, we just boot 'em outta the 'cool kids club' and back into the general populace.

I'm sure nothing could go wrong with that system.



(Delivered very much tongue-in-cheek. Let's see if anyone gets my point.)

I would not be opposed to that if the moderation staff could show reason in choosing players.

Why Bezo, I did show reason. Right there in that post. If you're going to expect us to make calls like that, you'll have to deal with our discretion. Kind of like ... huh. Like we do now.

[Unibot III]

I have a better idea.

We'll set up a forum and let the mods decide who gets to participate in it. We'll base it off of player record, illustration of ability to post cohesively, civilly, and maturely. Take into consideration the varied backgrounds, viewpoints, beliefs and such to balance it out a bit ... maybe proof of identification with ID and pic and a handwritten note involving Nationstates and your online persona, though that may be a bit overly paranoid. Still. Only two kinds, neh? Gotta maintain that forum integrity. And if a player gets in trouble there, we just boot 'em outta the 'cool kids club' and back into the general populace.

I'm sure nothing could go wrong with that system.

Bye Bye Unibot.

[The Blaatschapen]

I have a better idea.

We'll set up a forum and let the mods decide who gets to participate in it. We'll base it off of player record, illustration of ability to post cohesively, civilly, and maturely. Take into consideration the varied backgrounds, viewpoints, beliefs and such to balance it out a bit ... maybe proof of identification with ID and pic and a handwritten note involving Nationstates and your online persona, though that may be a bit overly paranoid. Still. Only two kinds, neh? Gotta maintain that forum integrity. And if a player gets in trouble there, we just boot 'em outta the 'cool kids club' and back into the general populace.

I'm sure nothing could go wrong with that system.

Bye Bye Unibot.

I'd accept you

[Dei Terrare]

I'm just curious:
What if someone started using the forums when they are 11 in the past and not caught.But in the present they are 13 and still using the forums?

[Enfaru]

I have a better idea.

We'll set up a forum and let the mods decide who gets to participate in it. We'll base it off of player record, illustration of ability to post cohesively, civilly, and maturely. Take into consideration the varied backgrounds, viewpoints, beliefs and such to balance it out a bit ... maybe proof of identification with ID and pic and a handwritten note involving Nationstates and your online persona, though that may be a bit overly paranoid. Still. Only two kinds, neh? Gotta maintain that forum integrity. And if a player gets in trouble there, we just boot 'em outta the 'cool kids club' and back into the general populace.

I'm sure nothing could go wrong with that system.



(Delivered very much tongue-in-cheek. Let's see if anyone gets my point.)

I'll go with this, so long as we have only PGP verified messages

[Dread Lady Nathicana]

I'm just curious:
What if someone started using the forums when they are 11 in the past and not caught.But in the present they are 13 and still using the forums?

They would be a rather lucky bug, one supposes, Mr. Curious.

[Totally Not Leningrad Union]

I'm just curious:
What if someone started using the forums when they are 11 in the past and not caught.But in the present they are 13 and still using the forums?

They would be a rather lucky bug, one supposes, Mr. Curious.

But would they get in trouble for it?

[Dei Terrare]

They would be a rather lucky bug, one supposes, Mr. Curious.

But would they get in trouble for it?

Thank you for saying that for me.

[The Blaatschapen]

They would be a rather lucky bug, one supposes, Mr. Curious.

But would they get in trouble for it?

If we get access to time travel (we keep bugging the admins about it, but they keep delaying it, muttering something about implementing "proper" game features first), then yes.

Otherwise, I don't think they would get in trouble for it. But I'm not totally sure, so I'll leave this to another mod to confirm.

[Dyakovo]

There should be a TL;DR version.

There is: http://www.nationstates.net/pages/legal.html

The 'In English' part is the TL;DR. The legalese part is the long version, which, for a legalese TOS is fairly short.

Then again, this particular TOS does not try to sell your soul to the devil

They save that for the Mods?

[The Corparation]

I have a better idea.

We'll set up a forum and let the mods decide who gets to participate in it. We'll base it off of player record, illustration of ability to post cohesively, civilly, and maturely. Take into consideration the varied backgrounds, viewpoints, beliefs and such to balance it out a bit ... maybe proof of identification with ID and pic and a handwritten note involving Nationstates and your online persona, though that may be a bit overly paranoid. Still. Only two kinds, neh? Gotta maintain that forum integrity. And if a player gets in trouble there, we just boot 'em outta the 'cool kids club' and back into the general populace.

I'm sure nothing could go wrong with that system.



(Delivered very much tongue-in-cheek. Let's see if anyone gets my point.)

I get the point you're trying to make, however I have belonged to multiple sites with such membership requirements, I have yet to encounter any major problems with such systems for smaller communities. That said for a larger more varied site like NS with so many people coming and going such policies wouldn't work, but there are no problems with having smaller communities full only of people who get along well with each other.

[Dragoria]

I have a better idea.

We'll set up a forum and let the mods decide who gets to participate in it. We'll base it off of player record, illustration of ability to post cohesively, civilly, and maturely. Take into consideration the varied backgrounds, viewpoints, beliefs and such to balance it out a bit ... maybe proof of identification with ID and pic and a handwritten note involving Nationstates and your online persona, though that may be a bit overly paranoid. Still. Only two kinds, neh? Gotta maintain that forum integrity. And if a player gets in trouble there, we just boot 'em outta the 'cool kids club' and back into the general populace.

I'm sure nothing could go wrong with that system.



(Delivered very much tongue-in-cheek. Let's see if anyone gets my point.)

I get the point you're trying to make, however I have belonged to multiple sites with such membership requirements, I have yet to encounter any major problems with such systems for smaller communities. That said for a larger more varied site like NS with so many people coming and going such policies wouldn't work, but there are no problems with having smaller communities full only of people who get along well with each other.

That sounds kinda' like a Region to me, with the Founder/Delegate being able to eject/ban folks who don't play nice. Also thread ownership in the RP subforums. Or the private offsite forums that people are more than free to set up should they choose...

[Bezombia]

I would not be opposed to that if the moderation staff could show reason in choosing players.

Why Bezo, I did show reason. Right there in that post. If you're going to expect us to make calls like that, you'll have to deal with our discretion. Kind of like ... huh. Like we do now.

I've been to places where there is a "mod's pick" subforum. The four mods running it where pretty cool guys and overall it was a good thing.
Then there's other places where I feel the moderation of that site would be ill equipped to reliably handle something like that.

Without going into too much detail, I feel as though NS leans closer to the latter place than the former.

[Nazi Flower Power]

then again i dont want the age lowered, i want to see at least in one forum, the age raised.
and that turns out to be me and you, and a few others, that would be fine.
(aint gonna happen i know).

It would be interesting to see how it would differ from the rest of NS if they had a 30+ forum.