As I read through this thread I remain astonished that it has become such an issue. Forum members who are not interested in the Fantasy posts never see them. Posts elsewhere that read as immature can be ignored. Members whose posts irritate one can be ignored.
This has long been my policy.
ZooChat was created with fairly broad themes and while I have always been quite strict with how I enforce the rules - the actual discussions that take place here has been driven almost exlusively by the membership. Looking back over how the site has changed over the years and the new forum topics that have been introduced will demonstrate the way the discussion evolves.
I continually suggest to people to put those members who irk you on ignore, and to pay no attention to the topics that are of no interest to you.
I've been requesting for years that the developers of the forum software include the ability to ignore entire topics - which would mean that anyone not interested in fantasy posts can completely ignore them and they wouldn't appear in New Posts searches.
I am in favor of zoo fans trying out roles and scenarios to discover where their ignorance and romantic notions of what a zoo is clash with reality. (I admit that when a post asserts that there is a straightforward and simple response to any issue with a zoo, or that some zoo ought to redevelop large areas of exhibits because they are dated I do feel a reaction of "You need a reality check!" But it is not only the younger Zoochatters who do this.)
I am also in favour of zoo fans trying out scenarios and exploring ideas which is why there was a Fantasy Zoos section to begin with, and is why we are continuing with a Speculative Zoo Design and Planning topic moving forward.
The issue I have is not with the fantasy discussion itself - it is with the fact that for many members it has become only about playing games, not about any kind of meaningful discussion.
I get that playing games can be educational - but that is clearly not the intent with many of the games currently being played.
It's also not the games themselves which are the problem - it is the very young and often immature members they attract, many of whom seem to be largely uninterested in contributing to the broader community. I've spent quite a bit of time looking at statistics and there are a significant number of newer members who spend almost all of their time posting on ZooChat in the Fantasy section.
There are some members who have never posted anywhere except the fantasy section - and we're talking hundreds of posts.
Perhaps the problem has seemed most acute to the Mods because they have to read every single post on the site and, as they are not enthusiasts of the Fantasy posts themselves, they are more bothered by them.
As mentioned - the fantasy posts themselves have never really been the issue.
The character-driven role playing games and stories did become an issue because they were straying into topics and themes that we deemed unsuitable for our diverse community. But the remainder of the fantasy discussions have not really been a problem in themselves.
If the real issue lies with the Mods that's fine but I'd prefer that it be stated. "We don't have time to moderate your nonsense." That, too, is a reasonable position IMO
This is a very large part of the issue and the reason we originally banned the stories and character driven role playing games. They generated such high volumes of posts that it become impossible to effectively moderate them to ensure they remained within the rules - indeed, by the time we realised just how bad things had become (from an inappropriate content perspective), there was no realistic way to save many of the threads and we had to remove most of them.
The same issue happens with the fantasy games - high volumes of posts from often very young members creates a lot of issues for the moderation team. If it were part of the core discussion, the volume of posts wouldn't be an issue - but these threads are not what we are here for, they generate a huge amount of work for the moderators, and then there are flow-on effects across the rest of the site from the behaviour of some of the members these theads have attracted.
I will always advocate for more freedom of expression and greater inclusion
Absolutely - which is one of the reasons why it has taken so long for us to decide on a course of action. The moderators and some of our members have been calling for action on this issue for years now. As mentioned, we have a moderator discussion thread that started back in 2018 which raised the issue and the discussion has been ongoing since then.
Many of the suggestions have involved simply removing the fantasy section completely - mostly from those people who have no interest in that area. I've resisted this because it has been an interesting part of the site for many years now and serves a purpose to explore ideas.
As a website operator, more content is always good - as are more members. This leads me to always be relutctant to take any action which limits our potential audience and the content that gets created.
However, when it becomes clear that other parts of the site are suffering - the core parts which are why I started the site in the first place - then action is indeed required.
I get that these fantasy threads have become a safe haven for some of our members - especially with all of the stress that current world events have placed on everyone. I regret that this change may have a negative impact on some people who have come to rely on these topics to escape from reality for a short time.
However, I do feel it is the only workable solution moving forward and is not a decision I've come to lightly.
