If you visit the Neutral Zone, you will notice that the following disclaimer has now appeared at the top of the category listing and all the threads in the forum:
In addition, I've removed my own user ID as moderator for that forum. TNZ was never intended to be moderated, and to be certain someone wouldn't be tempted to still act as moderator there, I added my own name to that. Recently people have interpreted that as meaning there is actually a TNZ moderator, and so now no mod is listed for the forum.
Both things were done in order to shift legal responsibility away from the BBS. Similar to Usenet carriers or chat box providers, we are now providing the Neutral Zone as a forum for the more sensitive issues, but the BBS has no awareness of what actually goes on there. Us administrators might still post there, but as BBS we'll no longer have any official knowledge of what goes on there, or need to have that.
The disclaimer is also intended to once again reiterate why the Neutral Zone exists. It's there to provide a less restricted atmosphere for the discussion of sensitive issues, and not (or in some cases not purely) for flaming, 'Crush'/sexual threads or similar things. However, we're aware that because of this it might sometimes not be possible to read or post in all the threads, and as we're not able to take the laws all over the world into account, this becomes more your own responsibility. If you live in China or Afhanistan, posting about the downsides of your government might not be the most advisable move. Similarly, as another example, you should also not post pictures of a pornographic nature, both because that could get you in trouble with your local authorities and because that could get your fellow members who see the pics.
Fortunately, the forum has again proven over the past weeks that it is capable very well of moderating itself. Though pictures were posted in one thread which went beyond these guidelines, pressure from the other participants in the forum led to them being voluntarily removed by the posters. There's recently been a large amount of threads on a sexual nature, but undoubtedly that's just a phase that will be over soon - previously, we've had periods when all the threads dealt with homosexuality, or with heavy political issues.
In addition, I've removed my own user ID as moderator for that forum. TNZ was never intended to be moderated, and to be certain someone wouldn't be tempted to still act as moderator there, I added my own name to that. Recently people have interpreted that as meaning there is actually a TNZ moderator, and so now no mod is listed for the forum.
Both things were done in order to shift legal responsibility away from the BBS. Similar to Usenet carriers or chat box providers, we are now providing the Neutral Zone as a forum for the more sensitive issues, but the BBS has no awareness of what actually goes on there. Us administrators might still post there, but as BBS we'll no longer have any official knowledge of what goes on there, or need to have that.
The disclaimer is also intended to once again reiterate why the Neutral Zone exists. It's there to provide a less restricted atmosphere for the discussion of sensitive issues, and not (or in some cases not purely) for flaming, 'Crush'/sexual threads or similar things. However, we're aware that because of this it might sometimes not be possible to read or post in all the threads, and as we're not able to take the laws all over the world into account, this becomes more your own responsibility. If you live in China or Afhanistan, posting about the downsides of your government might not be the most advisable move. Similarly, as another example, you should also not post pictures of a pornographic nature, both because that could get you in trouble with your local authorities and because that could get your fellow members who see the pics.
Fortunately, the forum has again proven over the past weeks that it is capable very well of moderating itself. Though pictures were posted in one thread which went beyond these guidelines, pressure from the other participants in the forum led to them being voluntarily removed by the posters. There's recently been a large amount of threads on a sexual nature, but undoubtedly that's just a phase that will be over soon - previously, we've had periods when all the threads dealt with homosexuality, or with heavy political issues.
