Support Policy Question

Started by newbieforumaster, July 06, 2017, 02:17:03 AM

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newbieforumaster

I apologize in advance if this is in the wrong section. Do you deny support to users operating sites that have LEGAL pornography, are right wing, offensive or are LEGAL hacking sites? No disrespect to Mybb but Mybb denies support to users who operate sites like those topics. (I COMPLETELY understand their policy but it does not work for me).

I DO NOT plan to make sites like this but I want to know if in theory you support legal sites despite how controversial/offensive they may be.

I want a forum software where support staff are pro free speech. 

Thank you

Arantor

This is a tricky one.

What you do with the software is your business. We don't control what you can or cannot use the forum for.

However, the support policy here is: this is a family friendly site. Links to porn from here are not generally tolerated because family friendly. And of course, some people may have their own internal rules about it - people who are deeply religious are unlikely to want to support porn forums, but that's an individual rather than a collective decision.

I personally have never had an issue supporting anything that was legal and ethical (hacking, depending on the specific use and discussion may be legal but not ethical), but I'm not everyone on the support team.

By and large, the team will support most things, and individuals who do need help for things can often still get support from people who can provide it. Just remember that the more controversial the site is, the fewer people will offer, just because of their own policies, not a site policy.

newbieforumaster

Thank you @Arantor. You see no disrespect towards mybb but what I did not like about them is if there was a site that they did not approve of they would put a red flag on a users profile saying that the user has been denied support. So that means if a user would seek help from other members on the mybb support forums their threads would be locked.

Do you have a similar policy?

Thanks

Again, I don't plan on setting up extremely offensive sites but I am just curious if in theory simple machines support forums support offensive sites as long as they are legal.

Illori

we will not deny support completely, but the team members can decide on their own if they dont want to provide support due to the content.

Arantor

Yeah, that is simply not a thing here. Here, the only reason that a user will be unilaterally denied support is if they remove the copyright from the footer. Everything else is at the individual's discretion.

There is no facility in the code here on this site to even record that, and even the 'user has removed copyright to not get support' thing is not formally enforced with such a thing. It's simply 'you have to put the copyright back on the footer, then we'll help you, until then have fun'.

We're just not that harsh around here :)

aegersz

I was worried about that with my own site ... but it was never an issue, actually.

Support here have never judged me or denied me support however, many would ... (see my signature to get an idea).

I'm just glad I picked SMF as my choice of "forumware".
The configuration of my Linux VPS (SMF 2.0 with 160+ mods & some assorted manual tweaks) can be found here and notes on my mods can be found here (warning: those links will take you to a drug related forum). My (House) music DJ dedication page is here

newbieforumaster

Quote from: Illori on July 06, 2017, 03:22:17 PM
we will not deny support completely, but the team members can decide on their own if they dont want to provide support due to the content.

Ok so no one is denied support like at mybb but staff/users can choose if they want to support your offensive site or not?

right?

Also is this policy going to change ever?

Arantor

Yes, this is the policy.

I'm not a team member and I can't speak for the team - and I certainly can't predict the future because 'ever' is a very long time. But I have been here a very long time, I have seen a lot of changes, and yet I still see no reason why it would ever happen that this would change. But you can't say 'never'.

Thing is, there will always be people who will be willing to help in that situation - even if that ends up being migration to another platform. There is never, ever a situation where there is no way forward.

Sir Osis of Liver

There's actually no official policy re: forum content, it's basically up to support staff to decide individually how much grossness they can tolerate.  You can always post a paid request in Help Wanted, and someone may pick it up for a couple of bucks.
Ashes and diamonds, foe and friend,
 we were all equal in the end.

                                     - R. Waters

SleePy

Quote from: newbieforumaster on July 06, 2017, 03:27:26 PM
Ok so no one is denied support like at mybb but staff/users can choose if they want to support your offensive site or not?

right?

Also is this policy going to change ever?

As stated, we do not deny it.  However team members all volunteers and are allowed to not support it should they feel against they believe in.  I would say, to not provide a link to your site directly if the content is public/guest accessible (including headers/footer or advertisements that may display).  You can state in your posts that it is a adult oriented site and you will provide the link in a PM if requested.

We've had this policy since I started here... And I can't even remember when that was.  It was a policy before and I would believe it was a policy since we started the project.
Jeremy D ~ Site Team / SMF Developer ~ GitHub Profile ~ Join us on IRC @ Libera.chat/#smf ~ Support the SMF Support team!

LiroyvH

Quote from: SleePy on July 06, 2017, 09:57:30 PM
We've had this policy since I started here [as a team member]... And I can't even remember when that was.

December 27, 2006. #fyi :P
((U + C + I)x(10 − S)) / 20xAx1 / (1 − sin(F / 10))
President/CEO of Simple Machines - Server Manager
Please do not PM for support - anything else is usually OK.

newbieforumaster


(I know this is a bizzarre topic) but my site is about bathroom humor and ONLY taking photos of silly images and graffitti people draw on bathroom stalls. I am pretty sure the site is legal (The site does NOT endorse vandalism of private property) At times users might submit lude/vulgar drawings of bodily parts or messages that they find.  Do you provide support to rude/controversial sites? I just ask because some could consider drawings of so body parts as "pornography"

Thanks

Arantor

I know one thing, I personally don't give support to people who insist on asking the same question multiple different ways.

What you're describing is at the support team's discretion, individuals may find it funny, others may find it juvenile and annoying, others offensive. It's up to them whether they would provide support.

There is nothing about your description that would prompt a 'you will never get support' decision, given that such a thing cannot happen here as has been stated repeatedly.

newbieforumaster

I'm sorry @Arantor. I did not mean to annoy everyone. :) I just wanted to triple check.

Kindred

Did you expect the answer to change each time you asked?
Слaва
Украинi

Please do not PM, IM or Email me with support questions.  You will get better and faster responses in the support boards.  Thank you.

"Loki is not evil, although he is certainly not a force for good. Loki is... complicated."

青山 素子

Quote from: newbieforumaster on July 08, 2017, 01:13:58 PM
Do you provide support to rude/controversial sites? I just ask because some could consider drawings of so body parts as "pornography"

As long as you're respectful when asking questions and aren't hosting a forum that condones/arranges/supports illegal activity (at least as concerned in the US, where our org is legally based), you won't be denied the right to post asking for support. Individual support team members are free to ignore your request if they find that it is against their morals. We have quite a few support members and many community helpers, so it shouldn't be a problem finding someone to offer assistance.

Given you noted that sometimes the content is lude and/or vulgar, you may want to note that in your support requests and offer to provide a link on request, or obfuscate the site URL so that it's not auto-linked (like using hxxp instead of http in the link).

Also, you seriously don't have to phrase your question in three different ways, the answer will remain the same.
Motoko-chan
Director, Simple Machines

Note: Unless otherwise stated, my posts are not representative of any official position or opinion of Simple Machines.


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