Quote Originally Posted by millipede View Post
Well I think it is a shame that Henry Portman feels that he has to remove himself from the forum.

Basically a few people totally slammed him and said he wasn't allowed to express his opinion. What is that all about?

As to saying he shouldn't be allowed to speak becuase he isn't in the cozy club of having 2000+ posts, how ridiculous.

Antisocial - i think your long winded posts are to cover up the fact that you actually thought about HP's comments and felt guilty that you regularly use gayness as an insult.
I was waiting for this, took much longer than I thought.

Firstly I would argue that I use gayness as an "insult", nor do I find merry and Stolly comments especially offensive or think they are homophobic (despite the great fun I have winding them up) but they can easily be construed as such, same as" Al's French comments" , happy to discuss face to face if I ever get that promised pint from you

The main issue and what I have been using this thread and the comments made by Merry et al for behind the scenes and part of HP's point (which his original point made me seriously think about, including the stuff I post on) , is that young people and possibly children read this stuff or have access to it and potentially may only take the comments written at face value. As we have a junior thread mixed in with all the other threads access to the other threads is very easy.

I think people should be entitled to say what they want on the forum (and accept the consequences) but to do that do we need to separate elements of the forum from certain user groups? Or do we put in a code of conduct so everyone can read and contribute using appropriate language on appropriate themes.

The FRA promotes itself as a family organisation that encourages children to be involved etc and as an ageing population they will increasingly be looking to grow their membership base, also as a voluntary organisation working with families it has child protection responsibilities which it seems to be ignoring by allowing open access to some of the themes and comments explored. Would you want your children reading some of the stuff on here given all they see it cold type and do not know the irony, humour or have knowledge of what the correspondants are really like. I don't really think Stolly seriously advocates falsifying race entries or trespass but if you did not read between the lines would you know this?

Recently a 15 year and 16 old were posting pictures of semi clad women and a 16 year old was posting dirty jokes, this was encouraged and added to by adult posters, this is part of growing up but not everyone would be happy with their young people doing this on an open forum seemingly encouraged by adults.

Is the forum and by default the FRA (because the forum is an official arm of the organisation) holding itself up to potential criticism as an organisation that does not take child protection seriously if it does not either set standards that are adhered to or split access to the forum based on age so people can post what they want.

Not posting on this anymore, off to read Stolly's posts to see if I can find evidence that he steals pension cheques from old ladies (this is a joke Stolly)