Discussion Board Changes

Sian321

Hey everyone, just to say, thank you for your responses. I know it may sounds futile when we say this, but truly we're grateful for your honesty, and we can hear this is really, really hard and frustrating. We're so dedicated to continuing to support each of you to the very best of our abilities as a staff team. We recognise this Community means a huge amount to you - who have built and shaped it!

independent_

Something has just popped into my head again that i think I’ve asked before but it either wasn’t answered or I can’t remember the answer.

When someone does the selfie age verification process, what will that look like? Will it just say verified, will it give an age category (child, teen, adult), an age bracket (21-25, 26+) or will it give us the exact age it thinks we are? I ask because I’m 23 and my DOB on my profile says so, but what if the age verification says I’m a different age to what the date of birth says, if it thinks I’m 22 or 24 for example. Or what what if it thinks I’m 26, does it then block me? Obviously if someone does an ID it would be accurate but what if they don’t have one and are forced to rely on selfie and it’s not accurate. Could have implications for the aging out process if it thinks someone is older than they are.

ETA: plus, if it just says adult, how does that help to know what age of adult that person is? They could be 18 or 98, both those ages fall under adult.

Nathan

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I don't see this as a win or saving the platform, if the platform loses half it's members and the things that made it what it is in the process. It's losing the 1:1 conversations people have through delays. It forces people to wait an hour at best to have there posts go up and a further hour at best for a reply when i know for a fact i've responded to crisis posts on here, within minutes. It's losing it's support threads which are by far my favourite support space. It's losing it's night time venting spaces and support spaces, as well as the "anonymity" of it's users being thrown out the window, by what is in my opinion, a now questionable age verification system, given recent news about Yoti's data misuse fine. It's not saving the platform or keeping it supportive, it's causing it to become less supportive.

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Sure, under online safety act rules, things are extreme and vaguely worded, and things like age verification is mandated, but there are alternatives to things like manual pre-moderation and closing boards at nights. And there's no need to not be open about everything. Like the reason for DM's being turned of now changing from theoretical concerns as was the given reason, to claimed actual inappropriate use as the new reason, something that wasn't mentioned last year in that thread. It's the same for a great deal changing.

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I do want to say though, I know the mods are doing there best and I really do appreciate it. None of these changes are down to any of you, and I know you'll all try and be as supportive as you can, but the changes are just too extreme for me.