To back up vorticity's points, I'd like to add the following:
On Wikia, unless it's outright pornography or just being crude and disgusting with no real point behind it, they don't care what is posted. I take the same position, with the added caveat that as long as what is being discussed is legal to talk about and "within the scope of the wiki", I too turn a blind eye. TV Tropes has the problem of having both overly restrictive ad sponsors and the even more crippling problem of having one man (Fast Eddie) whose personal feeling are allowed shape policy with or without community discussion.
The combination of the two has resulted in multiple sections of the wiki being censored to avoid being "controversial" and to enforce a "Happiness Is Mandatory" atmosphere.
While I believe in encouraging if not enforcing a civil, polite atmosphere, the "Happiness Is Mandatory" policy is frankly, one of the dumbest things Fast Eddie has ever imposed on TV Tropes, and while I still feel most of the detractors of TV Tropes are full of crap, I can't deny their accusations of FE trying to create a "hugbox" are rather spot on. As for avoiding controversy, that annoys me because almost anything can cause controversy, and in an informal atmosphere (like the one we are trying to create), an ideal stance is that everyone who joins the site should agree in advance that they acknowledge they may not agree with everything on the site but will still elect to remain civil despite their personal feelings.
That's a general guideline, and should not be imposed as a decree (it would be nigh impossible to enforce anyway), but joining the site should have that as a prerequisite in some form, at least if I have interpreted the consensus on this issue properly.
If we were to host the site on MediaWiki like we plan, I know of a few solutions we could try that would require the users agree to a general terms of use or some other sort of site policy before joining, and once the legalese in question has been drawn up, it should be rather simple to implement in technical terms.
On Wikia, unless it's outright pornography or just being crude and disgusting with no real point behind it, they don't care what is posted. I take the same position, with the added caveat that as long as what is being discussed is legal to talk about and "within the scope of the wiki", I too turn a blind eye. TV Tropes has the problem of having both overly restrictive ad sponsors and the even more crippling problem of having one man (Fast Eddie) whose personal feeling are allowed shape policy with or without community discussion.
The combination of the two has resulted in multiple sections of the wiki being censored to avoid being "controversial" and to enforce a "Happiness Is Mandatory" atmosphere.
While I believe in encouraging if not enforcing a civil, polite atmosphere, the "Happiness Is Mandatory" policy is frankly, one of the dumbest things Fast Eddie has ever imposed on TV Tropes, and while I still feel most of the detractors of TV Tropes are full of crap, I can't deny their accusations of FE trying to create a "hugbox" are rather spot on. As for avoiding controversy, that annoys me because almost anything can cause controversy, and in an informal atmosphere (like the one we are trying to create), an ideal stance is that everyone who joins the site should agree in advance that they acknowledge they may not agree with everything on the site but will still elect to remain civil despite their personal feelings.
That's a general guideline, and should not be imposed as a decree (it would be nigh impossible to enforce anyway), but joining the site should have that as a prerequisite in some form, at least if I have interpreted the consensus on this issue properly.
If we were to host the site on MediaWiki like we plan, I know of a few solutions we could try that would require the users agree to a general terms of use or some other sort of site policy before joining, and once the legalese in question has been drawn up, it should be rather simple to implement in technical terms.