Aria,
This is kind of an everyone else is doing it so why can't we? argument. Which doesn't really work on the legal side of things. All it takes is one really irate parent.
I mustn’t have been very clear. I would think that it’s fairly obvious that obscenity laws you referred to doesn’t apply. Otherwise how could all those countless pornsites operate out of the US, without passwords?
Labrat,
Yes, but the problem is, Arawn, that this is your view. It's not everyone's view. You only have to look out in the real world and see what people complain about on TV and in the media to realise that what one person considers inoffensive another considers abhorrant and outrageous.
I hope I didn’t give the impression that I wanted to force people to read Nfic. Only that those that were interested should have easier access.
I've never been terribly impressed, either, I have to say with those click if you're over 18 buttons. They are pretty meaningless, since they rely on the honesty of the clicker to work.
And your password system doesn’t?
Yvonne,
Wouldn’t it simply be enough to label it as sexually explicit content? Well, no, actually, because some stories in the nfic section don't contain any sex. They're there because they break the PG boundary in other ways - ie, they contain strong language and/or violence.
Well,label it stories that some Americans find unsuitable for children or something. As long as everyone understand what it is, it should be fine.
I have never read Nfic for the smut factor. I discovered a host of interesting authors and that they had Nfic rated stories and I wanted more. Generally I’m very reluctant to register to new sites. It would have surprised me greatly if the nfic were pornographic and they weren’t, they just treated sex as the natural part of life it is. Sure there is a sexual romp here and there, but those are cute rather then arousing IMO.
Mrs Mosley,
But I think that it also says something about the nature of our fandom - that we have respect for the wishes of people with varying viewpoints.
In what way would an adult material warning be more disrespectful then the present system?
And it's not like the admins are making us perform a ritual sacrifice to get the password, on the contrary it's fairly easy, so what does having a password hurt?
As I said, the greater the difficulty to access the material the more people will dismiss it. I think there are plenty of people out there that pass over the Nfic because they can't be bothered with the registration.
