Personally, I only think it makes it harder for everybody to get in. When I filled in the form all I said was that I was over eighteen. I saw no way that you could verify that, which made me wonder why it was in place. I mean even if some ten-year-old fill in the blanks wrong, all she has to do is try a new email address.
As I said earlier, I'm not going to go into the checks we make on the access form. But our process does make checks and there are ways - not always, but it is possible - that we can recognise that we're being lied to. We've had several instances in the past where we've denied access because the board member in question has been underage and we've known they're lying about being over 18. That's the benefit, for me, of the password system over the click button system.
The latter, as far as I understand it, is an entirely automatic process which isn't checked by a human being and has no manual input from the website owner. When an access form is submitted to the admins on this forum, it is checked out and if there are red flags there we'll deny access.
Again, it's by no means foolproof and I'm by no means suggesting that we catch everyone, but we do a better job of catching some of those who aren't entitled to be in the nfic forum than a click button system does, imo.
I can also not see why it's necessary to have stricter security measures on this site then bona fide pornsites. If people want porn I can't imagine way they would come here.
I thought I'd already gone into this one and explained the reasons why we have a password/controlled access system here. It's got nothing to do with being concerned that someone who likes hardcore porn might read our stories. It's all about ensuring that nfic is restricted to those over the age of 18 and not made freely available to minors.
I think we're getting several issues confused here. One issue is whether the sexual content of nfic on this forum is any worse than that in any popular Top 10 novel you can pick up off a supermarket shelf. My opinion on that one is no, it isn't. In fact, I've seen worse - much worse - in the published novel.
However, that doesn't mean that I would let my eight-year-old niece read the published novel. Any more than I'd print off some nfic and give that to her.
We've already discussed that the issue of where the line lies is different for practically everyone out there and that there's very little concensus on where that line should lie. That's a debate which will never be solved, I suspect.
In the end, this is the system the admins have chosen for this forum. Just as the owner of another website - or a porn website - may choose the click button, that's entirely up to them.
Basically, it boils down to this. We admins like an easy life.
And it's a truth that those who like to write/read nfic here are, as far as we know, mostly content with the status quo. They are therefore unlikely to complain if we continue with this system.
What is also highly likely is that were we to replace this system with free for all access to nfic, we would get complaints from those who don't like nfic, whether they could avoid it or not. And, most likely, from the parents of minors who don't think it's right for their children to read that kind of sexually explicit content.
Faced with that choice? We're hot dang gonna go with the path of least resistance and the system that cuts down the abusive emails we get.
LabRat
