Romance and Goonstation RP

[OutbackCatgirl]

methods exist to police age and none of them are in place here

the only method that actually works is to get people to take pictures with IDs, which isn't happening anytime soon
nor are we interested in policing age like this? not sure why you think we are

yes, minors will lie to get in occasionally,

there is no need to lie? unless you mean < 13

but the demographic actually playing is mostly 20s to 40s.

you would be surprised by the amount of minors on the discord and ingame

This doesn't address the fact that minors genuinely shouldn't be here. Anyone under the age of 15 or 16 in particular. The 13+ restriction is way too low - this isn't a game made for them, by them, suitable for them, or safe for them. Most people of that age will be intimidated enough to think twice when a box in the janky old game they decided to try on a whim tells them to enter their date of birth and that they will be permabanned if found to be lying about it.

Just because a few of them actively would go out of their way to circumvent that protection doesn't mean it's not worth trying. You have a responsability here and you're shifting that responsability onto policing genuinely harmless behaviour by saying "but what if it happens that a minor ended up on the other side of this interaction?"

Why do yall even think it's acceptable for there to be people in that age bracket playing? Instead of pointing fingers at people maybe try actually doing some policy changes to allow for the adults to continue playing in their safe space while segregating kids into a separate server or something? Yeah, you're all unpaid volunteers, and yeah, that will be work to set up, but you have a whole ass community of people and a good few of them would *welcome* this and even *help out* if you communicated with the community regarding decisions like these before settling on a zero compromise solution. i've moderated huge communities in the past and the basic trust based age verification system of "get them to say what year and month they were born in" filters out way more minors than you would expect, a good 96% in the last one I moderated, and isn't nearly as much work if you design a competent system that doesn't require you to personally dm every newbee. If you're worried about the idiots who lie to get past it *deliberately* and *stupidly*, and give them more value than the community as a whole, it kinda makes me wonder what you *have* tried so far.

I know it's stressful and every decision is incredibly difficult, i know how it feels to be crushed in the anvil of moral imperatives and duty of care, and you guys are pushing yourselves way too hard over it. How many admins are burned out right now? How many have left? Even if it isn't over this specific rule clarification, y'all might need to tally the totality of your mental health and realise you cannot achieve every single goal. You are volunteers, not our parents or teachers. You can run this place as you see fit, but a lot of us aren't gonna stick around if the focus keeps shifting to enabling minors entering spaces that they should not be in.

Does that make sense? Am I explaining myself clearly? are there any points you need clarification of? let's not lump people into the box labelled "toxic" or "groomer" without at least considering the merit in the points being raised, and if we still don't see eye to eye, then so be it, that's the way things are and will be, just know that these opinions aren't just my own and aren't some malicious plot to do whatever the heck a malicious plotter would do. All I want is to be able to enjoy the game i joined last year with the friends and new faces i meet there without being infantilised. That is *all.* it frustrates me to see the patronizing tone everywhere now, and everything being so furtive and paranoid anytime admins are involved where nobody feels safe to just be themselves due to how other people not even involved in the round misinterpret the actions taken in the round. sigh. I should get some water. remember to hydrate, i wish i could properly put into words what i'm seeing here without rambling.