Censorsing Mohawks Rock, Age Limits - State of our Community
State of the community and censorship
First, I am a huge opponent of the idea of censorship, be it for content or for your age. Individual freedom of expression and message is what I believe enriches our lives and those around us. The decision, option and variety of outlets in this world for a person to listen and to speak have reached such numbers that censorship becomes ludicrous when there are not enough hours in the day to participate in your own communities much less waste your time monitoring outlets in which you do not care to participate.
I believe that this idealism, while not absolute, that is more than likely shared with many of us in this community. Rocking a mohawk says a lot about a person and their belief in freedom of expression regardless of the status quo.
Unfortunately, not everyone shares in these beliefs, especially governments. Due to the richness of our community, we now have been accessed in 140+ countries, which is great, except that is 140+ government systems and regulations. The spread of the site across the globe has been amazing and eye-opening, I hope others share in that experience. While we have 750+ members and a rapidly increasing base of active members, 12,000+ people visit every month.
At this juncture, this may mean a bit of community self-governance in order to preserve our community and its members, while maintaining our sense of individuality and freedom of expression.
About Giant Mohawk Man (aka Cheyenne Throckmorton)
Yes, I developed and implemented the idea. Yes, I put it to work, and yes I spend countless hours working on the site, its SEO and evangelizing the community everywhere I go. No, I'm not the leader. No, I'm not the only one who helps make this happen. At best, I'd call myself a "community organizer" (popular in american politics today).
Thats why I'm asking everyone via this forum how they feel upon a topic that I have struggled with since the dawning of this website. Its OUR community. I believe that whole-heartedly, and the statements below reflect my opinion as a member of that community and not a leader. While I'm pretty sure many if not most organizations can only thrive upon strong leadership, a nation of mohawk rockers cannot and would not thrive in this way.
As the member, my thoughts
First, I feel people of any age can contribute heavily to society, its goals and its messages. On MohawksRock.com, I know we have plenty of members of all ages that contribute to this community. I can make this 18+ but think we'd lose out far too heavily on the opinions, experiences and thoughts of those that could and would want to be a part of us.
Members should feel free to express themselves within the community, especially upon their own pages.
However, members that value the community should also take a responsibility upon themselves to understand that they are representing not just of themselves but also our community as a whole, already misunderstood by most.
A parent (who hopefully cares enough) to monitor their child's online activity should at the very least find a homepage indicitative of the creativity, freedom of expression and of course great extreme hairstyle tips that is the basis of this community. Nudity in pictures, vulgarity and hatred should not be found here.
At the same time I understand that what is obscene or hate-filled really is in the eye of the beholder and sometimes hard to judge. I hope the community itself will weigh-in on these thoughts and become self-aware enough to monitor itself while retaining the freedom of expression that keeps it so vital.
Feedback
Please send out your thoughts on this topic whatever they may be. I started this site halfway as an experiment and halfway as a joke, and it has become something so much larger than that. I have learned so much from so many and am truly proud to be a member and hopefully a friend to some.
The balance between individuality, society, censorship and age of participation should be and ongoing interesting topic that I look forward to learning from.
First, I am a huge opponent of the idea of censorship, be it for content or for your age. Individual freedom of expression and message is what I believe enriches our lives and those around us. The decision, option and variety of outlets in this world for a person to listen and to speak have reached such numbers that censorship becomes ludicrous when there are not enough hours in the day to participate in your own communities much less waste your time monitoring outlets in which you do not care to participate.
I believe that this idealism, while not absolute, that is more than likely shared with many of us in this community. Rocking a mohawk says a lot about a person and their belief in freedom of expression regardless of the status quo.
Unfortunately, not everyone shares in these beliefs, especially governments. Due to the richness of our community, we now have been accessed in 140+ countries, which is great, except that is 140+ government systems and regulations. The spread of the site across the globe has been amazing and eye-opening, I hope others share in that experience. While we have 750+ members and a rapidly increasing base of active members, 12,000+ people visit every month.
At this juncture, this may mean a bit of community self-governance in order to preserve our community and its members, while maintaining our sense of individuality and freedom of expression.
About Giant Mohawk Man (aka Cheyenne Throckmorton)
Yes, I developed and implemented the idea. Yes, I put it to work, and yes I spend countless hours working on the site, its SEO and evangelizing the community everywhere I go. No, I'm not the leader. No, I'm not the only one who helps make this happen. At best, I'd call myself a "community organizer" (popular in american politics today).
Thats why I'm asking everyone via this forum how they feel upon a topic that I have struggled with since the dawning of this website. Its OUR community. I believe that whole-heartedly, and the statements below reflect my opinion as a member of that community and not a leader. While I'm pretty sure many if not most organizations can only thrive upon strong leadership, a nation of mohawk rockers cannot and would not thrive in this way.
As the member, my thoughts
First, I feel people of any age can contribute heavily to society, its goals and its messages. On MohawksRock.com, I know we have plenty of members of all ages that contribute to this community. I can make this 18+ but think we'd lose out far too heavily on the opinions, experiences and thoughts of those that could and would want to be a part of us.
Members should feel free to express themselves within the community, especially upon their own pages.
However, members that value the community should also take a responsibility upon themselves to understand that they are representing not just of themselves but also our community as a whole, already misunderstood by most.
A parent (who hopefully cares enough) to monitor their child's online activity should at the very least find a homepage indicitative of the creativity, freedom of expression and of course great extreme hairstyle tips that is the basis of this community. Nudity in pictures, vulgarity and hatred should not be found here.
At the same time I understand that what is obscene or hate-filled really is in the eye of the beholder and sometimes hard to judge. I hope the community itself will weigh-in on these thoughts and become self-aware enough to monitor itself while retaining the freedom of expression that keeps it so vital.
Feedback
Please send out your thoughts on this topic whatever they may be. I started this site halfway as an experiment and halfway as a joke, and it has become something so much larger than that. I have learned so much from so many and am truly proud to be a member and hopefully a friend to some.
The balance between individuality, society, censorship and age of participation should be and ongoing interesting topic that I look forward to learning from.
Views: 105
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Matchstick on
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In my personal opinion.....
-This website should not turn into an 18+ site as you would lose what I feel is a valuable section of people (me included)
-No nudity should be allowed. I feel this is very basic for most sites
-No hate/discrimination
After that I guess I have no other suggestions. I would advise against heavily regulating the site. I do not particularly enjoy forums that are strict upon where certain subjects can be posted, when they can be posted and so on. Perhaps if the member population reached a higher level some type of rules regarding the forums would need to be put into place. Perhaps you could seek the help of some Moderators? I hope this helps.
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Permalink Reply by 188 211 88 on
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yea i agree this site shouldnt be turned into an 18+. but ive always believed censorship is nothing more than a bullshit concept conspired by the government, christians and jews. in my opinion theres no such thing as "foul language" words are words who is anyone to tell us they are "bad words"? and in all honesty whats wrong with nudity? its your body jus without clothes whats so horrible about that? always remember right and wrong is what you make of it dont let any shitheads tell you otherwise.
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Permalink Reply by plastastik on
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I have to tell you that I agree with you as far as the nudity thing. There is nothing wrong with the naked body. But, there is a very fine line between pornographic and artistic nudity, and a lot of that depends on the person looking at it.
If we would care about what image we represent, and I think in this case we should, we would have to consider what we display. And nudity, even if it would be considered artistic by most, could "scare" people away or prevent younger people to look around here.
I don't see this as censorship, about what's right or wrong or even about conforming at all, but a simple request to the members to think about what image they create of themselves, because the whole comunity is affected and not just one person.
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Yeah I agree. Nudity can be artistc, but it will likely prevent anyone under the age of 18 from visiting the site...
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That's what I meant. Should have written it differently I guess.
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Permalink Reply by Bob on
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I agree with this.... applies to both language and nudity.
I think we can express our thoughts on 'hawks w/o either.
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Permalink Reply by Leigh Eloise on
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I don't see why, although I am proud of my body, there is any need to show it on the interweb.
Bad/foul language has its place also, and I believe that if someone here wishes to use swear words, they should be allowed to.
Pretty much, I think it would suck to make this place an 18+ site, cos you'd lose me for a whole two years. I think, if you're gonna have an age limit, make it 13+.
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Permalink Reply by Cassy on
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i agree with the thirteen and up thing, i think that language doesnt need to be monitored unless it is excessive, and nudity shouldnt be allowed. its mohawks rock, not boobs rock.(lol) if someone is being excessive they should maybe get a warning or something, ive seen some people on sites that are just fuck this fuck that shit ass bitch, and that will put alot of people off. it just depends on the situation.
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Permalink Reply by Nich on
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This community was, to my understanding, to be about mohawks. Mohawk tips, mohawk styles, mohawk stories, mohawk sentiment, mohawk general chit chat. Be it what genre style or reason for said individual who has a mohawk or for the waking community outside this place who was thinking of experiencing the hair lift. The problem I have with the 18+ limitation is that the idea to get a mohawk can happen at anytime at almost any age. As there are more similar sites that will tell of how a mohawk can be done, you don't see a place like this where people can share a past history based on the decision to get a mohawk and then find a followup to another member with the similar results. I also have to say that the harsh reality of the world is kids are getting smarter. Computer systems are set to show a birthdate system. All they have to do is post a false date of birth and presto! Instant access. So my thoughts for this is the age limit rule is not a need for this place.
I do feel that nudity is not needed here, for any real reason. I have come to this place to meet people with mohawks, tattoo artists, tattooed individuals and yes I'll admit it, women with mohawks. However I'm not one who is sitting away waiting to see some pair of boobs. I rather have nice intellectual conversations, but I"m only speaking for myself. I can't speak for anyone else in this community so therefore their reasons on the nudity issue is for them to speak of. Artistic nudity is something I'd say take to deviantART.com but keep it sane here, everyone. That's just my take, though.
And as for the language/racism/religious beliefs etc. Everyone is different. Everyone has their own way of acting in a community be it on the internet or in reality. And that's alright by all means, but what needs to be reminded time and time again is that not everyone feels the same. Language around here is self explanatory: if we can talk without cursing, we can talk without cursing. Racism, as I feel mind you, is something that shouldn't be allowed. I don't wanna see that kinda talk about someone based on a color, a nationality or any of that stuff. Same goes with religion. I don't care what your religion is. If it works for you, then that's rad! More power to ya. But clashing the religions is just silly to me. Maybe for a debatable discussion, but to go about bashing someone for a belief is just a bit much to me.
That's what I feel anywho. All I'm gonna touch on.
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Permalink Reply by Charlie on
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I think the site should not be 18+ and no nudity allowed - it's not the topic of the website - it's not naked hawks rock (though that'd be an awesome site), but again, we'd lose a huge portion of the population through that. Perhaps 13+ would be more appropriate, as most forum boards are like that anyway.
There needs to be a no hatespeech policy... I know it affects many people but I see this a lot from being Muslim - everyone thinks my religion is full of hate and decide to take it out on me in less than favorable language... I'm not saying boo hoo for me, I'm saying I know what it feels like to be marginalized and I don't wish it on anyone, and on a website that is so topic-dedicated (and awesome, might I add), there's no room for hatespeech.
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Permalink Reply by Sonic Architect on
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I believe common sense should reign supreme though I suppose that could be subjective so I will clarify.
18+ I would never support that ever in my life for so many reasons. These include that a lot of people under 18 have mohawks, and people under this age get shit on enough by the world.
Nudity should not be present on the site and that is the only reason it could really be made 18+ I have absolutely no problem with people using the internet for posting pictures of their bodies be it artistic nudes or hardcore porn. Like the pro choice motto, your body, your decision and you should not be looked down upon because of it. However this is NOT the place to do such things and it is up to individual members to be conscious of the community and not ruin it for everyone. If you want to post such pictures, do it on a place that is made for it.
If pictures like that appear in members profiles or whatever, I believe they should be asked to remove them in a nice and civil manner without being an authoritarian asshole. If the person reasonably thinks it was discrimination, perhaps it can be discussed amongst the community. Either way, the only way I believe a person should be banned or anything is if they continuously and defiantly keep standing against it.
As for language..we are in the year 2008, almost 2009 and people are still concerned about people seeing/hearing the words shit or fuck? I find that absolutely ridiculous and absurd. Look, I am not gonna tell anybody that they have to say them, but understand that its words and no matter how much you censor them here or anywhere, kids and people are seeing much much worse shit and hearing much much worse shit every single day. I find it absolutely pointless to be offended or uncomfortable by terms like this. To say from a soapbox of holier than thou attitude that there is no place for it, that its obscene, or whatever other argument is to absolutely deny that people come from different walks of life, different ideas, different cultures etc. If you wanna piss and moan about offensive and morally wrong, quite bitching about language and start looking around our world. For example, the tens of thousands of innocents maimed and killed by bombs dropped by a religiously driven government.
Now, that is not to say that things cannot go to far. I never will condone racist language when it is directed directly at somebody with the intent to cause harm or demean. By this I mean that if some nazi was on here calling somebody a racial epitaph, they should be dealt with. This does not mean the words can never be used in my opinion and by that I mean, say somebody was describing an ARA protest they went to and a conflict broke out. If this person was reciting the story and they dropped words like nigger to describe what was said, I do not get upset by it.
To censor or eliminate words is to try to eliminate reality and to do so is a very dangerous precedent that continues to grow in our world. Life is beautiful but it is also very gritty and at times very dirty and "obscene" and no matter how much we try to keep iot from people, in the end we fuck them even worse because they are not prepared.
That is my quarters worth. I would like to state that my response is not a direct response to any member at all and I am not trying to incite a huge argument with anybody so please do not misconstrue things.
pe(A)ce
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I agree with the language Sonic. People are going to swear, people are going to hear it, in the end words are nothing but words.
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