New Policy for Photos, Videos, and YT Channels

Discussion in 'Announcements' started by LifeLearner, Apr 21, 2020.

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  1. LegoBoyo

    LegoBoyo Pop Culture Enthusiast Elder Helper VIP

    I can't really feel how everyone feels about this, but what they type, I can somehow turn that into an emotion I can relate to; all of this arguing is just negative energy waiting to be lit on fire. It's unnecessary, this isn't TheSandlot I whitelisted for.
     
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  2. LegoBoyo

    LegoBoyo Pop Culture Enthusiast Elder Helper VIP

    I agree with some of these players. Let art, pet photos (with a certain system), thrive.
     
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  3. YSElectro

    YSElectro tesseracting since 2016

    I remember the sandlot about 4 years ago. Everything was not free, but freeing. Posting pictures and getting compliments about art petts, etc made me the happiest I was in my life. In a nerd community that I hang out with, we would often compare it to the Oasis, from a book that we had read, a world where you can be yourself with no backlash. After a years-long break, we had all come back to a drastically different world. The first day we had come back, one of our closest friends had been banned for a long time after making a simple typo. A few days later, another friend was banned (right in time for the rw reset, an event he was looking forward to since it was announced) for not realizing he had accidentally spent all his money. This was when we had realized something was wrong. We started often making jokes about being hunted by mods for doing simple things. Honestly, its sad what this has come too. These forums used to be a great place to post my art (I was planning to post something today, actually) i really don't know what point im making. Some friends have already left for this reason, and I wont be surprised if more leave. Thats all, sorry if that offended anyone.
     
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  4. Luna_Marvel

    Luna_Marvel I'm so bored that I... <fill in the blank>

    My Opinions

    Ban On Selfies:
    I think it’s good we have all ages on here and it doesn’t seem fair that us older people could but kids can’t.
    The kids could lie about parental permission.
    The mods are wonderful but shouldn’t have to babysit the forums 24/7 to make sure the pics fit newer guidelines, they need to be on the game with us also.
    Pet Photos Should Have a Pet Pic Challenge if allowed again

    Art:
    I think the rule makes some sense but art challenges would be fun to compete for like in-game money or rewards.
    The Challenges could be weekly and a specific topic so people don’t draw things that violate guidelines.

    No YouTube Advertising:
    I think it makes sense the forums would be filled with “Look At My Vid!” or in-game chat would be “watch my vid for money or something of value.”
    There is no way to monitor what the videos are about.
    People should still make videos on here though so more people know about the great server

    TL,DR: Selfie ban is good. Art should be reviewed. And advertising shouldn’t be allowed.
     
    Last edited: Apr 22, 2020
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  5. ARGreat

    ARGreat Not just good. Great! Helper VIP

    I think that these rules really do have what is best for the sandlot in mind. When I first discovered the forums, I was surprised that we were allowed to post pictures of things IRL. I had the expectation that the forums would follow the same rules as the server itself. I can see why many people would be upset with these changes, but I do think they reflect the Sandlots objective, to provide a safe and friendly environment to play Minecraft. Now the forum does have a different purpose than to play Minecraft, of course, so the rules should match that purpose without jeopardizing the overall purpose of the sandlot.

    Personal Photos
    I believe this rule essentially means that there won't be any posting of any photos that are not of Minecraft.
    Does this follow the purpose of the Forum without jeopardizing players safety? Yes, without it would it jeopardize the safety of players, yes there were many good reasons given in the original post to why it isn't safe to post real pictures?
    In my opinion Yes some of them are kind of floppy arguments, but the fact that players can be addicted to social media is a huge one, and because the sandlot is so friendly it is even more supportive of an addiction. And then there is the added load to moderators. Moderators have a huge part to play in running this server. They monitor every chat message, pm, conversation, and thread. They build new worlds for us and create entertaining games. Having them meticulously scan every player photo, or piece of artwork adds to their workload, in a place they originally looked to have fun.

    Youtube Channels and Videos
    The change here essentially means that you can't post anything outside of what is related to the sandlot or Minecraft, and I'm not completely sure what the second half of this means, but I think it basically requires you to have access to the original video file? I also agree with this new rule since there is no reasonable way for moderators to ensure that those videos are safe. But I will find the second half (if I understood it correctly) an inconvenience. I often find my self sharing tutorials I found on YT with other players to help them build a mob farm or something similar (I think 90% of my conversations with people are just videos). It is just so much easier to show them a video than to explain it through text.
     
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  6. GemOLantern

    GemOLantern Codin' Gopher Helper VIP

    I guess, here is my main question:
    Why not art?
     
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  7. I think too many as missing the forest for the trees. While the commenters here seem to almost universally praise the previous posting of pictures, etc., they only comprise a small subset of The Sandlot community.

    To be honest, without a full-time, paid Staff, The Sandlot can’t effective monitor content to the necessary extent to allow the previous policy to continue. Any given video had to be watched, in is entirety, and then evaluated within the Sandlot guidelines...YouTube channels that started out fine sometimes evolved into something else, sometimes in surprising ways, because the poster forgot they had linked it after having moved on from Sandlot or having had their interests change.

    I have had to censor several pictures and pieces of art posted on these threads because of violations of guidelines. Sometimes it’s clear...a player posts their picture next to their house, with the street name and address visible...sometimes it’s not...perhaps a player posts a picture with something as simple as a school bus in the background, a school bus with the school districts name on it and the number of the route it was on, a picture with a date and time stamp on it. If that happens, within 10 minutes, I can narrow the location down to within a couple of blocks.

    Art is very difficult, because it is an expression, and one with inherent ambiguity in message and meaning. For exactly that reason, it had become a burden on the Staff.

    Just my opinion, JK
     
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  8. RMicky

    RMicky One-eyed One-horned Flying Purple People Eater VIP

    I understand how it can be a burden for the moderators to look over pictures and art, however most of these threads in which pictures can be posted are some of the most popular threads, with players constantly looking over these threads, including many helpers who can report if there are any issues. Just because a few people are unable to follow the rules shouldn't prevent everyone from posting pictures. There are ways to circumvent the chat filter in game, that doesn't mean the sandlot bans all chat because of the possibility of one person breaking the rules.
    Why not have 1 singular thread for in real life pictures and 1 singular thread for all art in real life. This would allow everyone to post their pictures and art and make it easy for the moderators to check these pictures since they would be controlled in one thread.
    One other question is why? The Sandlot has been around for almost 8 years. I highly doubt anyone on this server has had any harm or danger come to them because of a post they made on this server. Why now?
     
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  9. nefarious_neo

    nefarious_neo Tiny, but fierce!

    I agree with Youtube videos and real life photos of people. What people say on the forums has to be monitored too though, so art or no art, it still has to be checked... YouTube makes sense because someone can post a 20 minute video and nobody has the time to watch the entire thing. That entirely makes sense to me. Real life photos, if not checked properly, can give an address away in an instant, and parents can be angry that their child didn’t ask first (which is totally on the parents and not you guys but unfortunately people aren’t always fair about that). These rules make sense.


    Art still does not, however, make sense to me because ambiguity and messages and meaning can go not just for art but for builds, poems, stories and other types of expression. Things as simple as a chat message can have underlying messages just as an art piece may.
     
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  10. GemOLantern

    GemOLantern Codin' Gopher Helper VIP

    I totally understand! I’m not forgetting that you guys are just volunteers! But I don’t think banning it entirely is the best solution. :)

    Maybe there could be a thread called “Real life art Monday” or something, where people could post one (or a few) pictures of their art every Monday. This would help it be more manageable since it’s all in one place, and only on a one day time frame.
     
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  11. nefarious_neo

    nefarious_neo Tiny, but fierce!

    I agree with this, and if there are also not enough moderators to moderate the forums, why not grant the ability to certain individuals to edit/remove forums posts as a trial run and see how it works? I know this is a big deal and would be difficult to know who to trust, but honestly I think it could do a great deal of good to have extra watchful eyes if this is too much for moderators to moderate. It’s not just pictures, everything’s that’s being said on the forums needs be monitored as best as it can.
     
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  12. GemOLantern

    GemOLantern Codin' Gopher Helper VIP

    Yes... you have a whole team of people eager to help out the community and you guys where we can :)
     
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  13. JamPastry

    JamPastry Born in the Wrong Timezone Elder Helper VIP

    In some ways, that's the issue. There's many players looking over the threads at all times. It takes time for a report to be made. It takes time for the moderators to receive the report. All it takes is one wrong person to look at the thread. That can happen in a matter of seconds. I'm going to be the 'unpopular opinion' dude here, but I think banning it all is the best solution.
     
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  14. tmuo

    tmuo :D VIP

    I think this is a great idea - you all have a whole team of players ready to help at basically every second! :)
     
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  15. nefarious_neo

    nefarious_neo Tiny, but fierce!

    On a server like Sandlot, it is EXTREMELY rare to get someone who’s looking to find a person’s address. If the “wrong person” is looking to find kid’s addresses or personal information, they’d most likely go somewhere that’s easy to get that information. I.e. other servers and social media. The amount of bad people on here mixed with the amount of people who accidentally posted personal information is extremely rare. Most of the players are genuinely helpful and notice when something needs to be reported and do so, most likely before a person who’s “dangerous” would see.

    If this is such a large issue, a thread specifically for art and photos that needs to be approved by Helpers and Moderators would be beneficial.
     
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  16. RMicky

    RMicky One-eyed One-horned Flying Purple People Eater VIP

    I dont think it is likely players in sandlot passing by in our threads are going to do a full analysis of every picture and try to find out where players live. @JackenKracken said it would take him around 10 minutes to try to figure out an estimate of a location, are players really going to be doing 10 minute analysis of player's picutes?
     
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  17. GemOLantern

    GemOLantern Codin' Gopher Helper VIP

    I get where you’re coming from, for sure! But as Cherries mentioned:
    Bad people have MUCH easier ways to hunt children. They don’t often go on heavily monitored places with extreme chat filters and protection. Easier is better for them, and it’s really, really not easy here thanks to our marvelous mods!

    What we really need here is just an easier way for the mods to keep the server protected.
     
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  18. Ildaktekh

    Ildaktekh Is very Stev!

    I think the same thing could probably be utilized for videos so that they could be checked to see if they met guidelines
    (meant to be replying to cherries_02)
     
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  19. JamPastry

    JamPastry Born in the Wrong Timezone Elder Helper VIP

    I understand that it's rare, but the point is it's not impossible. If the only pictures are Minecraft screenshots, there's no risk. Parents trust the Sandlot to make sure their children are safe online, even if the risk is minimal, why take the chance?

    All I'm going to say is, that's not always the case.
     
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  20. nefarious_neo

    nefarious_neo Tiny, but fierce!

    There is always the chance that a kid will unknowingly say their school in Minecraft or forums chat. So does that mean we should not allow kids to talk in Sandlot or on forums at all either?
     
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