@51 No I think what electro meant was that kids often act uhh, imiturely. It has given kids a reputation of getting banned and the creation of drama topics often revolve around kids.  I don't think that there should be an age restriction or anything I just think something should be done. I may even  be a kid... who knows. Sorry I know this post is messy but I'm writing on my phone so sorry about that.

We all know age is just a number, won't name, but there are some people in this forum who are younger than most of the members and act cool (in my opinion at least), I (Won't use the word mature, because in my opinion it shouldn't exist) while there are also people who are older and have been a large part of this thing you call drama on the forum. Did you know that if the forum was age restricted most of the games we enjoy wouldn't exist? but I don't think this forum will be age restricted anyway.

Sorry if , I came off as wanting age restriction. I really don't want that at all. I'm just saying that a lot of the drama has been caused by certain kids. This topic was spicifically to stop further drama so I'll stop here. I know that this is one of my least thought out posts and I'm sorry if I offend someone.

hmm, well just in kase, i'm 11 and i'm not gonna do anything like that, i promis smilyface

@60 very true. Thats how i was on facebook and registered on google when i was like 9/10 years old

I thought of implementing some kind of internet verification system, but I don't know if this would violate any statutory, constitutional, or common legal opinions.
I don't know if this is true, but some dating and X-rated sites may verify your age with a public records consumer company, like the credit bureaus in the United States.
And I think it's easy for anyone to create a prepaid debit card under an assumed name if you were to make the forum paid.
What I was thinking was that, upon registration, users may be randomly selected to do a background check, which requires you to release your name, age, address, DOB, and probably a few other things.
Such an idea may be useful, but I think it would also be expensive, as well.

@63
To my knowledge that's legal, but there's no way to actually implement it.  You can arguably get the data, but it takes days and it costs a lot of money.  Background checks are $30 or more. Credit cards can only be validated if you get a payment processor and try charging it, and I don't believe that validation actually comes back with names or addresses, and just matching the zip code is enough to pass.  The sorts of things you're discussing, if you got all of them, would be upwards of $50 per user.  Maybe much more.

Also I'm on a couple of those X-rated sites and they definitely don't background check in the U.S.  Just name, date of birth, here's my credit card if it's paid, and you're in.  I won't say which ones for a variety of reasons, but giving young minds ideas is certainly at the top of that list.

The UK tries to do better here, but this problem isn't solvable without redoing the internet from the ground up in the kinds of ways that would give a government like China full control over every word you posted online.  I'm being 100% literal.  That's what it would take.

The real problem with this community is that it's tolerant of too much, and it's too late to take a lot of it back.  There aren't any adults, things like virus joke programs and piracy are debated as to whether or not it's bad, you can't even flat out say "We shouldn't talk about x because it's illegal" without one faction or another being outraged and then bringing up every other thread that got missed.  I think part of why mods aren't around is that this community has a culture of bashing them every time they make an even slightly unpopular decision.  When a community is able to sort of shift the ethical center around, what's allowed changes and you can't put it back, but no one stopped it at the beginning of the current problems developing.

And there's too few people to change any of this.  Even if we had an age verifier or whatever else, audiogames haven't been important beyond audiogames.net in a long time.  If we had a quality community we'd have quality games.  If we had quality games we'd have a quality community.  But we have neither, and if you knock out over half the people with whatever, then we have nothing.

@66
I'm 28. I've been programming since I was 12.  I know about software licensing and piracy.  And that particular thread isn't the first time someone's made stupid joke programs or tried to distribute viruses or whatever for fun, just the most recent.

People like TheTrueSwampGamer can flat out admit they have and are learning from stolen code and nothing is done.  And if something had been done it would have sparked a controversy about how mods are dictators or something.  This community has trouble with something as simple as stolen code is bad.  There are moral gray areas with piracy, but this community isn't in them.  Tell me I'm missing something with piracy when we can all agree that stolen code is bad and support the mods if they do something about it, not before, and maybe I'll listen.  I'll even agree with some of it.  I know the long list of "but piracy isn't evil" points already.

But irregardless that doesn't change whether it's legal, which with respect to what we can and can't discuss on a public forum is the more important factor.  And it's not like there aren't other issues.

I find it sort of telling that me pointing out these particular issues has made you angry, honestly.  You need to grow up some.  If you go further down this road, you're just going to make my point for me. You kind of already are, and you kind of have in the past.

If you want another issue, we have a homophobic and transphobic contingent and a "The coronavirus isn't real and all the news is fake" contingent.  If I went down off-topic or general games discussion I could probably find a few more.  But I was sticking to the stuff that should definitely not be controversial, that we should all be able to agree is bad without even thinking about it.  But apparently we, or at least you, can't, so have a couple more things I consider bad lest you decide that I'm 1-dimensional and don't care about things beyond piracy and virus distribution.

i'm guessing the web masters are the people who made this forum?

@68
They said it in developer's room. Wasn't even implied.  But I don't care about that instance, save that it just means I won't work with or help them in future.  I also don't care that the mods didn't do anything.  The mods can't be everywhere.  But I do care that whether stealing code is okay isn't a very easy answer.

That NVDA glitcher program becomes much less funny with maturity.  Even Rory is going to look back on that in a few years and cringe.  Fortunately that kind of thing indeed doesn't happen often.  But again, my problem isn't with what was done, my problem is that this community has a problem with basic ethics.

I think the mods, which I guess mostly means Jayde right now, do fine.  It's too late for mods to steer the community.  That needed to happen a long time ago if it was going to happen.  It's not exactly anyone's fault either.  Emergent factors are hard to predict save in hindsight, and frankly this forum being primarily kids definitely doesn't help.

I have no idea what's up with the webmasters, so if that part is aimed at me no comment.

Hold on. Who said what where about using stolen code to learn?
Nobody reported this, which actually just reinforces Canlorn's point. I didn't see it, but if someone could give me a nod in the direction of whatever it was, and if it's actually objectionable enough, I'll deal with it.