Recent offensive comments made on E-I

[samlad]

Okay people, it is lovely to see the forums getting busy again, but it is very sad that I have to create this sticky thread in a forum for (supposed) adults. There are a few points that need to be raised by us, the E-I Moderation Team and enforcing a much stricter policy when it comes to people being nasty towards others.

First of all, let's start with this term, "Freedom of speech". So what is freedom of speech? According to Wikipedia:

"Freedom of speech is the political right to communicate one's opinions and ideas using one's body and property to anyone who is willing to receive them. The term freedom of expression is sometimes used synonymously, but includes any act of seeking, receiving and imparting information or ideas, regardless of the medium used. In practice, the right to freedom of speech is not absolute in any country and the right is commonly subject to limitations, as with libel, slander, obscenity, sedition (including, for example inciting ethnic hatred), copyright violation, revelation of information that is classified or otherwise."

People on these forums seem to think that freedom of speech gives them the right to say whatever they want, but as you can see in the highlighted part, it doesn't.

We have rules on these forums to ensure that our community is a place where people can debate without things going too far and to prevent people from being upset and offended, however people are disregarding some of these very basic rules, especially the following:

• Always Treat Others With Respect
  Please treat others with respect at all times here. You are welcome to disagree with people, debate issues, voice opinions etc, but you must do it with respect. It is not ok to launch verbal attacks, call people names or otherwise be aggressive or rude or hurtful or offensive. If you are, you will be warned or banned, possibly permanently, depending on the severity of the offence.
  
  
• Don't Harass or Threaten Anybody
  Never harass or threaten another user. If you do so you risk being warned, banned or possibly even having your details passed to the police.
  
  
• Discrimination
  We will not tolerate discrimination based on gender, race, nationality or sexuality here. Any posts of a discriminatory nature will be deleted or edited and the offending poster given a warning or banned, depending on the gravity of the situation.
  
  
• Provoking Others
  Do not attempt to provoke others into bad behaviour. If you do this, you will be banned.

For the full forum rules, click here.

[samlad]

Second point: Discrimination

Recently there have been quite a few heated debates about transgendered people. There is so much of this in the world and this is not something we will tolerate on the forums. People make comments about transgendered women being "men with tits", "not women because they have a cock" or "they are not real women", etc.. Other comments made have been that transsexual escorts have bareback sex, have AIDS and STIs. The comments and gossip has to stop now. Being gay, a TS or TV DOES NOT mean that they offer bareback sex or carry any viruses, and truth be told, we receive more unconfirmed reports about females offering bareback than TV, TS or gay escorts.

As the saying goes, "everyone is entitled to their opinion"; fair enough, but if that it is your opinion, it isn't welcome here.

Of course, this discrimination isn't just exclusive to TV, TS or gay people, we often see discrimination in reviews and in posts regarding nationality. Again, there is this massive stigma, especially with Romanian escorts, that they are supposedly being trafficked, pimped and coerced into the sex industry. Clients complain that escorts are lying about their nationality speculating that they are probably from 'such a place'; guess what? Escorts can be anything they want to be and with so many people wanting to pry into their private details, we don't blame them for wanting to hide as much about themselves as possible! If you think that it is only 'dodgy' escorts that lie about their details, you are being very naive. If you think that trafficking, agencies and coercion only occurs with Eastern European nationalities, you are even more naive! Rather than speculate about these things, if you want to be a 'stand up member of society', don't gossip about it, get the FACTS and report it to the people that CAN deal with it:

***Reporting your concerns***

From this point onwards, anyone found to be making offensive comments that are believed to be discriminatory in any way will be issued with an immediate ban from 7 days. More serious offences will result in a longer term or even permanent ban. We will not be tolerating this. Discrimination includes (but is not just limited to):

• Gender
• Race/nationality
• Disabilities
• Sexual orientation

[samlad]

Third point: Harassment, provoking and threatening

People are deliberately winding each other up to try and bait each other into posting something that might get them into trouble. If you find something offensive and you believe that it breaches any of the Escort Community Forum Rules, the biggest mistake you can make is react to the comment because retaliation often results in both parties getting punished for it.

There are two things that you should do in these situations:

• Report the post: unfortunately there are not enough people using this function and take it upon themselves to 'right the wrongs' themselves, being a martyr. If someone is trying to wind you up, report the post. The icon is found at the on the tool bar below every post:
  
  
  
  
  
• Put them on your ignore list: on your profile page, this option will be available on the left-hand side of the screen:
  
  
  

Click on the link and then on the next screen, enter the username of the person you wish to ignore:

This will prevent you from seeing the comments that the 'ignored' person will post.

We are aware that there is a problem whereby someone can quote a person on your ignore list and this will still be viewable, so if there is a post with an offensive quote, report this too and wait for a member of the moderation team to deal with it.

Anyone found to be harassing, provoking or threatening anyone else will be subjected to either an infraction (three infractions incur a 7 day ban) or an instant ban for an indefinite period of time (or permanent) depending on the severity of the situation.