Decriminalize Mature Content In the Terms of Service

There was recently a Dev thread, 'What Stops You From GMing?' I said this: THE ROLL20 TOS I've been working up a detailed campaign, using GURPS. I'd love to GM it. It contains adult content. I am, myself, 54 years old. This seems at 1st like it should work great, there even being a tag to put onto my Looking-For-Players, 'Contains Mature Content,' as if this is a kind of thing, a campaign with mature content, that Roll20 is inclusive about. The combination of these 2 things, however, then crush my spirit: 1. This in the TOS: TOS, 9.1, You agree that you shall not: ... Post or otherwise submit any topic, name, material or information that is child pornography, defamatory, excessively violent, harassing, inappropriate , indecent, lascivious , lewd, obscene, profane, racist, unlawful, or otherwise objectionable [my italics].      Reading that just through to "unlawful," I have tried and failed to come up with a hypothetical adult content that does not violate that. But then reading all the way to the end, with the clincher, "or otherwise objectionable," boy, talk about being set up to fail! 2. A post on my profile page of a character concept that was taken down for violating that passage in TOS: So, you may have on the tip of your tongue, 'O probably no 1 will complain,' 'That doesn't usually happen,' 'That's just boilerplate,' 'Only in the most excessive cases,' 'That power is usually not exercised by Roll20 Devs,' etc ...      I made a character concept in which the character had lost his penis. I myself in Real Life had an injury along that line. Rather like someone who has become wheel-chair-bound and wants to make a disabled character, I wanted to make a character who had some of the difficulty I do. I did use the actual word 'penis' in describing, with humor, too (a witch had stolen it and kept it in a jar in her cave), that character's situation. Devs took the post down, on the grounds it was obscene. SUGGESTION: Decriminalize adult content in the TOS. /KJ

Seems like a "Mature" Forum, or tag that blocks anyone who is underage or without a priorly consented account would be in order. I can imagine they can't just let anyone post anything anywhere where anyone can read it anytime. But if there was someway to tag your bio or handout, or even forum post as 18+, I think that would be a good first step.

Agree that'd help. Totally willing to constrain a post saying I'm Looking For a Mature Content group to a mature-eyes-only area. Not so much the issue, tho. Or otherwise objectionable ... is the point, the litigious carte-blanche of that, which, really, btw, applies to everyone who's ever logged onto Roll20. Just to come into Roll20 TOS is to have that cocked pistol at your head. DMCA violations, sharing PDFs of rulesets, are like breathing, here, meanwhile; say 'penis,' about a mature character concept, get taken down.

Probably I shouldn't have added that.

" or otherwise objectionable"  This is pretty standard practice for most companies, from Wal-Mart to YouTube to Roll20, to make it possible to take away the rights of the user automatically upon sign up. You have to just accept that if any owner/developer doesn't like your content, it will be removed. You could try using a different service like Discord and other forums on the internet to post/communicate any "objectionable" content, and keep the gameplay/mechanics on Roll20.

you can mark your game as mature

You can, but what you can't do is, then, in a game description post or forum post made public, talk about genitalia or sex or murder or other obscene things without the post being removed. The text in question was part of a player info bio from what I understand, used for searching the player database, which also can't seem to contain any questionable material.

I'd say that you'd also have to take "profane" off that list.  If I were to talk about eating bacon, well, that is profane to some religions, is it not?  If I were to take the Lord's name in vain, that falls under profane.  If you treat any religious or sacred thing with irreverence, that is profane. It's like the "otherwise objectionable" phrase.  What is irreverent to people may not be insulting or offensive, or rather, they can take such irreverence amiably. I mean, any kind of swearing is profane, hence the word profanity. I agree, content that is adult in nature should not be grounds for banning.  Obviously, no one (sane) is going to defend child pornography or racism as good things, but it is hardly the end of the world if someone swears, or talks about how much they enjoy bacon or beef.  And honestly, if you can't say the word penis without having your content deleted, there are bigger issues at hand... :|

Aaron K. said: " or otherwise objectionable"  This is pretty standard practice for most companies, from Wal-Mart to YouTube to Roll20, to make it possible to take away the rights of the user automatically upon sign up. You have to just accept that if any owner/developer doesn't like your content, it will be removed. You could try using a different service like Discord and other forums on the internet to post/communicate any "objectionable" content, and keep the gameplay/mechanics on Roll20. No, no company can take away your rights.  You have no rights to post to Roll20, you have a privilege that they can revoke.  The only reason why they have a ToS or user agreement is to lay out what they expect of their users, what they will or won't permit, and to inform that they can and will revoke users' privileges at any time they deem necessary.  So that a user can't use the excuse, "I didn't know...".  Though, I don't think a ToS or user agreement has stood up in court, yet. Standard practice shouldn't mean using a boilerplate.  With all the litigation going on in the world, with the users ACTUALLY reading the ToS for once, you'd think the companies using the ToS would do the same and edit out the silliness.

Warms my heart (like, maybe I SHOULD try GMing here), that, in conversation, topic's getting some traction. Keep going! Meanwhile, vote count went from +3 way up to +4, ha ha - sincerely, the dialog's getting muscle - keep commenting!

My campaign world is shaping up to be sort of like Finnegans Wake/At Swim-2-Birds/Dead Father, that, there is an Author, who has created all you characters, writes yer stories - but, he's gotten into the habit of sleeping 23/hours/day, & the characters are writing their own stories ... &, the characters are getting organized & smart about turning '23 hrs' into '24 hrs' ...

All this 'adultness' is about that old 'Author' being horny. He hits his head onto his pillow, thinks of 'girls' frolicking on a tropical island. That's his motivation for checking out those 23-hours: it's nicer! Think Alan Arkin's character in the movie Little Miss Sunshine.