new moderator for Unwedchastity
I think i have a workable solution. How about everyone who participates moderate themselves. You know; stop the attacks and hateful attitudes. All the self-righteous claim to know all. If this is true (as it seems to be) then you know hatred and self-seeking have never accomplished a positive goal. If everyone moderates themselves Laura will have a much easier job. In many cases this forum has shifted from a place of help and understanding for young ladies into a place of vitriol and self-righteous attacks. Can the adults act like adults and positively support the younger members? Heads up, your negative attitudes rarely help, and you can't save anyone. Remember what momma said, if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. Or if you must attack, attack me and give the youngsters a break.
plaidtoad Sounds nice in theory, but no one thinks of what they are posting as attacks, with the obvious exception of trolls who are doing it on purpose.
It is true that if we could get everyone to take the time to read through what they have written before posting it would make the job of moderating easier. On the other hand, who among us can really claim we do that every time? (I certainly can't)
Marder Which is why you would be a good moderator.
no, i want to keep the freedom to be uncomfortable sometimes 
well, actually you were one of the first candidates i had in mind when i wrote that, because you can understand different positions, what would @Laura say?
plaidtoad How about everyone who participates moderate themselves.
theoretically you're right, i don't think we need anyone to crack down too hard either. my main concern is that someone sets a limit when it comes to violent arguments among users in order to maintain a peaceful climate
Joh why is the server in USA? Most slightly sketchy sites are not hosted in USA.
PigtailSam why is the server in USA?
What's wrong with it?
PigtailSam I think that is beaus @Laura runs the server and she is in the US. That said, for a site like this the US's fairly absolutist view of free speech is probably better protection than the lack of enforcement that the sites you are talking about rely on.
PigtailSam It doesn't mater where the server are to point out the problem with his argument is. And frankly speaking I don't know where the server is.
Especially in Germany the risk is valid for moderators as well.
In German law there is that weird concept of 'Störerhaftung'. Essentially, if there is something German prosecutors consider illegal here and as moderator you are able to remove that but don't do it, you can be charged with passively supporting that what you have not acted upon and removed.
Usually prosecutors would target the owner, but if she is out of reach and moderators fall under German jurisdiction, guess what they might do.
Maybe ultimately you would win arguing freedom of speech, but it could be a very long case through multiple levels of courts and being a moderator is not worth the risk.
The US actually has some of the strongest protections in place for these situations. Companies were being hit with frivolous lawsuits in attempting to moderate content, while the "Wild West" approach was letting them off scot-free. This was making the internet far more offensive and obscene (and more importantly reducing the revenue of advertisers.) So bipartisan lawmakers under pressure from their corporate puppetmasters crafted the 1996 Communications Decency Act which holds that wesites not responsible for what their users post.
https://www.npr.org/2023/02/21/1157683233/supreme-court-google-twitter-section-230
There is quite a robust debate in this country on whether or not Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act should be abolished or amended.
WriterAlexis When I think of the history of censoring obscene content in America, this song from Tom Lehrer comes to mind:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaHDBL7dVgs
What are the expected duties and responsibilities of a moderator here?
WriterAlexis
I am well awate that free speech in the US has a legal standing that makes it pretty much impossible to go after forum owners or moderators.
But @Joh is, according to his profile, from Germany and legal standards there are different.
He would have significant legal exposure as moderator, so that warning stands.
curious Out of curiosity, is this a theoretical concern, or is it something German prosecutors have actually done in the past?
Thank you for your concern but in the end I have to decide how high will be the risk and how likely will it be that a German government organisation will contact me.
pestulens
This principle of 'Störerhaftung' has been used many times, though in other context.
When you open your wifi in Germany as a private person and someone else used this open wifi for things illegal in Germany (even something rather harmless than file sharing of copyrighted material, the owner of that wifi point is held liable. Even if he can proof that it was not he who actually did the file sharing. Not protecting your wifi against abuse leads to being held resonsonsible for what other people do with it.
Same thing for people running discussion boards. And it is easy to see that if the owner is out of reach authorities will go after the next best target - moderators - if they can.
Joh
You are aware that you leave a trace wherever you go online? You have an email address with a German ISP. They certainly have records about the IP addresses that accessed the account which leads to your mobile or Internet carrier who has records which IP your device had at any given time.
Easy enough to identify someone when you can access those information.