I posted this to the "Hottest Girls in Pinball" topic, but I realize a lot of people may not be reading that topic for various reasons. I'd love to hear your opinions, and thanks.

I feel this is changing, rather quickly. The level of diversity at pinball events isn't ideal, but it's way more balanced now than it was 5 or 10 years ago. My best guess is that about 100 women will be competing at Pinburgh 2015 (http://replayfx.org/competitions/pinburgh). None of those women will be there to babysit anyone.

Is it really true that the prevailing attitude among Pinsiders is that of vid1900's: "Good, don't get them involved"?

I know that I can "drain" a topic, but that doesn't change its visibility to others. In my opinion, topics with "adult" content should not be visible as part of the main forum.

When topics that frequently includes nudity and misogyny are repeatedly visible on the top page, it gives the public impression that nudity and misogyny is tolerated or encouraged. I know several people who have left Pinside completely because of this.

In its current state, I can't recommend Pinside to anyone due to adult content. Topics with adult content, including this one, should be in a sub-forum that is not visible to the general site visitor.

Thanks for listening to my opinion.

Posts like that have no relationship to pinball and do not belong in a pinball forum. They should be deleted or moved to a sub-forum for off-topic adult content.

What's the minimum age you would want someone reading Pinside? Based on what can be posted anywhere currently, the minimum age appears to be 18+.

I suggest a sub-forum similar to the current "Off-Topic Bar", but which is "off" by default to new users or those without logins.

I would hope my opinion carries just as much weight as anyone else's, and no more.

I have a 6-year-old who loves pinball and loves to read. Do I expect him to learn about boobs by age 14... hell yes. At 6 I'm not leaving him alone to read anything on the Internet, but when it's time to give him more flexibility to read and learn on his own, Pinside is not now a community that I would want him learning from. And that sucks, because there are a lot of great people to learn from, some who are here, some who have left here, some who have never come here due to its reputation.

This is better said than anything I've said about this, for sure.

I appreciate Robin's input for some clarifications on the site's policies, and it's clear the board operators have a difficult and thankless job.

I have been here 2 1/2 years and did not know about the site policies, especially any tilted posted being unreadable without login, and the policies on nudity. It looks like the default for logged-in users is 2 tilts before a post becomes marked. I do know that tilting others' posts is seen as uncool, I have seen arguments where users yell at others asking why their posts are tilted.

One suggestion is to make tilting posts anonymous. I realize this could be abused but the site could track or stop some weirdo who just decides to tilt everything. I don't know if there is a process for asking to have a post un-tilted.

My original point wasn't about kids (someone asked me if I had kids, so I answered), it was about the overall state of the community. If someone asks me where they can learn more about pinball, I can instantly recommend the IFPA or PAPA sites, or Facebook groups. I can't recommend Pinside to them because of the content, in both language and images. And I don't mean swearing, and I don't mean old backglasses. I mean stuff like this:

poster: "Is this salt water or fresh water?" <posts Hot-Girls-on-Private-Boats-2.jpg, off topic>
responses: "Depends on were your tongue is." "There was water in that pic?" "....Son, your mother has breasts; Those are TITS!" "How much were the racks? The one on the right needs to make sure she has the updated non corrosive bags." None of those posts earned a tilt warning; ultimately a moderator shut down the topic.

In one of the posts on the current Page 1, today a post consisted entirely of a picture of a monkey staring at a woman's chest with the comment "fuck bananas, I want coconuts". The only one marking that post with a tilt warning was Robin.

Thanks again to the site creators and moderators, who work their butts off for this community. I still believe a private sub-forum would be an appropriate solution that allows anyone to post what they want while making this place welcoming to new members.

I never asked to have you removed. You posted a photo of two dancers to a pinball group, with not even a pinball machine in the background, with the caption that the two girls were "interactive toppers". Here is the exchange, so that anyone can decide if I freaked out or asked to have you removed.

Bowen Kerins: Why is this here? Can we please not do this?

Scott Lano: Go go dancers for Pinball Girl. You just outted yourself as an uptight nerd whose whole universe is playing in tournaments. Lighten up

Bowen Kerins: Oh no! I'm a nerd! I'd rather be a nerd than to give the impression to half the population that pinball is not for them. This picture is crap and has no business being posted to the group.

Scott Lano: This photo is from the Pinball Girl 7" release party in NYC.the song was featured in PInball Donut Girl the movie as well as Wade Krause Pinball Artist the documentary .It has received positive feedback from almost everyone in the pinball community

Bowen Kerins: The "it" you refer to is a song, right? A song about pinball, used in movies, that's terrific. But that's not what you posted, is it? You posted a photo irrelevant to anything pinball except the hashtag "#pinballgirl" and the comment "interactive toppers". It suggests that this is the role women should play in pinball.

Scott Lano: The only thing that is crap is your attitude which will turn more people off to pinball than the picture I posted..... by the way.........ANYBODY can play pinball.You have a narrow and prejudiced view,and you don't get to say what represents pinball.#pinballgirl#interactivetoppers

Bowen Kerins: If pinball is for everyone, maybe we should help people feel welcomed in playing the games, instead of perpetuating a burlesque / strip-club association that will ensure that 95-99% of pinball players are men.

You must have missed the part where I said my opinion should carry no higher weight than anyone else's, though you have also argued my opinion doesn't matter as much because I donate my time and money to other efforts than Pinside. And that's fine.

Why do you consider pictures of women in bikinis or lingerie to be on-topic in a pinball group? I don't, and I feel that Pinside currently endorses this behavior and the comments that follow it. It sends messages about who is and who is not welcome here.

Art of Whoa Nellie, or commentary about it, fine.

But people said this in that thread (separate posts):

"Sexism: only ugly bitches complain about it."
"Hot chicks love the game. It's only the insecure broads crying over cartoons."
"If they can't take a joke, get back in the kitchen."

I didn't have to look very hard for these posts: just search for the ones with a huge pile of upvotes.

Mmmmmmm, In N Out Burger. Have a good week.

This is a forum for pinball. The forums for women in bikinis, nudity, and bestiality are somewhere else.

Pictures of girls in bikinis from a pinball backglass, terrific. A picture of a girl in a bikini duct-taped to a wall, or a girl's legs being fed through a meat grinder? What the ...?

As wayner said, examples like these demean the whole pinball community. A friend said that a place like Pinside was a "unique opportunity to interact with other like minded individuals who are at remote locations to talk about a shared, common interest". And big thanks to Robin and the moderators for creating this space.

But this opportunity is going to waste. As it stands now, you can't just enjoy Pinside by being a fan of pinball. You also have to step through a pile of locker-room crap. It's a huge barrier: many people just don't want to deal with it, so they're gone. Others wade through it. Most of the feedback I've received from friends is that I should do what they did: leave. But I still wade through.

Thousands of new players are starting to play pinball, and presumably that means a lot of new people visiting Pinside. Does what they see here represent pinball positively or negatively? How many of them give up on the pinball community because of what they encounter in this forum?

I appreciate the discussion. I know the overall tone won't change, I'm just hopeful to move things a little. In the end, the majority rules, and I hope I made it clear that I don't feel I have any special status except as a user and a pinball fan.

We're all offenders. When I started posting on rec.games.pinball in 1992 there was a lot of talk about machine "rapes" and I ran with that, not thinking how it would sound to others. All we can do is think and improve, and I'm sure I'll offend again (probably offending someone right now).

Thanks, and much respect to you, to the moderators, and to everyone on Pinside.

True! That's why I self-tilted! Interesting that follow-up posts that quote go around the tilt settings. Somebody call Robin!

When broadcasting for PAPAtv, it's among the most frequently asked questions in the chat, the video comments, and emails: what websites are recommended for someone who is getting into pinball? Perhaps Pinside isn't meant to be that place.

I'd like to think I haven't been a whiny crybaby in this discussion, but that's a matter of opinion.

As to my Facebook, I linked to the comment blondetall posted (and razorbak86 linked to), since I had not seen it before and thought it was worth sharing.

No. I've expressed my opinion enough, read back if you want. My opinion is that we deserve a community where this doesn't happen to its one female moderator: