I see the OP speaking out about it, is being a parent about it. I don't get why replies in threads need to toss in pics NSFW - its pinball, and usually topics about prices or repairs or gameplay that get hijacked with a pic, and then tons of replies about the pics - either, ooh I like that or man, I need to tilt this now. I agree that the point in making things better is to point it out, discuss it, and try to get a community response that's reasonable for everyone - I think BK's suggestion to tag it as a category, which lets both sides include/exclude that content. What's wrong with the idea?

I've been doing that for a lot of names in this post. Thanks for the reminder of that feature.

But we should be able to influence our pinball community website from not doing so, right? Robin, moderators, and we giving them direction - makes this "our" site for the pinsiders, - what you are missing, is that we all have some say over what pinside will be.

This is well said. In another reply, I said its mainly about the community of us that make up pinside, as pinsiders, we all have a say, by suggesting to Robin, moderators etc., about what rules or standards we'll accept (or at least agree to live by to have an account here). Awareness of the community, and staying on topic, goes a long way.

When Robin said there were 25,000 pinsiders now, there seems to be many more distracting/harsh comments and opinions that simply beat up on other members. There is definitely more "chaff" to sift through now than there was a few years ago. Its a tough dig through garbage, to find a good comment on whatever topic, be it this one on how the community should think about being civil and mindful, or a catchy thread topic that looks good on the title and first few posts - but breaks down pretty quickly - regardless of the topic being new trends, market, mods or boutique projects. Seems almost every one gets hacked by someone trying to get a rise out of people (i.e. they like drama or attention, rather than being a community member that adds substance worth reading).
I've been most helped by this topic of Bowens and reading all the posts, to make the highest use ever of my "ignore" and "tilt" features. Sad - but at least I can self correct the pinside experience through moderators, ignore and tilt - at least somewhat & way better than filter options on RGP.

I used to read pinside for finding out about repairs and meet other collectors. I also know a bunch of good players who have gotten tired of being here because of the noise, attacks, etc. Too much crap to sift through to find a gem or two. Players go to PAPA to find tips and videos from Bowen, or follow their pinball friends on Facebook. I haven't posted much on pinside in the past year, except for the last couple of weeks on a few topics I feel strongly about - that would make this community better. If the community on pinside drives away Bowen, Molly and others then what's left of the community is trending to be the ones who have taken over and made it more unpleasant to be around the forums. Its a virtual community - just like any place, it can be a nice place to live with people who are like-minded, or it can turn into a pit of junk if the folks that move in to town want to add the equivalent of strip clubs and bullying gangs or negative people. To me the community has attracted a lot of bad attitudes and manners, and I'm ready to move out too. I think Robin and other moderators should feel more obliged to force the rules and ban people - otherwise that's all you have after the "good" ones leave.

But its easy to "ignore" pinsiders than it was on RGP. Plus I like the market, collections and stories - RGP was only a forum - and that only is a good as the community of members, which eventually got so bad, most of us left.

Being better than RPG was a low hurdle - is that all we want as a community? A few less nastier attacks?

The point is, while we have those 5 options, shouldn't people have to follow the rules of the pinside agreement, without having a Moderator catch all the violations? Would you say that for where you live, that there are cops and FBI, so why worry about rule-breakers? what kind a community does that become. I think Bowen is simply asking pinsiders to be polite and mindful of their neighbors. Doesn't seem like censorship when all he is asking is to be civil.

Robin has set rules that people don't follow - that's my point. If people just followed the pinside guidelines, the moderators would have a much easier job.

Good point - and I did the same with FF.