"Scene Page" comments

[mikeyank]

I did not want to add this comment to the Jason & Tristan thread as this is not related to the scene, but Johnny, Stowe and others mentioned that negative comments regarding the new director Johnny have been removed from the scene page. I am a bit confused why there is a place to leave comments on that page as well as on this forum. Aren't we all paying members of Broke Straight Boys, so why do we have two places to comment?

But more importantly, who is censoring comments on that page and why? I am a long time forumite, as some have referred to me as having been here "forever", and I actually think that Johnny the director is an improvement over the stagnant, total formula scenes of the previous director Clay, and that Clay was moving toward turning Broke Straight Boys into College Dudes or any other gay porn site featuring good looking young guys having sex, with no relevance to the original concept of the site, which was getting "believably" straight guys to perform sex acts with another guy because of the money, and my interest arose when the models began to get uncontrollably excited despite their protestations to the act of gay sex.

So while I like the idea of a new director taking the reigns from Clay, I despise the idea of censorship, and if there are folks who are unhappy with Johnny, I say, let them speak, just as I rejected the idea of censoring folks who were unhappy with the bareback scenes on the forum. I love freedom, including on my porn sites, and I don't like someone else deciding what is appropriate to say and what is not.

 

[johnny]

mikeyank
A BIG KISS AND HUG FROM ME. LIKE IT OR NOT.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR WORDS..
johnny

 

[nickkk1881]

I did not want to add this comment to the Jason & Tristan thread as this is not related to the scene, but Johnny, Stowe and others mentioned that negative comments regarding the new director Johnny have been removed from the scene page. I am a bit confused why there is a place to leave comments on that page as well as on this forum. Aren't we all paying members of Broke Straight Boys, so why do we have two places to comment?

But more importantly, who is censoring comments on that page and why? I am a long time forumite, as some have referred to me as having been here "forever", and I actually think that Johnny the director is an improvement over the stagnant, total formula scenes of the previous director Clay, and that Clay was moving toward turning Broke Straight Boys into College Dudes or any other gay porn site featuring good looking young guys having sex, with no relevance to the original concept of the site, which was getting "believably" straight guys to perform sex acts with another guy because of the money, and my interest arose when the models began to get uncontrollably excited despite their protestations to the act of gay sex.

So while I like the idea of a new director taking the reigns from Clay, I despise the idea of censorship, and if there are folks who are unhappy with Johnny, I say, let them speak, just as I rejected the idea of censoring folks who were unhappy with the bareback scenes on the forum. I love freedom, including on my porn sites, and I don't like someone else deciding what is appropriate to say and what is not.

Ditto!

 

[peterh6308]

I'm gonna have to agree with the mighty Mikeyanks comments. You know how hard it is for me to do that so he must be saying something important and not just the usual babble!!! lol

 

[another1]

mikeyank, if I write something that you find offensive and you say to the monitors you find it offensive, then I would expect an email telling me that my comments were considered offensive and removed. this has been the procedure for as long as I have been a member of the forum.

 

[tampa24]

I remember early on with Johnny's first scenes that the comments over there were pretty vicious towards him. I was actually rather happy that some comments of one poster on that side were removed. The guy obviously had issues. And it had very little to do with his dislike of Johnny. Johnny was just a piñata upon which to take out his hostility.

Having said that, I agree with Mikey....that comments on the other side should not censored or removed. Though as I say, I was in favor of it in that one particular instance.

 

[peterh6308]

mikeyank
A BIG KISS AND HUG FROM ME. LIKE IT OR NOT.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR WORDS..
johnny

Johnny keep your dirty paws off my Mikeyank!!! lol

 

[betudidntknow]

I guess I have mixed emotions about the "sensorship" of comments. While there are 2 sections to post comments, and the scene comments where you can post "anonymously" might also be used by members subscribing using different means of access (other than a computer), I still consider it a "privilege" of membership. When people start to "abuse" a privilege (even with the forum, ie: KRU1996 posting comments that do not relate in the membership section at times) I then feel management should reserve the right to correct the actions of this "abuse of privilege" when deemed appropriate. In my opinion and observations since I've been a member, this is an extreme that doesn't occur very often.

 

[mikeyank]

I remember early on with Johnny's first scenes that the comments over there were pretty vicious towards him. I was actually rather happy that some comments of one poster on that side were removed. The guy obviously had issues. And it had very little to do with his dislike of Johnny. Johnny was just a piñata upon which to take out his hostility.

Having said that, I agree with Mikey....that comments on the other side should not censored or removed. Though as I say, I was in favor of it in that one particular instance.

I guess I have mixed emotions about the "sensorship" of comments. While there are 2 sections to post comments, and the scene comments where you can post "anonymously" might also be used by members subscribing using different means of access (other than a computer), I still consider it a "privilege" of membership. When people start to "abuse" a privilege (even with the forum, ie: KRU1996 posting comments that do not relate in the membership section at times) I then feel management should reserve the right to correct the actions of this "abuse of privilege" when deemed appropriate. In my opinion and observations since I've been a member, this is an extreme that doesn't occur very often.

I can understand where you are both coming from Tampa and Betu that some of the comments on the "scene page" have been over the top in their ripping into Johnny, but when it comes to censorship I would rather err on the side of letting even ignorant people have their say than having their comments "removed".

Of course there are examples of people being abusive, mean or even slanderous and that is a different story, so I guess there is a fine line here, but my gut reaction generally speaking is to let the comments remain and let the chips fall where they may, but you guys do make a valid point.

 

[tampa24]

You state your case very well Mikey.

 

[juanjo]

While in general I disagree with censorship and support people speaking freely I did want to point a couple of things out here just in case they are not clear to some folks.

1. Most Americans speak lovingly of freedom of speech. But often they are not completely clear on what that really means. I do not want to imply anyone here is unclear on anything. However the constitutional right to free speech only applies to the government abridging one's right to express one's opinion. It does not apply to any private company or private individual who can abridge another's right to speak freely as on a group such as this. That means the Blu-Media folks can do as they please and it is well within their rights to do so.

2. How the management here chooses to handle criticism is completely up to them. Hopefully they do read and consider any and all constructive criticism. From what I have seen they do. I have to say when it comes to the criticism, I understand that there are some things that really do get to them more than they do to others. There have been some things here which annoyed me and I have expressed my view on them. The bareback issue is one such subject. But each of us at some point have to decide what we are willing to accept or not accept and what we are going to do about it if the management is not going to act on our criticisms.

 

[betudidntknow]

While in general I disagree with censorship and support people speaking freely I did want to point a couple of things out here just in case they are not clear to some folks.

1. Most Americans speak lovingly of freedom of speech. But often they are not completely clear on what that really means. I do not want to imply anyone here is unclear on anything. However the constitutional right to free speech only applies to the government abridging one's right to express one's opinion. It does not apply to any private company or private individual who can abridge another's right to speak freely as on a group such as this. That means the Blu-Media folks can do as they please and it is well within their rights to do so.

2. How the management here chooses to handle criticism is completely up to them. Hopefully they do read and consider any and all constructive criticism. From what I have seen they do. I have to say when it comes to the criticism, I understand that there are some things that really do get to them more than they do to others. There have been some things here which annoyed me and I have expressed my view on them. The bareback issue is one such subject. But each of us at some point have to decide what we are willing to accept or not accept and what we are going to do about it if the management is not going to act on our criticisms.

Thank you for that clarification juanjo. I also appreciate hearing it from someone like yourself or advocate88. Many times my own interpretation of rights vs privileges comes through in some of my comments but, not nearly as articulate as someone who is well versed in the interpretation of the law! (If you can believe it, I debated with a grown ass man that his having a driver's license was a privilege not his right to have one!!?)

This part:"But each of us at some point have to decide what we are willing to accept or not accept and what we are going to do about it if the management is not going to act on our criticisms."...has puzzled me after I joined this forum, why people who speak lovingly of their freedoms, but ill of the models, directors and so on, don't exercise their "freedom of choice" at that point and choose another site? And, I probably should not have included that in this particular thread but one I recently read. Sorry!

 

[stowe1]

I did not want to add this comment to the Jason & Tristan thread as this is not related to the scene, but Johnny, Stowe and others mentioned that negative comments regarding the new director Johnny have been removed from the scene page. I am a bit confused why there is a place to leave comments on that page as well as on this forum. Aren't we all paying members of Broke Straight Boys, so why do we have two places to comment? To comment on the forum, you have to sign up for the forum separately from signing up as a site member. For those who do not wish to do that, this provides an opportunity for members to comment on the scenes. Again, the creation of this mechanism on the scene page was a management decision. But obviously they only prefer comments pleasing to them or at least do not like when the comments are overwhelmingly against something they have done, in this case the hiring of Johnny.

But more importantly, who is censoring comments on that page and why? I have posed the same questions myself. I have noticed that there have been a few instances where quite a number of anti-Johnny comments were deleted after I had read them. I have to assume it is someone in management who has the power to do that because a member can't delete another members comments.

I am a long time forumite, as some have referred to me as having been here "forever", and I actually think that Johnny the director is an improvement over the stagnant, total formula scenes of the previous director Clay, and that Clay was moving toward turning Broke Straight Boys into College Dudes or any other gay porn site featuring good looking young guys having sex, with no relevance to the original concept of the site, which was getting "believably" straight guys to perform sex acts with another guy because of the money, and my interest arose when the models began to get uncontrollably excited despite their protestations to the act of gay sex.

So while I like the idea of a new director taking the reigns from Clay, I despise the idea of censorship, and if there are folks who are unhappy with Johnny, I say, let them speak, just as I rejected the idea of censoring folks who were unhappy with the bareback scenes on the forum. I love freedom, including on my porn sites, and I don't like someone else deciding what is appropriate to say and what is not. I generally agree with you in this, mikey, except in the case of some really personal attacks which we both can remember from the Jimmy Johnson days, but ironically management did not delete even those. My view both with respect to the forum and to the comments section on the scene pages is that management created these and if it is unwilling to take both comments to its liking and disliking then they should do away with them because if what they really want are "yes-men" comments or as our dear departed jon would say "ass-kissing" comments then those types of comments are useless!

-

 

[stowe1]

While in general I disagree with censorship and support people speaking freely I did want to point a couple of things out here just in case they are not clear to some folks.

1. Most Americans speak lovingly of freedom of speech. But often they are not completely clear on what that really means. I do not want to imply anyone here is unclear on anything. However the constitutional right to free speech only applies to the government abridging one's right to express one's opinion. It does not apply to any private company or private individual who can abridge another's right to speak freely as on a group such as this. That means the Blu-Media folks can do as they please and it is well within their rights to do so. You make some good points here. But even the right of free speech has evolved over time. Originally, this was limited only to congressional power (Congress shall make no law abridging..."). Through juidical ruling and interpretations it was extended to the entire federal government and through court cases to state and local governments and entities. And even this freedom is not absolute and has been circumscribed under specific rulings (the old "You can't yell 'Fire!' in a crowded theatre ruling") There have also been rulings limiting free speech in certain commercial activities, but none of those would apply to the situation here at BluMedia.

2. How the management here chooses to handle criticism is completely up to them. Hopefully they do read and consider any and all constructive criticism. From what I have seen they do. I have to say when it comes to the criticism, I understand that there are some things that really do get to them more than they do to others. There have been some things here which annoyed me and I have expressed my view on them. The bareback issue is one such subject. But each of us at some point have to decide what we are willing to accept or not accept and what we are going to do about it if the management is not going to act on our criticisms. When management set up the forum it set certain guidelines which I seem to remember having to agree to when joining. I don't remember what they are now some almost three years later, but I am pretty sure one of them was not that you can only post comments pleasing to management or which approved of every management decision and if you did post comments contrary to that, your comments would be removed. I would have never signed up for anything like that and I know my dear friend, mikey, who has been here from the beginning would have never signed up for anything like that either. So while you are correct that BluMedia can censor what they want, the forum becomes useless if it becomes nothing more than a platform for management to read comments which praise all their works. And as I said in another post on another thread, just because contrary posts are taken down doesn't take away from the fact that they were made and represent the opinions of the people who posted them - paying members!

-

 

[mikeyank]

Thank you Stowe for explaining why there are both scene page comments as well as a forum, in that any member can comment on the scene page, while we need to register to post on the forum, and that explains why people are less courteous on the scene page as they hold little accountability there. And over the years we have established an unwritten code of decorum on the forum, whereas the scene page is more like "hit and run".

I also agree that if the forum was constituted only of "ass licking" posts, (more in Jon's terminology), I would hold no interest in reading or posting here, and also while management does have the right to limit or even censor comments here, and does not have to abide by "freedom of speech" laws on a private forum, I appreciate that generally speaking, they give us pretty much free reign to express our views, satisfaction and dissatisfaction with few exceptions.

 

[tampa24]

Thank you Stowe for explaining why there are both scene page comments as well as a forum, in that any member can comment on the scene page, while we need to register to post on the forum, and that explains why people are less courteous on the scene page as they hold little accountability there. And over the years we have established an unwritten code of decorum on the forum, whereas the scene page is more like "hit and run".

"...also while management does have the right to limit or even censor comments here, and does not have to abide by "freedom of speech" laws on a private forum, I appreciate that generally speaking, they give us pretty much free reign to express our views, satisfaction and dissatisfaction with few exceptions."

Exactly. It's not a North Korean police state in here. lol Sometimes mgmt has stepped in to ban people who have crossed certain boundaries. But to their credit, they very rarely censor the open forum. It's not something they want to do anyway.

The scene pages I see as a slightly different story. Posters on that side do have even more anonymity than the forum. So as Mikey says, it can sometimes be more like a masked man "hit and run" style of posts. Then again there are many forum posters over there who proudly use their same avatar names because they feel they have nothing to hide with whatever they want to say. (Whether positive or negative) So it's a mixed bag.

 

[advocate88]

If it is the case that fellow members can cause comments to be hidden by marking them as offensive, and that is what's going on, it hardly seems like we have anything to blame the management for.

 

[admin]

Hello Everyone,


So I have read through this forum and see some of the comments removed on the comments pages... This is a great discussion, because its some decisions we have had to make on the scene and model comments section... Let me first explain why we decided to add this...


Mark, (the owner of Broke Straight Boys for those who do not know) in a nutshell; created the forum years ago so we could get a discussion based on what members want to see on Broke Straight Boys; including model types, type of scenes, any feedback possible and discussions of scenes. This works great and the forum has grown into something more that we never expected, a way for people to create relationships. Its been amazing for us and a great decision.


We recently decided to add comments to the scene and model pages because there are simply a number of members who choose not to join the forum to comment on scenes. Or many join the forum but never communicate, for what-ever reason. The point is, we wanted the majority of those who don't discuss on the forums their rights to express their thoughts. We have a number of comment moderators who can flag comments on this pages because there is less accountability and like Tampa wrote, more of a hit and run style of comments have been produced many of those that simply comment with negative feedback on every scene, just because they can. Many of the comments of lately are repetitive and slanderous, just as Facebook and YouTube moderate comments, so do we. We recently added the ability to have our own members to mark comments as abusive. So its more of a community effort to keep a level of service and quality of Broke Straight Boys, its an algorithm based on how many members mark the comment abusive compared to the same member being marked for abusive comments repetitively. So if the same member is being marked as abusive many times for different comments, eventually that member will lose the privilege of posting comments.




Why do you moderate comments?


Comments, debate and different perspectives are welcome and encouraged. We want people to feel they can discuss personal experiences and comments of each model & scene in a safe, respectful environment.


In order to ensure that people feel able to enter discussions online though we do moderate comments on our scene & model comment sections and our social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.


All comments should be considerate and respectful and we may remove comments that:


are offensive, threatening, vindictive, abusive or make personal attacks of any kind
are unlawful e.g. content posted in breach of copyright
are overly repetitive or irrelevant to the main thread of the conversation
are triggering or explicit with regard to suicide or self-harm
advertise commercial products or services
include contact details of the commenter, or anyone else, in the body of the post (phone number, email address, etc).

 

[stowe1]

Hello Everyone,


So I have read through this forum and see some of the comments removed on the comments pages... This is a great discussion, because its some decisions we have had to make on the scene and model comments section... Let me first explain why we decided to add this...


Mark, (the owner of Broke Straight Boys for those who do not know) in a nutshell; created the forum years ago so we could get a discussion based on what members want to see on Broke Straight Boys; including model types, type of scenes, any feedback possible and discussions of scenes. This works great and the forum has grown into something more that we never expected, a way for people to create relationships. Its been amazing for us and a great decision.


We recently decided to add comments to the scene and model pages because there are simply a number of members who choose not to join the forum to comment on scenes. Or many join the forum but never communicate, for what-ever reason. The point is, we wanted the majority of those who don't discuss on the forums their rights to express their thoughts. We have a number of comment moderators who can flag comments on this pages because there is less accountability and like Tampa wrote, more of a hit and run style of comments have been produced many of those that simply comment with negative feedback on every scene, just because they can. Many of the comments of lately are repetitive and slanderous, just as Facebook and YouTube moderate comments, so do we. We recently added the ability to have our own members to mark comments as abusive. So its more of a community effort to keep a level of service and quality of Broke Straight Boys, its an algorithm based on how many members mark the comment abusive compared to the same member being marked for abusive comments repetitively. So if the same member is being marked as abusive many times for different comments, eventually that member will lose the privilege of posting comments.




Why do you moderate comments?


Comments, debate and different perspectives are welcome and encouraged. We want people to feel they can discuss personal experiences and comments of each model & scene in a safe, respectful environment.


In order to ensure that people feel able to enter discussions online though we do moderate comments on our scene & model comment sections and our social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.


All comments should be considerate and respectful and we may remove comments that:


are offensive, threatening, vindictive, abusive or make personal attacks of any kind
are unlawful e.g. content posted in breach of copyright
are overly repetitive or irrelevant to the main thread of the conversation
are triggering or explicit with regard to suicide or self-harm
advertise commercial products or services
include contact details of the commenter, or anyone else, in the body of the post (phone number, email address, etc).

Comments:

1. Identify yourself; why hide behind the "Admin" designation? (Mark, chuck, sha identify themselves; in the past scorpio, and webmonkey as well.)

2. You have't told us anything that we didn't already know, should have known, or presumed to know as forumites. You should also post this explanation in the comments section of the scene page as boilerplate so a member who is not a forumite will know the rules and can decide whether to post comments or not.

3. If the comments section on the scene page can be labelled abusive or taken down just because they mention how much they don't like the new director - and that is what has been happening - then the comments section is useless because it doesn't represent the views of any number of random members, but only those who happen to be in agreement with management's decisions.

4. And on a personal level, on the comments section while I can post my comments, when I click on to reply to a comment or the now present abusive bar, nothing happens. Thus, I don't know how the mark as abusive thing works. Is there a way that this mechanism is monitored so the same person can not make more than one mark as abusive notation on the same comment?

 

[mikeyank]

Mark, (the owner of Broke Straight Boys for those who do not know) in a nutshell; created the forum years ago so we could get a discussion based on what members want to see on Broke Straight Boys; including model types, type of scenes, any feedback possible and discussions of scenes. This works great and the forum has grown into something more that we never expected, a way for people to create relationships. Its been amazing for us and a great decision.


We recently decided to add comments to the scene and model pages because there are simply a number of members who choose not to join the forum to comment on scenes. Or many join the forum but never communicate, for what-ever reason. The point is, we wanted the majority of those who don't discuss on the forums their rights to express their thoughts.

Hi "Admin",

Thank you for directly answering my question about the "scene page", which is what this thread was all about. So the comments on the scene page is a "recent" addition to the site, and I do understand your reasons for starting it. I notice it is similar to comments on web pages of periodicals, or as you say on "Facebook, Twitter and YouTube". These quick comments after an article or a video do seem to the way that folks comment online today, so I applaud your adding a new vehicle to let fans speak. However as with the other venues mentioned, people on comment pages do tend to be much more caustic than on a "civil" forum such as ours.

And I also agree that "the forum has grown into something more that we never expected, a way for people to create relationships. Its been amazing for us and a great decision." So I thank Mark for a stroke of genius, whether intentional or accidental, as I most assuredly would have cancelled my membership a while back as the site went from Broke Straight Boys to broke "pansexual" boys to my way of thinking, but I could never pull the trigger on my membership in this forum, so it worked out well for Mark too, keeping at least this member while I would have quit without the forum.

And finally, I agree with Stowe, and would respectfully ask you to give us a more friendly name or nick name to call you rather than "Admin". I always appreciate it when Mark, Sha, Chuck or former employees Scorpio, Clay and Webmonkey would answer our questions here, and you sound like an open friendly guy, and I hope I get to enjoy your presence here to answer some questions from the inside. Thanks.