Age Limits & EP Use

Good morning!

So, I've just finished spending some more of my valuable time on moderating posts made by mostly kids, that are causing havoc on the site, and making things worse off for everyone. I've had a few thoughts during this last bit of trouble, and I'm putting up a friendly reminder here to make things easier ... before we have to over-moderate this site just to keep things clean, making things crummy for everyone.

** If you are young and don't have the attention span to read my entire post (which I would suggest you take the time to do anyways) -- read everything in BOLD, it's enough to give you a general idea of what I am trying to say, without being long-winded.

FIRST THING:

Remember when you created your user account (some of you seem to do that weekly, but I'll mention more on that topic later), and as part of the agreement to use the site, you verified that you were 13 years of age or older? HMM!! This is not the first incident I've dealt with where a user tells me "cut me some slack, I'm only [insert any age between 9-12 here]". THAT IS NOT AN EXCUSE! You lied about your age to get on the site!

Now I'm all about inclusion and letting our youth grow into responsible adults -- but WHEN I AM DEALING WITH BEHAVIOR AND ATTITUDES OF A 12-YEAR OLD ON A SITE THAT ALLOWS ONLY AGE 13+ USERS, I am surprised that a kid would even use that excuse. BEING YOUNG IS NO LONGER AN EXCUSE FOR POOR ATTITUDES/BEHAVIOR ON EP. IN FACT I WILL KICK/BAN/MOD THE S%@T OUT OF YOUR POSTS even harder, 'cause you're not supposed to be here.

Most fields will allow you to begin playing paintball at the young age of 10. EP allows you to join the online community at 13. There's 3 years there where kids have nowhere to go -- and with the Internet beiong such a popular communication medium, I understand that we're going to recieve a younger crowd as part of our userbase. This doesn't mean we're going to "change the rules" for kids, they're still the same for a 13-year old as they are for a 43-year old. You're both expected to show the same minimum level of maturity on this site.

I guess what I'm trying to say is this: To all the "young" users of EP that have lied about their age to create a username (or usernames) -- BEHAVE. I don't want to become the Evil Mod and ban a pile of kids from this site, stopping them from finding out online when the next Tournament or Josh Davey Kids' Night is, or conversing with their friends/peers and forming new paintball teams, etc. What I DO want is you kids to start acting your age; if you're a big enough kid to own an Ion and talk the talk about being a big "tourney baller", then you can also show some self-control and conduct yourself in a responsible manner. THIS INCLUDES SPELLING AS WELL. THERE IS A SPELLCHECKER INCLUDED ON THIS SITE, USE IT SO WE CAN ALL UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU'RE SAYING (all ages!). POSTS WITH LITTLE TO NO ENGLISH IN THEM WILL BE DELETED WITHOUT REASON; If you can't spare enough english to make a sensible post, then I won't waste anymore (there must be a shortage!) explaining why I deleted your post. If you have questions about it, send a PM to me.

Anyways ... I'm out of typing energy. PLEASE take some of this to heart, it'll make things better for everyone ... and I won't have to waste your bandwidth with my massive essays.

Good luck to everyone playing this weekend;