Just a friendly notice that the ToS section on drugs and alcohol has been updated. The new wording is that you cannot "[you will not post content that] encourages the use of drugs or the under-age use of alcohol or cigarettes."
The previous wording was, "...encourages or depicts the use of drugs, alcohol or cigarettes."
Good choice of (re)wording! Should clear up some debate on the subject. While I'm here, I hope that you do not feel unappreciated with the infighting going on about the 'Master' challenge! You guys have the best site on the internet IMHO!
Your original post pointed out that we had deliberately chosen a "loose" interpretation as our enforcement standard, thus allowing more artistic license, but possibly creating a perception of an inconsistently enforced rule.
There in fact has been no inconsistency in enforcement; we have really always enforced the rule pretty much per the new wording. As for the question of retroactivity, yes. Since there is effectively no change in enforcement, it's by definition retroactive.
As for "grating against me fairly hard", I really don't know where this is coming from; care to share specifics?
The wording that existed previously was not vague in any way, it was a clear 'black & white' wording stating what was not allowed under any circumstances. Simple, and easy to understand. They SC however, appear to be operating under a different version of the TOU than what is posted on the site. The same goes for the challenge rules, you (as SC, not specifically as an individual) seem to have a different version you refer to -- but that has been hashed around enough.
I welcome this change of wording, as it brings the site documents inline with the private version being used by the referees.
As stated earlier, I have no problem with the previous wording or the way it is now. As a personal preference I do not smoke or drink and find use of tobbaco and alcohol unfortunate. I did not mind at all that it was not allowed on the site. However, it is an active part of the culture we live in, so images of it are quite appropriate in images that attempt to capture an essense of our respective cultures.
The 'grating fairly hard' is an expression of my distaste for inconsistencies -- and the use of an apparently different version of the site documents does create an inconsistency in enforcement from what was posted. I am glad this change as eliminated some of that.
I guess I wasn't too clear in my previous explanation... the assumption that there is a different, "private" version of the rules is completely incorrect. The SC does have leeway as to HOW we enforce the rules, however.
To use smoking (cigarettes) as an example, if we had enforced the old wording rigidly, we would have had no choice but to DQ every shot found to have someone incidently smoking a cigarette in the distant background. Nobody wants that. We chose a liberal interpretaion of the rule, one that we thought best reflected a compromise between allowing artistic expression and keeping the spirit of the TOS. Because this did in fact result in an apparent (note the word apparent) difference between the wording and the enforcement, we chose to change the wording. We have not changed the enforcement.
Please realize that any and all of the rules may be interpreted differently by different people, and this is why the SC exercises judgement in their application; we are human, and we differ in our interpretations of the implications of the rules. This does not imply inconsistency, there are 17 SC plus two admins, and we regularly debate the application of the rules in particular instances where a photo crosses into a "gray area."
I hope that clarifies the issue; I think we have beat a dead horse long enough, there's nothing left but glue.
