Identifying junior members

[sageandonion]

Over the past few weeks I have realised some very young children are posting out of the junior section on the general site.

I do think it would be better if we knew if we are addressing children rather than another adult and wonder if there is some way of knowing a poster is a junior and sometimes a very young one at that.

[pencaedu]

Good idea

[haggismarmite]

That's a good point - I've noticed that over the past couple of weeks - mostly guess work by their tone then looking at their posts you realise. When I joined I thought the Junior Member meant they were young, it took blonde me a while to see that it was how many posts you made. Maybe they could be given a more obvious title?

[brindlerainbow]

Sometimes when us ladies are on live chat and we are getting a bit lively A new person will join in the conversation and we later discover they are as young as 12!!!!! Chat is great because we can go a bit over the top but with children joining in it makes it quite uncomfortable.This is absolutely no disrespect whatsoever to the younger members.Dont know why they want to chat with us naughty girls anyway

[Julie(luke3)]

I think it would be good for the younger members too, as people would understand that they were a child when asking a question!

As for 'live chat' yes we do tend to get a bit naughty! I wonder if there could be 'junior chat?'

Although the younger members say they don't care what we all chat about, unfortunately we do and feel that we should be on our best behaviour x

[brindlerainbow]

I agree luke, I think juniors need thier own chat.

[drea]

here's a idea under gender could the adults be classed male /female and under 16 classed as colts/ fillies that way we would all know the juniors

[Julie(luke3)]

Good idea Drea

[kayjayem]

Good idea drea and maybe we could categorise further eg yearlings under 12 2yr olds under 15 and 3yr olds under 18 then we can moderate "discussions" to the audience? Is that a bit OTT???

Junior chat would be good cos I dont understand text speak in chatroom anyway! ;D

[brindlerainbow]

Brilliant idea Drea!!! I too dont understand text speak and in fact really detest it, such bad grammer!!!!! you can tell I work in a school
Seriously though the juniors need their own chat or make live chat over 18's if thats possible.I have been a member of this site for two and a half years and have never looked in the juniors area until yesterday.I didnt realise they had so much "stuff" in thier!!!!

[pencaedu]

It's a really good idea, but, there could be dangers to it too. Would be really good if it could be 'discreetly' done to stop 'undesirable' elements using it to their advantage.

It could be particularly useful when buying / selling on the site.

If you have a 'junior' chat room, might I suggest that we get some moderators of around the same age, as they are more likely to pick up on something going wrong than us older folk, who can't understand text speak for a start & they seem to have their own language anyway!!

[hatman]

I was thinking this is my daughter goes on chat sometimes but i check who is in there when she is in there. There is one child who is in there a lot and sometimes very late at night.I think a junior chat is a good idea. It is hard when you don't know how old the people you are talking to are.Not sure if parents are watching what there children are doing on line and who they are talking to!

[iluvmyponies]

I'm 14 but text speak really annoys me!
Drea-That is a fantastic idea

[princessstacie22]

Brilliant idea drea. We have been playing up a few times in live chat and sometimes i realise there is a junior member in there it makes me feel very uncomfortable, like i have done somethign illegal almost.

we could have colts and fillies and maybe mares and geldings and then even maybe veterans???

PMSL ONLY JOKING!!!!!!!!!

[sageandonion]

We are definitely NOT having veterans.

[hatman]

How old would a veteran be hope im not there yet !!!!

[kayjayem]

Oct 26, 2010 11:32:33 GMT said:

We are definitely NOT having veterans.

Or geldings

[brindlerainbow]

LOL KJM, definately no geldings or rigs

[bonnieheather]

I do think some sort of classification is needed - loving the colts and fillies idea though!!!!

[Admin]

The problem we have is there are no facilities for us, as mods, to classify users by age. Even if there was, we have no way of knowing how old individuals are.
Finally you can only have one chat room.

[pencaedu]

Lets face it, we can't even get people to put what area of the country they're in - so I can't see anyone enforcing an age classification

[sageandonion]

Well my problem is, if someone I believe is an adult makes a child like remark which can then be rather stupid, I tend to not mince my words, then I feel bad if later I discover they are indeed a child.

So, do I presume everyone is a child and respond accordingly or do I presume everyone in the general section is an adult and should know better (which I had because juniors have their own area) and risk being harsh to a child?

[LucyHebditch]

I'm 17, i don't know where i belong! Hahahaaa I kinda' dot about between the two!

[dawnie]

Thats a good idea to identify the younger ones. What about leadreins, first riddens, and ISR types (I know junior is the next obvious step but that would give it away)? Would undersirables figure that one out??? Or even just give younger members a little rosstte sign or something?

[sageandonion]

I am also concerned about the children giving unusual advice on some very serious matters including health issues which may be taken up by a distressed poster desperate to get their horse better.

Whilst I know children can be great at giving advice on computer, mobile, music, fashion and some other things, there are times when maturity and experience are needed.

[nightwish]

this is a very very good idea, someone made a thread on general disscussion not sure whether is was by a younger person or adult, the thread is called 'facebook' now ive added some of them to find they are alot younger than i noticed i wouldnt off added them i if i knew they were so young.

[Julie(luke3)]

I think that's a great idea OB ;D xx We promise to be good until after 8.30pm

[princessstacie22]

i think that is completely irrelivant though pipandwill. Just because you may hear it at school it doesnt mean that it is right. Also as S&O said sometimes we dont know if a child is making a comment or an adult, so we need to know how to address them.

[brindlerainbow]

Quite agree PS22 and also no offence to the juniors but I for one dont want to "chat" to 11 -16 year olds!!!! I would also as a parent be find it very uncomfortable if my under 16 were joining in a conversation of an adult nature with a group of adults that they didnt know!!!
OB thats a fab idea having a chat watershed

[KneesUp]

Nov 1, 2010 19:23:41 GMT LucyHebditch said:

I'm 17, i don't know where i belong! Hahahaaa I kinda' dot about between the two!

I have the same problem... I'm 17 and a half, so not technically a child, or and adult. I go back and forth between the two, so I'm not really sure where I belong