Greyhaunt wrote:He's not been declared officially off-topic yet. Here is the last thing DoA said: The moderators will need to see more photographs and stats in order to deem whether or not this unique sculpt will meet the DoA criteria for topicness.
is Topicness a real word?
As I said in my previous post (and have said before), I don't see why they bother with any sort of published criteria. Simply state that each doll will be judged according to the random whims of the board staff. I constantly hear about how big DoA is and how difficult it is to manage but this need to routinely "hem and haw" over the interpretation of nebulous rules points to a major reason for this difficulty.
It seems that no matter who runs DoA, there has always been a struggle to have rules while simultaneously leaving clauses and loopholes to circumvent those rules. I consider the infamous "Asian aesthetic" clause the most notorious example of this practice. To me, this doll meets all the major established criteria to be on-topic at DoA but somebody obviously doesn't like it or is at least ambivalent about it, so they fall back on the "do I think it's pretty?" clause. And if it is judged off-topic for failing to meet some vague standard of appearance, regardless of meeting the normal technical criteria, why bother to have any criteria at all?
It should go without saying (but I'll say it anyway) that I respect the ability of message board owners/admins/mods to create whatever rules and practices (or lack thereof) they deem necessary to run their forums. If I disagree, I can chose to not join or to leave if I'm already a member. However, I will criticize those rules and practices I find disagreeable when the situation warrants doing so.