All-Star Talking About Minors.

[canttouchthis]

If any admin or mod would like to chip in, that would be great.
What are the does and donts of discussing a minor?
I just feel that everyone is kinda confused on what all we can say and what we cant, its a sensitive subject and if we had a good amount of input it would be helpful.

 

[MissBee]

On the gymnastics boards (because most elites are in the 15-17 range, but often the Jr's are discussed as well) the general "rules" are:
* nothing sexual (she's hot, look at her boobs/butt etc)-you can discuss poor fit of a leo in a tasteful and appropriate way though
* nothing about her weight (this goes for any gymnast, not just the under age ones)
* personal life can be discussed, as it pertains to her gymnastics (i.e.: she's now being home schooled to focus on her training in the lead up to the Olympics, she pulled out of a comp due to her parent's divorce, she said "xyz" on her FB/twitter, she blew out her knee skiing and is out for the year)

basically anything else is fair game.....they have put themselves out there in the "public", just like a politician or other celebrity, and their reasonable expectation for privacy is now lower because of it.

 

[King]

That's about as good as a description as any. When it comes to individual minors lets keep it civil. I'm afraid I have not found the right wording yet on how to say what is and what isn't appropriate.

 

[King]

I think a better answer is to suggest why it is so hard to regulate what should and should not be said in minors.

Posts can be malicious in one of two ways: by subject matter or through intent.

Regulating subject matter is the easier of the two. This is a bit more concrete and follows the general rules MissBee posted.

But regulating intent is a lot harder AND that is what a lot of people in the cheer world use to bully each other. Passive agressive with malicious intent is hard to regulate, but being the cheer world can be harsh and catty it is why we have done the we possibly can.

 

[King]

I'll also throw out there that I am open to suggestions on how to classify it. If you have some good ideas I would like to know.

 

[dawgshow]

A good way to think about it is "would you want it said about your child?". If not then keep your thoughts to yourself. I know that I'm crazy to think that self monitoring should happen but I live in a world of rainbows and puppy dogs :)

 

[SheCheers]

I think one thing that sometimes happens that probably is and should be a no-no is someone will be like "who's that fierce little blonde on stingrays grape?" and then someone (probably a child themselves) will reply with their first and last name. That mini-youth-junior aged athlete probably doesn't have a twitter or Facebook fan page, and haven't "put themselves out there", and their parents may not even know about the fierceboard to help put an end to anything (if they so wish). I think those threads should be deleted. If someone put my kid's first and last name on a message board it would freak. Me. Out.

 

[Mcfierceburger]

Good common sense is key, Don't talk about something if you wouldn't like that subject spoken about you...

 

[canttouchthis]

MissBee are you talking about chalk bucket?
im on that! yeah i agree with everything you posted. sometimes on here you see a post and you think is that even okay?

 

[njallday]

I like MissBee 's guidelines and I'm sure they could be adapted to fit our needs here.. but my only issue is in gymnastics, you compete alone (even though you're part of a team.) you are announced first and last name. if you look up results online, they're listed with first and last name. their names are out there.

On a team sport, like cheerleading, should we know everyone's first and last name? There is no reason to, but there is a fine line and I'm not sure where it should be drawn.

In the past, even if someone did give you an athlete's first and last name, there wasn't much you could do with it. Now, you have their name.. type it into twitter, facebook, tumblr or any other social network and you now know every detail about their life. get's tricky.

 

[TheTalkedAboutMinor]

I think it is fine to talk about minors as long as you're not bashing the child or saying anything untrue or belittling.

 

[kristenthegreat]

I think we should maybe attempt to leave names off (especially full names) unless someone directly related to that person (mother or father) has expressed to someone that it's ok, particularly if they're junior and under. I mean, if they're in American Cheerleader or whatever those magazines are, the kids name is already out there and so people could easily know who they are; but since names aren't announced like they are in gymnastics, maybe their parent doesn't want them to have their name plastered across a message board (particularly one that has at least 50,000 people on it a month!)..Or maybe just their first name discreetly posted via PM. Just throwing ideas out there. I wouldn't want my future children's full names splashed all over the web- google's a dangerous thing :(

If someone hasn't posted any other type of info on a public site PERSONALLY, I would try to avoid discussing it. I don't care if Susie Allstar tweets about Jane Doecheer going to XYZ Cheer Dream Team, unless Jane specifically puts it out there, it really isn't anyone's business and we don't really need to discuss it. Let's face it- it usually ends in drama anyway, or somebody comes on and tries to get the info out and over with to keep drama away. Which is a shame if the person really doesn't want people to know :confused:

 

[AndrewSky]

Just don't say they're cocky.....lol ;)

 

[jcheermom]

I think we should maybe attempt to leave names off (especially full names) unless someone directly related to that person (mother or father) has expressed to someone that it's ok, particularly if they're junior and under. I mean, if they're in American Cheerleader or whatever those magazines are, the kids name is already out there and so people could easily know who they are; but since names aren't announced like they are in gymnastics, maybe their parent doesn't want them to have their name plastered across a message board (particularly one that has at least 50,000 people on it a month!)..Or maybe just their first name discreetly posted via PM. Just throwing ideas out there. I wouldn't want my future children's full names splashed all over the web- google's a dangerous thing :(

If someone hasn't posted any other type of info on a public site PERSONALLY, I would try to avoid discussing it. I don't care if Susie Allstar tweets about Jane Doecheer going to XYZ Cheer Dream Team, unless Jane specifically puts it out there, it really isn't anyone's business and we don't really need to discuss it. Let's face it- it usually ends in drama anyway, or somebody comes on and tries to get the info out and over with to keep drama away. Which is a shame if the person really doesn't want people to know :confused:

I agree. I think it's a safe bet to just keep the names out of it. I think if you follow that golden rule then you won't have to worry about crossing that line. I know I wouldn't want my CP's name showing up on here in the center of drama, so therefore I wouldn't post it about someone else, whether a minor or not.

 

[canttouchthis]

Just don't say they're cocky.....lol ;)

oh lawd