Why Greg's not on BZP

[Vishanui]

Not sure if someone already pointed this out, and I apologize if they did, but over on the Lego discussion, Greg says this in response to a question asking if Lego imposed rules/restriction when interacting with fans: "Yes. I do have permission to do social media, but I cannot talk on an outside site to people under 13, and since BZP has no age verification, I can't chat there anymore." Here's the link: https://community.lego.com/t5/LEGO-General/Chat-with-Greg-Farshtey/m-p/6681144/highlight/true#M91298

 

Is there any way to add age verification lol? Was age verification not on here before, or did the Lego group step in randomly and stop Greg from talking to us? Seems kind of sad to see Greg not talking to us anymore over something so simple, I just thought he got bored talking to us or something. And I think at this point, almost everyone here must be past 13.

[Makuta of Time]

Well it depends of the average. But Greg is not here on BZP because of an incident that happened on April Fools Day.

[BBBBalta]

The thing is that on the Internet it's really, really easy to lie about your age.

 

(Also April Fools Day has nothing to do with it; Greg was inactive long before that).

Edited July 10, 2013 by Baltarc

[bonesiii]

did the Lego group step in randomly and stop Greg from talking to us? Seems kind of sad to see Greg not talking to us anymore over something so simple, I just thought he got bored talking to us or something.

He very well may have gotten tired of hundreds of questions that he'd mostly answered before. But yes, LEGO did 'randomly' step in and change the rules on him (and this is common knowledge; I'm a little surprised anyone thought differently ). But it wasn't actually random because the new policy is something that many companies do just to play it safe now. Completely unnecessary in Greg's case, but the rule's the rule.

 

And age verification isn't really possible. We already have the option for people to include their ages (although personally I don't recommend giving any personal info out like that online), but there's just no way to make sure.

[Vishanui]

 

did the Lego group step in randomly and stop Greg from talking to us? Seems kind of sad to see Greg not talking to us anymore over something so simple, I just thought he got bored talking to us or something.

He very well may have gotten tired of hundreds of questions that he'd mostly answered before. But yes, LEGO did 'randomly' step in and change the rules on him (and this is common knowledge; I'm a little surprised anyone thought differently ). But it wasn't actually random because the new policy is something that many companies do just to play it safe now. Completely unnecessary in Greg's case, but the rule's the rule.

 

And age verification isn't really possible. We already have the option for people to include their ages (although personally I don't recommend giving any personal info out like that online), but there's just no way to make sure.

 

 

Oh I see, I was kind of absent here for a while after Bionicle ended, so I must've missed the memo Disappointing that we can't really enforce it, how do the Lego forums do it differently?

Edited July 10, 2013 by Vishanui

[Creep Of The Deep]

how does the Lego forums do it differently?

They don't as far I know.

 

It was quite an evil move, really. Greg got that order a few months after BIONICLE had ended officially. LEGO could've chosen another date but nope.

 

Sigh.

[bonesiii]

My guess is that LEGO feels that if, as unlikely as it is, any LEGO employee were to do something wrong on LEGO's own website, they could control what happened to the content after the fact, whereas with fan sites they would be dependent on the outside party to remove it, etc. It's probably also a general liability thing. Hypothetically a fansite could in some extreme cases sue if a LEGO employee did something serious on the fansite's property.

 

It's all ridiculously paranoid, but it is what it is.

 

Lawyers.

Edited July 10, 2013 by bonesiii

[Hexann]

The thing is that on the Internet it's really, really easy to lie about your age.

Yeah, I mean seriously....just look at other social websites.

[~Shockwave~]

 

did the Lego group step in randomly and stop Greg from talking to us? Seems kind of sad to see Greg not talking to us anymore over something so simple, I just thought he got bored talking to us or something.

He very well may have gotten tired of hundreds of questions that he'd mostly answered before. But yes, LEGO did 'randomly' step in and change the rules on him (and this is common knowledge; I'm a little surprised anyone thought differently ). But it wasn't actually random because the new policy is something that many companies do just to play it safe now. Completely unnecessary in Greg's case, but the rule's the rule.

 

And age verification isn't really possible. We already have the option for people to include their ages (although personally I don't recommend giving any personal info out like that online), but there's just no way to make sure.

 

 

What's someone going to do with my age? Really, knowing just my age what damage could someone possibly do?

[bonesiii]

That's not really the issue -- the thinking is that if someone actually is young they may be less responsible for what goes on and could potentially be more vulnerable (again, it's highly unlikely this would ever be a problem but the rule is meant pre-emptively). It's not about knowing the age, it's about limiting interaction to controlled settings and/or to older fans so there's less liability on LEGO's part.

 

Plus, I'm sure they feel that if an adult employee is interacting with people who have identified themselves as young it could attract certain less scrupulous people (I'm sure I don't need to get specific...) to the position, who could then target younger people who aren't as wise about the ways of the world. LEGO just wants to have no part in even allowing the slightest opportunity for that. Banning the interaction at all except in the highly monitored and internally controlled LEGO.com setting and certain other similar settings avoids the issue, for the most part.

 

I'm not saying I like it, don't get me wrong, just trying to help people understand why LEGO likely chose to make it this way.

Edited July 10, 2013 by bonesiii

[Sir Kohran]

 

 

did the Lego group step in randomly and stop Greg from talking to us? Seems kind of sad to see Greg not talking to us anymore over something so simple, I just thought he got bored talking to us or something.

He very well may have gotten tired of hundreds of questions that he'd mostly answered before. But yes, LEGO did 'randomly' step in and change the rules on him (and this is common knowledge; I'm a little surprised anyone thought differently ). But it wasn't actually random because the new policy is something that many companies do just to play it safe now. Completely unnecessary in Greg's case, but the rule's the rule.

 

And age verification isn't really possible. We already have the option for people to include their ages (although personally I don't recommend giving any personal info out like that online), but there's just no way to make sure.

 

What's someone going to do with my age? Really, knowing just my age what damage could someone possibly do?

 

Generally speaking, the younger someone is, the easier they are to exploit, for whatever purpose. Even advertising directed at children is often more blatant than that at adults.

 

 

 

Greg got that order a few months after BIONICLE had ended officially. LEGO could've chosen another date but nope.

 

The policy was introduced in March '11, over a year after the end announcement and right before the huge downtime on here.

 

One thing from that article I'm curious about:

 

 

"Our plan, at the current moment, is to create a subforum on BZPower specifically for LEGO employees. Only members who are 13 years old or older will be able to post in this forum. Employees will likely not be able to use the Private Messenger feature or their blogs, since we don't want to restrict those from other members.

 

This is not something that is easy to implement; we can't just tweak some settings and say, 'only people above a certain age can use this forum.' Even then, it would be relying on the birthday that members enter in their profile, which we cannot enforce. Additionally, the staff do not have time to thoroughly enforce this, which again, they cannot easily do. This means that we are relying on you guys, the members, to follow this policy. I'm sure you all want Greg and Kelly to stick around, so I hope you will help them follow the guidelines that they are bound by."

 

 

Why was this never implemented?

[Black Six]

One thing from that article I'm curious about: "Our plan, at the current moment, is to create a subforum on BZPower specifically for LEGO employees. Only members who are 13 years old or older will be able to post in this forum. Employees will likely not be able to use the Private Messenger feature or their blogs, since we don't want to restrict those from other members. This is not something that is easy to implement; we can't just tweak some settings and say, 'only people above a certain age can use this forum.' Even then, it would be relying on the birthday that members enter in their profile, which we cannot enforce. Additionally, the staff do not have time to thoroughly enforce this, which again, they cannot easily do. This means that we are relying on you guys, the members, to follow this policy. I'm sure you all want Greg and Kelly to stick around, so I hope you will help them follow the guidelines that they are bound by." Why was this never implemented?

As stated there, it's not something that's easy to implement, and I don't think we ever got buy-in from LEGO that if we created a subforum Greg would be able to post again.I think the reason why Greg can no longer post here was made pretty clear and I don't think there's anything more to be said on this subject.