feedback about house common rooms and ages

[abhorsen.]

hello, all! we have a few things we'd like community feedback on.

1. as you've probably noticed, there are a few significant things that have slipped through the cracks lately, and we'll be addressing some of the specific issues in an anon feedback response asap. the main reason for that trend overall, though, is that our team is both relatively small right now and spread pretty thin - even when we have the time, we often don't have the mental energy to do some of the things that really need to get done.
   
   one thing our team has identified as requiring significant effort from us without a lot of engagement from members are the four house common rooms. in our team's discussion regarding the member poll and feedback in it re: allowing people to join multiple common rooms, we weren't confident that allowing people to join multiple common rooms would really change that underlying issue, and if those activities aren't something that improve members' experiences in this community, we'd rather devote that time and energy toward something that does.
   
   we do appreciate the role common rooms have served in the past, including providing a smaller and less intimidating environment to new or returning members. we definitely want to continue those positive aspects of them in some form if we get rid of common rooms themselves, and we'd appreciate your filling out +this survey too if you have the time.
    
2. when we initially started this community, we made the minimum age to join 13. since then, it's developed in ways that have become increasingly more adult not just in membership but in substance (including cursing, content discussion, posting smut, etc). we've had a number of members and staffers express over the past few weeks that they're concerned about the site overall not really being suitable for people who are that young and/or aren't comfortable having those discussions with or in front of people who are that young. given those concerns, we want to get the community's thoughts about raising the minimum age.
   
   we want to acknowledge that this is an awkward discussion to have given the recent closure of a different forum, and we don't want anyone here to feel singled out or attacked. however, when the site was founded, it was very important to us that we not allow any other site's actions to impact the choices we made about our community or the way we operated, and when a number of people are expressing a concern, we're not comfortable having our staff team make unilateral decisions that may not reflect the wishes of the community.