MAP Forum

Mu is an activism-focused forum available to people all around the world, with the exception of the UK. Users should keep the purpose in mind, although humor and lighthearted comments are welcome. Our rules exist to keep everyone safe, so please read them carefully.

1. Do not use the board to engage in, advocate, or facilitate illegal activity of any kind.

2. Erotica (whether photographic, artificially-generated, drawn, or written) is strictly prohibited. Links to such material, tips on where to find such material, and requests for such material, are not allowed. Do not provide tips or tools to assist with the production of AI erotica in any format.

3. Do not admit to any illegal activity for which you have not already been found guilty in court.

4.Do not reveal private information about other MAPs, our allies, or people under the age of 18.

5. Do not use your account to arrange meetings with other forum participants. Do not share private messenger IDs. Trusted members sharing e-mail addresses is accepted according to moderator discretion.

6. Do not use hateful language (e.g. racial slurs) or post extremist content. This includes expressions of support for violent sexual behavior. Do not post content that could easily be misrepresented to malign or endanger yourself, other participants, or the forum host.

7. Do not act in bad faith, such as by harassing posters you may dislike, or unnecessarily derailing productive discussions.

8. Political discussions need to stay in the Politics and Debates forum. Complaints should be presented to moderators in a report and not made in-thread (we reserve the right to warn and suspend users who repeatedly ignore this).

9. While Mu does not prohibit participation by legal minors, we do require participation to be in good faith. Individuals who identify as minors may not use our forum to engage in any kind of provocative or flirtatious behavior. This includes (but is not limited to) asking how to meet MAPs. Likewise, communications by MAPs toward those identifying as minors must remain beyond reproach.

10. As well as being legal, avatars (and usernames) should be tasteful and not erotic in nature. We want to create an atmosphere that supports serious discussion. Clothed photos of children are acceptable in avatars as long as they meet this standard.

11. Due to the Online Safety Act 2023, with which MAP Forum cannot comply unless it jeopardizes user and operator anonymity, we do not permit members based in the UK. We use geoblocking to prevent access from the UK, and those stating they are based in the UK will have their account suspended.

PorcelainLark wrote: Fri Mar 07, 2025 7:42 pm Is the rule about citizens of the UK or about just about UK jurisdiction? Are UK citizens who live outside of the UK allowed to participate? Also, what about people with dual UK citizenship?

BLueRibbon wrote: Sat Mar 08, 2025 1:33 am It applies to people physically based in the UK.

The new law attempts to give the UK's regulator Ofcom the power to demand identification of site operators in any country and of any nationality, in addition to requiring a monumental risk assessment for sites that could be deemed at risk of 'harm' to children. Mandatory reporting rules for UK users would also require admins/mods to determine the location of a person who posted anything questionable (yes, such posts are already against our rules) and report them to the UK authorities if they are based in the UK; this would threaten some of the measures we have in place to protect users from identification.

Most small international forums like this could simply ignore the UK's new law without any trouble, but we are concerned that as a MAP activist forum, the UK might try to weaponize the law against us. Would other countries co-operate and extradite? Maybe.

When complying and not complying both threaten site operator and user anonymity, the only solution is to geoblock the UK.

Jim Burton wrote: Fri Mar 07, 2025 1:36 pm We have a contact form on the main site, and permit forum user participation from outside of the UK.

The method we use to police this is IP geoblocking and removing users who identify their location as the UK, should they be using methods to get around the block.

This does not extend to discussing UK news stories and UK legal issues, etc, from outside of the country, if you are not a subject. You might want to know about something or maintain an interest, because you are a non-UK subject who spends time in the country, or has a relative who is a UK subject.

We will of course keep track of these laws. They are likely to be challenged under human rights legislation and in the Supreme Court at some point, and may become null and void. But for now, we ask that users do not do anything that may put us in scope and endanger the provider/s of this service.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_Safety_Act_2023