Long user agreements for online stuff.

[Rageaholic]

Why is it that there has to be these goddamn user agreements for everything online? No, I'm not talking about stuff like banking and selling things, I'm talking about signing onto forums, installing new versions of adobe, and the latest, trying to sign onto pogo for free games.

Goddamn it pogo! I'm not interested in winning prizes, I just want to play some free games! I had to skim through pages of their privacy agreement and when I got to something about them getting my banking info, I said fuck it! If it's going to be this much of a hassle just to play some free online games, than it's not worth it. I don't want to have to read through pages of crap for every fucking thing I do online. Even then, they should just get to the point and stop using all that 'serious' contract language. I'm not making an important financial desicion, I'm not making a sale, and I'm not giving out much personal information, I just want to play some free games. If it's free, than why should I have to read all that bullshit?

[Wingates_Hellsing]

Because otherwise, a site that big would have a hundred dead-brained idiots a day filing lawsuits for stupid things. Making everyone agree means most of those don't happen, and the rest are either dismissed or easily beaten.

It's another product of an ongoing culture shift towards suing everyone for everything because there's a chance they'll pay you to shut up / general Entitlement Whorish types...

*head-desk*

[Rageaholic]

I figured it was to cover their ass, but it still doesn't make it any less annoying.

Our sue happy culture pisses me off to no end, but that's for another rant.

[Wingates_Hellsing]

For some things it really makes sense, though. Chatrooms and forums have the potential to spill over into legal problems (liable, slander... BS like that) It's basically the same as signing a waiver before riding a go-cart. The only difference being, unless I'm mistaken, you're not generally dealing with getting your online venue insured like you would with a physical venue.

[Rapscallion]

Every so often, I'll complain that the CS.com forum rules are too long and intricate. When I look at what to take out, though, I find it hard to remove anything - most of it's been used in living memory because someone was quite happy to transgress the boundaries of decent society.

Rapscallion