Hey all! For the past weeks, the moderator team has been in deep discussion about a number of topics regarding recurring issues we’ve encountered through reports, as well as concerns that have been raised over time. Today, I’d like to present an early look at our effort toward refining and clarifying a few of our existing rules, as well as introducing a couple changes to help users better curate their experiences on Wolfery. We’re aiming to implement these rules in the future alongside some updated help files for commonly-asked questions. Rest assured, many of you will not need to make any changes and we’d be moving forward gently with these improvements; we know it takes time for rules updates to disseminate. But before we continue, we want to welcome feedback and discussion!
- The first, and perhaps biggest change, is that any content in your character fields that is not permitted in the Town of Sinder must be appropriate for wherever it can be viewed.
Please note, this is not intended to restrict Tags, unless custom tags are overly explicit. So, what does this mean? Basically, fields like your About, LFRP, and status, should be appropriate for the rules in the Town of Sinder. When in Areas that are less restrictive, additional content should be kept to fields only visible in that Area, like the Description. Most characters already satisfy this rule! But, if you move between Areas often, and want spicy details in your Description, consider creating a Sinder-appropriate Character Profile. That way, you can quickly swap to a Realm-acceptable profile and back with just a couple clicks or taps!
- The second is equal parts change and clarification. It’s simply that the combination of underage characters and any kind of sexual content or context is not appropriate in the Town of Sinder.
This has already mostly been the case, but has never been spelled out. Now though, combined with the prior rule, this does mean that any kind of adult description or details regarding underage characters must not be accessible outside of Areas which permit the content. Explicit details should be moved to the Description, and only displayed when in Areas which permit Ageplay. This way, players are free to engage in the kind of role play they want, without unintentionally exposing other users to unexpected content who may wish to avoid highly sensitive subjects. It is our hope that more clear guidelines will create consent-based access to content that achieves the expectations we’ve set with the Town of Sinder.
Finally, while this has always fallen under the Be respectful pillar of etiquette, we’d like to enumerate one of the ‘soft rules’.
- One should not unexpectedly solicit or engage another player, publicly or privately, with content that is both not allowed in the Area that player is in, and for which that player does not have a tag or details in their profile indicating their interest in.
Does this mean you cannot discuss or ask about things they lack tags for? Not at all! You can always ask permission first to ask about unlisted interests. Players are also free to voluntarily engage in role play interests outside of their profile or tags, and content explicitly allowed in the Area a character visits is fair game, just do be mindful of both the interests and disinterests in a user’s tags.
Please always remember, every interaction on Wolfery requires consent and agreement between the players. Profiles, tags, Area rules… these are all tools to help us align our interests without lengthy discussions. But none of them ever mean you’re required to do anything you don’t want to, aside from abiding the rules and Terms of Service. A quick OOC (out-of-character) message can solve a lot of problems, too. Let’s all work together to make Wolfery a place where we respect and appreciate each other!
Hopefully these updates will help set better expectations for players, and offer more clear guidelines on how to respectfully express and interact with a wide variety of interests. We all share this wonderful space we call Wolfery! We’ve workshopped these rules to a state we feel brings worthwhile value to the community, but now we want to hear from you.
Quick thoughts.