Honestly this is the biggest rule I have an issue with. I’m both for and against it. For, because I’ve been publicly solicited for RP that was both not in my tags, nor was it allowed for the area we were in, and against it, because it feels like it could be abused.
I think this rule needs additional refinements, as the tag “Anything goes” and profile additions such as “Any & All Kinks” don’t specifically target a particular kink, but at the same time rules out nothing. Common sense would dictate that if a kink isn’t on their “no” list specifically and they have the “Anything Goes” tag that one should be safe to solicit, but common sense is a hot commodity lately, and people have forgotten that they don’t have something specifically listed. Sure, it’s good to ask, but even in asking I’ve gotten terse replies that I should simply “read” someones tags or “read” their profile. If I’m asking, I’ve read and I’ve looked, and I took the time to consider your comfort in the situation.
Honestly, outside of Text based stuff from what I’ve seen in other topics, some people are more worried about the underaged cub art on their computers. Could simply say no adult content of any kind allowed in a profile picture and put a disclaimer in the user agreement that external links are not monitored and may have content you disagree with. Further, a rule that clicking on external links is at your own discretion and by default advised against by wolfery and it’s staff… That would fix 50% of issues no matter what the kink would be behind the imagery that could be supplied. Don’t trust it? Don’t click on it!
I do feel like collapsible headers and LFRP should be exempt from rule 1 but, seems entirely reasonable. Rule 3 could really use clarification. Are people not allowed to engage in any discussion privately in the park that goes against Sinder rules? Is this just AND explicitly against interests in their tags? Does this include paging someone who might be somewhere where content isn’t allowed?
There are topics I see and make me uncomfortable but and as Khat said, the correct response is to step back and look at something else. Ageplay in particular is a very sensitive topic and I have been refraining from any discussion since there has been a very real lack of distinction with reality from fiction. Does kinkplay do real harm to people involved? Maybe? I don’t want to moralize fiction, or the writing of it. I appreciate the clarification on rules, just. Don’t wish to see this go further.
Honestly, I’m grateful the mods seem to be being careful about not making this about the person who takes the most offense getting their interests looked after…
That’s all I’m concerned about. As long as the heart is in the right place there and the rules are clear, it’ll be a workable compromise.
Glad to see some clarity and workable solutions here. Anyone who has a problem with something as mild as “please add content warnings” is someone I can’t take seriously, so as far as I’m concerned, you practically have the mandate of heaven on this one. Go right ahead.
Good insight! We’ve considered and discussed several ideas for systems that could be built to alleviate this. I’m really excited to see if users will have awesome ideas that we might not have come up with. More eyes spies the prize! Of course, we have to balance technical debt with the cost of inaction, and anything we implement will pretty much require users to deal with some kind of hassle or change. x_o
Oh yeah, it’ll happen! Hence the ‘moving forward gently’, and the improvements to the rules visibility. It’s really important that we boost awareness of the rules, and ease of access! A kind of profile auto-swap would be really cool! I kinda wonder if the upcoming scripting feature could do something like that… something to look forward to for the near future! Or possibly wishlist for later. It would be super cool to assign a profile to an area, and have it swap as soon as you enter.
You are in the Town of Sinder when the Area at the top reads, “Town of Sinder”, nested globally without a parent Area. Sub-Areas like the Prism are no longer the Town of Sinder, and may have their own rules, or inherit those of Sinder as the owner pleases, so please check the rules there. Sharing content disallowed in an Area will always increase your liability.
That is where our job comes in! If they argue that, then you may by all means refer them to us, or they can use Helpme to ask. Worst case, if they break the rules, by all means report it! No one should be making anyone else feel like they don’t belong here. Pointing at the rules is okay. When that’s unclear, we’re here.
See my previous response!
Also, tags are intended to be a reflection of the player more than the character. While many include some overlap of the two, which is fine, you may notice that changing Character Profile does not include changing your Tags. I think, in an ideal use case, the Description would be local sensory, the About would be OOC guide and inspiration, and Tags would be a shortcut to your most relevant general likes and dislikes. The rest is where the role play happens! But of course, people will use it any way they please, so it ends up very muddy sometimes. Still. Passively expressing your interests as an OOC offer is probably extremely rarely objectionable. That’s like having your sexuality on your dating profile. But describing explicit details is different, and becomes complicated much faster. I think we all know what that one is like… n_n;
Also, just as a general note, I really appreciate everyone weighing in and contributing, for or against, and especially offering ideas or trying to dissect the concepts involved. Whether we do nothing, or do something, I know not everyone will get exactly what they want. But even if it’s messy sometimes, I’m really glad people are passionate to get involved! <3
One straight up idea, keeping in mind that hard kink is more than just ageplay, and if you’re going to talk about hard kink being sequesteered under content warnings, make it universal.
Give us a color-coding system? Pink for ageplay. Red for violence or non-con. Black for snuff. Purple for drugs. Etc. Then you have tags you can put around bits in your desc/about/LFRP that will automatically hide it behind an opt-in click, color-coded.
CW warning: I’m gonna mention a bunch of potentially extreme fetishes.
I like the theory of this idea, but it would require coming up with a very distinct list of what is considered ‘extreme’ content, and finding intuitive colors for them is hard. Is soft vore ‘violent’? what color is bestiality? Are medical scenes violent? What color is all-the-way-through (the non-violent, unrealistic sort)? You have to either lump these things into boxes they don’t fit in, or have an entire rainbow of options to opt out of. Which I’m not opposed to, but it’s a lot of work, for both the developers, and the user.
Good questions! You can privately discuss whatever you please that does not violate Realm rules or TOS! It is up to you to ensure that’s appropriate with the other person, however, and to keep it private! However, if you start pinging people who you don’t have sufficient rapport with about interests that are NOT in their tags (or worse, they have tags expressing their disinterest in) and hit them up to role play your favorite thing that they want nothing to do with… that’s no bueno! That can be avoided as simple as an OOC ask like, “hi, is it okay to ask about something not in your tags?” Granted, if someone’s spamming random people with that en masse, or pushing it after someone says no or ignores them, we may still need to have a chat with them…
Now, if they have tags that say they’re into something, but you’re both in an area that disallows it, you’re not allowed to engage the subject in that Area (I.E. publicly), but you could privately ask them about it via Whisper or Message. That’s fine. The “I like this” tag opens the door. Just remember, it’s not full-on consent, and there may be limits or boundaries that differ between players. We leave that to people to explore, feel out, intuit, discuss, or whatever works. We’re all adults here!
This rule is primarily targeting situations where people are explicitly ignoring tags and Area rules and propositioning people for specific subjects without any good expectation that it’s appropriate to do so.
Having read the main post, and the entire thread, I’d like to add my two cents.
It seems to me that these new rules, while they do make sense, make the most sense in the context of an attempt to cover up all the ageplay related content on the platform. At least at a first glance upon a users first visit to Wolfery.
It also seems to me, and correct me if I am wrong here, that the thing that is making Wolfery staff take action on this has its roots in how the many different governments around the world may perceive ageplay content. And how those perceptions could potentially negatively impact the platform as a whole. Not out of any desire to restrict anyone’s RP.
Now, I may be venturing outside the scope of this thread a bit here, but I have a hypothetical question. If, let’s say Lamplight was made into its own realm, is it reasonable to assume that some government would step in to shut it down? If the answer to that is yes, then I am sorry, but I think it would be wise to stop beating around the bush with half measures and simply ban the problematic content before it becomes a legal problem.
We’re all adults here, yes, and yes we all consent to RP on this website, and that’s exactly why I think that Wolfery staff have a duty to protect their users from the potential legal ramifications of using a website that has content on it that their individual governments can potentially perceive as child P**n.
In my view, if you’re going to allow ageplay on Wolfery, you may as well allow users under the age of 18 too because the potential legal ramifications are potentially just as severe. For both users, and the platform as whole.
That’s not what I’m saying. I’m saying that a government could perceive ageplay RP on Wolfery as child p**n. And if that’s the case, it doesn’t matter what any of us think on the matter. Is it a hypothetical? Yes. Is it possible? Also yes.
We could do with less subtly implying ageplayers are all pedophiles, or saying allowing them around is morally equivalent to permitting child p**n, ok.
I think the point being made is “governments will treat it the same way because of fucking course they don’t care to learn the distinction, they see something that vaguely looks like it and go scorched earth”.
Again it sounds like everyone is saying, “Well, content warnings sound reasonable.”
But they literally aren’t.
They are an extra action being aimed at just one group of people.
And it’s a bunch of work to develop a feature, that literally already exists as a browser addon. Just come up with what words upset you and block elements with them in it.
Like, why should this involve any of us when the people being bothered have a solution they can implement in one minute already?
That fact alone shows this is just discrimination against ageplayers.
Those who don’t want to see the content, already have the tools available to completely cause them to never see it, and for some reason we are all here talking about how ageplayers should change what they are doing to appease… who exactly?
I’ve lost a good number of friends on this site - good damn roleplayers - because they saw the park filling up with sexualized child characters all the time. And yes, it does seem to be targeted at sexual ageplayers because it is a kink oftentimes baked into the character as a whole in a way that other extreme kinks rarely are (unless we have giant gore monsters running around - which, since one of the people who could turn into those is among those friends of mine who left, is much less likely now). Is just putting stuff in a drop-down and keeping the profile thumbnails SFW such a sacrifice for the sake of stopping the site from losing more users? You’re putting a single iota of your own comfort above the ability of other people to even bear to be present.
Ideally, the solution we end up with makes it impossible to run across that kind of content without seeking it out, which, let me stress, would benefit you. You would lose literally all the heat on you. Invisible to your detractors. Free. In your lane. Moisturized.
But I’m literally not.
I’m saying your friend could’ve easily just blocked seeing that content with a plugin and been happy.
Did he bother to spend a minute doing such?
No, he didn’t. I spend a minute to block fetishes I don’t want to see.
I am respectful to others by when I have an issue, I fix it myself.
If I can block the content so can you or he or anyone else?
Spider characters make me uncomfortable can we start a discussion about banning their images next?
Same with the impregnation tag. That’s offputting to me for some reason. Others should change for me!
Your logic here just doesn’t hold up. If one decides to be offended by a thing, they should be the one to censor their content.
This is literally what the tool called your browser does. Just use the tool you have in front of you.
