Forums » Smalltalk » Community discussion: Policy changes for adult RP

I agree with you

I understand where you're coming from, but I wonder if you may have misunderstood, just a little, RPR's policy and purpose.

The mod policy with sexual themes is the same as it is for violence and swearing: it's welcome, but keep it tagged appropriately (and off the public forums) in order to protect our younger members.

The difference is that there are potential legal dangers to consider with sexual themes.

So I would argue that RPR is designed for explicit content in that the systems of the site have been carefully crafted to make that content safe for everyone. Due to some of the surprise being experienced, I would say those systems have been working, and just require some updates. In the same way your character profile is marked as very violent, other people have the options to safely engage in any roleplay they wish as long as it is legal.

That's what this is about, after all. Keeping things legal, protecting everyone in the community. This isn't just about hiding sexual themes from people who don't want to see them (though that is a big part of it), it's about protecting those players who chose to (legally) engage in them.

I don't believe that a sense of shame is necessary here at all.

I want to reiterate, once again, that I am totally and absolutely fine with putting these roleplay requests in an area that is designated for it. I support the safety of the site as much as anyone else, I just don't think forbidding this type of RP will accomplish anything. As Novalyyn pointed out, things will go deeper in wraps and it will be harder to keep the site safe because people will start doing it secretly. Putting this in a monitored environment is much more efficient and allows for better moderation than any other options proposed so far. Logically speaking, censorship is the least efficient option.

I understand that sexual RP is not your cup of tea, and I understand this is the same for other people, but it obviously hasn't been a widespread association because up until now, many of the participants in this thread did not know that this kind of stuff was even going on. This has been going on since the site opened, but to say that RPR has a reputation for being a smut-heavy site doesn't seem all that valid to me. If the reputation is as abundant as it is made out to be, it wouldn't be such a surprise to so many people here, would it? Kim is offering everyone the chance to opt out. In fact, in order to participate, you have to willingly opt in. I fail to understand why this is so horrible.

So why do I feel like what I do is shameful? Because some people are implying it is. And that's what I find upsetting about this discussion. It's okay to have your opinion, I will never argue that sexual roleplay is for everyone because it's not and I respect that, but an opinion should not be made at the cost of making others feel bad.

As a quick band-aid in the meanwhile: RP Finder results now default to NOT including stuff flagged for adult themes. This makes me a little bit sad because a lot of times they're flagged that way for reasons totally unrelated to "smut", but this is a distinction that can be made in the future.

However, people who have gone into their settings and checked that they are comfortable with seeing violence, language and sexual material will still see all Finder results by default.

You can at any time override your defaults by opening "advanced search settings" and putting a check next to "Include adult themes".

In addition, if an underage person flags their concept with "adult themes" for any reason, no one over 18 will be shown it, and vice versa. Again, this is too strict -- a differentiation needs to be made between the different possible themes. But again, that's for the future.

Moderators are exempt from this and will continue to be shown the Finder results from all ages and categories so they can continue to remove inappropriate game suggestions, as before. Members are encouraged to continue reporting inappropriate finder concepts to the mods as well!

I feel the need to clarify that Furcadia also has a high number of human characters, not just 'furry-type'. There are plenty of human characters in Furcadia and not just furry characters.

This is very nice meanwhile, thank you Kim! I do understand that adult themes are used for gore and/or language too, but you can always tell by reading the prompt when people are looking for more than just gore and/or language. Normally when I use the RP Finder I just give it a quick look-through and I don't actually use the search button, so therefore I don't click the 'exclude adult themes' button. So it's really nice to have this as a default since I usually just go for a quick look instead of searching specifically.
I also think your quick-fix works very well in the meantime for the problem we're mainly trying to avoid; minors seeing what they shouldn't or getting involved in what they shouldn't.

True, but it is originally intended for furry characters and the community associated with it, as well as fully themed towards it. Most of the adult areas of the game are furry centered and that brings along a very different culture than what we have on the site.

7 real. I'm glad that you made the bandaid. I can't wait until we can filter other themes as well, but for the time being I'm happy to be included with smut until such time things can be more inclusive of my love of violence and naughty words. One step at a time is better than no steps!

Have I told you how awesome you are recently? You're really making me proud to be a part of a community that strives to make it easier for mature people to get together and roleplay. Edit: mature ad in attitude not sexual.

You guys make me happy! Glad to know my stopgaps are appreciated.

I think we have a different culture here from a LOT of RP communities, regardless of theme.

As someone who was only recently underage myself and DID get scolded for doing things... and still feels bad about it sometimes... I probably shouldn't speak on this topic, but I guess I'm not smart enough to keep my mouth shut.

Personally, I didn't lie about my age, I didn't show it on my profile for privacy (because in some places on the internet I have had older people creep on me because of my age so I was eerie about having my age out there until I was 18), but when I was asked privately, I was honest. Lying isn't my thing, when I do "lie" it's by omission, but when asked for the truth, I almost always give the truth.
I think people lying about their age on RPR (because of security reasons) is a bit silly because there is an option to hide the number, and thus you're not breaking a site rule by lying to do things you shouldn't.

Honestly, I like the idea of trying to crack down on people under 18 doing stuff, because looking back, I know I shouldn't have done what I did and I feel awful about it. I lost RP partners and I know that some people on the site probably straight up hate or dislike me for what I did, and I can't take it back or fix it.

To the kids, I was in your place not long ago, and trust me, someday you'll wish you didn't do what you're doing now. Also, in disagreeing with people, do so in a civil manner, insulting mods or Kim isn't going to get you anywhere, it just makes you look like an immature child. If you keep fighting against what is a legal issue, you're being kind of selfish (I was super selfish and I know that now and I regret it) because in breaking the 18+ rule you are putting both your RP partners and the site in a lot of legal trouble.

Long story short, I'm sorry for when I was not 18 and broke the rules and if I could go back in time I'd smack my younger self for thinking it was okay to bend the rules. Obviously, I can't smack people who aren't myself, but I would definitely give someone a stern talking to. And I really hope that other people won't make my mistakes, because it sucks now to look back at it and go "I screwed up big time. " Because I did screw up, and knowing myself it'll haunt me for the rest of my time on RPR, however long that is going to be.

This definitely got longer than I intended it to be...

I just know I'm very thankful you're trying to find something that is accepting to everyone.
I love knowing that RPR is so open and it's really becoming my favorite site.
Having Kim try to find something fair and safe for all users and genres of roleplays is just fantastic.
I can't express my respect enough to have a site owner so caring about having an open community.

Simple. Put in the rules and regulations that anyone under the age of 18 is not to enter such areas. And should any such conversations occur in other areas of the site it is to be tagged with a collapsible NSFW tag (For, say, a partly exposed drawing). Sure, some people might lie, but there is no avoiding this. Just as there is no avoiding any other law being broken. We can only control what happens on our side. From a legal standpoint we're doing what we can to ensure that things are done on our end. On the other end of things it's up to the person on the comp and any parents/guardians. Many other sites do this (I can PM them to Kim if she wants them) and the law seems perfectly content with those sites as they have remained operational for many many years. Not to mention sites that are adult only. Nothing stops people from lying about age on those sites either but there's only so much we can do. So I see no reason it will not work for us. And please don't banish it, the majority shouldn't have to suffer for the actions of the minority. As long as we take steps that other places do then that should be enough. And honestly, asking for things like drivers license and such is going overboard (I don't have one myself. Nor a passport. I stick to buses).

Also, as stated, it will happen in inboxes if not on public forums. Both of age and of not.

Edit: Please disregard my post, sorry!

Taramafor, it's not as simple as you make it out to be. A site this big, with this many people, it takes considerable planning and effort to implement the changes being suggested. In my opinion, I don't think the tagging system is a good idea, mostly it will create more work for mods. Whenever you leave things like that up to the players, it is often forgotten. So it will fall to the mods to correct it. I'm sure they already have enough to do.

You are correct that we can only control what happens on our side, but that isn't just trying to keep kids from breaking rules/ laws/ what have you. It's also about protecting of-age players from teens who willfully disregard said regulations. A lot of sites work on the honor system, and some of them do go unnoticed for a long time. However, just being good enough for the law to be content is a bit dangerous. When someone puts as much into a site as Kim does RPR, you either make sure you are doing everything you can, or you just do not bother and wait for the papers.

From what I've seen, we have some precaution to ensure the site can't be legally penalized. What Kim is talking about is taking extra steps to make sure that the site and it's users are as far in the clear as possible. If that means having an opt-in section of the forums, then that's the way it should be. Like you said, it can always continue in an inbox. If you can't/won't opt in, you aren't going to be barred from RPing the way you want. You just won't be able to do it on the open forums.

i like the idea of separation most rp sites take under 18 out of the equation. may be in the search rp having an age bracket in the search options. while rp haven has another search engine for adult rp (www.rphaven.com) just about any idea even the verification threw credit card like imvu is not gonna stop a teen (they get threw the cerdit thing too)

NVM

"Sexual" Rp is not incompatible with the rpr mission as a social network, it is just another side to social and people. And the whole point of RPR is to find roleplay, find people, find stories you enjoy. Sexual rp is just another one of these things. You may not enjoy it, nor may you be for it but it's still a part of that and is healthy too as long as it is not illegal. You can't lump all people who enjoy "Sexual rp" as toxic waste. That would be like me implying all people who don't like sexual rp are all prudes or have had bad experiences. That isn't true at all as some just don't do it for no reason then they don't want to. (If im wrong on this mark of what you ment then im sorry but it is how it sounds.)


Im in two minds on the hidden and moving of rp and also the verifying of data. Hidden sounds good and so does moving but where does it stop after the moving or hiding of Adult material? What would be next? And will it be in the end all private of all things? (just something to ponder as can be a slippery slope.)If someone wants to do this kind of rp or see this kind of rp then it will be hard to stop them short of verification and that presents it's problems as well. I don't mind verifying but im also very wary of such because of the potential security problems too. Is there a way to do a secure site like what paypal does for securing information? If that could be done then it would ease some peoples minds about putting info up maybe or maybe it won't work. I think something has to be put into place for the protection of both minors and adults but it's hard decision ether way and just my thoughts.

I also want to say that even on furcadia there are pleanty of dreams and areas on it that are labeled adult and ment for adult situations that get perfectly good rp and though rping in FURN for years I have only ever been approached for pure sex rp only a couple times and then they were respectful when asking if I was interested and just as respectful when told no because I prefer it to be lead into through story.

ALSO for those roleplays that don't start adult and then suddenly the situation turns to such things without any preplanning because as most know in roleplaying stories can be very fluid.....how would those get moved and handled?

Also this is the first time iv even heard of this site being associated with a bad stigma for smut. It's never talked about anywhere about all the smut that (is apparently asked for as well) goes on here. Maybe I just don't see even with a bunch of charas annom and public.(Though not so many public now)


And now im probably rambling and made a fool out of myself as I stated my thoughts

I don't want to disrupt any further input on this matter, but I do want to point out that this topic was more or less wrapped up in January and Kim has agreed to implement the proposed changes. So I'm not sure how much use there is in continuing the debate and proposing alternatives.

This. Exactly this.

Yes, many of the proposed changes in this thread are absolutely happening and already underway.

I do want to address a few common concerns that people have approached me with, though:

• The new forum would be an OOC forum, so no RP would occur there.
• It would NOT be an un-moderated wasteland where we moved stuff we didn't want to have to deal with. People would NOT be allowed to go there to flame one another or be disrespectful or engage in other forms of harassment. The standards of moderation would be in effect there as well.
• It's likely to be more like "R" rated than "X" rated. I don't really plan to allow for much more raunchy language than is already allowed on LFRP, it'd just move all of these requests to one board so that people who don't want to see requests for "yaoi" or "erotica" or even the less flowery term "sex" wouldn't have to anymore. If someone wanted to get ridiculously in-depth and graphic about their fetishes in their post, we'd still ask them to go elsewhere.
• The forum would be opt-in, so unless you go into your settings and request to be allowed to see it (and are 18+), none of the posts will appear in your notifications, in the "recent posts" widget in the sidebar, or whatever else. So for people concerned about a possible sudden increase in the number of these types of posts that they don't want to see, they will literally not see any trace of them. Even if there were 10x the number of erotic RP requests posted a day, it'll be like they simply don't exist and never happened.

For Legion's specific questions:

This has been happening since practically the first month of us having a forum. We've been handling it for a long time. Nothing would change here. How it is handled changes depending on the ages of everyone involved, but typically, if everything checks out, the entire thread gets moved into a properly tagged group or transitions into PMs.

I'm unaware of us having such a stigma. We've got no more smut than anywhere else, and arguably less. This is more about preventing a future stigma by not addressing a growing need, making sure that we try to keep people in their comfort zones where possible, and minimize potential legal problems for everyone.

Ah disregard everything then lol, i didn't know it was wrapped up as I saw recent posts. Sorry!