Forums » Suggestions & Development Discussion » Find RP filter for only sexual content/18+

We have a lot of filters for the Find RP tool that lets you include things flagged for sexual content. Is there any possibility of having a filter that lets you exclude everything not flagged for sexual content? Or maybe we can sort by 'all ages' and '18+' when we search just like you do when you create a prompt?

It makes the tool frustrating to use when I want to only search within the 18+ forum but have to manually sift through prompts made by minors.

I would really like something like this as well, but for different reasons.

I love RPing with older members on the site, but it's very hard to find an RP with adults only that isn't directly linked to sexual content. It would be great to have a filter for the Adults forum that can separate the smut RPs from the others. Some kind of separation between people looking for sexual content only. Or even changing the two Looking For RP pages.

Yes, there is the option of shutting off sexual content from your profile, but it doesn't seem to affect the actual forums. I shut it off as a test and it didn't block any of the RPs in the search. So I think an extra filter would really benefit adult RPers not looking for smut.

I'm with Solona on this, I also would LOVE a way to filter the adults only forum so I didn't have to sift through "smut rp, smut rp, another smut rp" to find the other "adult content" that's not sex and slavery and stuff lol.

No offense to people who like that, but man it makes it hard to find anything you're actually looking for.

Or maybe just splitting the adults only forum into two. a "smut" forum and a "non smut" forum, so those who want to find partners for sexual content can go to one place and the people who just want to be able to swear and have graphic violence and drug use and stuff can go to the other one.

Would make it easier for everyone to find what they wanted that way wouldn't it?

A filter to separate the 18+ forum ads from the all-ages ads I would agree with, as there is a lot of mix-ups when it comes to searching for certain things. Doubly so if a person has cross-posted to both forums and you only want to reply to one of them for age verification.

But on separating non-sexual RPs and sexual RPs into two different forums in the adults only area, a similar suggestion was brought up and this had some dissent in response: according to one of the reasons given, it feels akin to othering those who like smut or sexual themes into a separate category or vice versa.

Overall, I understand the appeal of two separate forums, but I would prefer having a filter in the Find RP tool.

EDIT: In fact, I found the topic in question, right here: LFRP AO: Non-Sexual Themes Button Suggestion

Thanks for this, Lucree! I think I was absent for this thread, but I agree that a filter would be best. And I think having an entire forum for smut just isn't a good image for RPR. But hopefully there's a way to work around the problem.

You can already filter topics for not having sexual content in the Find RP tool by not marking the check box for including results with sexual content. You can't filter to have only sexual content included, which is what I'd like to see. I'd like the topic to stay on topic for this suggestion, not have it turned into something else.

Well it's still about a filter that you wanted. I merely figured they were one and the same, since making a sexual content filter means essentially making one that excludes it as well. And people don't flag posts for sexual content if they're in the Adult forum sometimes. It's merely a suggestion. We aren't trying to change the request you have, and I'm very sorry if it seems like it.

Filtering them depending on whether they're in the regular LF board or the adult board would make sense. Actually, I would love to be able to choose an individual board to search in general (with the main search) instead of just "public areas."

However, we don't have a good way to sort things according to if someone is actually looking for smut or not. Yes, we have the checkbox for "sexual themes," but that is super vague. Many people who aren't looking for sexual stuff, but who will accept it if they like the rest of offer enough, will check it. And I know folks who will not do erotic rp at all who check it, simply because it says "sexual themes." They won't play sex, but they're okay with dirty jokes, implied sex, mentions of prostitution, etc - things that are sexually themed, but which are not sex. There are also folks who are looking for smut, but who never look at the options that filtering affects, so wouldn't check it anyway. Before something could be set up to look specifically for smut RPs, something else would have to be set up to more easily recognize them.

It might help if you use things like "smut" and "erotic" as keywords, though.

Good points! I accept that the tools are only as good as how people choose to use them, that is always the case with features like this. On a personal note, people who don't take the time to use the features properly are probably not RP partners I'm compatible with as it is, so this doesn't really affect me as it is.

I thought it was weird that the default is not showing sexual themes at all for both forums, then we have a filter option that lets you include sexual themes but no way to do the reverse of only including prompts with sexual themes. And we get to choose to post to two different kinds of forums but we don't have the option to search specifically in either type.

To all: I'm not suggesting separating smut and non-smut prompts into their own places one bit, that's entirely besides the point. I'm only interested in balancing the existing features to be more inclusive of different preferences when searching with the Find RP option. If anyone wants to discuss separating smut and non-smut please make a new topic instead.

I wasn't suggesting we separate the adult-only forums into two parts; since someone brought it up and it seemed to be on topic or at least related to such, I linked a similar subject that seemed to be on point with what you and they wanted, but in a different vein. In fact, I also disagree with doing so and would rather discuss the possibility of having a filter to separate the two forums in the RP search tool myself.

I apologize if my input seemed like I was diverting from the topic at hand. I only wanted to address that the option of splitting the adult forums was already discussed somewhere else, as a suggestion to continue the conversation in the thread that I had linked instead so we can focus on what you wanted to talk about.

Overall, I do see a use for having such a filter, since it can also go both ways for those wanting to look at the all-ages forum instead. I.e. +1 to this idea.

For some cases, it's absolutely true that the search tools remain weak; a huge portion of that is down to people still aren't actually using the various tools available to classify what kind of RP they have on offer, which makes it much harder to filter it (aside from keyword search, which can do magic things if you know you're looking for, say, mxm)

I've been toying with a lot of options here. I'm not saying any of these options will actually happen, just that they've crossed my mind and I'm tossing them out for general discussion.

The Adults Only forum has several key weaknesses that frustrate me when I consider issues of filtering, matching and moderation:

1. It attracts about 70% smut requests, making it hard for players who just want to play with other adults.
2. People don't read the rules and assume it means that they can use any kind of language or graphic sexual talk they wish, and it keeps the mods busy removing stuff that's too sexy for the public areas of the site and reminding people that "adult" does not mean "private" or "anything goes"
3. It can lead to non-sexual topics being duplicated in both the all-ages and the adults only board, NOT because the OP actually intends to allow people under 18 into the RP, but because they don't think they'll get enough traffic from adults looking for non-sexual content if they post only on the adults board.

Which has led me to thoughts like...

• What would happen if we eliminated the "Adults Only" forum and instead required that people check the "sexual themes" box instead, then hide those from people who are under 18 and folks who are not comfortable with sexual themes? Would it reduce the number of people who mistakenly think that anything goes?
• Can we extend the "only people in my age group" filter that we now have for PMs to work in a meaningful, non-ultra-confusing way for LFRP topics? This too might support re-combining Adults Only with All Ages.
• Should sexual/romantic themes be a spectrum rather than a yes/no? For example, "No sexual themes, not even dirty jokes" all the way to "This RP is only smut." If yes, at what point does the cut-off occur for that content needing to be moved to the adults only board (or hidden from minors if there's no AO board)? What if it's not a spectrum but a radio list with options like "This RP will feature romance but actual sexual content will be fade to black"? What's the minimum number of options would we need to make such a system work in a meaningful way, and what's the maximum that we could include before it was too cumbersome for the average person to bother with?
• Are there ways to prompt people to make better use of the existing markers? I've already started in on this -- LFRP topics for the last few months have prompted the OP to add genre information and etc within the topic if they haven't already. There's more that can (and almost certainly will!) be done, including
  • Having occasional prompts about missing genre info in LFRP topics follow players around the site until they do something about it
  • Auto-detecting certain words like "smut" and asking people if that means the RP will contain sexual themes if they haven't checked that box yet? (It shouldn't auto-check because many people write things like "I'm not looking for smut" and if we just triggered on smut then that would flag them for sexual content and that would be the opposite of the intention)
  • Should there be a LFRP "wizard" like the one used for creating character profiles, where Professor Minotaur walks you through your options simply and one at a time?

So in short -- I definitely agree that we need better filters! Part of the reason they aren't here already is a feeling that major changes need to come to the system to make that filtering more meaningful, and not yet being certain what those changes could or should be quite yet.

If we can get more people to give us meaningful information about their RPs and about their characters, we can start doing awesome stuff like immediately suggesting potentially good LFRP topic matches the moment you finish creating a new character profile, or "Find RPs for this character" buttons, etc. And of course more straight forward filters like smut or no smut.

What if we can apply more specific options like sexual themes, violence/gore, language and can adjust them when we do a search? I think separating Adults Only in sex or no sex kind of contributes to the idea that the Adults Only stands for into 'just sexy things', when it can also mean language, violence and gore. Profiles and groups are categorized this way, why not RP prompts?

I would be incredibly happy with this!

I actually don't have a strong opinion on this. I'd be just as happy having a yes/no option for romance and sexual themes. I also worry that the ability to be more detailed ends up biting people in the rear end, cause it limits the number of results sooner or later.

This sounds really good. Can you turn off getting prompts for missing genre info? I'm also entirely in favor of a LFRP wizard. I always rely on it for profiles because it makes it easier to get started and see it in most new profiles. I'm sure it's a good prompt to get people proactive about genre info.