Limitations on NSFW pictures

[AdmiralPiet]

First of all: I get why the limitations are there.
No one wants threads that are just a long stream of NSFW pics to collect wank material.

But I guess even outside of stories there might be the need to illustrate something with a picture. Or maybe even discuss a picture in the first place.
And as it is written now: the rule only allows the Author of the story to use pictures inside the story. Technically the comments are off limits too.

Also: The pictures have to be hidden from unregistered users.
In one thread I saw a link to a porn video, but that was strictly to illustrate a point, so no problem there. And since the rules don't mention it anyway no rule break was possible.
But should the hiding rule not also apply here?

And does the current rule only apply to images embedded in the text, or also for links?

I don't want to snitch on anyone here, just a suggestion to amend the rules to make them more clear.

Maybe like this:
- NSFW images and videos, either embedded or linked to, must be hidden using the hidden BBCode
- NSFW images can be posted outside of story threads, provided they are relevant to the discussion or are commented on. Excessive use of pictures is prohibited. Do not try to circumvent this rule by using throwaway comments like: "This is hot!"

[Vela Nanashi]

I think you make some good points, as long as they are hidden and plenty of words are there I personally think it less bad, what I think we don't want is those threads that are just pictures, but I do not set the rules here, Claire does, so hopefully she chimes in on this soon

[Vela Nanashi]

Also yes videos of nsfw nature probably should be in hidden and limited to same things as nsfw pics.

[Claire]

@AdmiralPiet Wanted to respond here yesterday already, but then I got distracted by blowing up the forum... twice...

First, let me say, I am absolutely open to adjusting these rules and your suggestions seem reasonable to me. Here is what our goal was with this rule.

I don't want the forum to get in trouble over pornographic images that are posted here that don't even have anything to do with what the forum is about. RavishU had a case where someone posted an image of gang rape porn. Turned out, it was not porn but a real rape that was depicted and the victim had to complain to the admins to get that image taken down. That could have gotten the forum taken down and it would not have even had to do anything with a story posted there.

Then there were a bunch of threads in the "art appreciation" forum that were essentially just porn image galleries for small boobs, long legs, cute butts, big boobs, whatever. These add nothing to the forum. Nobody will register here for those, and no interaction between users came out of those either. But they create an issue for the moderation team. Because now the moderation team has to assess every picture of some young looking woman with regards to "Is she 18?" The last thing I want is the forum to get in trouble for someone posting an image of a 17 year old topless girl just so that we have porn galleries on the forum that you can find a dime a dozen on a billion other sites on the internet.

The first set of rules that we came up with differentiated between different categories of pictures and essentially forbid pornographic images in general. But that would have gotten us into discussions about what pornographic means. And so we settled on: Let's focus on pictures that serve a purpose for story telling and let's minimize the risk of someone reporting us by hiding NSFW pictures - so also an image of just a topless woman that you might not consider pornographic - from guest view.

And finally, I don't want to expand the forum into a general rape media board. Our brand is about writing and reading, that is our niche. I am very wary of letting other content dilute that because those forums or sites in general do already exist. I don't want to compete for attention against video or image based sites, or against broad writing based sites like literotica or AO3. We have a very specific niche and I want us to be the go to place for exactly that and nothing else. And I think that was a strength of RavishU.


So that is the thought process behind the current rules. I see your point that NSFW images/videos might be be useful in other contexts as well, like presenting an idea for a story or someone asking "Does the described scene in your story look like this?" or something like that. I think I would like to adopt your first rule basically one for one, but would like the second rule to be more specific.

Does anybody else want to chime in here?

[AdmiralPiet]

Maybe to explain my reasoning further:
I thought about opening up a thread about dofantasy comics.
The themes of those comics align with this forum, and I figure comics are still close enough to our medium.

I would have written a bit about them, and maybe some of my favourite artists/authors.
I would need to be careful about copyright, but maybe use the promo material they already have openly aviable on their website.
3 or four 4 fave artists, one picture for each to illustrate their style.

But since that is not allowed under the current rules I wanted to clear that up first.

[Vela Nanashi]

I say it is much better to link to their particular site about the comic you want to comment on, that way they would not have reason to be pissed, as it will generate traffic to them and maybe sales, and readers may find more things there, no copyright infringement would be claimed either.

[Vela Nanashi]

Of course if you asked the artist if you can use some of their images in a story or such or art discussion they may be happy to let you as long as you link them too.