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Everyone have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

I believe actions are what count, not thoughts, but governments seem to think differently. And I agree with the original suggestion.

I don’t… I don’t even… what? Ok, Really, I’m not and I don’t think anybody else is suggesting porn pics should be blocked here, I’m just saying URLS that folks can click save lot of hassle for folks who don’t want to see it. Just because the porn isn’t embedded anymore doesn’t mean it’s gone or blocked, or something. I’m not going for a “Take your porn from your cold, dead, sticky, calloused, hands” first-amendment challenging moment here, man. Just suggesting a compromise to help out some of us because lately I’ve clicked a few threads (and in one case a profile with animated lets-hope-thats-a-skinny-dwarf porn) that have content that could get quite a few of us in a world of shit in a way that text doesn’t yet manage unless it’s supporting terrorism or something equally unpleasant. I’ve had to quit other sites completely because of this issue – not in a flouncing way, I just deleted my profiles without comment and moved on, because they were geared heavily towards art and some of the art would probably flag with ISP check lists.. This is a story site and doesn’t need embedded images. URLS work just peachy and politics and all the rest don’t really have any other impact on it. I feel kind’ve like I am repeating myself or getting a little pissy here so I apologise if this is the case or if I’ve caused any offense with my suggestion.

That’s kind of the point JayDee is making. In our respective countries, rules are all different. In my own country, the UK, it’s illegal to view anything that might be considered to cause a danger to life, and so that could include quite a wide range of things, being as it has no concrete definition. Basically, here, you’re on thin ice really with anything concerning BDSM. They really don’t like it. AFAIK they (the government) are asking ISPs to keep records on those who are accessing that kind of material. In a link I posted a while ago, they’re also including sound files in that, so audiobooks and stuff might well fall foul of our law if it describes those kinds of things. From what I’ve seen, when they want to take someone up to make an example, they won’t care if you had a choice over seeing the image or not, which is why I’m in complete agreement with this idea.

Actually, I don’t want most NSFW images to pop up for me at home, which is where I do the bulk of my work. I shouldn’t have to close my browser window whenever the bell rings. The other consideration is how child pornography is defined here in the US, which is visual. Pictures of under-18 characters in flagrante delicto is actually illegal here. Someone may love the idea of Harry and Draco getting it on while still first years at Hogwarts, but photoshops of Daniel Radcliffe and Tom Felton while they’re still under 18 are an issue for me. I don’t need that on my browser history, thank you ever so much.

Honestly, if we could remove the auto-embed option for the forum, that would do the trick. If I want to see something, I don’t mind the extra click, honestly, but I really, REALLY don’t always want something NSFW to pop up on my monitor when I’m checking a thread.

Not sure if this forum software does it, but having it automatically handled by the software would be the *best* solution. It’d save the image locally and auto-url it as suggested, or even make it a user preference, so that those of us in better jurisdictions wouldn’t see the change, but those in more stringent ones would. Just ideas, because I’m guessing this rule change is going to add to the enforcement work load, especially in the beginning.

Sounds good to me. I can’t see many people abiding by it, though, to be honest. You know how people are; we only have rules because we like to bully people, apparently.

So, Melrick, how shall we implement this? You’ll need to add it into the forum rules, I guess, and since I am the most computer-illiterate, this means that we will no longer allow pictures in the posts themselves, but only links to pictures hosted offsite, and posters must put descriptions of the pictures before the links?

Well, it’s late but I finally posted my Halloween story. I’m sorry, it’s crappy but anyway...Happy Thanksgiving!

I suggest a rule that non-written porn content (drawings/photos etc) only has a URL posted with a description of content for users to decide if they want to view it. Reason being that while America has that freedom of expresson thing, a lot of the drawn porn stuff is illegal elsewhere, such as in my jurisdiction. When you click into a thread and the pictures are right there it’s too late to not have it on your hard drive and ISP record. There doesn’t seem to be any need to hotlink it, as those who want to share and view the pictures would still be able to do so. It’s a suggestion anyway.

Sorry, just some hyperbole, rant and frustration about nanny state-ism, “for our own good” that I see going on around the world. Your concerns ought to be addressed; I didn’t mean to trivialize them.

Well, given that it’s not an option, the Web being as politicized as anything else in this world, I think we need to make a conscious choice in favor of protecting our members. To that end, we need to disallow embedded images on the forum. The archive doesn’t allow for members to even post clickable links within stories, and I’m completely fine with that.

We probably shouldn’t be checking AFF from work… but that’s a debate for another time. I usually check via the activity feed, yeah, NSFW pictures can come through at the wrong time. A list of decent image sharing websites (free) might be in order too, just to help people with that bit.

Eh, with URLs still there nobody would actually miss out on pictures they want to see. Just an extra click per picture. I’d favor a stricter content rule on that basis because there’s very few situations on a fic forum where a picture literally needs to be embedded right there, and because the whole reason for suggesting it is the stricter content rules applied in my jurisdication :(. As for enforcement, editing a post to remove image embedding tags ought to do it – more work I know, sadly – or removing ability to embed pictures if a user keeps posting embedded porn I guess. No doubt this is the kind’ve thing that gets thrashed out in the private admin/mod forums… ...and off topic, I just had a flash back to the mystery room subforum. Needed a pass card from the old forum shop to get a password. I remember the password being strumpet at one point. Think all the old threads from there got moved to aimless babble when it shut (Yep – Here was one )

Which is why I will not start enforcing anything, until we (the staff) have decided on exactly what we’ll allow and what not.

Maybe not a full stop type of thing, just for those pictures that justify one of our story codes? Or at least, that’s where you could enforce it? But yeah, this can definitely become one of those messy/annoying rules if we’re not careful.

I’m looking for a couple of betas who would give me an opinion on my new series. It’s a MM evolving into a MMM, shifter romance with werewolves. The first and second books are done and each run about 50k words, give or take and I have plans to write a third. I’d like people who could commit to reading all three. I’m not looking for intensive beta reading. I need opinions on the general plot and such, not grammar help or anything like that. If you enjoy shifter books, you’re the person I’m looking for. The first book is already contracted for publishing in the summer of 2019 and they’re just waiting on me to get them the second to set the date for it also, so I’m offering a free copy of the books once they’re published, and if you’d like I’ll include your name in the acknowledgements. Please either comment here, send me a pm or you can reach me by email at bangbangramallama@gmail.com

Well, I am really struggling with this chapter. It’s mostly written, but… I had a specific format in mind, and I’ve kept to it, but it feels off, like I’ve inadvertently ruined the pacing. That’s odd, because I wanted to write this format to have a clear break between the prior slow burn/consummation vs the lead in to the war, which would require a change in pacing. *scratches head* As I check the word count, it seems like if I finish off the chapter as I planned, I might still have some room to play with it. I wonder if there’s some little aspect I can add that will make it work better. Hmm… *thinks* Some of this chapter is written from the limited pov of the Lord of Light, and I’m hesitant to use that pov to do anything to regulate pacing, mood or atmostphere. It seems too transparent and heavy handed to do that. Probably because if I do that, it’d lead to a feeling of discontent in the reader. I’m not giving much away. If I use the pov like that, you’d expect to see more of the pov character’s motivations. Yet the other pov characters (the three of them) are dreaming, so I can’t use them. Beric is awake, but he’s being haunted. He’s also not a pov character. I suppose I’ll feed the dogs while I think. This is a quandary. If I can’t fix it, I’m going to have to chuck it and think of something else altogether. But this felt right when I started it. Grrr!

My works are effectively a commentary on that.

If it were my dystopia (that I’m writing to), I’d be short listed for “natural selection”.