Roleplay/Partyfinder Discrepancies & Policy Enforcement by GM's

[Jijifli]

The leap to "ERP" seems to come from people's imaginations or from that Reddit post showing somebody reporting ERP advertisements to a GM. None of the GM's actions suggest anything to do with ERP.

IF we assume that is the guy, and that his thing isn't editing (Keep in mind, I looked in his comments, he's kinda hostile anyways)...

Then we can attest that his reports were on ERP things, and on the feet pics/rmt/content seller ones as well.

The GM himself only went for one section of that report however, and went to the extreme, targeting more than just anything that was clearly meant for ERP, also targeting normal RP venue's, and even one case of one that had nothing to do with any of it at all (Poor fisher man).

People were making that leap though before that reddit thread. People actually do have this weird mindset that RP is all just smut and you actively also wanna do it with your own character (Please stop messaging me thinking I wanna do that to my lalafell. PLEASE STOP.)

[Batbrat]

However, adult spaces? Drop the 18+
Ensure you have an age verification system in place

I feel like I just went cross eyed.
If you don't say 18+ then how do you age filter...... do you go up to every person that walks in and ask "Hey, how old are you irl? Can I see some license and registration"?
By the way, how did this thread spiral from being about Party Finder issues to being about whether or not adults should vanish into thin air because children exist and constantly attempt to chase them around.

As others have said..hey. When I was 16? I was all over fanfiction sites. That doesnt mean the site did anything wrong, it asked me how old I was. and I lied! Turns out you get access to fun things when you lie! but that doesnt mean the fun things should pack up-I mean if you really wanted to be particular, the fault should be on Square themselves for somehow still letting kids in. So what's the solution then, delete the game? Youth are youth. They're dumb because they're supposed to be. All you can do is live your life and if you realize someone you're talking to is a kid, direct them to the nearest spongebob episode and then block them and warn the rest of us adults that "hey, we have a nickelodeon escapee running around, make sure not to talk to them". Why am I even talking about this none of this is the point-

Glad to see that GM got snatched up, but I hope they make it a lot more clear what exactly is allowed and what isnt. That's what matters most. I think the idea of having an "other" tab in the Party Finder was a great START, but needs more expanding on. Fellowship was an attempt. Community Finder was a better attempt. but you need something more...instant gratificationy.
No one wants to post on a Fellowship, it's embarrassing feeling.
and the Community Finder while useful for finding FCs isnt as usual for finding events.

Event finder..that should be the next social driven idea that they pursue. Maybe a separate window specifically for players to post current and coming events-current being the big one. People want to see something that's happening right now. Either simply put a separate "RP" tag in the Party Finder, or duplicate the Party Finder but name it the Event Finder. Something like that, ezpz.

[Saefinn]

IF we assume that is the guy, and that his thing isn't editing (Keep in mind, I looked in his comments, he's kinda hostile anyways)...

Then we can attest that his reports were on ERP things, and on the feet pics/rmt/content seller ones as well.

The GM himself only went for one section of that report however, and went to the extreme, targeting more than just anything that was clearly meant for ERP, also targeting normal RP venue's, and even one case of one that had nothing to do with any of it at all (Poor fisher man).

People were making that leap though before that reddit thread. People actually do have this weird mindset that RP is all just smut and you actively also wanna do it with your own character (Please stop messaging me thinking I wanna do that to my lalafell. PLEASE STOP.)

Agreed. It's possible it went off of that report & it's possible it didn't. I mean if it did then the GM didn't really do anything to resolve or address that complaint.

But you can see it straight from the second post in this thread. The leap that RP means smut. /Some/ RP is smut. I'm on Balmung one of the most notorious servers for smutty RP and the vast majority of events I see? Not smut.

[SturmChurro]

Excuse me if this already came to light, I haven't read the last... dozens of pages. It was brought to my attention late last night, that many of the players hit for advertising RP in the partyfinder were hit with a "profanity" strike or warning, example: "E/RP 18+". Many of these venues being advertised were both regular RP, AND ERP in one. The GM(s) look to be blanket banning advertisements via the partyfinder, with the intent on getting rid of ERP specifically. They seem to have gone scorched earth in the process however.

[Senariul]

Can't see any log or proof about the claim that a "fisher" got targeted in this thread. Just one guy repeatedly making the claim and no logs to back it up.

[Saefinn]

Excuse me if this already came to light, I haven't read the last... dozens of pages. It was brought to my attention late last night, that many of the players hit for advertising RP in the partyfinder were hit with a "profanity" strike or warning, example: "E/RP 18+". Many of these venues being advertised were both regular RP, AND ERP in one. The GM(s) look to be blanket banning advertisements via the partyfinder, with the intent on getting rid of ERP specifically. They seem to have gone scorched earth in the process however.

Nothing the GM has said or done suggests ERP, this is a separate assumption.

But yes non-ERP advertisers have been targets and seems scorched earth.

The reasoning give was that PF is not for social use, which is contradicted by statements from other GM's and that it's fine as long as they don't break ToS.

The GM's suggestions also included using /sh and by proxy would mean more ERP shouts and would be more in public view than PF listings. So it's not even as if they're clamping down on ERP advertising.

[Somnolence]

I mean, he legit hates ACT as well. They just don't often have the ability to get proof of use in any way to enforce it. But he's said a lot of times we shouldn't use it either. No third party. No mods. Some things are just harder to catch, or worth it to people to push until they get a warning. He didn't really care about cosmetic mods at first, but then they started getting really lewd and people were sharing them. And a lot of mods are also rips from other content, so intellectual property and stuff gets involved. His concerns are very legit on those fronts. But people will keep doing and using all those things. I mean, RMT is the biggest thorn in their side and that's also never going anywhere. All they can really do is investigate reports. Even if they did ban keywords for PF adverts, people would just make codes, which would be outlined offsite, which would not be said in game chat. -shrugs- I don't see an issue with Yoshi P and crew putting on the guise of a crack down. I just also know it won't do anything.

Last time there was a lot of stir due to nude lalafel mods which obviously can be labeled as CP by law authorities. Guess who were behind this and tried to get community on their side to defend them, especially fearmongering raiders that SE will take down ACT? ERPers.

This is exactly same situation again, this entire incident was specifically a person reporting this because of ERP to GM.

[SturmChurro]

Nothing the GM has said or done suggests ERP, this is a separate assumption.

But yes non-ERP advertisers have been targets and seems scorched earth.

The reasoning give was that PF is not for social use, which is contradicted by statements from other GM's and that it's fine as long as they don't break ToS.

The GM's suggestions also included using /sh and by proxy would mean more ERP shouts and would be more in public view than PF listings. So it's not even as if they're clamping down on ERP advertising.

From what I have heard, it still doesn't change the fact that the actual ToS violation being cited has to do with "profanity", and the advertisements many of these players are getting reported for are for "ERP", "E/RP", and or "18+" venues. Those are the players getting specifically targeted via report, and the same players, I've been told, have gotten action taken against, again "profanity". So, yes, while it looks like social use of the PF is now or was frowned upon, players advertising adult activities look to be many of the ones getting pulled into GM jail, and given warnings or strikes. If any regular RP "establishments" are being hit, it looks to be collateral damage, in an effort to clean the PF of adult advertisements.

[Yencat]

From what I have heard, it still doesn't change the fact that the actual ToS violation being cited has to do with "profanity", and the advertisements many of these players are getting reported for are for "ERP", "E/RP", and or "18+" venues. Those are the players getting specifically targeted via report, and the same players I've been told have gotten action taken against, again "profanity". So, yes, while it looks like social use of the PF is now or was frowned upon, players advertising adult activities look to be many of the ones getting pulled into GM jail, and given warnings or strikes.

People have filed direct reports about this and received the response that they are reviewing the actions taken by the GM and "will be taking the necessary actions to correct and resolve any mistakes that were made on their behalf", so if anyone got caught up in a blanket ban without cause hopefully at least those can be reversed.

[Saefinn]

From what I have heard, it still doesn't change the fact that the actual ToS violation being cited has to do with "profanity", and the advertisements many of these players are getting reported for are for "ERP", "E/RP", and or "18+" venues. Those are the players getting specifically targeted via report, and the same players I've been told have gotten action taken against, again "profanity". So, yes, while it looks like social use of the PF is now or was frowned upon, players advertising adult activities look to be many of the ones getting pulled into GM jail, and given warnings or strikes.

It's also targeting many non ERP ones too. At no point in the logs is profanity referenced but party finder usage for social purposes.

And if it was profanity I wouldn't expect the solution to be to use /sh or the Fellowship Finder because wouldn't it still be profanity regardless of where it's posted?

There's no separate ToS stipulations for profanity between PF, shout and Fellowship Finder.

So if it IS profanity and this is what they constitute as violating this part of the ToS, then all the GM is doing is saying "go break this rule somewhere else" whilst explaining the broken rule isn't profanity but misusing the PF.

Whilst ERP was the nature of the report we know about, but there is a disconnect between the report and this GM's actions.