Are anonymous submissions a thing or can they be a thing?

Please explain your idea.

We had anonymous commenting at one point in the past, and it opened up a door to so much spam it was crazy.

-- BK

Just like that but with submissions. Though that kind of answers what I was wondering.

So kind of like Catbox, TVTropes, Wikipedia, or Discord where someone can successfully imply something is theirs but would be able to have it unclear until they decided to confirm it, or something like Tumblr where you can outright not say something is yours?

Now that I've typed that out, I feel like I'm not against such an idea. I mean, they exist in those places but have limits in those places when it comes to formatting or on the exact style of anonymity.

Also there's another idea I've been thinking of. Side 7 runs on money given to it by the Side 7 community in order to avoid ad dependence, correct? Could an option be implemented where, if someone cannot pay in money, they can pay with their own art and artisticness? Technically all sites have that power, possession is nine tenths or whatever they say. TVTropes is famous for thriving this way.

Side 7 is almost a purely out-of-pocket endeavor, with the occasional small donation coming in. I refuse to put ads on the site for a number of reasons.

What do you mean by "pay with their own art and artisticness"? Also, Side 7 claims no ownership over the artwork posted on it, so...

-- BK

Better profile customization definitely would help IMO, like custom boxes where people could just put whatever they wish to show? And options to change colours.

For example, one of my dearest memories of the golden days of deviantArt was displaying my stamp collection on my profile. And when a site that shall remain unnamed gave an option to do something like this as well, it made me very happy and excited to start seeking for stamps to show.

Aye, we have some on the Forums but not in the galleries at large, so I hack 'em into comments as embedded images. :^) One thing that dA got right (and then scuttled with Eclipse) was community index sourced directly from submissions. I think I've mentioned it before, and it could be a useful feature here...

I know a few regulars that are handy with pixel art. If you're eyeing an expansion, I can look into optioning contributors.

Yes please!

We have a dedicated evangelism thread that might help organizing off-site promotion. I run an embassy on dA but I clearly do not have the right connections because I can't even get my own friends to move. XD We had a volunteer running the Facebook group but they retired several months ago. I'm not actually a social media guy myself, so anyone that can take on the mantle will be greatly appreciated.

This actually exists: the "Referred By" field on the signup page awards 25 Credits to the designated username (I believe the highest reward short of direct gifts). Side note but giving us an easy link that auto-fills the referral would help clarify correct formatting: I'm not sure whether it only parses the account name (@_name), whether including the '@' makes a difference, and/or whether it recognizes the display name; I know at least one friend I did coax over didn't credit me. :x

Beyond the potential issues with abuse, I'm not sure what purpose anonymous uploads would serve: Hotlinking is forbidden, which precludes the typical use as an externally-referenced filehost.

You do not need to pay for anything on the site (But It Helps!™): Credits are awarded simply through general interaction, and all potential account upgrades are listed in the Store.

I have two questions. You can count them as site ideas if the answer to either one is no.

Question 1: If someone participates in a forum game, are the rules of the forum game enforced like the rules of the main site (or to what extent)?

Question 2: This might sound silly to ask unless one really thinks about it, but are we required to be sober when using the site or forums? Asking based on my experiences in chats (Discord or otherwise) and in other forums, where people will often have intense bruh moments and do that ubiquitous activity commonly known in forums as shitposting, which has the potential to leave a bit of public history, and then realizing there are some of this who do this chronically (I was once in an obscure alcohol forum, probably the only one that has ever existed, and they had to time people out routinely).

I can attest the answer to the first question is yes. Fun fact, the DeviantArt forums are the only ones I've seen where there's an active effort to not enforce forum game rules, and yeah, this includes all those cocktail forums (I'm on them all, it isn't just one obscure one). Would be curious though where you've been where sobriety (mental things like DID, maybe, but sobriety?) is that much of an issue.

To cut to the quick: All activity on Side 7 is expected to abide by site rules. Inebriated posts are at your own peril; I know one person who drunkposted on CivFanatics, but that only amounted to messy typing. If someone's shot their mouth off and tries to excuse it the next morning as the result of intoxication lifting inhibitions, that ain't gonna fly: regardless of state of mind, the fault is in the act.

As regards Question 1 specifically: I would not expect S7 staff to enforce forum game "house rules" unless something is rubbing up against general site policy. The only potential exception to the latter is good-faith player blacklists: over on CFC I was involved in a countryRP group that suffered several incidents of "problem players" disrupting games with spammish posting, trollish play, and fights over metagaming. However, since the activity did not technically break site rules unless it devolved into personal insults, board moderation first ignored it outright (I ran one of the early games and was told point-blank: "I'm not bothering to investigate this") and later effectively abetted it by forbidding GM-enforced blacklists, stating they were counter to the site's general inclusionary principles, and basically demanding disputes be resolved "in character" (with the predictable result that instead of nipping the spat in the bud, we had to sit by and watch it hijack the game).

Now, CFC sets a phenomenally high bar for what staff considers bad-faith activity (to the particular detriment of the Off-Topic board), and from what I've seen of S7's culture, I don't think inter-player disputes would ever be allowed to reach the sort of loggerheads I describe. We haven't seen such games yet, but how much of a tolerance can be afforded to "in-character" rhetoric is a topic worth a separate discussion.

@Thorvald beat me to the punch in answering these particular questions. I'll just add that the expected decorum site-wide includes the forums. It basically boils down to "Don't be a jerk."

Being intoxicated is different for everyone. I know people who just become happy, loving, and friendlier when intoxicated. I also know people who act like total asshats when intoxicated. Posting while intoxicated is at your own risk. You're still responsible for what you post, good, bad, or indifferent.

-- BK

I made the Over the Garden Wall art group and the Beyond American Borders (a prequel to Over the Garden Wall) group. Now what?

I would say promote it and see if you can attract new group members and can share art in there.

-- BK

Ok, cool.💛

First time ever commenting on a forum, as somebody said earlier, more options to customize your profile perhaps, maybe even include our own personalized banners at some point. Also, something I'm not personally a fan of is how the thumbnails look with that text that covers a part of them as it makes it a little harder to see image fully and, also, makes them less appealing that way.

Otherwise I think the site is pretty cool. 😎

Seconding this. I don’t know if customization is still a selling point for most websites, but for me it is. Certainly not to the level of ToyHouse, where you could insert malicious code in your profile like obtrusive pagedolls, but something like DevianArt’s level of customization pre-Eclipse would be nice.

This is something that has been on my radar for a while. I'm working on trying to figure out the best way of implementing it.

-- BK

I have an idea for this place, one which I realized I'd recommend for any site. I had this idea for a while, but interest in it went up after watching the video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3WYgdyCg5A

This site is a youngling still, so I was wondering, instead of getting high-tech security for passwords, what if it had a password system that consisted of something like a dropdown menu or some kind of vetting widget (think the vault on Kreludor in Neopets, @Thorvaldo might remember that) instead of something people can type in (since passwords people can type are what hacking has adapted to).

Considering Side 7 was founded 1993, it's hardly young.

It would take a lot of coding and re-working on the core security system to do something like that. And, I'm not even sure if something like that would be more secure. Now, I could see automatically making suggestions for secure passwords when someone requests to change their password.

-- BK

it's fun to just read through this thread haha I love the convo beats that I see. in reply to a couple things above, 1) side7 is a whole year older than me, and 2) I'm a sappy type drunk 😂

on a more I-may-actually-contribute-to-the-conversation note, I see mentioned often about side7 being a totally ad-free site and I do really appreciate that. but! there's this game website I've been playing recently called "Pixel Cat's End" (they have open reg right now so check it out!) whose developer, Squid, has a similarly firm stance against mass-media type ads. but what they have done is provide an option for site supporters to put their own ads up, and it works really amazingly well. :3 Squid screens ad requests for quality control (they are $7 apiece), and people use the ad space for things like comics, art shops, social media pages, and I've even seen ads where the message is just "here is a picture of my goobus cat. youre welcome." I think it works really well there because the site culture is very small and thoughtful, and I feel like the vibes here are similar. I wonder if something like that could work for potentially offsetting some site expenses without opening the place up to corporate ads? 

Yeah, I've had thoughts along those lines from time to time. I just haven't acted on them because I wasn't sure anyone would actually participate in it. But, it might be worth a shot. And is that $7 week? Per month? Per X number of showings?

-- BK

it's $7 for two months (60 days). C: I just had a look at it to double check and the first month (30 days) is $4, then every additional month is another $3 (so say you wanted 3 months, it'd be $10.) I said $7 off the top of my head bc I guess I've never bought less than 60 days.

Good to know! Thank you!

-- BK

I have a question about audio submissions. When making an audio submission, how does one know whether to mark it as mature content or not? What are the telltale signs while listening to your own audio submission that would make a good uploader think "I think this calls for the NSFW label"?

Well, the ratings guide covers that. Is there anything in particular that you're concerned with?

-- BK