yeah what the title says- i noticed that guest users can still see mature rated content, so it’s easy for minors to look at nsfw content if they are not logged in-

I bet YOU look at NSFW content.

@The-Wizard-of-Zaar yes i DO consume NSFW content and i MAKE it too

This is actually very similar to a suggestion I was planning to make. When my session times out and Side7 logs me out, Mature posts appear as a warning thumbnail. I've.. honestly never bothered to click on them to check if they would load the obscured content 😅. If the user can't be identified in some way, they should not be able to see or read things directed at an adult audience.

What I wanted to suggest—if you'll forgive me for piggybacking on your thread—was to allow users to set a default minimum privacy setting that would apply to their account, profile, gallery, and journals. The minimum could be adjusted anywhere from "no restrictions" to "registered users only" to 'no accounts created less than X weeks/months ago' or "18+ only".

The reason I would like this is because I have a following (stalkers, and family, and co-workers..) who cannot resist peeking into any corner of my life they can access. Setting my account to 'registered users only' would force them to create a username (which I would likely recognize) and that I could block if they gave off that creeper vibe. Even if it meant that I would never appear as "Artist of the Day", I would absolutely use such a setting. It's extremely stressful to be on alert at all times.

I have known several NSFW artists who actually share very little M-rated content, but for their own comfort, they don't want minors to be able to see their characters, leave comments on their work, or contact them through the DM system. They shouldn't have to worry that a kid is going to fall in love with their character, talk about it in the comments (potentially attracting predators), or endanger the artist by initiating a Mature, private conversation with them that could put them in serious legal trouble if they receive/read/reply to it.

@Cynicallia omg i agree with getting those privacy settings, an option for friends only would be great too-
i sometimes get this feeling out of nowhere that someone stalks me online and i get so terrified that i delete most of my socials and make the rest private xD so ik i would use tf out of them here-

Thank you for your suggestion. This one will require some thought, for a number of reasons.

First, let me say that I fully recognize and acknowledge where you're coming from, and it's given me pause for thought. Where I run into hesitation is the following:
- Having the thumbnails blocked for M-rated content with a warning message has been the way for 30 years now, with no issues.
- M-rated material should not contain any sexually explicit material, as per the site rules.
- Forcing a user to log in does not guarantee that minors are not able to view the material; it's just an extra step.

That being said, I am taking your suggestion very seriously, and I am taking it into consideration. It's the kind of suggestion that requires some serious thought, and not a knee-jerk reaction to. I'm interested to see what the community at large feels about this suggestion, too.

-- BK

This is a very good suggestion, and one I can easily get behind. Account privacy settings like these are commonplace in many social media sites, and there is no reason I shouldn't offer the same kind of privacy to you all. I'll put this on my to-do list.

-- BK

I had also thought about a "Friends Only" or "Approved Followers Only" setting, but it didn't feel right for Side7. I keep my socials Private and manually approve/deny new follower requests, and that does work well to keep bots, art thieves, repost accounts, and other unwanted individuals out of my hair.

But, Side7 isn't riddled with malice like that. It's supposed to feel like a community, where we talk, comment, and feel a sense of peace. There was an awful situation with spambot commenters like you wouldn't believe (just before the site enjoyed its recent revival), but BK took care of that. He disabled commenting and rooted out the problems, and it's been smooth sailing since then.

There might be an argument that it's good for us to close up our accounts completely, except to those we personally approve. Maybe that is what it takes for some folks to really feel secure. I know from my own experience in other places that it would discourage me from reaching out to seek access and make new friends, for not wanting to bother anyone. From my perspective, mega lockdowns would make it feel like devArt, how they encourage artists to hide their best work behind a paywall to sell more Core subscriptions.

Again, though, those are my feelings. There are surely valid arguments to support Super Private accounts.

I'm on the fence about hard-gating 'M' content outright, mainly because it covers a breadth of topics, not all of them sexual (which I think is the main concern here). Things like rampant profanity and incidental nudity (i.e. photos of Classical sculptures) qualify as 'M' in the current rules, but whether these warrant ID checks IRL is a debate fraught with cultural relativity, and morally- and politically-charged gatekeeping (see the 2006 documentary, This Film Is Not Yet Rated).

Part of the issue is Internet ratings standards do not correspond to other ratings systems, i.e. film and television, with a single line drawn between "Adult Content" and everything else, and hardly any firm definitions theretoward. Websites that do want more granular categories are left to their own, and typically ape the movie/TV boards' for recognition's sake (see: Censorship Pandas). The way I've interpreted Side 7's ratings is along the lines of the Canadian motion picture guide, which is the closest comparable standard to the USA while being a lot more intuitive (also because I'm a rampant Canuckboo):

- Everyone (G): nothing outright objectionable; suitable to anyone, including young children;
- Teen (PG): Anything that would give a parent pause to leave their kid alone with it. Beyond the more obvious: cartoon violence, non-swear insults, 'tame' macabre imagery;
- Mature (14A]: Basically, the higher-level themes you'd expect to see in the Young Adult section: not suitable for young kids, but not so graphic it becomes AO.
- Adult Only (18A): The stuff you can't access without ID.

As several users here know, I've been backseat-moderating upload ratings ahead of official induction into site staff, and while most of the T–M edge cases are self-evident, there are a few that balance on the knife's edge. One of Buzzly.art's early stumbles was having too many discrete categories that overlapped each other, paired with an aggressive moderation that abused these blurred lines to prosecute clerical errors with extreme prejudice. In addition to causing mass confusion, this also likely had a suppressive effect on users who fit within the "safe zone" of other sites but found they'd jumped several grades on Buzzly: CivFanatics is officially PG-rated, but many of my DYOS submissions that are unrestricted public viewing and never raised flags there, warranted 16+ on Buzzly (often on pedantic definitions).

S7 exemplifies that less is more: 'M' offers a comfortable margin of error for material that is best handled as opt-in, but not to the point a casual user feels they've blundered into something that'll get the cops on their tail. The one thing that could be improved in this regard is an "Are You Sure?" popup (browser-cookie-linked) for guests/users that haven't enabled M thumbnails, to check-box that the viewer is fit to access the content/absolves the site of liability.

(Side note: DeviantArt used to offer guest users an age confirmation screen on Mature-tagged works, but this was tacitly scrapped with Eclipse.)

I'm not sure if Eclipse torpedoed it, but I know you used to be able to flag uploads to only display for logged-in users. (They do now have "Watchers-Only" flags for individual uploads, separate from Premium Galleries.) One of the very few things Buzzly did right was enabling users to self-flag their accounts as 18+ (before the March Coup and subsequent pivot to adults-only) to screen them out of general browsing. Given that A-O content is hard-gated and doesn't show up on the front page, there's infrastructure in place that could probably be adapted for more general purposes like this.

Admittedly I came in during the long slump, but what immediately struck me about this site is how cozy it feels—even after the Toyhou.se deluge, the chillax atmosphere hasn't waned a bit.


May follow this up later on the weekend; I'm rushing to clear out a backlog on bad sleep before a trip tomorrow and I've probably forgotten half of what I planned to write. :B

I agree with some of the points raised and not with the others.
Things I'd support
- No access to higher rated works for guests and logged in accounts that have a DOB younger than 18 should also be restricted from viewing adult works too.
- An option for the user to select that they don't want to view content above a certain rating and the option to have their account only be viewable by logged in users (I use both options over at Fur Affinity and it's worked well for me)

What I don't support
- Private/friends only accounts, unless I get the option to not have them interact with me or my stuff. I have the same issue with Twitter's locked accounts, people can quote tweet me but yet I don't have the right to see how they are interacting with me???
I understand wanting privacy (especially if you've experienced harassment before) but there's got to be a balance between the two.

Y'know, Side 7 already has the Portfolios in place. What if a user could designate one folder as NSFW works? And then posts that the user would prefer not to leave in the open for minors without an account could be restricted to the user's comfort by placing them in the folder while still allowing a general audience access to other, appropriate works. It could even be the user's option to have the works not appear in their main gallery unless the viewer's age is verified/the viewer is using an account with an appropriate DOB. I know it would be a lot of work, so this would be something to set up much further in the future.