“Go, prick thy face, and over-red thy fear, Thou lily-liver’d boy.”
Macbeth (Act 5, Scene 3)
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I know there isn’t likely to be a perfect solution here, I am not an expert on LBTQIA+ issues, I know even less about running and maintaining an online community, and I’m relatively new here.
All that said, here’s my two-cent hot take:
If we’re doing the group thing, I support the “opt-out” method for sure.
But I’m with the people saying this shouldn’t even be a group that we need to opt in or out of. People can mute tags that they don’t like if it’s that much of an issue for them.
I think @sexygoatgod put it best: having a group system for this makes it too visible.
Unlike typical controversial content (like anthro or enfie babbeh), this is something that people are very tribal about irl as well as online.
Using groups to filter this kind of content makes it an issue of identity (“oh, you support that kind of content?”) rather than allowing people to anonymously browse things they might not want to publicly be in a group for. All this will succeed in doing is creating echo chambers.
My one caveat is that this only works if we competently prevent bile and harassment in the comments of these works. This is extremely important. Creating an open forum and allowing that kind of nastiness just creates an even worse, hostile space.
Which is why I do empathize with the “walled garden” approach that was originally taken. I understand that the needed level of moderation may be beyond our current capacity, and that any solution will be imperfect. But I think it’s worth considering.
Sorry for the wall of text; I just feel strongly about this.
tl;dr: Ditch the group system and let people mute tags they don’t like, but have zero tolerance for harassment and nastiness in the comments.
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I found that muting tags did not do enough to keep the content from being seen by the people that actively hate that content. That’s the entire reason why I’ve shifted to using groups/categories to do this job.
Right now I’m working with an incomplete toolset, and I’m hoping that in the future it might become more complete. (Discourse is still in open Beta and getting updates every week)
If I could create groups that do not have a list of people that are in said group, I would.
But for the moment that is not an option.
I appreciate your response.
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Everything should be opt out
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To expand on this: tags only have a chance of working if people use them. There’s a lot of tags, and people don’t always use them to the fullest nor does it necessarily mean it occurs to them to use certain ones. It can be a little hit or miss (sometimes very).
I think Virgil is doing a good job with everything based on the tools at his disposal.
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I’m working with an incomplete toolset
Thank you for the work you do here, and for giving this issue the serious consideration it deserves.
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I disagree. I think some of the more explicit content (human/fluffy sex for instance, explicit anthro content as well) really needs to be opt in, not opt out. I don’t think we can reasonably expect some sort of meaningful age verification system given there’s no ads on the site to generate revenue (and frankly, that’d have its own problems too).
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It’s my honor. I’m glad to have been in the right place at the right time.
Keeping this community together is a lot like raising a fluffy.
No matter what you do to take care of it,
you give it a nice saferoom,
you feed it only Hasbio-approved food
you put cushions on every corner and covers on every electrical outlet
and yet, for some reason
this community will still find a way to eat itself or fucking implode.
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I don’t believe children should be here period. But ultimately it’s their parents job to safeguard them online not ours. Adult themes are always being explored here this is not a place for kids. Perhaps this would be a more suitable place for them?
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shrugs yet they find their way here 
I think there’s a difference between mature topics and themes versus explicit content. For instance, Stwumpo (who is on Reddit) does a lot of mature topics and themes, but its not necessarily explicit content.
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Perhaps if we got some kind of robot to detect them?
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Opt out. Plenty of people have voiced their reasons that I fully agree with. When it comes to LGBTQ+ topics I believe it’s more important to be seen and heard regularly in the open. Despite the many slings and arrows that may come their way to regulate it to its own hidden space is a disservice to the community and to those who may join in the future.
Also @Virgil . Thanks for setting up this topic and discussion. I know I have my own strong feelings on this matter but seeing a lively and earnest back and forth gives me a great sense of optimism and community.
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lol - assuming that even worked it’d cost money. Which gets back to revenues, ads, etc. Which I don’t think is something we really want to consider.
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The glaring problem right now is the fact that kids are now online more than they’ve ever been.
They have to do online school, their parents get them online subscriptions to keep them out of their hair…
This looks like the most dehumanized and internet-fixated generation I could have ever imagined.
I’ve had to toss out two people that were 9 years old.
That is not the record catch, either.
I believe one of the other reddit moderators caught someone that was 8
These kids are in a bad state of mind.
Just like I was when I found fluffies.
Just like a lot of people were when they found fluffies.
There’s an unusual amount of acceptance and camaraderie in our community.
I can’t entirely blame them for wanting to “sit at the Big Kids’ Table”
And filtering them out is not the easiest thing to do.
Do I ask them for a credit card number?
That seems pretty fucking Sus
(I think I’m using this word right)
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Say that to my anus.
(new skippy emote! Yay!
Thank you @gr1m_1 )
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The amount of abuse I see on my feed because PEOPLE DON’T FUCKIN USE THE TAG. I have so many different kinds of abuse blacklisted too. ugh.
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Yeah, I feel you.
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I’ve been trying to encourage people to use “hellgremlin” more. And really, I need to do more tagging of my own as I’m sure I could better describe my own content. The more and better we use the tags, the better it is for everyone. Its just this is the first forum I’ve been on that so readily benefits from it its going to take practice for me to maximize.
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