hinatot the tumblr bans that you are referring to disproportionately affected queer people... that's really the point of all this. if it really was about the "legal difficulties" then they would ALSO be banning lingerie. and suggestive posing. and ALL fetish gear. but they aren't. they're allowing these "normal" expressions of sexuality to stay up, while banning other forms of it that should be completely allowed under a filter. there is nothing about a pup hood or leather that makes it inherently more explicit than lingerie. and yes, nsfw does refer to more than just sex, for example gratuitous violence and gore which is STILL allowed on site.

i think a lot of people don't understand the legal side of things. there's legalities involved in being a site actively hosting visual nsfw, and nsfw doesn't only refer to genetials/sex. this also isn't changing rules so much as clarifying them. comparing to sites like da and tumblr isn't really valid as both of them had their height of nsfw before a lot of regulations came along, and once those regulations did... they cracked down on nsfw. not perfectly, but there's a reason so many blogs on tumblr got deleted for nsfw, for instance. ao3, too, isn't a good analog, as it deals in written works which have different legalities... and also is straight up banned in multiple countries for being too nsfw so even then it's not just off the hook

also if you're not actively trying to draw hyper/inflation/etc you're not going to accidentally stumble into it, i promise. exaggerated proportions are not under attack

My own last comment on the matter after some more thought- the owners/admins shouldn't punish others because they themselves are sex-repulsed, which is very obvious with them trying to ban kink/fetish content without understanding just how much that encompasses. They clearly don't understand how kink/fetish work because they actively avoid it, which is why the new rule changes are so vague. 

If you can't be mature enough to remove yourself from the equation and act professionally and think critically when making changes to rules and regulations, then you shouldn't even be running a site like this or moderating anything at all. Again, as someone on the ace spectrum and having moderation experience in the past- the whole point is being able to take an objective stance without personal feelings having any sway in decision making, even if it's something that you don't personally vibe with. 

The filter systems work as is already, and I'm pretty sure they already know this. They just don't want to continue moderating it themselves and get exposed to content they don't like, so they want to get rid of it entirely. It's immature and unprofessional as hell. ArtFight is not going to be your own "safe space" if you're in a moderator position, that much should be obvious. If you want to properly curate your own online experience, become a regular user and utilize the filter settings like everyone else. 

To the owners/admin team, you need to reflect on if you really have the site's and user's best interests in mind, or if you're just pandering to your own sensibilities. Don't punish users who enjoy sfw "kink" themed content like fetish clothing and whatever else just because it personally gives you the ick. If there's no outright NSFW, then let it ride. You don't get to suddenly redefine what is and isn't considered fetish/kink content to fit your own interpretations. It's too broad a topic, and it would only take a few minutes of googling and research to know that. Educate yourselves if you don't understand it and stop punishing people who don't follow your same line of thinking. I'm glad you're doing your best to upkeep the page after everything that's happened and that's certainly not an easy thing to do, but AF isn't your personal echo chamber.

edit: To anyone claiming it's for legal or 'but think of the children' reasons, please realize these are weak and convenient excuses for them to further police people. You already cannot access AF without an account, there is no NSFW allowed, and there are filters in place for any other content anyone doesn't want to see. No one is asking for NSFW to be allowed, we're just asking for clarity of the rules and the freedom to draw characters in ways and clothing that isn't further limited with the rules already established. Add new filters for anything that may tread the line if people want to be completely sure- that is what's truly going to alleviate mod strain. 

magpierrot that’s really beautiful. I like toys and monster trucks 

Epiphany THANK UUUUU <3 ur bio is so well organized i love it

yanqing ur profile is so sick

Literally didn't even read the filter changes at first because like. I figured it'd all be common sense, right, there's no way they could mess it up. No way could I accidentally... upload... """fetish""" art... just by having a... character with... exaggerated... proportions... oh dear.

Yeah can we get some clarity. Or like even one single visual aid on what is presently the most confusing and vague filter category. Literally what do you mean by "overly-exaggerated proportions" because that's just. That's just toony characters. That's just how you design a toony character.  I'm especially frightened that this will be used to absolutely eradicate obese characters as they'll all be falsely reported as "fat fetish" characters just for... existing. Poor show on this one, mods, really poor show.
And like, why is it disallowed entirely on what you consider to be a "fetish" character, but overly-exaggerated proportions are fine under a filter as long as mods consider it an "unsettling distortion" under body horror? 

lunarhallow if ads do eventually get added, i hope this would be the case where they sell as space to the community first

Akivaq I'm actually worried about this one. I would hope they try selling ad space to artist of the community first (and I don't mean the donor perk of being on the front page. I mean actual ad that goes to a website off AF) before resorting to Adsense. I suppose they have to do what they have to do, and I can only hope they implement it in a way that's non-invasive unlike other websites

actually.. this ban would make more sense if art fight is going to start introducing ads to this website, as most advertisers would refuse to advertise on websites with nsfw content and the only ones that would advertise in a website with nsfw are just the "HOT CHICKS IN UR AREA" type of ads
is this their intention this entire time?

does anyone here like miku im gonna see her live in october

Before her tour at the final night in Liverpool. I'm so excited!

sharpiepaws Alright, just wanted to provide some insight that wasn't just them being potentially queerphobic. I hope they do state their reasoning or fix the guidelines to be more clear on what isnt allowed so people with that worry are more assured, because honestly it isn't a good look if that's what  the community is left thinking.

lunarhallow yea i get it's all speculation, but i just do not buy that AT ALL. especially about the fetish thing, because the level of fetish stuff that they are now deeming too explicit to be on the site is on the same level as stuff i can find walking into a spencers lol. etsy allows fetish gear. you can check out with paypal. online shops that EXCLUSIVELY sell alternative sex toys allow you to check out with paypal. i'm not going to give them the benefit of the doubt that's it's potential payment processor woes, because the people who would ACTUALLY have to worry about that are operating just fine.

Akivaq I see, my misunderstanding then. I can't guess as to why Paypal is fine with certain websites but not all/independent artist. I only made my speculation because I see this kind of ban pulled when someone's worried about a payment processor or their funding being pulled, and I know Paypal has a history of banning even SFW accounts for suggestive material. Whether that's the reason or not, we probably won't know for sure, but it doesn't feel like it's "protect the children" when we have filters in place already and they just need to be worked on.