New Rule: DNI (Do Not Interact) Lists are Banned

[נוריאל]

I actually agree with you that it is extremely frustrating to be put in this situation. I've gotten warned before for linking my TH when I wasn't even linking directly to anything violent or "inappropriate" according to cs rules. They had to go for a deep dive in order to dig up stuff that was against the rules, and even then, it was very mild stuff. While I do find it very frustrating, I can also sort of understand why the staff do this? It's to protect children from possibly harmful content and keep them from seeing anything that could disturb them. Still, I do think it's a bit too much to not let people link character pages for commissions or trading, because someone might just so happen to explore the rest of your TH from there and stumble upon something that is against cs rules, even if it is behind multiple warnings. In my personal opinion, it is then on the person digging around and not the fault of the person who linked something completely unrelated for a commission or trade.

Tldr; I can absolutely see both sides of this, and have experienced frustration over this particular rule, but above all, cs has to look out for the safety of minors. Otherwise, they could get in big trouble.

The whole 'to protect children from possibly harmful content and keep them from seeing anything that could disturb them' falls apart when you realize that harmful content can be accessed from anywhere online in a few clicks; there's nsfw on twitter, am I inherently responsible for children stumbling upon it anytime I link to twitter? Even if MY link is adhering to CS's rules? No, of course not. It would be ridiculous to try and punish people for the things you find a few clicks away from their links. But somehow, staff on this website cannot apply that line of logic to what people MIGHT see if they look at our profiles. It's one thing to say "don't link to an nsfw twitter profile", and another thing entirely to say "you cannot link to toyhou.se if you list your age there because a minor ~ might ~ see it".

[Lemon Tea Rain]

What happens if you're attempting to commission someone on chickensmoothie, and you link your character's toyhou.se profile, & then chickensmoothie staff goes digging & finds you have a DNI & punishes you for it?
What happens if you're attempting to do offsite trading with someone, and the same happens?
It's one thing to ban content on YOUR SITE, and another thing entirely to punish people for... using other websites in a way you dislike? It's utterly ridiculous & always has been.

I can't say this has ever happened to me, honestly. I have a site that used to state my age on my profile that I would link at times for specific character trades etc, no cs mod ever went scouring my profile for an age to 'punish' me for, I'm assuming in part because no-one ever felt the need to report it. I only even took my age out of the profile recently because I wanted to link it on cs permanently and realized it would be against the rules if I did when double checking everything.

I doubt they're going to go digging six pages through your links without an existing report just to make more work for themselves to police a DNI that isn't even something they need to worry about right now, don't worry. Unless they're worried you're linking straight up violence/gore etc, then they might go digging.

The mods aren't out to get you, they aren't out to police your activity on other sites and they aren't out to specifically inconvenience you and other DNI list users. They're trying to keep this site safe.

[Silver Pandorica]

I actually agree with you that it is extremely frustrating to be put in this situation. I've gotten warned before for linking my TH when I wasn't even linking directly to anything violent or "inappropriate" according to cs rules. They had to go for a deep dive in order to dig up stuff that was against the rules, and even then, it was very mild stuff. While I do find it very frustrating, I can also sort of understand why the staff do this? It's to protect children from possibly harmful content and keep them from seeing anything that could disturb them. Still, I do think it's a bit too much to not let people link character pages for commissions or trading, because someone might just so happen to explore the rest of your TH from there and stumble upon something that is against cs rules, even if it is behind multiple warnings. In my personal opinion, it is then on the person digging around and not the fault of the person who linked something completely unrelated for a commission or trade.

Tldr; I can absolutely see both sides of this, and have experienced frustration over this particular rule, but above all, cs has to look out for the safety of minors. Otherwise, they could get in big trouble.

The whole 'to protect children from possibly harmful content and keep them from seeing anything that could disturb them' falls apart when you realize that harmful content can be accessed from anywhere online in a few clicks; there's nsfw on twitter, am I inherently responsible for children stumbling upon it anytime I link to twitter? Even if MY link is adhering to CS's rules? No, of course not. It would be ridiculous to try and punish people for the things you find a few clicks away from their links. But somehow, staff on this website cannot apply that line of logic to what people MIGHT see if they look at our profiles. It's one thing to say "don't link to an nsfw twitter profile", and another thing entirely to say "you cannot link to toyhou.se if you list your age there because a minor ~ might ~ see it".

Yeah, I totally agree with you. This is exactly how I look at it, but I was just trying to explain where the staff may be coming from. But I definitely agree that if the direct thing you're linking isn't against cs rules, it should be allowed. Unfortunately, I don't think this is going to change, simply because of the nature of this site and it's audience.

I can't say this has ever happened to me, honestly. I have a site that used to state my age on my profile that I would link at times for specific character trades etc, no cs mod ever went scouring my profile for an age to 'punish' me for, I'm assuming in part because no-one ever felt the need to report it. I only even took my age out of the profile recently because I wanted to link it on cs permanently and realized it would be against the rules if I did when double checking everything.

I doubt they're going to go digging six pages through your links without an existing report just to make more work for themselves to police a DNI that isn't even something they need to worry about right now, don't worry. Unless they're worried you're linking straight up violence/gore etc, then they might go digging.

The mods aren't out to get you, they aren't out to police your activity on other sites and they aren't out to specifically inconvenience you and other DNI list users. They're trying to keep this site safe.

It has happened to me. The mods don't dig through random profiles, but rather rely on user reports, which means someone clicked on my TH link and dug around until they found something mildly inappropriate, then reported it. Just because it doesn't happen very often does not mean it doesn't happen at all. I do agree though that the mods are just trying to keep the site safe, since it is geared towards minors. While I don't always agree with them, I understand why they do what they do.

[Lacuna]

Just want to clarify that there is a difference between linking to a character on your personal toyhouse where your profile you control also has rule breaking content, and linking to Twitter (though I’m not sure why you would) and someone else’s profile you don’t control having inappropriate content. You’re responsible for what you post on your links. You can easily share just the direct link to a character image for a commission if needed, so there is nothing else to find.

[Lemon Tea Rain]

It has happened to me. The mods don't dig through random profiles, but rather rely on user reports, which means someone clicked on my TH link and dug around until they found something mildly inappropriate, then reported it. Just because it doesn't happen very often does not mean it doesn't happen at all. I do agree though that the mods are just trying to keep the site safe, since it is geared towards minors. While I don't always agree with them, I understand why they do what they do.

Ah, yeah, that's why I put "without an existing report" and "unless they suspect violence/gore" etc. It does happen, but it's because of user reports & an attempt to keep people safe, not some desire to squash out all DNI lists and keep their users obeying their commands everywhere no matter what. I'm trying to argue the

this new rule is, once again, a way to attempt to control our behavior on other websites

Not that no mod will respond to reports about content on other sites :')

[Silver Pandorica]

It has happened to me. The mods don't dig through random profiles, but rather rely on user reports, which means someone clicked on my TH link and dug around until they found something mildly inappropriate, then reported it. Just because it doesn't happen very often does not mean it doesn't happen at all. I do agree though that the mods are just trying to keep the site safe, since it is geared towards minors. While I don't always agree with them, I understand why they do what they do.

Ah, yeah, that's why I put "without an existing report" and "unless they suspect violence/gore" etc. It does happen, but it's because of user reports & an attempt to keep people safe, not some desire to squash out all DNI lists and keep their users obeying their commands everywhere no matter what. I'm trying to argue the

this new rule is, once again, a way to attempt to control our behavior on other websites

Not that no mod will respond to reports about content on other sites :')

Oop my bad, I missed that line of your post! But yes, I agree they're just trying to keep people safe, not just go on a power trip. The mods definitely don't have malicious intentions. While the rules are very strict on this site, it's all done with the intention of keeping kids safe.

[Funkyfandom]

you can say that this isn't the place for DNIs all you want, but that's simply not true? this is a forum site. people interact with each other here. some people are traumatized and don't want to interact with those who could potentially send them into an episode. some people get very heated over different opinions and just don't want to interact with those that they have opposing opinions with. some people just.. don't want to interact with certain people?

if you're going to run a website where people interact with each other, you have to be able to let them curate that experience themselves, and for some people that means letting them have a DNI.

i agree i hope i dont get banned

[useless witch]

you can say that this isn't the place for DNIs all you want, but that's simply not true? this is a forum site. people interact with each other here. some people are traumatized and don't want to interact with those who could potentially send them into an episode. some people get very heated over different opinions and just don't want to interact with those that they have opposing opinions with. some people just.. don't want to interact with certain people?

if you're going to run a website where people interact with each other, you have to be able to let them curate that experience themselves, and for some people that means letting them have a DNI.

But.. what about those of us these DNI harm in exchange? /Genuine

[Libelle]

The following is an example of a DNI list that is now against the rules:

Do not interact if:
- You like Marvel
- You are *insert an age group*
- You are *insert a religion*
- You are ableist

This was very helpful! Thank you very much! I believe, I have seen something similar on Twitter before, but not on Chicken Smoothie.

Do not send me a trade if you are a hoarder!

This is not necessarily a DNI list in and of itself, but is already against our "expressing anti- statements" rule, and is absolutely reportable.

Oh, I didn’t know that. So far, I’ve simply blocked those users. Trying to trade with them would have been futile anyway. I’ve been wracking my brain trying to think of something that people have been writing in their trade rules that could be interpreted as a DNI, and this was the only thing that I could think of. Maybe most DNI lists are put in signatures? I have signatures blocked.

"Do not sent me any religious messages!"

We would prefer for users to report unsolicited messages that make them uncomfortable so that we can review them, but this would not be breaking the rule.

We are talking about hundreds of messages that I (i.e. one single user) have been receiving. I cannot imagine staff wanting to deal with them all. Here is something that I don’t understand, though:

I receive a flood of unsolicited messages of a religious, discriminatory and/or harmful nature (1) when I mention that I am queer (for example, when I write on the hoarders discussion thread that I am doing a pride hoard), and (2) when I mention that I am pro sexual and gender diversity. People have been saying that the same is true when (3) they write “DNI if you are homophobic”. If all three make me a target and put me at risk, why are (1) and (2) allowed and (3) isn’t?

[Lacuna]

On my phone so I can’t quote properly, but we don’t care if it’s hundreds of messages, we want to moderate them, especially if they’re hateful towards protected groups on CS. That is our job. And the difference is 1 and 2 are normal site interactions and if someone responds adversely to that, it breaks the rules and we will deal with it. The DNI list can’t also be a normal site interaction where others can reply positively and have a normal, rule-abiding interaction.