Community Guidelines and Ratings Guide Adjustments

[Matt]

Hi again, Weasyl users!

We're back, and this time we have big news! We're here to announce the changes and alterations we've made to the Community Guidelines and Ratings Guide. We've gotten a lot of public and private feedback about our policies, so we've taken the time to address items which were in need of clarification as well as smooth out any rough patches in our rules.

There are a few rule adaptations which we feel merit specific attention: First, we've added a new item to the literature section of the community guidelines so that in-depth reviews now qualify as literary submissions. We've also clarified our journal policies as they relate to things like harassment. Please be aware call-outs, insulting content, defamatory posts, etc. are not permissible in journals or any type of Weasyl submission regardless of the subject being a Weasyl user or not.

Finally, we have made the distinction between Mature and Explicit rating more clear in that it is now clearly stated that sexual arousal shown within a submission qualifies as sexual content and therefore requires an Explicit rating. This is also a reminder that neither rating category is meant to be viewed as superior to the other; both require users to be 18+ to view but the Mature category was created in response to user feedback to make it easier to browse content not appropriate for minors but not necessarily sexual in nature.

All of these changes, as well as all additional changes, can be viewed in the following links: Ratings Guidelines Adjusted and Community Guidelines Adjusted. We have highlighted the documents to identify the areas where the language has been clarified, a rule has been added, or an item has been adjusted, for easy review.

It is essential that each user fully reads and understands the changes and clarifications which have occurred and adjust their galleries accordingly. While submissions submitted before these updates will be reviewed with the date of submission in mind, it is primarily the responsibility of the individual user to ensure their gallery is in line with site policy.

If there are any questions or comments about these changes or current policies please let us know. We highly encourage user feedback and would be interested to hear if any items remain unclear or if there are items you do not feel are covered under the current rules. We can be contacted privately at Support@weasyl.com or on our forums

Thanks for taking the time to check in with us. Our next new post will be the first post in our Weasyl Spotlight series, so we hope you're as excited for that as we are. For more updates please follow us on Twitter at @Weasyl and @WeasylDev or our tumblr . You can also help take part in discussion about this post and anything else on our forums.

Thanks again, everyone!

Art by Masked-Lion

[RedSavage]

The whole highlighting bit of all the new features is actually really intuitive. Nice touch. This is a very straight forward and aware set of guidelines that's really on par with the community, I think.

[Mazz]

So "barbie doll nudity" on reference sheets such as seen here: https://www.weasyl.com/submission/63...anna-otter-ref

General or moderate? Currently I classify them under general but if they must be under moderate I understand, it just makes it harder to link clean refs like these off site to non-users.

[Atarashi]

Since the Moderate rating only clearly defines female anatomy, I was wondering just for clarification's sake - I'm assuming this also means no sheaths either? As in, not even remotely sexual the character is just an anthro male vs. a "ken doll" male. I think that needs to be added, only having female nipples down kinda leaves that open. Or if it differs between anthro characters having a sheath or anatomically correct feral art (not pornographic just realistic). Again, /I/ assume sheaths on anthro probably fall into not allowed on moderate but a piece meant to represent someone's male feral dog playing fetch would be alright? I just think that one bit needs to be more clear in the rules. Otherwise it all seems pretty straight forward.

Edit: Those above me brought up a good point with the "Barbie" look too on breasts.

[RedSavage]

Since the Moderate rating only clearly defines female anatomy, I was wondering just for clarification's sake - I'm assuming this also means no sheaths either? As in, not even remotely sexual the character is just an anthro male vs. a "ken doll" male. I think that needs to be added, only having female nipples down kinda leaves that open. Or if it differs between anthro characters having a sheath or anatomically correct feral art (not pornographic just realistic). Again, /I/ assume sheaths on anthro probably fall into not allowed on moderate but a piece meant to represent someone's male feral dog playing fetch would be alright? I just think that one bit needs to be more clear in the rules. Otherwise it all seems pretty straight forward.
Edit: Those above me brought up a good point with the "Barbie" look too on breasts.

Technically a normal doggy running around isn't "naked" in the broadest sense, so sheath and such doesn't apply as nudity.
But an ANTHRO-doggy, well, there's a very real sense of "oh hey that character is naked". So I'd consider that mature.
This is the only distinction I can think to bring up in this scenario.

[KajTaotsu]

The account guidlines are probably going to rile up a lot of artists that ran here to save their name and then leave their accounts to rot with nothing on them, lol. I understand the reasons behind the choices made for it though, since even though those artists have good intent with doing that, they are technically hoarding their own name.

- - - Updated - - -

@Mazz: Submissions under the "Moderate" rating are still viewable for people without accounts I believe since it's just a 13+ rating. Mature and Explicit are user-viewed only.

[LawyerDog]

"NOTE: Any depictions of bodily waste must be rated as Explicit." continues to be very silly. Under this rule any submission that shows someone sweating has to be rated Explicit.

[Socks the Fox]

RE: Releasing claimed usernames

You KNOW someone's going to abuse that. The whole reason 75% of people that create empty accounts do it is to prevent impersonation on sites they otherwise don't use. They try to head that off by registering their name, and then this yanks that out from under them and gives it right to the trolls that will gladly take advantage of it.

[Nix]

I'd like to know the answer to the "barbie-doll nudity" question as well, because it means I'd have to change a LOT of my gallery from General to Moderate. I always figured it would go in General because, I mean....Barbie dolls....

[Gamedog]

I've got an account that was made for NSFW material because I did not want it to be associated with my main art gallery. I don't draw NSFW material often, and I fear that this would put my account in jeopardy of being closed down. Is there a way I can keep my account from being put up for public grabs aside from drawing more art to put on the account? For example, could I create a journal stating that the account is not abandoned or inactive, but that I just don't post as often as I'd like to because I'm mostly a SFW artist?

Thanks!