Hello, everyone!
Until somewhat recently, I was a General Moderator. I switched to Forum Moderator not long ago, and jumped further into the forums than I've been or had to be in a long time. While I was in there, some issues came to my attention as rather pressing and they affect the site as a whole, so I'd like to talk about them. This isn't a message just for those that use the forums though - it's relevant to everyone.
In case you haven't seen the
Site Rules lately, I'll just preface this by saying we're a child-friendly site with some parental guidance being advised at times. We try our best to keep everything in the UK's G/PG range since PFQ is a UK-based site, which generally means the PEGI rating system is what we have to go by as that is what is legally enforceable. As an important distinction, PG and PG-13 are not the same, with PG being a little more restrictive.
Now, on to the main... attraction? Point? Whatever you'd like to call it! Anyway, I know that a lot of folks have art shops and like to make lists of things they will and won't draw - a Dos and Don'ts for what the customer is allowed to order, pretty much, such as, "I'll draw anthros, Pokesonas, and animals, but I won't draw mechas."
I wish this is where it stopped, but some folks have added on to their Dos and Don'ts lists a few things that we don't allow mentions of, such as some of the following -
- Specific subjects that are outside of the G/PG range of the site that would be considered 'unsafe' (hint hint)
- Words that express that something may not be suitable to be viewed in a public place, like a school or place of work (another big hint!)
- Other words that express that something may contain depictions of intense violence or results/effects thereof (Hint v2.01)
If you recognize what words / descriptors I am talking about and you're aware that you have used these things outside of the Mature Forums, please go and remove these mentions ASAP (at your earliest convenience of course). These words do not need saying outside of the Mature forums because they're already
not allowed in the non-mature forum areas.
These words / descriptors shouldn't be said in this thread either in an attempt to clear it up for anyone else. I am making the point that saying them is against the rules - though you'll know what I'm talking about from the descriptions and hints I have provided. If you should happen to run an art shop and not know what I'm talking about, please feel free to PM me and I'll gladly take the time to check your shop and see if there's any issues and explain it further to you if that should be needed so you know what is and isn't okay. Obviously if you've already used the terms, I'll be comfortable using them in PMs with you as well!
If your Dos and Don'ts list just got ruined because of this announcement, don't worry! You can still say, "I won't draw anything against PFQ's rules." Bam, done. That covers all of the unsafe or violent content.
I hope this explanation also makes sense for why it's relevant to everyone! If you have a link to, say, a social media account on your About Me and have specified that the contents are unsafe, then you need to go remove that mention. Also, the social media page itself, should it have unsafe contents, needs to be put inside a [mature][/mature] hidebox (if you're an adult) or be removed entirely so kids don't see it...
Don't put unsafe content where kids can see it, and don't make mentions of the things they shouldn't be looking up. That's the essence of this whole post.
There will be a grace period for any offending content to be removed. Make sure it is all removed by 00:00:00 06/Feb/2021. If you see that someone else has this type of content visible, please do still report it! We'll direct them to this announcement and explain to them why it needs to be removed, and make sure that it's done.
Finally, thank you all for bearing with me, reading through all of this, and helping keep PFQ a safe place for our younger users.
for Market equiv. 
