Warning guide

Light vs Heavy Warnings

With the new tagging system, we've replaced the previous maturity ratings (SFW/NSFWV/NSFWS/NSFWE) with an expanded warning system divided into Light Warnings and Heavy Warnings. Here's how to understand the distinction:

Light Warnings are for content that could fit into a theoretically SFW prompt without substantially changing its tenor. These include things like:

• Alcohol Use: References to or depictions of casual alcohol consumption that is not abusive or addiction-centered. Includes social drinking, mentions of alcohol in settings, or characters having occasional drinks.
• Marijuana Use: References to or depictions of casual marijuana consumption that is not abuse-focused. Includes social use, mentions of marijuana in settings, or characters occasionally using it.
• Backstory Death: References to deaths that occurred prior to the roleplay's timeline. Includes deceased parents, lost friends, past lives, or historical casualties that inform a character's background but aren't graphically depicted.
• Injury: Minor to moderate injuries that aren't extensively or graphically detailed. Includes scratches, bruises, simple fractures, or mentions of past injuries without explicit depiction of the injury occurring.
• Illness: References to or depictions of common illnesses or medical conditions without graphic detail. Includes characters with colds, chronic but managed conditions, or mentions of past illnesses.
• Violence: Mild physical confrontations or threats without explicit gore or extreme brutality. Includes pushing, slapping, punching, or simple weapons use without detailed injury descriptions.
• Pregnancy: References to or depictions of pregnancy without graphic detail of conception, complications, or birth. Includes characters who are pregnant, discussions of pregnancy, or mentions of past pregnancies.
• Medical Themes: Non-graphic medical situations, procedures, or environments. Includes hospital settings, doctor visits, simple medical procedures, or discussions of medical issues without explicit detail.

Heavy Warnings are for content that would have previously been tagged as NSFWE due to its explicit or potentially triggering nature. These include:

• Rape: Any non-consensual sexual activity or forced sexual content, regardless of circumstances. Includes any sexual acts performed on someone against their will or when they cannot consent.
• Dubcon: Sexual content where consent is ambiguous, questionable, or given under circumstances that compromise clear decision-making. Includes sexual activity under influence of mind-altering substances, power imbalances affecting consent, or coercion through non-violent means.
• CSA: Content referencing childhood sexual abuse in a character's backstory. This must ONLY be referenced as past events, never depicted, and never in graphic detail. Active roleplay of CSA is prohibited.
• Incest: Sexual or romantic content between family members, including biological relations, step-relations, and adopted relations. Includes any familial relationship regardless of blood relation. Characters who are "like brothers" or "found family" do not fall under Incest.
• Bestiality: Sexual content involving regular animals or characters with fully animal forms (level 5+ on the anthropomorphism scale). Includes sexual activity with pets, wild animals, or transformed characters in full animal forms without human intelligence.
• Character Death: Death that occurs during the roleplay's timeline or is depicted in detail. Includes character deaths that are shown, described, or experienced as part of the active narrative.
• Gore: Explicit, detailed descriptions of physical injuries, bodily fluids, or mutilation. Includes detailed wound descriptions, internal organs, dismemberment, or extensive bleeding.
• Self-harm: Depictions or references to deliberate self-injury or self-destructive behaviors. Includes cutting, burning, hitting oneself, or other forms of intentional self-injury.
• Drug Abuse: Depictions of harmful, addictive, or excessive drug use. Includes addiction, withdrawal, overdosing, or dangerous drug-seeking behaviors.
• Alcohol Abuse: Depictions of harmful, addictive, or excessive alcohol consumption. Includes alcoholism, withdrawal, binge drinking, or dangerous behaviors while intoxicated.
• Abuse: Depictions of patterns of harmful behavior meant to control, hurt, or manipulate others. Includes physical abuse, emotional/psychological abuse, verbal abuse, or financial abuse.
• Bigotry: Content featuring prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against marginalized groups. Includes racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, religious discrimination, or other forms of identity-based hatred.
• Filth/Unsanitary Themes: Content involving bodily waste, extreme uncleanliness, or unsanitary practices in a sexual context. Includes urine, feces, vomit, excessive sweat, extreme body odor, or unhygienic conditions as part of sexual content.
• Vore: Content involving one character consuming or being consumed by another character, either whole or in parts. Includes soft vore (swallowing whole without harm), hard vore (chewing/digestion), absorption, and the like.

The presence of Heavy Warnings in a prompt functions as an indicator that the content is mature and potentially disturbing, similar to how NSFWE used to work.

Dubcon vs Noncon

Dubcon is considered a "middle ground" between consensual content and nonconsensual content. In a dubcon RP, the lines between the two become blurry - if there are circumstances that prevent clear consent from being made, such as a character being under the influence of any mind altering effects or substances and not preconsented to the sexual contact while "sober", tag it dubcon. If one character is actively not consenting or actively unable to express consent, whether by being knocked out, so wasted that they cannot coherently express thoughts, etc., it is noncon. Additionally, coercive acts such as blackmail or threatening are noncon.

If they say yes but might not have meant it or wouldn't have said it in a normal situation, it's dubcon. If they say no or are incapable of responding, it's noncon.

Kemonomimi vs Furry vs Feral/Bestiality

Consult this chart for reference. Any RP involving characters on a 1-2 of the scale (mostly human with minor animal features like ears and tails) is now called "Kemonomimi" (formerly Anthro), involving 3-4 on the scale is Furry, and 5 or above is Bestiality. Kemonomimi and Furry should be tagged as characteristics, Bestiality is a Heavy Warning. Xenophilia (aliens, tag it "Xeno" in characteristics) or Teratophillia (monsters, tag it "Monster" in characteristics) are both appropriate for the Detail section if the creature involved is sentient and sapient, but should be Heavy Warnings otherwise.

Note: Pokephilia falls under Bestiality.

When in doubt, apply the Harkness Test - if it passes, that's appropriate for the Detail section. If it doesn't, Heavy Warning.

This is still a website coming from Homestuck RP so making a distinction between genitalia is also important, see: Jade Harley. If your character has weird junk, tag it "Exotic Genitals" under characteristics. If it is weird junk that is specifically animal themed, like having a dog penis on an otherwise normal person (again, see: Jade Harley), tag it "Animal Genitals" under characteristics. This is only for characters that are not otherwise assumed to have weird genitals: If your character is Anthro, Furry, or Bestiality tag we're going to assume animal genitals by default, and Xeno or Monster are assumed exotic genitals by default (or animal genitals if it's something like a Minotaur).

CSA

While actively roleplaying elements of CSA (i.e. any content where a character under the age of 18 is engaged, consensually or otherwise, in any form of sexual activity - fully expanded on in rule 9 of the site) is prohibited, elements of this are permitted in a character's backstory and are only allowed to be discussed as past events and not in graphic detail. In this situation, use the CSA tag to aid in blacklisting and filtering. Please note that misuse of the CSA tag to rp content falling under the above definition is a reportable offense and is an immediate, no questions asked permanent ban.

Bigotry vs Sexualized Bigotry

Bigotry (including transphobia, homophobia, sexism, racism, etc.) as a story element should be tagged with the "Bigotry" Heavy Warning. If the bigotry is part of the fetish involved and is inherently tied into a kink (such as raceplay), it must also be tagged accordingly in the Detail section.

Note: All forms of bigotry must be tagged with the Bigotry warning. Failure to tag things such as raceplay while having it as an element is reportable even if you have the Bigotry tag in place.