A question about NSFW rules

[Darksh1ne]

Hello, I'm new here, please forgive me if such threads were already created and answered but I wish to get a clear idea what is allowed and what is not on my example. I looked through the rules already, and sadly noticed the rule against pornographic content, which... is a big focus of my comic. it's not just porn-focused comic, it's a fantasy/adventure with elements of it. Still, I wish to clarify, since on some art related sites it only goes against porn photoes, not drawings within the comic.

I know I could just go and post it, hoping it would go through. But I don't want to do it this way. I'm already banned on DA, and I don't want to ever see the message "you're banned" on any site ever again. It's really painful, trust me

So here is a Comicfury link for this comic in question. (In the upper part use "first" or "Archive" for navigation) The juicy part starts after page 6. if you don't mind strong NSFW, check it please and say if it would be safe or not http://monstroniverse.thecomicseries.com/

[AnnaLandin]

According to the content policy, non-graphic sex is allowed, if it's behind an NSFW-filter - however, I'm afraid that your comic would most likely break the rules, as you depict full frontal nudity, clearly detailed genitals, sexual acts and rape^.

So even with an NSFW-filter, your comic is likely too graphic for Tapastic. Even if you say you have fantasy-adventure elements, it's clear that the pornography is a central element as well, and according to the content-boundaries policy, that is not allowed. Relevant passage bolded:

Adult Material: Tapastic ALLOWS mature content featuring nudity, non-graphic sex, extreme violence, and strong language as long as it is behind our NSFW filter.
Tapastic DOES NOT ALLOW pornography or hateful content that targets a specific person or group of any kind.

^.) The rape I'm referring to is the first sexual scene, starting from page 7 onwards, as the heroine does not seem to be given the chance to give informed consent. I stopped reading after page 12.

[iddqd]

Do you think the universe is sending you a signal that maybe, just maybe, you're trying to host on the wrong kind of websites?

[Darksh1ne]

Didn't hurt to ask, and I'm glad I did before posting. Yes, looks like this place is not for me.. a shame. It's pretty hard to find a site that would fit me. Currently i'm only on Comicfury, and it's perfectly fine there as long as the comic is flagged appropriatly. This site was mentioned there many times, so I hoped it works same way here.
If you can advice a site that would fit me, that would be great. If you ment a porn-focused site than no, it also doesn't fit. This comic of mine has now 130 pages, and from them only about 7 have really explocit stuff. Posting it in a porn-related art site would be wrong as it is pretty "poor" with this content and is much more forcused on a story and characters, rather then smut.

[gateofselidor]

Obviously it's your work to do what you like with, but if your comic is supposed to be story-driven rather than smut, then maybe you should reconsider using such explicit content, because having your opening scene lead right into a graphic rape is likely to give potential readers the wrong impression. A less explicit torture scene (sexualised or otherwise), without the rape would have fit in with the guidelines for Tapastic just fine. You could save the smut for short stories/bonus scenes, and host them somewhere more porn-focused.

Otherwise, if it doesn't fit in with any regular webcomic community (and I can't really think of any that allow the content your comic features), you'd be better off leaving it just on Comicfury and using self-promotion and advertising to draw in more readers.

[heterodont]

Yea, agreed with the above commentator. It's your story and it's for you to do whatever you please with it, but I can't help but wonder why such an explicit scene in the very beginning? It's a common 'rule' that youre supposed to grab your audiences attention within the first 10 pages, so if at least roughly half of those pages is a scene where the character gets raped as punishment - it doesn't really give off the impression that its going to be a story that focuses on character development. Though reading on past page 12 I guess it kind of makes sense as to why you chose the method you did, but frankly if you were trying to make this story more character focused, there probably would've been better ways to get the twist across than the MC being shackled up and used against her will.

However, unsolicited criticism aside - you can always just upload to tumblr. There is a webcomic theme that a lot of people use, the only thing is is that it's going to be hard to build up a following on tumblr since it's primarily a blogging website and not a webcomic based one - not to say there aren't people who've been successful.

[Darksh1ne]

Thanks for your comments guys! Well... the beginning of the comic was done in that way intentionly, as I wished to give the reader an impression what they may find in this story as soon as possible. I think it's fair to greet a reader like this early,instead of making the story light-hearted and jolly in the beginning and diving into dark and twisted stuff later, completely changing the tone - I personally hate when that happens in other comics or series, so I tried to do it in a more... honest way.
Also thanks for your imput, Gateofselidor, but... you know us, artists - we can't betray ourselves, even if it hurts us. A concept that intrigued me for a long time even before I started working on this comic, is a porn with good plot. And as simple as that sounds, I can't really think of any representative of such genre in media. So? I decided to try and make one myself! Am I doing a good job? Is it going to end well? That.... is a question I seek to answer for 3 years of working on this comic.

Oh and thanks for the tumblr advice, heterodont, but I skipped that option long ago. A blogging site is not for me. I like when there is a gallery to meddle in.

And now I got another question - will it be ok if I just post pages which are safe, and skip posting the dangerous ones completely? may simply point somewhere that if someone wants to see the rest, they need to seek it on another site. Think this may work?

[heterodont]

That makes sense!

And you totally can just skip over the 'dangerous' content and upload the rest- in fact that was my other suggestion but I wasn't sure how to explain it. I know of at least a few other comics that did have risky pages that they didn't upload to mirrors/other hosts - but did on their main website/other websites that didn't have rules against it and simply pointed it out to people who were curious!

[GesuGesu]

well I didn't see any full-on dicks yet by page 11 so I didn't feel like it was too pornographic.

The rape/sex scene itself was pretty well-covered in my thought that you can't really see anything specific other than "two bodies attached to each other". I get what's going on, but no VAGINAS or COCKS were outright drawn so I felt like it wasn't really super porny hahaha.

Well this is just my own standard since I'm fine with nudity if there's no penetration going on, but if there is, I expect some sort of censorship.

[Darksh1ne]

@heterodont So shall it be, Heterodont, I guess this is what I will go with, thanks for your opinion

@Kimoisempai I know I don't go too deep into details, but that was mostly because I was not experienced enough to draw quality smut... I plan to do it later in the story ;D As for the "what to consider porn and what not" I guess I'll just play it safe. For example AnnaLandin saw a problem in the very concept of the scene - the rape subject. Ye I know how sensitive seciety is towards it... but come on... when people draw murder and theft, people don't assume them being murderers and thiefs, right? So I don't see why touching rape subject should be such big of a deal. It happens in a fantasy setting with unreal characters. No one suffers from it. And still, if one person saw it "problematic" as they call it, there can be more people, who would report it for being "offensive content". I can argue against it day and night, but I doubt mods have such kind of patience. On DA they didn't. So I'll just cut that scene out when will begin posting.