The future of NSFW on Tapastic?

[UrMom]

Some might be more lenient than others? I've seen this on the front page of the popular and trending a couple times, you'd assume they would see it, but maybe they weren't monitoring the front page that day? Then again, it's not... as graphic as it could be.

[Sanz]

i was almost afraid when you said "not even regular porn" lmao i was expected something goosh goosh.

[Sanz]

so they allow erotic novels on the books for keys and what not, but not....regular contributors ? lol what?

[Michelle]

The stuff folks come up with... eue;; though I realize I'm very much not the intended audience for these things...

I appreciate the no porn comics stance, though I agree maybe it should extend to the literature as well.

[keii4ii]

@christinaeliz The app is still new, and they really poured their manpower into building and improving the app itself, so I'm guessing they just haven't had the time to address the content side of it. My impression is it's not the staff picking those stories; it's their partner company.

Now that the app is out and has had at least one major update, this does need to be clarified sooner than later... XD

[KreativeConfusion]

Oh my god when did we let 50 Shades of grey on here?

It's such an odd difference considering the rules, I kinda hope we don't allow it tho? I mean I just don't want to deal with that sudden influx of porn that would probably pop up, once thats released to the masses.

However, I do find that to be odd. Like it's pretty straight forwardly written, visual or no, if you know your body parts I think you can figure it out.

[thesisterscomic]

no graphic sex

Man, that term befuddled me for a bit. Like, I had to ask a buddy I was in law school with what he thought about it. Graphic sex seems to come down to penetration, presentation of fluids, and straight up non-plot purpose pornographic material. So pretty much TV/HBO rules, but with a "less is more" suitability to it. When Khal Drogo drops the hog on his bride to be, we get pretty non-graphic sex. No shaft, no fluids, it is not presented for our arousal.

Sort of an important thing to look into. I mean, my comic is by no means smut; but the issue we're about to finish takes place right after sex and there's a bit of it shown (no shaft for the sex part anyway, but the guy is nude/not-erect after) and there's nudity to follow; none of which are really presented in a sexual way because the purpose is to highlight tension with the conflict that's about to come/does come--specifically from a vulnerable place of betrayal.

Of course we keep these sections behind the NSFW section; as it ought to be. I do think Tapastic ought to clarify their NSFW policies, simply because if we operate under the "I know it when I see it" mantra, there's a lot of grey area. Which can be good, or bad; clarity at least brings clarity. I mean, with the looks of some of those novels we might be getting into the realm of Ravaged by Raptors: An Erotisaurus Production showing up; which is fine if that's the market they want to get cash from. I'm not one to judge, a market is a market.

[Vikiro_Hop]

Ah the ongoing NSFW debate.

From what I understand pretty much all sorta porn like novels and such just get tossed under erotica, porns artsier and supposedly classier cousin. Not saying that it's fair, but the general public at least over here in America doesn't really care if you are reading about a velociraptor human gangbang as long as you keep it to yourself and there aren't any pictures. While comics coming with imagery will definitely not get the same pass for even benign stuff.

One thing to note though is I've heard it said that just having porn on a site can limit advertising possibilities. There are companies that just don't want to be associated with it. (The creator of newgrounds said it was one of the reasons the site failed commercially.) That aside even if its clearly sectioned off and behind an age wall people will just not take a site with porn on it seriously as one without it seems. Personally I could care less, but I doubt that tapastic would want to open that can of worms at the moment.

I feel like a broken record saying this, but the vague guidelines for NSFW are probably intentional. A big part of the sites draw is the inclusiveness of content and with so many people from different parts of the world contributing you are going to get a broad definition for what is or isn't acceptable. I know a lot of people still complain about it, but honestly I fine with just using my own best judgement if the alternative is having strict rules and having to put a lot of content behind that filter.

[Mikayi]

Yes, I get confused a lot about that term. I have comics that I would think was graphic sex. But because the rule so vague to me I end up blurring the image I don't really know how much graphic is graphic. Personally I don't mind reading any comics that are graphic as long as there still a story.
I saw nudity is okay, I figure the actual graphical drawing of the act was not okay. Meaning showing well like hentai comics do. I probably wrong just hard to determine thank you for clearing some of it up.

[Michelle]

That aside even if its clearly sectioned off and behind an age wall people will just not take a site with porn on it seriously as one without it seems. Personally I could care less, but I doubt that tapastic would want to open that can of worms at the moment.

That's sort of how I feel. I prefer Tapastic to have some restrictions on its sexual content so I don't have to explain the site to people the same way I do with a site like DeviantArt, where people's initial impression is generally... not so good :u

[gateofselidor]

I think the current rule for comics is fine, and honestly I'd like to see the same rule applied to novels, especially if a user-upload interface is eventually added. If you let people post whatever they like, they will go to town. Just look at Ao3, which prides itself on being a platform free of the restrictions that other fanfic and original fic sites have. Try going more than a page or two in any category without finding someone's underage omegaverse mpreg slavefic.

It's not like I think there shouldn't be a platform for pornographic novels or comics, but allowing them on a site that is primarily filled with all-ages and teen-rated content risks skewing the audience and reputation of the site in favour of the porn.

[VermillionWorks]

[elixiadragmire]

The stuff folks come up with... eue;; though I realize I'm very much not the intended audience for these things...

and THIS!!!

I'll be frank, mentioned these books to them in the livestream, I cant remember the response in detail but it was more of a board PR statement about open to new opportunties and addressing the app needed to be 18+ now (but then again so is tumblr so thats all ok)

HERES my beef, who is this aimed at? who is this marketed at? I mean a serious question. Most of the demographic here is teens and YA with a strong feminist twist, LBTQ+ multi-cultured in fact intersectional! ... why are books aimed my mum on here? white middle class women in their 50's? It feels as thou they needed a library ANY LIBRARY! were not picky! to fill the app on launch. and so far, nothing coming out of Fuse publishing (thats the partners btw) is really worthy reading unless you like smut.

call me salty. its true, but i think these books are a blunter and smell desperate.

[PotooGryphon]

I do agree they have a bit of a 'desperate housewife' feel to them for their target audience, and it does feel mismatched to Tapastic since I don't see housewives being into webcomics, however perhaps there's an audience for it that we don't know about? : shrug:

Either way, the original question and point of the thread is will novels need to follow the same NSFW guidelines comics do (shouldn't they be tagged NSFW, no pornographic or overly explicit material?) OR will the NSFW rules change for comics?

For some answers we'll need some staffers to answer that. @michaelson?

[saeedfaridzadeh]

I think a lot of people need to understand the distinction between NSFW and Adult Material.

Not safe for work means material that could be potentially offensive where it view in a standard working environment. This is mostly aimed at visual mediums such as comics. If someone pulls up an overtly sexual image at work and someone can easily see what it is from a few feet away, then yes a proper NSFW tag would be appropriate.

However a novel is simply text, and unless you're right up to screen text will always appear as text, so I would say the text portion is perfectly fine.

Both could be considered adult material, which of course should be marked as such. But to blanket NSFW across all mediums is expanding upon the definition of what NSFW actually means.

[keii4ii]

@saeedfaridzadeh I get your point, but I really hope the staff won't use that as an excuse. Before, the content rating (and not just NSFW-ness) was an important issue. Now I don't know what their stance is anymore. Smut isn't evil, but the Tapastic I know and love is not the place for it, whether it's comics or prose.

[AffectedMind]

It's funny how hentai is not allowed here, yet if you look hard enough you will find plenty. C'mon guys, there are websites suited for this kind of things, I agree with @keii4ii, tapastic is not a good place to post this stuff.

[keii4ii]

Well, I'm rather understanding about undetected smut lying around after having been a mod at a rather large site XD Even if looking for rule violations is all you do (which isn't the case for the Tapastic staff) there is just SO MUCH STUFF. It's impossible to stay on top of it. You're always playing catch up with the rule breakers, and you need the help of the users to report, report and report.

[saeedfaridzadeh]

If there is a way to monetize it, then I wouldn't be surprised if Tapastic found a way to cater to that audience in a separate section designated for adult oriented comic material. The fact that they are now hosting erotica fiction shows that they are dabbling in that field.

Personally I have no interest in that, but like with any good online content provider I trust that they will implement a good system that will allow people to get the content they choose without upsetting people who want no part of that.

Things change and they need to experiment with a few things to see what can and can't work, and to be perfectly blunt, sex sells, and a company needs to generate income. But this is all guesswork on my part.

To be honest I don't see how a company can survive on just webcomics alone. Diversification is needed for any company to survive. Penny Arcade isn't just webcomics. Apple doesn't just make computers. And Tapastic might now be expanding into written fiction. And apparently there is a HUGE market for trashy romance novels.

[keii4ii]

I'm all for Tapastic trying new things that bring them profit, but this is a problem with the brand image. Imagine Legos launched a new product line of erotic toys. That's the feeling I'm getting here.