The Secret of How to use NSFW and When

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Please meet your forum moderator team!

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@joannekwan - I’ve been a community creator on Tapas for over 5 years now and have been an active participant on the forums for nearly as long. As such, I hope to use my experience with the community to help out where I can. I’ve created many works, notably Demon House, Heavy Horns, and Secunda.

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Tapas Team

20 / 50

Jul 2015

I've been mostly taking NSFW on this site to mean "adult oriented" and that includes colorful language. IRL I've been told the way I casually cuss at times makes me seem like an idiot. (I'm at peace with this, because I like to keep expectations low.) At the same time adults should be able to talk to each other how they deem appropriate at the time. If I make a comic where my character thinks a duck is part of a conspiracy to make his life hell, then said character will have some very colorful words for that duck. And it will be very appropriate for that situation. It can be very arbitrary at times.
Essentially, I think sex, cussing and violence all have a right time and place.

From the comments, it seems I did not make clear NSFW applies only to visuals/Images, not words.

@abbastudios Thank you for the clarification, here (even though it started to get a little off topic at one point...). I feel like you may have had to sit through the same three-hour sexual harassment test –with videos included! – that I do every year at work...

For my comic I have characters who swear and I never marked it NSFW because, to be honest, once you get out of high school most people swear no matter if they are at work or not. It's not as big a deal in the grand scheme of things as we're made to believe while growing up.

@apocryphagraphics I wholeheartedly believe in making stories as real as possibly and not watering things down to appease everyone (because that's never going to happen), so I totally agree with your posts. Sex is a very important part of my comic, mainly because I believe more of us need to realize that it's not always a vulgar act.

apocryphagraphics

You're making it all about him.

Sex doesn't need to be "important". Depending on the context, your characters could be having sexual relations for any of the following reasons:

1.) Procreation
2.) Recreation
3.) Make-up
4.) Revenge (in some cases, this can be dangerous water to tread, as it enters sexual harassment/rape territory depending on how you do it; on the other end, it could be someone having a one-night stand to get back at their SO).
5.) Anger
6.) Just for plain fun. Because besides all the risks of disease and pregnancy, sex is fun. No one can deny that lol And if anyone does, you're probably doing it wrong xD

You, as a creator, are the writer. You include sex scenes where you want, just make sure they make sense for the storyline and characters and aren't just thrown in there because "adult comic hurhur". That's the only point he's trying to make and you're the one trying to make it a personal problem from his end.

However, whether it's for procreation or simply recreation, NSFW is required. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. I don't care how sacred of an act you consider it, at the end of the day, it's still content that's inappropriate for minors, as well as content you wouldn't want to be caught seeing at work, especially with all the tight and strict sexual harassment laws that are in place these days.

It's not a message telling people not to read it. It's a "watch out, make sure you're in a place where you can read and you're okay with reading it!" nudge in the side. People who call it otherwise are just getting subjectively emotional over it for no reason and taking it as a personal jab to their work and personal views.

This isn't just Tapastic, this is everywhere.

Either way, just a heads up, I'm gonna be keeping a close eye on this discussion over the next few days just because it seems to be getting a little heated again, and we shouldn't be trying to or intentionally hurting someone or jabbing at their views over something as static and trivial as the NSFW filter. At the end of the day, the rules are there because those are the laws in most countries, and there are still kindness rules here that we should be trying our best to mind. Let's just keep it from turning into a circlejerk, okay?

apocryphagraphics

@abbastudios thanks for clearing that up about the words. I feel it would be unfortunate to have to throw the NSFW on a page or series for just the occasional "shit" or "damn". I think you've done a lot here to clear up NSFW for those of us who read your post but I'm afraid that a lot of people out there on the web still see it and assume there's porn behind that link. For that reason I'm loathe to use it but I don't want anyone getting in trouble at work because they read my comic and of course I agreed to play by Tapastic's rules when I signed up.
@ErithEl I'm with you. If you're writing about people in the real world you're writing about relationships and if you have enough adult relationships in a realistic story sex is going to be a part of it one way or another. Unless of course it is willfully ignored. It's cool if it's not a big deal to some people but to most of us in the adult world it's a pretty huge deal. And while all sexuality is not beauty and roses, even the ugly side of it is a part of life and something artists are free to explore. Same with violence. I hate exploitation in comics, but explicit sex and violence CAN be a part of fine art. Just look at Watchmen!
@UzukiCheverie I disagreed with @futureboundentertain's advice to just leave explicit Sex and violence or anything NSFW out of a series because it's inherently dumb and vulgar and poor art. " Never" he said. This is a forum and he stated an opinion and I disagreed. That's called a conversation. Passionate disagreements are often how intelligent people interact. While it may have strayed a bit from the original post it is certainly not totally off the NSFW subject. I would challenge you to go back through my posts and find a place where I was anything but civil and thoughtful in my disagreement. I found his responses to be a bit closer to insulting than mine. But I'm a big boy and I can take it!

@apocryphagraphics, nothing to fear, I'm not targeting any one member in this thread and wouldn't approach any member in public about these sorts of things. I'm just noticing that it's getting a little heated, whether or not anyone's intending to step on anyone's toes, so I'm just leaving a friendly little nudge so that it doesn't get to that point and we can remain civil as we have already If you have any further concerns, please PM me rather than post here so as not to derail the thread (and not just you, anyone who has anything to say about it; I don't want fights to be breaking out over something like a friendly nudge in a thread that has nothing to do with that sort of thing).

I question NSFW, especially for my story, I don't have a lot for it, but I do include violence, blood, and some foul language, but i still don't know if I should include NSFW. I just want to be safe since some people don't light seeing violence. o_______o

NSFW has noting to do with language, story or violence.
It's just a warning that if you're at work, a naked body may pop up on the screen so think twice before clicking that link.

Thank you for clearing that up. I always wondered if I was using it right. Especially how the term's meaning has changed or well people have changed it to Violence and language.... Does that also include gore?

NSFW on Tapastic DOES include language and violence/gore. But unlike nudity, there seems to be a lot more lenience for language/violence that can be posted without the NSFW tag. With nudity, if you show a female nipple (for example), it's automatically NSFW. But violence? Unless it's really graphic, it's acceptable without the tag.

My rule of thumb is that stuff that is acceptable in a generic action-movie will probably pass without the nsfw-tag. Fist-fights, sword-fights, guns, etc., - all acceptable, as long as you don't include too many gory details of dismembered bodies or exploded brains and whatnot.

futureboundentertain

What universe do you live in? When has sex every REALLY beenn considered Vulgar? that is just something we tell kids so they wont get pregnant.

There has been so much nude and sexual art throughout history, not to mention romantic works, that the sheer quantity is obscene. You are talking about a world where the porno industry grosses nearly as much as mainstream hollywood does every year.

Stop pretending that sex and sexuality is being treated like a bad thing in our world, that is just an excuse.

And how come every single person who writes a sex based or sexually charged comic has this same darn excuse of wanting to "teach the world that sex is not obscene" its not your place to instruct people on how to properly sex. That is a deeply personal journey and something everyone needs to figure out for themselves.

But go head, lecture people on sex, show it gratuitously, have your comic meld together with... so many countless others. Cut a huge portion of your audience that cannot sexually relate to your work because they are homosexual, or heterosexual, or asexual, or pansexual, or any of the countless millions of other seual niches.

Continue to live in your deranged fantasy world where sex is considered some unholy or obscene thing, and why dont you invite the boogeyman and loch ness monster over for a pizza party while you are at it.

futureboundentertain

apocryphagraphics

I dont disagree with having violence, or even a component of sexuality. All I think is that violence for its own sake, or sexuality for its own sake... is entirely pointless.

If violence amounts to "violence is violence"

and sex "sex is sex"

Then it has no real purpose in the story. You often see the sexual compenent done extremely poorly in french comics, in french comics they basically feel obligated to have some sort of sexual component.

It happens, its boring, it has no bearing on the plot as a whole... and then it vanishes from the story like a rancid dustybunny that was just passing through.

Now what do you think is the greater sin? not portraying sex.. or portraying it so boringly and purposelessly that it loses all meaning and basically becomes a set piece? Whe nit is reduced ot basically the level of a walk cycle..

I will give you a single an example of how I handle Sexuality! Or at least the component of attraction, which is one of the most critically lacking aspects in comics (usually people just tend to draw the same woman over and over again, even for all the characters)

http://tapastic.com/episode/16005728

In Rebel Cowgirls, each character is different... tehy have different hieght, different build, different outlook, attire, facial features... each character is supposed to he attractive in his or her own way.

Its not that sexuality has no place in fiction, its just that if you are convinced taht there is some sort of grand conspiracy against sex, or that it is somehow lacking in the fictional world, you are 100% going to fail at writing it.

People who live in glass houses should not throw stones.

futureboundentertain

That being said, it doesn't excuse its need to be filtered.

As many people in here have said numerous times already, NSFW is not about being 'bad'. It's about what's suitable for viewing in a casual every day environment in the public, or what's suitable for someone under 18 to be viewing. Even most porn websites still follow these rules and ask you if you're 18 before viewing. If porn creators are decent enough to do it, **why are we suddenly so special and exempt from the rules?

Now you're just taking one thing and making it about something else entirely unrelated to this discussion This isn't about your beliefs in sexual or gender identities, this is about how much respect you have or don't have for your readers as well as the laws that are in place for these types of things. You realize that if NSFW rules are not abided by, Tapastic not only runs the risk of losing the privilege of their iOS app, but the site as well. They need to abide by the laws in this country that are kept in place for a reason, and so do we as creators. Just because we're on a website that we don't technically own, doesn't mean we get off scott-free.

It's not about people's opinions on sex, nor is it about their sexual preferences/identities, nor is it about anything else in between those things, so don't try and bend the reasoning behind NSFW to mean that.

I like this ^^^ I know I follow the same rule when it comes to swearing - more or less in public/discussions as well as comics: if it's something that would be bleeped-out on public cable television, prooobably should be censored or marked NSFW (especially if you feel the language is low brow for your comic, in the sense that language doesn't happen a lot and it might surprise your readers).

futureboundentertain

I would just like to take a moment to clear one thing up (off topic though it may be): My comic4 is not not sex based. Sex happens twice in the span of about 50 chapters, and both instances have a large impact on the story and characters. Any violence of sexual acts are not gratuitous; they all serve a specific purpose to further the plot.

Also, anyone who wants to attend my mythical creature pizza party is welcome We try to get together on Fridays around 7pm. This week it will be hosted at Nessie's house!

Here are the current Tapastic Content Guidelines:4

An excerpt concerning their policy on how they use NSFW on their site. It's their house, so we have to follow their rules. But their rules for NFSW does not apply to the rest of the internet.

We encourage all users to participate in using the ‘Report Link’ which can be found at the end of every episode hosted on Tapastic if they feel that the content violates any of our policies.

It is our aim to be as inclusive as possible in regards to our content policy, we believe that Tapastic is a home, and that everyone should be able to lend a helping hand in maintaining it as a safe and healthy environment.

Content Boundaries
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. Any content deemed unsuitable that is not behind our NSFW will be requested to take action. Failure to comply with this request will result in the image being taken down. Repeat offenses will result in the suspension or removal of the user’s account.

This one is subject to an interesting cultural divide (as is nudity, for that matter; I'm Swedish, nudity is not as censored here as it is in the US). We don't, as a rule, bleep swearing, unless it's a show specifically aimed at children, or one that's been imported and is therefore already bleeped. Swearing is simply not something we care much about.

HOWEVER, being on the internet, I realise that while I can get away with "damn" and profanity of a similar level, there are clearly some words that warrant an nsfw-tag to comply with Tapastic's rules.

I just use not work safe for everything. My work doesn't have nudity but it does have foul language. And people are so sensitive about everything today, it's better to give them fair warning and not deal with any sort of flame war in the future.

My pet is a Balrog. Flame wars are my specialty.