This comes back to the issues presented in the "reluct n/c" thread that started before the forum crash.
I've quoted some of the writer's guide below, as a reminder. They are Gromet's rules. He made them, he abides by them voluntarily, and they mean whatever he means them to mean...
Gromet's primary justification for including rape or non-consensual acts is when they are "fantasy".
The same applies to the story codes, they are applied by Gromet as a best effort in consistency, but it's hard for anyone else to know exactly where he draws the line on n/c. Personally, I have queried why "reluct" appears on many stories that go far beyond mere reluctance, and perhaps I'm being obtuse, but I didn't really understand the explanation.
In fact, I was so baffled by the response, that I have made the issue of reluctance, and the dividing line between coercion and consent the focus of all my stories since.
I think if the guidelines are going to be as they are, then we need to ask questions about their definition, and what benefits they bring to Plaza readers. And to do that we need to understand the meaning of the language used to formulate them. I think that leads into a discussion of what the story-codes are supposed to signify, and what they actually mean, and whether those two things are the same.
The story-code approach has its roots in old news groups, and those news groups were (by and large) tightly genre focused. The codes were never designed to distinguish the most important components of a story, such as genre or tone. They serve this to some extent, in that there are the x, xx, xxx letters for explicitness, but a sweet romance might be explicit, while a violent rape might be described quite sketchily, and so we're back depending on Gromet's personal interpretation when those codes are set, and there is no way around that, it's inherent in the system.
I have the vague sense that Gromet is slowly heading towards some kind of keyword system, as found in many other places. This will fix some problems for readers, but like story-codes, it's subjective, and there's no way around that problem, no matter what system you have. The main advantage of keywords is for people hunting for material in the archive, who would benefit immensely.
My intuition is that the writer's guide is simply designed as a hint to that authors should not write stuff that is too far off the tone of the rest of the Plaza. Ultimately, it's entirely subjective, and because of the caveats it does involve a bit of mind reading.
It bothers me a little, because from time to time, I come across a story that contains highly extreme n/c material that I feel lacks any redeeming qualities. I would have been thankful for some up-front clue that such a story was a bit borderline.
There are other cases, where I believe the absolute guidelines have been breached. For example, use of children in stories, and my complaints were disregarded without response. Due to the lack of engagement in this issue, my confidence in the Plaza has been eroding, and I feel increasingly motivated to comment on the encroachment of dark stories that are pure titillation, with no redeeming features. I also find my motivation to write under such circumstances, considerably diminished.
The plaza writers guide says:
What type of stories don't you use?
Any stories containing:
Paedophilia, sex, abuse, incest or eroticism involving children under 18.
Underage: Descriptions or depictions of child sexual abuse or any other exploitative or offensive descriptions or depictions involving a person who is, or appears to be, a child under 18 years.
Rape or non-consensual forced acts of a sexual nature.
Bestiality or sexual acts involving animals (not vore)
Incest stories are not welcome on the Plaza & is a crime in most countries
Drug Use, any scenes that promote illicit drug use.
Human Toilet, defecation or anything to do with Feces; also known as scat, scatophilia or fecophiliascat play. Also include vomit.
Necrophilia, interfering with a corpse.
Extreme Scenes. involving torture, mutilation or stories involving murder or brutal acts that cause the death or serious injury of the character.
(a) an act which threatens a person’s life,
(b) an act which results, or is likely to result, in serious injury to a person’s anus, breasts or genitals,
(c) rape or other non-consensual penetrative sexual activity,
(d) an act which involves or appears to involve sexual interference with a human corpse,
(e) a person performing or appearing to perform an act of intercourse or oral sex with an animal (whether dead or alive), and a reasonable person looking at the image would think that any such person or animal was real.
But I've seen some stories containing this?
Yes there are some stories containing death, but these usually involve fantasy and are non-violent in nature, also some stories were posted to the site before these guides were in place.
There are some sections of the site that have stories where the character dies, Vore being one subject, but there should be no graphic description of the death scene.
There are also some containing non-consensual acts but again these are fantasy. All non-consensual act stories are marked with 'nc' in the storycodes.
There are NO stories containing pedophilia, sexual abuse or eroticism involving children, if do you see any please let me know.
The legal age for all characters on the Plaza will now be 18 years, stories that use characters younger than this will now be rejected or requested that the author rewrite those scenes.
I will allow memories of childhood bondage to be used, as long as it's between similar age groups. And as long as it's clearly established that the adult character is remembering their early experiences and it's only a background to the main story.
