Simplified Acceptable Content Guide

I know it said no drugging, but does that mean just illegal ones or drugs that can make someone horny, and aroused also are not allowed?

I might be wrong, but I believe it's primarily about consent. You can't have characters drug someone without their consent and full knowledge. Ensorcled wrote a phenomenal story that contains consensual drug use here.

Quote by seductivebeast76

I know it said no drugging, but does that mean just illegal ones or drugs that can make someone horny, and aroused also are not allowed?

Drugs, within certain, adult contexts, are permissible. However, responsibility and consent are a must and need to be established prior to anything happening. For example, slipping somebody a roofie and taking advantage of them is not only morally despicable, but it's forbidden on Lush for good reason, but people taking an aphrodisiac of their free will and then having wild sex is perfectly fine.

Thank krystalg and I don't want to write anything forced just put someone in a position that is fighting against their desires and while under the effect of the drug finally give in to it.

As long as that person takes the drug knowingly and willingly, it's okay.

What do you consider relationships between first cousins?

Quote by aznlyon

What do you consider relationships between first cousins?

Blood relatives go into fantasy

Is it still the case that emojis are banned within stories, even where exchanges by text message are depicted? Generally, I think it’s a good rule. But emojis are so ubiquitous in text messages these days that it feels like a forced error to omit them. 😖 For many people, emojis are part of natural text speak. In a couple of cases recently, the lack of emojis in text messages, where it feels like a character would use them, has actually pulled me out of the story.

You should be able to use old school text emojis, even if not the modern graphic ones. So : ) ; ) and so on. Interested in the mod ruling on this one since I have dialogue over text occasionally myself

Emoticons (sequence of symbols) are okay.

We avoid using emojis (the images) because some systems don't recognise them and for some they may appear like a square.

Quote by Safryzer

Is it still the case that emojis are banned within stories, even where exchanges by text message are depicted? Generally, I think it’s a good rule. But emojis are so ubiquitous in text messages these days that it feels like a forced error to omit them. 😖 For many people, emojis are part of natural text speak. In a couple of cases recently, the lack of emojis in text messages, where it feels like a character would use them, has actually pulled me out of the story.

As Seeker said, text emojis are fine when used in text messages as long as you don't go crazy with them, then they become distracting. The graphical ones sometimes show up as empty squares on some devices/browsers. Plus they don't work for screen readers

Edit to add:

Quote by AvidlyCurious

Emoticons (sequence of symbols) are okay.

We avoid using emojis (the images) because some systems don't recognise them and for some they may appear like a square.

Yes, this. She was faster than me.

Yes, I echo the above. And also, graphical emoji don't translate well into a screen reader or other assistive tech experience, as MollyDoll said.

Some might argue that "colon close parenthesis" isn't very meaningful either, but at least screen reading software has a chance of interpreting ASCII sequences and converting them to something meaningful when reading them aloud.

That is not the case with graphical symbols which, on a technical level, tend to occupy the upper ends of the Unicode character space, or be custom graphics for particular applications, and may be interpreted as garbled multi-byte sequences depending on the user's locale.

It's all a bit of a mess, so we err on the side of caution. Text-only emoticons please and, like all literary devices, sparingly.

Ah, okay; thank you for all of the insights, which make perfect sense.

I’ll think twice about using texts in the story in question, as there doesn’t seem to be a way to reflect how people text in the real world, without causing such issues.

It’s helpful to know that emoticons are allowed, but they often can’t replace emojis, and purely using them might date an exchange misleadingly.

I agree writers should be judicious with such devices. But, as I say, their omission can also be a distraction.

It seems to be a Catch-22. 🤷🏼‍♂️ [Shrugs-shoulders emoji.]

I love the feedback I get from the mods who approve stories. There were a couple of times when I said something that violated a rule, and I did so innocently. I happily went into the story and made the necessary changes, re-submitted, and the story was soon approved. I figure there are reasons for the restrictions, and I, for one, do not mind abiding by them.