It's Pinky!

Hey there, I'm Pinky (she/her) | Dragon Vtuber | Artist | Pansexual Polyamorous

[mcyt-researcher]

Research: Understanding MCYT Boundaries

SURVEY LINK

During my time in mcyt fandom, I've watched as the fandom's perception of creator boundaries has grown and shifted into a cornerstone of our fandom, and yet we don't actually have any good data on how the fandom as a whole perceives them outside of discourse posts.

The goal of this unofficial study NOT to make a value judgement on whether creator boundaries should be respected - it is to understand how the fandom currently perceives and interacts with them.* Is respecting creator boundaries important to you? Has your favorite creator made a boundary list or spoken about it on stream? Do you find some boundaries acceptable and others not? Have you ever been the target of hate for engaging with boundary-breaking content? Whether you think boundaries should always be respected or you think they're being used as tools of censorship, I want to hear from you. What are boundaries, and why do they matter so much to us?

—

This survey is a mix of multiple choice and optional long-response questions. It should take about 15 minutes if you’re only doing the required questions, and much longer if you choose to answer the optional questions.**

If you are able, please reblog and share this survey link around. Feel free to post it on any platform, as I am currently only on Tumblr, which is not representative of the fandom as a whole. In fact, I’d love it if it reached Twitter. The more responses, the more accurate the results will be for the whole of mcyt.*** Anyone in mcyt spaces, including creators, are welcome to take the survey to share their thoughts. However, I ask that for the comfort of content creators and the spirit of good fandom etiquete, please do not directly share the survey with any creator or post the link in any creators’ official communities. Thoughtful discussion is always valued over reactionary comments.

The survey is set to close at 11:59pm EST on August 1, 2026 - I may extend this date if there is still a high volume of responses coming in, or if there aren’t enough responses yet for meaningful data. I will aim to publish the results within a month of the survey’s close, and keep you updated on the timeline if that’s not feasible for any reason.

A huge thank you to everyone who helped beta this survey- you all gave such wonderful suggestions! I wish I could’ve kept every question, but in the end a lot needed to be cut to make this manageable. Please know that I appreciate every one of you, as this survey would not exist today without you.

—

* Why I think this data is important to collect: The idea for this survey came to me almost a year ago, and I started developing it around February of this year. I’ve spoken with dozens of people about this topic with diverse opinions, read and catalogued hundreds of tumblr posts, rewatched streams and videos by creators and fans, and watched as opinions have shifted across fandoms in real time. I feel extremely confident in saying that every person on every side cares deeply about respecting others and creating safe, welcoming communities in all mcyt spaces. Where they differ is on how to show that respect, which kinds of expectations they think are reasonable in different spaces, and beliefs on how those in power should be using their influence. I don’t expect this survey’s results to fundamentally change anything - this debate has been going on longer than mcyt has existed. But I think it’s still important to analyze the actual arguments people are making and how they affect our communities, instead of focusing on expected behavior from others based on our own values, so we can see the varying expressions of humanity in each other and work towards a better future for our fandom. I don’t think we’re as different as the discourse may have us believe.

** This survey is designed to encourage all participants to think critically about their position and the effects it has. I am aware that I have my own personal biases, so I have taken steps to ensure that the survey is as bipartisan as possible and also gives participants the opportunity to explain their answers for every question if they feel the need. Because of this, there may be questions that make some participants uncomfortable. While I would appreciate knowing why a question has made someone uncomfortable, participants are always free to skip such long-response questions.

*** I’m well aware that any recent discourse on this topic may skew results if arguments on one side are more successful than another in convincing fans of a particular position. I still think the data will be valuable even with a potential skew.

[exclipsensfw]

purity politics

(reposting this because tumblr deleted my blog funny enough for nsfw)

[exclipsensfw]

Someone sent me anon hate then reported every single one of my posts because of this post

[ruderubicante]

A Love for Ignorance

[yorgen-sh]

The Chinese shoe manufacturer decided to demonstrate the indestructibility of their shoes

[scarlettohairdye]

And also the indestructibility of that woman's ankles

[teaboot]

This is Peak Yuri media and I hope my beautiful feral daughters love each other forever

[codes-and-stuffs]

okay wait no i do have things to say about people reacting to "don't ship me" with "well we can still qpr and platonically ship this person" because hey guys maybe we need to have a more in depth discussion about why we think romantic relationships are offensive in a way these others aren't. hey wait stop walking out of the room. hey come back

[the-big-mood]

Clark Kent gaslighting Lois Lane into believing he’s not Superman.

[so-much-for-subtlety]

[riflebrass]

[rhube]

This is a classic case of Everybody Sucks Here.

[onthegreatsea]

the removal of physical media is not the inevitable progression of improving tech, its like the removal of the 3.5mm jack: purely a result of profit physical games still account for about 1/5th of all sales of video games

but by only selling digital games sony can be the ultimate arbiter of their price. they can stop you lending games and force another sale instead. they can stop the sale of second hand games and keep prices artificially high. they can set any price they want and that will be your only option.

[jomjjeoro]

hey guys. this is my invention. check it out

[worldheritagepostorganization]

World Heritage Post

[bandtshirt]

do y’all remember before direct messages tumblr had a dumbass ask limit of 10 per hour and communication was impossible until they introduced dumbass fan mail and we were basically sending telegraphs back in forth trying to communicate those were…dark times

Do y'all remember when they finally gave us direct messages and instead of doing it normally, they gave it to a few people at a time and we had to infect each other with it like a virus

[piedude]

[abandonrun]

remember when any post with more than like 6 people talking was unreadably smushed except for the last few additions remember when any post of over 500 characters became a link back to op’s blog readmore style remember when video and audio posts had about a 10% chance of working when you click play

[curseofsisyphus]

As a recent user I love finding out shit like this from older users. What the fuck guys???? Why were you USING IT AT ALL?!??

[dono-harm-totonystark]

believe it or not, we liked that more

[thefloralpeach]

its worth noting that immediately after these updates that made everything better, we were all angry about it

[tpwrtrmnky]

The idea of Mario and Peach having any kind of relationship beyond the occasional kiss on the nose and "mama mia" is like viscerally incomprehensible to me

Not like in a prude way I just can't conceive of Mario experiencing... urges. He's a character outside the scope of that. I'm not saying he's asexual either cause positioning him on the allo/ace spectrum implies that it's a dimension of his character that at least exists, that he has at some point noticed it. I think he just jumps.

[tpwrtrmnky]

Luigi probably fucks though.

[tpwrtrmnky]

#op interrogate yourself about why you think this right fucking now

So unlike Mario, who continues to be essentially a void with no internality, I actually act with thoughts and intent and already did do that when writing this post.

Mario is a mascot of one of the most sanitized corporate brands in existence. He differs from real, full-fledged ace people in that his sexlessness is not queer, not transgressive in any sense of the word, just a void left by his position as a player character. He has no queer identity because he has no identity beyond the fact that it's-a-him, Mario.

[antigyro]

Ok but why is Luigi different

[tpwrtrmnky]

displays internality by being capable of fear. to fear is to have something to lose. and what does he stand to lose? fucking.

[casgirl]

fuck my stupid baka life is really the greatest phrase known to man

[thisisgraecie]

A few days ago you on stream you mentioned you have several self care tools and ways to deal with character bleed. Would you ever consider making a video or stream (or even just a Tumblr post lmao) about it for other people who are also struggling? And alongside that, you mentioned you sent out a thing to the other flight cast members asking for their themes and themes they would like to avoid (or something like that sorry my memory isn't the greatest ;w;) did you have a specific form or something that you sent them, and if so would you be comfortable sharing it?

(Sorry if this is too much to ask, feel free to ignore me :3)

Hello! This is something I love talking about, not too much to ask at all!

Character bleed is when the line between who you are and who your character is gets blurred and you (for lack of bettwe words to describe this) begin to become the character you are playing. This is an especially prevalent conversation in the DnD and LARP communities, but it isn't really something I see people consider or know about in the MCRP space. It took me until early last year to realize how much of a crossover there is in terms of those three spaces, before then I viewed it as it's own thing entirely.

In DnD, one simple way to help differentiate you from your character is to narrate your actions in third person, rather than first. But for most of roleplaying, I find that it really helps to sit back and decompress after playing a character for hours. I'll listen to music that I specifically love, songs and artists that are not on a character playlist, just what I associate with me! (Flipturn my beloved) Journaling is also something I've found helpful, writing down stars and wishes for the session. Stars are things I really enjoyed, and wishes are aspects I want to work on more.

The one thing I cannot stress that I recommend enough is checking in with scene partners after a session is done, especially if there was a high emotion scene present, arguments/breakdowns/anything that could linger in the back of your mind after all is said and done. Just check in with them and say "hey! how are you feeling after that? anything you want to talk about or gameplan from?" Opening honest conversations for check ins helps to prevent internalizing emotions that you feel as your character- I feel it really helps to foster a safe environment. It can be difficult to shut a scene down, but in a LARP or TTRPG space, never be afraid to X card or step away from something if you feel it is weighing on your emotional or physical wellbeing. Your health and safety comes first over a game.

As for consent checklists, the tried and true one I love is by Monte Cook Games! It's a classic in the TTRPG community and can provide a great foundation for a session zero. I used it as a base and made a form for people to fill out, but ended up removing some of the preexisting topics and adding a bunch more to tailor it to the MCRP space. It gives a long list of topics with a red, yellow, and green box by each. Green means you're totally good with a topic, yellow means you'd like it veiled or not given in great detail, and red is a hard line of a topic you do not want to explore. It has a bunch of topics, some that most campaigns would never touch, but it's better to be expansive and cover all topics while saying most won't be in a campaign than to leave it more vague. For example, I included Religious Trauma because I knew my story would branch into that, so I wanted to make sure that I avoided anyone with my main backstory who marked that they were uncomfortable with those themes. That doesn't mean that I wouldn't interact at all, I would just know to be mindful when exploring my backstory around them!

I've been wanting to introduce more of the TTRPG safety tools to this space, as I think it could really be helpful. The Flight team was more than happy to let me give it a test run for TF, which I'm very grateful for! I'm more than happy to talk about this anytime, so always feel free to bring it up!

[darthstitch]

Me watching idiots on Twitter/X whinging about how they want AO3 to be monetized and to censor all the ick ew omg stuff they hate and my special favorite: OMG WHY CAN'T THESE WEIRDOS GO OFF AND CREATE THEIR OWN SITE

BITCHES AO3 IS THE WEIRDO SITE. THE WEIRDOS MADE IT. NOW GET THE FUCK OUT.

[sweaterkittensahoy]

AO3's source code is free to use! If you don't like the weirdo site with all the freak sex and free speech, you can go make your own site with your own rules!

::aid whispers in ear::

What? People have tried that before? Huh. Why hasn't--

::aid whispers in ear::

oooh, it always collapses under the weight of their moral superiority and infighing over what "bad" means. Right. Right.

[fur-bies-deactivated20180106]

i let the furby skins soak in fabric softener after i washed them and my sis found them and sent me:

and i have never laughed so hard x’D

[brainless-moe-white-lotus]

Bitches will be like "prev tags omg" on my post and I check the preg tags and it's like "blorbo from my shows"

[world-heritage-posts]

world heritage post

[astronomical-bagel]

Happy late anniversary to the post that changed tumblr’s (and the entire internet’s) vernacular forever

[mephistopheles]

"bottom" please consider 🫵 whether the word you are looking for is in fact "submissive" ! because if we decide that taking dick means your personality & character r inherently subservient 😃 we might as well just throw in the towel on the most basic premise of feminism & 🔫 kill ourselves 🎉

[cosmogyros]

[youllnevertaketheskyfromme]

I am someone who generally listens to creator boundaries and does my best (without breaking my back hunting for things) to follow them. My policy has always been that following cc boundaries is a nice thing to do especially when they ask nicely. I never make my content for the ccs, I always make it for myself and likely they will never see it.

I don't really support Maddy Millkberry and Jack Pyroscythe's new boundary against romance. Which is strange given that my previous feelings have not changed. This feels different for many reasons.

1) Most cc boundaries in the spaces I'm currently in are specific.

A blanket ban on all romance is too broad and non specific, which makes it impossible to enforce or to follow willingly. I've read too many fics and seen too much art where the author/artist needs to put a "not shipping please don't tag as shipping" tag/note for me to believe that there isn't a large portion of fanworks that live in a subjective gray area.

Even if you don't think you're making shipping content, someone else might.

If the boundary was: no kissing, I might be more willing to stand behind it because it's simple and easy to understand and implement. I'd even be okay with multiple specific and clearly stated boundaries like that and would be willing to follow those guidelines myself. (Note: I would be doing it because I think it's nice, not because it is a moral obligation or the pinnacle of morality.)

2) The boundary was not just "no romance" the ‘boundary’ was "throw away all works currently with romance regardless of how important they are to you."

Yes yes, Pyro and Maddy have both stated you don't need to delete old works, but I have a project I've been working on for seven months. This project has gotten me through some rough mental health moments. This project has made me a better writer, friend, and person.

Selfishly, I don't want to give that up for a stranger who would have never seen it. Giving it up would make my mental health worse and remove one of my coping mechanisms.

But of course, because I'm not an influencer, my mental health as a fan is less important. Thanks.

3) Lack of clear communication from Maddy and Pyro to the community at large.

I'm not in their discords, I can't watch their streams because of time zones. The lack of communication on the platforms they are trying to enforce these boundaries on means that rumors, clips, and screenshots are the only ways most of us are getting any information. Pyro's pinned boundary list last I checked still has "shipping allowed" on the preview. You have to hunt for their boundaries on Tumblr.

Maddy was right, she does not owe anyone an explanation on why romance for her or Pyro's characters is bad for her mental health right now. There is no part of me that wants any of that information. That's for her and people she chooses to share that with.

But when you are making a drastic demand of a fandom like this, it should not be like pulling teeth to get a clear statement to the public of "please don't harass or hurt people"

3.5) We are not reading between the lines trying to justify breaking boundaries when we as fans are worried that Pyro's statements could be taken as an endorsement of harassment.

The reason we are "reading between the lines" is because many fans have gone through this before. The people who will and are currently harassing people don't need a direct statement from Pyro or Maddy saying "please go harass people" they already want to send violent images to the "guilty parties" they just need a whisper of endorsement. They just need a quick "won't someone rid me of this priest" and they are on it.

Hell, have you seen how many time Jimmy Solidarity has to defend the right of his friends to make fun of him because he finds it funny? People have used less to justify harassment than what Pyro has given these people.

We are not looking for justification when we say that Pyro made ambiguous statements that will be taken as endorsement of harassment. I'm glad they specified that they don't endorse harassment, again it should not have taken as many times as it did to get a clear "do not harass anyone" without the ever present caveat of "who isn't currently breaking boundaries"

The fact that they either don't understand or don't care about the very real risk of harassment, bullying, and literal crimes that people are willing to commit in the name of creator boundaries means that once again, the mental well-being of fans is less important than Maddy's.

The goal is to support Maddy's mental health, remember? We've shifted so hard into discourse land that the conversation is no longer about helping and it's now about control, being right, and "look how evil the other side is." No one on any side that I've seen or talked to wanted it to come to those three things.

4) Lack of accountability.

Every time someone has brought up a concern or clarifying question, Maddy and Pyro have shot it down, stepped around the question, or straight up banned or blocked the asker. Even fans who are being sincere and want information. I'm not looking for a youtube apology. A simple "I didn't word that quite right, here's what I actually meant" would have been fine.

Ideally an occasional "I didn't think about that" or "I haven't thought about it that way" would be nice, though I'm not holding my breath. The blatant "us vs them" of it all means that Pyro and Maddy aren't listening. I don't need them to agree, just to listen to the people who disagree.

The worst offending action on the front of the lack of accountability is when a fan brought up in the discord that historically, banning romance in fandoms has been an act of queerphobia (many people have written about that better than I can). Maddy did not address the concern and said that saying so was very hurtful because neither her nor Pyro are straight.

You can be queer and queerphobic. You can be a woman and do sexist things. You can be a racial minority and do racist things. Just because you are a member of a community doesn't mean you can't harm that community, even unintentionally.

Just because something hurts your feelings doesn't make it untrue. The fact that her feelings matter more to Maddy than acknowledging the history of these actions is enough for me to no longer want to be associated with this community. Especially since the defense of "all romantic relationships go against our boundaries including straight ones" was right there. I don't agree with that argument, but it's better than "I'm gay so nothing I do is homophobic" as a free pass.

5) An Ending.

Thanks for reading to the end. On top of all of these arguments are the ones that have been stated over and over, that ccs do not control fan spaces. My stance on boundaries is still "it's a nice thing to do." This boundary is so unreasonable both in its ambiguity and how Maddy and Pyro have communicated it, that I am not willing to break my back to do the "nice thing."

In regards to Legundo's post this morning I think getting banned or blocked from actual cc spaces is perfectly fine. I question the logistics of it, many people (myself included) have different usernames on different platforms so for instance if they want to ban me on discord because of my ao3 fics I have no clue how they're going to do that, but sure. Getting blocked is harmless and ultimately what many pro-shipping fans have been advocating for. Our main concern has always been censorship, control, death threats, and harassment. Again, not an exaggeration or to paint Maddy and Pyro in a bad light, but because it is already happening. We have been here before and we are here now.

Banning and blocking is a reasonable boundary and I wish them all the luck in the world. I also wish their mods luck, they're going to need it in this logistical nightmare.