do meme friday restrictions extend to tagging others on dash posts, or is meme friday for inbox stuff? thank you!
Hey there!
Meme friday restrictions apply to things beyond just stuff meant for inboxes! Sentence prompts/starter memes obviously fall under this restriction, but, for example, so do things like:
Tagging memes (ones that typically start or end with “tagged by [name] / tagging [name]”)
Muse quizzes
Questionnaires (bold all that apply, this or that lists, profile memes, etc)
Aside from those, any sort of post that invites participation from others on the dashboard or invites people to send you memes (meaning you can’t say you ‘accepting!’ on a meme answered on a day other than Friday) are not allowed outside of meme friday itself.
the new hoarding guidelines honestly seem like a threat. not popular? don't have a clique? rp ads failing? i don't want to be a downer but i don't think i'm the only one who fits those categories. i don't know how to keep my muses safe from hoarding claims in these circumstances.
Hey anon!
We hear your concerns and wanted to offer some clarification to hopefully give you some peace of mind! As stated in the post this isn’t a cut and dry issue and nothing has actually changed except now we’re being more transparent about how we’ve always looked at hoarding cases.
That being said, I think it’s natural to have a little anxiety about posts like that. We’ll be the first to admit it’s a lot to take in and there’s an intimidating number of factors at play, but let us reassure you that 95% of the community won’t be affected by them at all due to how uncommon hoarding cases are!
As it stands, hoarding cases are very uncommon. It’s true they might happen a little more frequently since everything’s thoroughly explained now, but the frequency we’ve been receiving them is about one every three months so it’s not a high bar.
Even then, though, it’s a very complex process. For instance, personally, I sometimes fit a couple of those categories myself, which is why we state in the post that every one of the suggested problem areas are only treated as a concern if they recur for 5-6 months or more, often in combination with other things, and only if someone actively wants to try that character. Everyone has bad months and interest in different muses wanes and grows depending on what’s happening in the group be it an event or a dry spell, or even which series are hot at the moment. There are a lot of things we can’t control and we tried to make sure to make mention of that in the post. We look very thoroughly at numerous factors when cases are brought up, and sometimes it takes a lot of discussion to come to a conclusion.
All of that is to say, “popularity” is relative and ultimately not a deciding influence in hoarding cases! There are too many different factors to try and boil it down to just one thing.
One or two of the categories doesn’t make you vulnerable. Posting with only a few people but you post a lot? You’re fine. Not posting a ton every single month but you have threads with different people that are continuously going and progressing? You’re fine!
We hope this eases some of your worries, and if you’d like some ideas on how to strike up threads with people, feel free to ask one of the mods!
what about cases where a character has a lot of canon doubles and all of them are okay with a specific double except one or two? it doesn't seem fair to let one out of five people block someone from applying a character when everyone else is fine with it
Hey anon!
I assume cases of this would be pretty isolated (looking at you Fate and Kingdom Hearts), but for the sake of fairness this could play out in one of two ways.
If the double is a brand new double to a core identity (ie. they’re based on a core character like vanilla artoria pendragon or sakura matou but don’t have any other versions of that particular offshoot like lancer and lancer alter), a simple majority would be your answer. If there were five doubles and three said yes or no, then there’s your answer! The only exception to this would be…
If the double is a double of a double (ie. it’s a new iteration of mhx or lancer artoria) priority would go to the permissions of existing iterations since this double would impact them the most out of the group. So if it was a new Lancer Artoria, the two Lancer Artorias if we had them in the group at the time would get final say on the matter and if either of them said no it would be a no. Of course this doesn’t apply to Alters blocking other Alters unless they’re from the same base Artoria, so a Saber Alter couldn’t block a Lancer Alter on the grounds that they’re both Alters.
These are just hypotheticals using characters I know of though. Anyone not familiar with fate: what was just said I don’t understand.
Recently, we instituted a policy update and there were some questions and concerns that arose from it. We apologize for getting this clarification out so late. We wanted to make sure we sat down and ironed out some things before we outlined everything to try and make it as comprehensive as possible.
Details are gonna be under the cut!
About character interpretations/canon divergence
One of the main concerns brought up was regarding our new canon divergent policy. The intention behind this was not to squash creativity regarding certain types of headcanons (i.e. gender identities, sexuality, neurodivergence, etc.). In general, you can headcanon whatever you’d like! Nothing has changed about that.
The intention behind this policy update is to detour people from essentially changing major canon points and histories that are key to a character, which is something we’ve seen an increase in apps attempting recently.
When applying, we ask that characters personalities and histories stick to canon as closely as reasonably possible. That being said, please be mindful if your character is offensive or could harm our community’s safety. You will never get in trouble for being OOC because you were being courteous. Likewise, if there are certain elements that make you or others too uncomfortable, it’s still fine to omit them. Safety and comfort always come first, just don’t change the character willy-nilly!
In a similar vein, we completely expect characters to learn and grow and change as they interact with new people and the environment of Spirale: that’s part of why they’re here!
TL;DR:
You will NOT get in trouble for headcanons that add on to canon (like any identity-related headcanon).
You will NOT get in trouble for any character development that has taken place in an RP setting.
You will NOT get in trouble for changing or omitting things that are uncomfortable or dangerous to the community or yourself.
We just expect you to start at the base provided by canon material and may approach people who have changed too much out of the gate. Even if we do approach you, it will be a dialogue. You will not immediately get in trouble.
About Meme Friday
There seemed to be some concern about our community meme day being changed to Fridays, and we wanted to take a moment to address what we saw, as well as explain our reasoning for this experiment.
Firstly, we wanted to assure that there was a lot of thought put into the decision to run this trial, as well as the specific day we chose.
So, why move meme day at all?
Originally, during the first iteration of CA, memes were on Tuesday. When the second iteration started, we moved it to Sunday. It’s been five years since memes moved to Sunday, and we figured with the start of a new MFRP, we could try a new meme day as well.
We also know that throughout those five years, there have been plenty of people unable to participate in Meme Sunday for various reason--including students, who may spend their Sunday’s finishing homework or going to bed early for school the next day, as well as those that work that day, or have various other responsibilities.
On top of that, there are a number of members who only have the weekends (Saturday and Sunday) free, and that by starting meme day Saturday night and ending Monday morning, they felt like they lost a significant amount of time that they could have spent writing replies. We’ve gotten feedback throughout the years that the meme day dash busyness can be overwhelming, make people lose track of what they were doing, or feel like their replies are washed away. So by freeing up Sunday, we hoped to allow these people to feel more comfortable writing during their free time.
Then why Friday?
We chose Friday for the trial because of a number of reasons.
Firstly, it’s the end of the work week for those who go to (most) schools or who work Mon-Fri! We figured memes could be a nice way to unwind after a long week of school, work, or other responsibilities. Memes are also things that can be done pretty quickly or easily during breaks throughout the day---which is much harder for things like replies.
Secondly, it’s still attached to the weekend. People in the aforementioned categories are entering their weekend and will have Friday night to comfortably reblog or reply to memes with less worry about having to wake up early the next day (generally). Even if someone doesn’t fall into those categories and has a more flexible schedule, it wouldn’t change much overall for them because they could potentially be working on Sunday as well.
Thirdly, It doesn’t run into the week for our international members.
Finally, we noticed that Fridays tended to be more slow activity-wise. We thought bringing memes to Fridays would be a good way to encourage people to post and have some fun on the dash to start off the weekend. This also meant we weren’t worried so much about it deterring people from writing replies since not much goes on that day.
Why didn’t you just have a vote from the beginning?
We know that, for the most part, human beings are very resistant to change. There’s a lot of research about this subject, and if you’re curious, it’s a very interesting topic (mod Lyra would link a 30-page social psychology research paper, but ain’t nobody got time for that).
To that end, we didn’t want people to just vote for Sunday because it was what was most familiar to them. We want to improve Isola and we thought this might be a move in the right direction, so we wanted people to experience the change and get accustomed to it before making a decision on what they like better. We still wanted people to vote, but we wanted everyone to see what the change would be like first.
Other notes:
For those who have some concerns still about being able to participate, we’d suggest trying to queue some memes up you find throughout the week for Friday and then answering them throughout the weekend (memes don’t have to be answered the day they’re received). It’s a method that many of those that don’t have Sundays available for memes have used throughout the years and would, at the very least, still allow you to get some development and fun in during that time as opposed to missing out entirely.
Again, though, this is an experiment and we don’t know how things could turn out at the end of the trial period. In the least, we will have learned a lot and we’ll see which day works the best! Thank you all for trying this wild idea out with us.
It's been a wild three months so far, but again, we would like to thank everyone who set out on this journey with us and is sticking with us going forward. We have a lot of cook things planned for the future and we hope you look forward to it as much as we do. If there are any other things you would like us to clarify, please don't hesitate to shoot us a message. Thanks for reading!
Lately, we have had several concerns brought to us regarding the processes involved in dealing with member reports and punishments. We want to be transparent with you all, so here is how policy generally works in that regard. More details are under the cut.
In most cases, there is a “three-strike” system. If member concerns are brought to us regarding your behavior on the dashboard or if we spot something against the rules ourselves, a moderator will speak to you. If you continue to behave inappropriately, you will be given an official warning. Accumulate three of these warnings, and you will be banned.
The three-strike system, however, is only used for minor transgressions --- offenses that can be easily rectified such as not tagging uncomfortable content or going past the OOC limit, for example. We take cases involving member harassment much more seriously. If you engage in behavior such as stalking, sending derogatory messages, or if you otherwise make it a point to intentionally make other members uncomfortable, you may be immediately banned without any strikes depending on the severity of your actions, your past history, and the amount of proof presented to us.
Another scenario where someone might be banned without warnings is if they enter Isola from an outside environment and it is brought to our attention that they have exhibited behavior in other environments that would make our members uncomfortable. Member comfort is our most important concern, so if anyone applies to the group that has a history we may not know of, it’s important to bring it to our attention. We can’t always know what’s transpiring inside of our group, sadly, let alone of what’s happened outside of it.
Bear in mind that any claims made against another member must be substantiated with evidence to be considered. For the safety of all members involved, we will not make any public statements regarding the reasoning behind a ban. If the banned member chooses to make their ban message public, that is their choice. Showing people the evidence provided to us, however, puts the one reporting said member at risk of being identified in many cases. For that reason, we also cannot share logs or other evidence we have been provided, as that would jeopardize the confidence placed in us by those who gave the information.
We encourage members to bring anything to our attention which may be of concern to them at any point in time. If the evidence presented occurred a year ago or more, however, and there is no evidence to suggest they are continuing that behavior now, we may not be able to take disciplinary action at that moment. In these cases, we will keep careful watch over the person while they are within our community, and if we see something ourselves or if something is brought to us regarding them, we will take their history into consideration when deciding what action to take.
We hope that this helps you understand our policy better. If there any questions or concerns, please direct them to the askbox as always. Thank you!
for a total newbie, what should one put ON a stats page?
Hello there!
We apologize for the late response on this one, but we wanted to wait to answer until we could easily point you in the right direction.
We’ve now added an example form for a stats page onto our forms page!
You do not have to use the form we provide, but it is a nice idea of what you could include on that page (and it explains what we require on it, as well).
Hello mods! Lately me and a few friends of mine have noticed that folks seem to be, for lack of a better term, mishandling restrictions on canon doubles? Like, placing specific restrictions on other characters who are doubles at first glance but are treated in canon as separate. Characters who possess the body of another but are otherwise entirely separate or characters who are separate aspects but coexist and interact with the original. What exactly defines a "canon double"?
Hey there!
We currently define canon doubles with this set of conditions:
the characters must exist within the same series / franchise
if the characters are clones or can be defined as such
if the character is possessing the body of another character
if the character shares a base identity lore wise and are offshoots of that identity
if the character shares a name or role (like a silent protagonist where there’s a m/f option)
In many cases the muns aren’t comfortable with doubles of their characters and would find it detrimental to having them in the group. Whether they interact in canon or not isn’t a factor. If you feel someone is misusing the double policy feel free to contact the masterlist and we can clarify whether its within their right! As an aside there may be exceptions to those listed above!
hello! is it possible to age up characters? there's a character i'd like to try my hand at but not at their canon age
Hello!
We do not allow people to age up their characters past their present canon point, no. It can lead to some hinky things, so we would prefer to avoid it entirely. Sorry about that!
