First of all, I'd like to thank everyone who joined this group for doing so, and to point out that (for the most part) y'all have done a SUPERB job of behaving yourselves here.
Unfortunately, things do happen here from time to time, and so in the interest of clearing up any confusion about what is and isn't appropriate to talk about here, I decided to write these rules, to help ensure that this group continues to be a safe space where all Paint members can enjoy chatting with their friends about fun stuff.
Now, the first thing I'd like to say, before I get to the actual “Rules/Guidelines”, is that I'm going to be pretty loose about enforcing these since y'all are my friends here. That doesn't mean that it is OK to intentionally break the rules here, but rather, that me or my BFF and co-owner of this group UwUQueen are unlikely to kick you from this group or ban you for an honest mistake.
(We all make mistakes sometimes, after all.)
I should also mention that I will apply these same rules for comments left on any of my blogs or on my profile, and any comments that violate them will be subject to immediate deletion, unless I have a compelling reason not to.
Anyway, without further ado, here are the rules for this group.1. No Swearing
Once upon a time—before I even joined this website myself in 2019—swearing was against the rules here on Paint, but at some point that rule was changed. Needless to say, it still applies here.
Religious words like “Hell” and “damn” will obviously be permitted here if they are being used literally, but using them as expletives is discouraged here, since words like “heck”, “dang”, and “darn” exist, and are not as offensive.
(And saying the Lord's name in vain will be considered a far more serious offense here.)
Other curse words are also discouraged here—even if they are being used literally—as there are usually far less offensive words to use to refer to such things, and discussing the bodily functions associated with those words is prohibited here anyway.
In line with the prohibition on hate speech found in Paint's terms of membership, all slurs are strictly prohibited here. This includes slurs that are generally considered acceptable elsewhere on this site for whatever reasons, including the B-slur,the R-slur, etc. etc.
(If me and/or UwUQueen warn you about something you said being a slur, it is one.)
It is worth noting that reasonable exceptions will be made to the no swearing rule in the interest of allowing people to quote characters from games or TV shows that they like, or things of that nature. This exception does NOT apply to hate speech.
The 2 images above are considered “reasonable exceptions” (in spite of the particularly harsh swear word in them) for different reasons.
The 1st image is a meme featuring the catchphrase of the Anarchy Sisters from anime series Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt. Although the series itself has WAY more profanity than would ever be tolerated here, talking about the series is acceptable here—in spite of its TV-MA rating—as is quoting cool lines of characters from it, even if they contain some profanity. (Abusing this exception to get away with swearing repeatedly will NOT be tolerated, though.)
It goes without saying that song lyrics would be considered a reasonable exception for this same reason as well
As for the 2nd image, it is OK because I am criticizing an offensive (yet commonly said) phrase that happens to contain profanity. This would be considered a form of political speech. And while “political speech” promoting racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, religious bigotry, etc. will NOT be tolerated here, speech speaking out against hate will always be welcome here.
2. No Bullying
This group is supposed to be a love group, NOT a hate group, and I've only been inviting people who I think are nice, friendly people to it for that very reason. (Almost all of whom I consider my personal friends.)
Anyone who knows me well knows that I think that bullying has become a serious problem here on Paint, and that the admin team here has (unfortunately) failed miserably at consistently holding bullies accountable for their actions here. On that note, if anybody here feels as though another member of this group is bullying them, it will be taken seriously. (And so will the accused, if they claim that they are innocent or didn't mean to do so, though.)
Everyone here should try to show respect for one another, and if me and/or UwUQueen determine that somebody isn't doing that, and they don't correct their behavior after being warned and given sufficient time to do so, they will be removed from this group. (We intend to do whatever's necessary to maintain the current level of decency and civility here, although we will always try to look at both sides of all disputes.)3. No hate speech
As I mentioned above, hate speech is already prohibited here byPaint's terms of membership. However, since this has been an issue before elsewhere here on Paint, I will try to provide a brief explanation of what me and UwUQueen consider to be “hate speech”.
Sexism, racism, queerphobia, ableism, classism, ageism, and (within reason) speciesism are all prohibited here. This includes (but is not limited to) the usage of slurs, misuse of the word “gay” to disparage someone or something, misgendering and/or deadnaming of gender-diverse individuals, the use of dehumanizing and/or derogatory language to refer towards individuals or classes of individuals, etc., etc.
As strict as all of that may sound, we do actually value freedom of speech here a great deal. Legitimate criticism of the state of Israel, its government, or its policies, for example, will NOT be conflated with anti-Semitism, nor will legitimate criticism of Muslim countries in the region, their government(s), or their policies will be conflated with Islamophobia, unless Jews/Muslims are attacked as a people/religion more broadly.
(And this same principle applies to all other countries, as well.)4. Keep it E (or at least E10+) rated
This is arguably the most important rule here.
Having both been criticized for and criticized others for what would be regarded as inappropriate language here on Paint, it is important to understand my perspective on this issue, which may or may not be 100% in line with UwUQueen's.
I understand that there are M-Rated Blogs on this site, and I've even written a few myself, but the majority of my blogs have been either E-rated or T-rated, with the majority of them being E-rated.
“According to the ESRB, an E10+ rated video game "may contain more cartoon, fantasy or mild violence, mild language (up to the B-word level) and/or minimal suggestive themes."”
I strongly recommend that you check out the above link to understand what exactly “E10+” means in ESRB terms, but IMO, anything that would be considered acceptable in an E10+ game is also acceptable here. (The 2 noteworthy exceptions to this would be the “B-word” and the “derogatory language” permitted in E10+ titles, due to me and UwUQueen regarding them as misogynistic slurs.)
In the “reasonable exceptions” section of Rule 1, I stated that it is OK to talk about TV-MA rated shows, and by implication, M-rated games, R-rated movies, etc., etc. However, due to the mature content contained in TV shows, games, and movies of these ratings, in general that should be avoided here. (The rules will be far looser in this regard in my 真正の日本好き group BTW, particularly when it comes to discussing anime, manga, and video games.)
As is implied by the previous paragraph, discussion of TV-14, T, or PG-13 rated media is A-OK here, provided that it is done in such a way that is (at least mostly) in compliance with the other rules here.
Since this is me and UwUQueen's group, we expect people to hold themselves to the same standards of decency that we hold ourselves to here on Paint. (At least, as long as they're shouting in our groups, or commenting on our profiles and/or blogs, anyway.)
An offense that will get you banned from this group and an offense that will get you banned from Paint are NOT necessarily the same thing, but if whatever you do here happens to also be a bannable offense under the (generally much looser) rules of Paint itself, me and/or UwUQueen will not hesitate to carry out our duty as active Paint admins and warn and/or ban you for that, as well. (We will always issue a warning to 1st time offenders, though.)
We have no intention of being hypocritical or selective with regards to the enforcement of these rules, however, and again, I won't fault people for talking about games, TV shows, movies, books, etc., even if they have M-rated (or even AO-rated) content in them. (Especially in the case of anime, as this group is intended for anime fans like myself to be able to freely talk about their interests.)
In cases like that, you can expect WAY more leniency than people just saying crude, offensive things without a legitimate reason.5. No being gross
Kind of self explanatory, but just to be crystal-clear here, we're referring to bathroom humor, bedroom humor, and the like.
Breaking this rule this can (and will) get you kicked from this group, if it is deliberately being ignored.6. No spam
I added this rule specifically because it has been an issue here many times in the past, and while you can expect enforcement of this rule to be somewhat lax, if it becomes a persistent issue, you will be kicked from this group for spamming here.
