Welcome to all the freaks!
I’m Fisher, your forum host. There are also a few moderators on this server, and a few folks who help behind the scenes with making sure this website forum works as intended.You can meet a few of them by visiting the Admin Welcome.
The internet has become increasingly… restrictive. Many sites are clamping down on the ability to freely be a freak, and then some feel like you are just being actively spied on by using it. I tire of this enough to do what was needed to ensure a place like this can exist.
Forums are slower paced than discord servers were, but the truth is: forums have existed for a long time as a way people have and still continue to communicate. It may take some getting used to for some folks, but I can assure you that people can settle into a groove of forum use.
A few basics:
Just like many other places, discourse allows you to set an Avatar by going to your account and set some About Me text by going to your profile. You can also choose a theme for discourse all the way at the very bottom left of sidebar.
Forum Safety:
I just want to make it clear: This forum is a lot more public than a discord is, in many ways. I have tried to lock this forum down some by making so little available unless you make an account - but that is really the only thing stopping people from snooping around– making an account. You should assume that whatever you post here is available to be copied and archived across the Internet, and you never know when something might get screenshotted and go viral!
The key to preventing doxxing is to be mindful that the little pieces of information you give away do not add up to something big. It’s like a jigsaw puzzle - a single piece doesn’t give away the whole picture, but if someone gets enough pieces then they can start to narrow down who you are.
By default, we already know that you have an internet connection and that you probably know at least some English. How many people of the 7-8 billion people on Earth does that already rule out?
Details like your time zone, age, and birthday can narrow things down even more.
Some good questions to be mindful of are:
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Does anything I share here link this account to other accounts on the Internet? What pieces of information do those accounts share, and what other accounts do they link to?
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If I’m sharing a picture, is there anything in the background that might hint at who/where I am?
Please, try and be safe folks. I want to protect all the freaks I can, but there are limitations to my powers.
Moderation and Community Guidelines:
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This space is for adults only. Really. I mean it. If you are under 18 you are not allowed. Go do your homework or something.
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This is also a queer space. While non-queer people may freely participate, take care to make space for our voices. Bigoted and hateful behaviour is not allowed.
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Posting about sexual and horny things is allowed. Flirting is not.
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Any topic deemed too serious/heavy/etc. can be shut down at the moderator’s discretion. Even if no rules are explicitly broken, if someone is causing trouble they will be removed at the moderator’s discretion for the betterment of the community.
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Furthermore, while you may ask for advice, this is not a place for therapy, debates, or flame wars. Discussions are fine, but getting into arguments is not.
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Regarding the work and dev of others, do not critique people’s work unless it has been explicitly requested.
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Conversation about NSFW content and topics is ideally contained in NSFW topics and threads. (Please include NSFW in the title unless it is abundantly clear) If it is outside of those places, then it should be spoilered. Spoilering things is different on discourse, but pretty easy. Select the text/images you want to spoil, hit the plus sign next to the emojis, and select the blur option.
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As so:
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At the end of the day, be kind, and be a cheerleader for not only your fellow devs, but your fellow freaks. The outside world has made it harder and harder to have a place for people to have open freak discussions.
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Moderators understand the complexity of all that will take place within this forum. But we must also consider the health and safety of this community.
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If you feel heated, angry, aggressive, anxious, have a racing heart or otherwise feel dysregulated, then take a break. The forum will still be here when you return.
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And finally, for legal reasons, I must ask that you do not post illegal things on the forum.
How do I actually join the forum and see everything though?
In order to post, and see the rest of the forum, (well, besides Da Rules and the PUBLIC Guides and Resources categories) you must join the Freak group. You can do that by going to Freak and joining the group. There are plenty of other groups to join, but that one gets you access to everything. Well. Almost everything. You also need to enter the invite code “vnfreak” without the quotes when making an account. After you do that, consider checking out the Welcome category to learn more about using the site and to introduce yourself.
If you are someone who worries that your popularity will get you treated weirdly, or you just want to have a place to sometimes talk and exist with folks who will treat you like peers, then send me a direct message. You may qualify for access to the VIP section of the forum.
How do I learn about using the forum though?
Once you have actually joined the forum and joined the Freaks group, you can view this topic which will help you get started: