WOLF Rating Adjustment: 3-1-3

Hello, WOLF pack!

Over the course of 2020, the Community Management team has received numerous questions and concerns related to sexual content and the age of some of our players. To be clear, WOLF has always been an 18+ community; however, minors are able to join with parental permission (which they agree to upon registering and joining the game, per our guidebook) and players that meet this criteria have become an integral part of this community.

As the person that pays for the domain and hosting, thereby the "owner" of WOLF, this scenario truthfully causes me a lot of anxiety related to my liability and accountability. Each time a member reaches out to us with a concern related to this, my anxiety increases. At this point, I do feel it's time that I take a firmer stance — not only to protect myself, but to protect the players here as well. Ultimately, that meant two real choices: a strict ban on minors, with no "loophole" via parental permission, or a strict ban on sexual content.

I'm 32 years old, and I have been participating in play-by-post roleplaying since I was about 13. Many of the people here at WOLF are friends I made way, way back then and I learned so much writing and growing with them. Considering that, I would not feel authentic in placing a strict ban on players under the age of 18, and I would not feel authentic telling the minors that are here with permission that they are no longer welcome. Further, considering that we truly cannot know someone's legal age or approval from guardians without substantial paperwork/overhead, I have made the decision to adjust WOLF's rating to avoid problematic scenarios altogether.

Going forward, WOLF's new rating will be 3-1-3. This means the following level of mature content is acceptable:

• Language: Swearing and mature language is permitted.
  
• Sex: Mild sexual innuendo and references permitted.
  
• Violence: Explicit violence is permitted.

While this was discussed briefly by the rest of the CM team, I ultimately gave them no choice due to my assumed legal responsibility as site owner; so if you have concerns about this change in policy, please message them to me directly via PM or on Discord (Melee#0666). I hope you can understand that my goal is to keep problematic situations from occurring on WOLF, whether they be intentional or not.

If you have questions about what is or is not allowed going forward, please ask here so that we can clarify and others can benefit from the answer.

• What will happen to existing threads with explicit content? It has always been important to the CM team at WOLF that we preserve the creative efforts of our players and that we never remove your access to your writing. All existing threads will remain in the archives.
  
• How far can I take sexual content? If you wouldn't feel comfortable writing it, knowing your thread partner may be a thirteen year old, it's probably best to avoid it. Writing out the explicit, physical act(s) of sex will no longer be permitted going forward.
  
• Do I still need to mark my threads as mature? Yes; when there is violence, mature language, or even mild sexual innuendo/references, please continue to mark these threads as mature.
  
• Will there be a specific forum where sexually explicit content can still be written? Not at this time, and unlikely in the future. Once again, my goal is to reduce the risk of problematic situations involving minors (intentional or not) to protect myself and thread participants from potential legal action, and minors from predatory behavior.
  
• So, are we still a community meant for adults? Absolutely. WOLF continues to be a community with a target audience of 18+; we are simply doing what we can to reduce the risk of predatory and unlawful behavior.
  
• What about conception threads? These will still be required; make use of those innuendos or fade-to-black. Round over round of explicit detail describing the physical act(s) of sex will no longer be permitted.