Family Roleplay
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@beverly ...can you maybe explain what part of my post is worth down-voting? Are you so concerned over people that write stories that you want them permanently removed from this site?
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@admin In very short: roleplay is a form of interactive, creative writing and falls under art ( writing/ world building/ character creation/ story board/ and related ). Roleplay (RP) can easily have a place on urstyle.
( The following would be my opinion. )
PERSONALLY, I dislike RP with characters under the age of consent, but I'm pretty certain this is due to being Generation X and how we where taught certain things about how to behave on the internet.
I also dislike the use of (face-claiming) photos of actual, real life, existing children. Then again, I also dislike it that people post those on the internet to begin with. It's not like it's legal as a child cannot, legally, agree with this.I'm aware that family RP is innocent, it just makes my skin crawl due to being me as a person.
If it was up to me, I'd make the rule that character photos should be of those who are on or over the age of consent.
( I have RPed on and off since 1997. LARP and pbp, mostly. )
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@myrrael Not to detract at all from the main topic, but I think it's important to realize that many famous celebrities/models can be under the age of 18. I get where you're coming from, but would that also mean that models under the age of 18 who have done editorial work and/or have public social media accounts and profiles on professional sites in the fashion industry (such as models.com) are also off-limits as representatives of a character? And if we're going to get into that debate, are they also off-limits in general for set making?
I think what I'm trying to say is that it's might be a little unreasonable to make a rule that photographs of all people who are under 18 be barred from sets (plus, wouldn't it be quite hard to enforce?). I do remember my days of simply entering into Google Images "blonde haired blue eyed girl" when I was looking for a picture to represent a character. I'm guessing that the profiles/accounts in question did the same; typing in something along the lines of "(physical trait) (physical trait) toddler" and picking random photographs. I have never seen anything wrong with this method.
I have also RPed in various forms, mostly pbp, but Urstyle/Polyvore roleplay is, effectively, collaborative story-telling with a visual element, which is 100% a valid form of art and expression, in my opinion. I really don't think banning roleplay on Urstyle is the best way to go about dealing with this issue; as far as I know, all RP on this site still follows the rules set out and doesn't include any explicit content.
This is just my two cents on the subject, though! I hope this helps with the final decision.
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@ayzrules said in Family Roleplay:
....many famous celebrities/models can be under the age of 18.
Obviously. But those are people who are employed and doing this in an official and legal manner.
Also, the age of consent isn't 18. Nor is it the same in every country.Also, apologies, I'm too tired to defend my personal opinion. I simply get a general feeling of 'wrongness' when I see child characters in (adoption) RP.
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@myrrael @admin I completely concur with your opinion about disliking the use of photos of actual children. They are under the age of consent & that child has a parent who would probably be horrified a picture of their child is being used in such a way on a website. Also, as a former court appointed advocate for abused & neglected children I do not think role playing or pretending the children whose pictures are posted on a website have been abused is appropriate. There was a user who listed background on each child's picture posted indicating the child had been abused, etc. Also, posting children's pictures saying "needs a home" could be misinterpreted as human trafficking. Obviously I have strong opinions about this issue & do object to these types of postings on URStyle.
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@ayzrules @admin @Myrrael I just posted about objecting to the use of children's pictures in roleplay. That said, I do not object to role play per se as an art form, just to the use of children who are presented as needing a home & having been abused & neglected. I'm not an attorney but would suggest that @admin look into the issue of using pictures of children who are under the age of consent & presenting these children as having been abused & neglected. You made a valid point about models & others whose pictures we may wish to use in a set who may not be of the age of consent. Sometimes users post pictures in their sets of children in a way that I do not object to (e.g., celebrating Spring, a holiday celebration). Just thought I'd clarify further my previous comment.
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Dear URSTYLE Friends
Thank you for your opinion on that matter. This topic was actually brought up to our attention by some of you, who have flagged these kind of profiles.
Some of the profiles' owners use pictures and data of real children claiming these children are ready for adoption and their parents used to abuse them. In my opinion this is not only unconscionable for children's families but also potentially dangerous. I love art and self-expression but I consider such behavior neither of them.
I hope everyone of you understand and support my reasoning. Please contact with me if you find some similar profiles. I would like to address them properly. I want URSTYLE to be a safe place for all of you.
Love,
Oliwia -
@olivpear , totally agree!
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@olivpear ~ Thank you for your input. I totally agree with all of your comments. There are websites out there for roleplaying. I said and will say again, I feel that Urstyle is not the place. Let's keep fashion, Interior Design and Art as the main themes. Some do not like my opinion as I have -3. It does not bother me at all. I say what I feel and think. Sorry to those, who take offence.
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I'm not going to claim to be an excerpt on anything, but as a fairly newer rper i would like to express my opinion on the matter. i'd like to first start by saying that i truly appreciate this site and the way it's workers/managers/idk actively work to make the site better and safer for it's users.
that being said, i don't think it's a good idea to censor, restrict or otherwise band roleplaying from this site. to be quite honest, as a substantial amount of the community from polyvore which joined here are from this community. roleplaying in itself has varying levels which are all different but ultimately have the same goal, to express ourselves creatively through a mixed medium of writing and fashion and art.
i started roleplaying around four years ago now, i believe, and i primarily do response roleplays in either pairs or multi mode which would be the groups you see. i've only recently joined high fashion, story roleplays since joining this site because of the people here. i'm not an excerpt in it and someone has definitely explained it much better then me already here. but from my understanding it is simply writing stories around a set of events, characters, storylines, etc. whereas in response you'd each have your own character(s) who you reply back and forth with.
family roleplay in itself as a category is a bit different from my understanding. from what i've seen of it before it's a "lesser" form of writing, in that it focuses more on dialogue and telling action briefly, rather than narrating or even dramatizing.
the point of roleplaying in my experience is never with malicious intent, even if the topics of graphic, disturbing or otherwise adult oriented (violence, drugs). in part, one of the reasons roleplaying was always safe for me is that we individually establish and develop our own rules about what we roleplay and who we roleplay with. (with things often only becoming a problem when people become more personal with one another with can cause drama and potentially bullying) i have my set of rules for roleplaying on my account which i'll link below if it's of any help.
i don't roleplay should be restricted, monitored yes, cause we don't want harm to come to anyone.
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this is exactly what i was trying to say earlier.
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I did not go on to the profiles far enough to see that they write that children have been abused, but I also feel like I covered in my reply that "I definitely understand the site's responsibility with things that may cross some lines: violence, disturbing images, glorification of eating disorders, pornography, etc." I can see that this can certainly fall under that in the instance of writing a violent history, there is a potential line being crossed. For the most part, I think these users are a little bit too young to understand the implications of writing these things (just guessing based off some of their grammar and word choice). I think it would maybe befit some kind of system to address them in a message right now, explaining why the situation makes people uncomfortable and perhaps is not alright, and then putting something in a rule book later that glorifying violence and abuse in children is not okay?
I think the notion that all roleplaying should be taken off this site that has been flitting around is detrimental and also just people blatantly misunderstanding it. Plenty of posts do it justice so I won't go into it further, but I think just because you don't partake in something yourself doesn't mean no one should be allowed to do it. Personally, I don't make interior design sets...but I think everyone should still be welcome to do that? Haha
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@lecoupdefoudre said in Family Roleplay:
I think the notion that all roleplaying should be taken off this site that has been flitting around is detrimental and also just people blatantly misunderstanding it.
My thoughts exactly and I feel like everyone else who knows what Roleplaying is about agrees too.
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@altered-dreams @BBoles3984 @lecoupdefoudre and others
please do not worry. Here at URSTYLE we appreciate all kinds of art and we understand that roleplaying is a kind of art. We are not going to prohibit you from creating sets and looks, that focus on role playing. This has never been our goal. Personally, I am the fan of many talented URSTYLERS, who use roleplaying to express themselves and you can find a lot of liked roleplaying sets on my profile.
Nevertheless, the sets we discovered were worrying to us, so we decided to contact all of you because we decided that there was a boundary that was exceeded.
Your feedback is highly appreciated on this case. We want all of you not only to be on the same page but also to feel valued and safe
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I actually disagree because if this roleplay families aren't here it won't be that lively because one can't be making sets i don't find it amusing especially because there were lots of roleplay families and it wouldn't be fair to most people use @URSTYLE to occupy time and i might think urstyle might lose members if the get removed
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Hi all!
I try to say my opinion, even if Italian is my language, so please try to be patient.
I have some friends here in UR who use roleplay, I admit that I don't read all their stories for obvious reasons of language, but their creations are very beautiful and touching, if there is a group in Italian, I would like to use roleplay. I believe they are a resource that could reserve nice surprises. I used roleplay (just writing, without images) and I had a lot of fun.
If the staff of UR wants to be a fashion site, but also art and, in this specific case, of expression, I think it's a good thing.But, in my opinion, there is a big "but": the photos of minors and apparently unknown people.
If, and I emphasize the "if", images are found on the net, in the public domain (children who work in fashion, young actors, etc.) should be usable, but, not to give rise to misunderstandings, I think it would be better to write on the set or in the title that the image(s) is(are) used solely for the purpose of roleplay and to emphasize that it's in the public domain.
I think it's right that everyone is free to express themselves, but with a limit to decorum, decency and respect for the rules and for the other members of this wonderful community.This is my personal opinion and does not want to be controversy or rhetoric, it's just and simply what I think.
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Hello everyone!
As the administrator of such a group (The fictional's royals community, where users basically enjoy creating styles and situations for fictitious royal characters) I would be really sad that Urstyle forbid their existence. I think they have their place on this platform. In my opinion, they are an art form as well as a fictitious decor for a piece.However, as many have already said, I am very uncomfortable with the use of pictures of children who are neither actors nor models. The internet offers a lot of opportunity for its users to create all kinds of art forms, but unfortunately it also allows some organizations or ill-intentioned people to use it for immoral purposes.
It would be a pity that Urstyle unwittingly finds himself to be a tool for such groups or people. I would therefore be in favor of putting in place certain rules for the creation of such profiles or communities.
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Okay so as someone who runs a family roleplay I don't see anything wrong and i have read all of your comments, sure I get what you are saying about the adoption, the two accounts I know do it to add onto the roleplay family's, not to traffic the children and we can talk to them about getting rid of anything about abuse or the backgrounds of the kids all together they only do it to help build the character for the roleplay and to explain why the child needs a new family. We try to make the families seem realistic and that is why not all of their backgrounds or history are perfect because that isn’t reality. Our roleplay families are basically our dream little families and most (I think all) faceclaims of kids are models or actors, they come from instagram from people who post public pictures of their kids and label them as insta models, we don't take them from private accounts, we also give credit to the owners of the photo and say that if you are the owner and don't want us to use the photo to message us and we will stop using it. We understand that a lot of you don't think this is okay but It isn’t hurting you and it is our way of being creative. We aren’t using the picture of the child for anything other then basically to show what the kid would look like. We aren’t doing any harm to anybody and we mind our own business and stay in our own little community. But if there is something we can do to make you feel a little more comfortable with it (besides getting rid of it all together) nicely talk about it with us and we can see what we can do
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Dear Urstyle:
I'm part of the roleplay community and I completely understand how concerned Ursyle users and Urstyle team members are. I feel so ashamed of the way most people shared their opinions, I mean, "it makes my skind crawl". I felt like a criminal (and I'm clearly not such a thing). I'm just an average 15 year old girl who goes to school, has friends, a family but also likes to roleplay, and I sincerely can't fully understand why is it wrong. We're not harming anyone, we're not claiming pictures as ours and we are even open to change the "faceclaims" if the owners of them want so. There's a lot of things that make some "people's skin crawl" and they're not necessarily wrong because of that. I can understand about the adoption thing though, and I'm messaging my roleplaying pals to change that.
Again, I'm feeling so ashamed of how most people express about us. I'm not doing harm to anyone and I'm neither trying to. Sincerely, you guys made me feel pity for something I don't see any harm in, and I'm not trying to make you all feel pity either but most roleplayers are young people, most under 18. In my opinion, you guys shouldn't be taking the "child trafficking, stealing indentities" thing this far. I understand your concern, I really do, because I imagine of the things that "make my skin crawl" and I also think about if I was on your place and I'm able to understand.
I don't know what to write at this point, I've got my nerves on edge and I want to cry. I feel like I'm doing a crime or something very wrong. This is my happy place, my real life is happy too, but I like to also log on here when I'm sad and talk to my internet peers about things I can't talk with people in real life. Almost everyone has something that they can't, no matter how hard they try, they can't say to somebody face to face, and roleplaying, being able to have somebody to chat with it's something I'm able to do because of this website.
I personally don't like to do fashion sets like most people do here, and I know it's completely okay because everybody can give something a new purpouse no matter if it was meant for it or not. I sometimes like to see other's sets and give them some hearts because even though I don't find fun on them, the people who create them do and I respect that, I admire how much effort they put on their sets and that's why I ask you to please learn to do so too.
Lastly, I'm truly sorry with all of you. I respect whatever the Urstyle team decides to do with this subject. I can talk for myself and say, if Urstyle doesn't allow us to use photos anymore, I won't use them. but sincerely, I will keep doing children fashion sets because I love to do so. And if it ends up being allowed, I will keep roleplaying, too. Thanks Ursyle team for creating this awesome website and allowing us to express ourselves the way we want, and for also taking all opinions very serious. I hope you choose what's best for all of us, something that makes "average" users happy as well as the roleplay community happy too. But please think equal, I understand if quitting photo allowance it's what you consider best, but please don't ban roleplay accounts without asking about their point of view first. I don't think it's fair that you ban us because somebody else thinks it's sick and wrong. This is just my humble opinion and it's written in good faith. And also, I please ask back for the respect we give other users, we're not putting their form of expression in doubt, we have never done that because we understand and care about how bad others can feel. I feel courageous other accounts are exposing us as criminals while we're just trying to have fun and trying find our own little space in the Urstyle community.
With love, Nicole.
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Polyvore would not allow it due to Copyright Infringement, Intellectual Property & Image Privacy Rights, especially if it involves child under 13. In this specific case, it is also considered Invasion of Privacy because the children are portrayed falsely and in a highly offensive manner (“abusive parents”, “for adoption” etc).
Community guidelines are always necessary. Respecting the guidelines will not disturb anyone’s creative flow.
