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By Temaelrin
Article Update (26th June 2019): There has been some more news that has come out in the last week or so that suggests that the law has been delayed (For a third time), and thus will no longer be implemented on July 15th 2019. Multiple sources have suggested that it's been delayed for 6 months, others say indefinitely and a few of them are saying it's been withdrawn. I will be leaving this article up however for prosperity, and in case it does come back. As usual, I will keep you all updated. - @Temaelrin on 26th June 2019 @ 22:00hrs
Hello everyone;
I've been trying to put this off for quite some time now, however I've recently had it made clear to me under no and uncertain terms that I cannot put it off. This is something I didn't want to talk about, and I had hoped that citizens subjects in the United Kingdom would have raised their voices and told the Government to go fuck themselves, but apparently that's not going to happen and now we (as an industry) have to deal with it.
I am of course talking about the UK's Porn Pass - A.K.A: Government Permission to Wank. If I am going to be forced to implement this - which is looking increasingly likely at this point, then I will be speak very fucking candidly about it at the end of the serious thing, I will deliver my thoughts – open, raw and uncensored.
On July 15th 2019; the United Kingdom’s age verification law for pornography sites, will go into effect. The aim is: The UK Government want its citizens subjects to prove that they are over 18 to access adult content, and apparently putting in your Date of Birth will no longer suffice anymore. To prove that you’re over 18, you’ll either need to enter your credit card, passport number, mobile phone number or by an age verification pass from one of your local newsagents/shops. This is part of the 2017 Digital Economy Act. This law surrounds adult content, I believe it also applies to gambling sites, and tobacco/alcohol, but I’m not sure on that. In the adult site category, it applies to media (Pictures, videos and so on), cartoon porn (Hentai), and text (Roleplays for example. Sex Stories, etc).
Sites that do not comply with law will face fines of up to £250,000 (At the time of writing this works out to be around $318,000 USD) and/or getting their website(s) blocked in that country.
I want to make this clear that I do not like this, and I find this is to be an obviously unacceptable overreach by the UK Government, and as I’ve said previously, I’ve been told that I cannot ignore it. I also want to make this clear: This isn’t a Brexit issue. This isn’t a left/right issue. It seems that all mainstream political parties are in favour of this because of the age-old pearl-clutching trope of “Won’t somebody think of the children?!” That and the UK seems more fixated on being first in the world to do something like this, and that somehow makes it good, which is a logical fallacy in-on-itself.
This announcement isn’t to talk about how we can resist it or block it. But what will happen and what I am looking into going forward. I will be speaking candidly after this to share my thoughts and concerns on the matter. But for now, I will share with you what my choices and options are. I will say that I have no intention on purging EcchiDreams of all smut-content and confine it to EcchiTexts, so I am not going to start deleting all images, public sex side stories, sex stories, etc. This isn’t an option.
I could refuse to comply, in which case I think EcchiDreams might just end up getting blocked in the UK, but let’s face it, if I do comply the UK Government will probably find a way of doing that within the decade or so, at current course. I could also be fined a quarter of a million GBP, that is not a small amount.
Realistically if I want to keep EcchiDreams accessible from the UK, I will need to comply and believe me – I don’t want to for reasons I will share at the end of this. There are a lot of concerns that I have; such as:
Privacy Concerns – Will the details of porn users be held on some kind of database? With cybercrime so bloody rife nowadays… Do we really want to support something like that? Liberty Concerns – They came for X but it didn’t affect me, so I didn’t say anything. They came for Y but it didn’t affect me, so I didn’t say anything. They came for Z but it didn’t affect me, so I didn’t say anything. They came for me, and there was no one left to say anything, kind of thing. Let’s not delude ourselves that this is for protecting children – this is straight up nanny-state bullshit. This is Government Overreach – There is a reason that this is being dubbed as the “Wank Permit”, “Permission to Wank”, and so on. This is the Government telling us what to do because apparently parents in this country aren’t responsible, or the current block system isn’t working. It is draconian – I’d expect this in ‘The Peoples Republic’ of China or North Korea; not in a liberal democracy, and certainly not in the United Kingdom. Boomerville – This is obviously created by boomers who have no idea how the internet works. What next? Will VPN’s become illegal? Or TOR? What about proxy buying cards? Will this really stop those that are dedicated enough from accessing porn? I think not. And that’s just to name a few…
What I’m looking at is a company called AVSecure who have AgePass - https://avsecure.com/ which apparently secures age verification by using blockchain (Based on Ethereum Chain). They say:
The AgePass Platform uses a zero knowledge proof system in combination with our customized version of the Quorum Blockchain (an Ethereum-based chain with added privacy features) which is capable of processing thousands of attestations per second.
Our core concept delineates 'creating trusted statements about a known person' and 'the use of those statements'. Users go through a one-time initial validation process to produce their credentials which they can onward use in a way that will only be known to them.
The user’s credential then generates ‘one-time’ use tokens when they visit websites in the future. These tokens are passed to the website providers which enable them to demonstrate compliance with the Law whilst also ensuring that their consumers leave no additional traceable information.
I am considering using this as we won’t be holding your personal data in that regard, and UK Subjects can buy anonymous cards for £10 which from what I can tell will give you a one time use code or something that you can use for an anonymous account on any AgePass wall. They have other age verification means too, so it’s really up to you how you’d go about it. If you don’t care about your privacy, they can do credit/debit card verification, mobile, and various others.
I think this is best thing we can do given the circumstances… I don’t think this will trigger for anyone outside of the UK, so if you’re an American for example, you won’t get ID’ed on the landing page for EcchiDreams, and you won’t be affected. But if you’re from the UK you will see something similar to this:
When you come to EcchiDreams, if I can get it coded in time. If not then we might be forced to close our Digital Doors to people from the UK until such a time that it is coded and properly integrated. If this does happen you might want to seriously consider our other option:
Get a VPN
I personally use Private Internet Access as a VPN, and I’ve found it to be quite reliable and fast, I am not affiliated to PIA (Private Internet Access), nor am I receiving money from them, but I personally like the fact that PIA lets you tune the data encryption, authentication and handshake protocols of your connection, and does a damn good job of anonymising your browsing. I’ve been using it for a year and I’ve never had any problems with them.
This can also be used on smartphones (Apple and Android alike), although the only criticism I have of it, at least from my perspective and experience is that on mobiles it can be a little temperamental especially when switching between WiFi and Mobile Data, has a habit of disconnecting every now and then, and finally the battery is drains quicker. But that might not be a problem for you.
I’m not shilling for PIA; there are other solutions out there such as; NordVPN, ExpressVPN, CyberGhostVPN, IPVanish, SurfShark, Hotspot Shield, and so on, I’ve not used them so I can’t attest to them. So I ask that you please do your research and find one that suits your needs. EcchiDreams doesn’t block VPN’s, and we never will. This has other benefits, that you might want to consider this as a viable option. Please take a look at: https://thatoneprivacysite.net/ to find the VPN of your choice. I highly encourage everyone to do this.
You can also use TOR, but EcchiDreams does actually block TOR registrations (But you can easily use TOR after you register).
I just wanted to give you all a heads up, and UK Dreamers will receive an email in June letting them know about this as well.
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Now… My personal thoughts on it? The gloves are coming off, and this is going to get quite political.
You’ve just got to love the sheer hypocrisy, ladies and gentlemen!
The politicians tell us what to do and say 'you must live a wholesome puritanical life, that's rude, you can't look at that, citizen’ like they have the power to run and control our personal lives, telling us what do, what to say, what to feel and what to think. Nanny-State doesn’t even cut it anymore… At the same time as them trying to act like our moral superiors, they are misusing their expenses, having affairs with their staffers and other high ups... Orgies and kinky sex parties that include some of the richest in any given industry who are doms and high-class escorts, who have a LOT of clients who are top police chiefs, politicians, judges, lawyers, officials and so on. It’s nothing short of Hypocrisy at its best. Welcome to Brave New World.
I highly doubt that the main reason for this has anything to do with protecting children online, and everything to do with Government control over its citizens. They have forgotten that they work for us, not the other way around. I say this because it seems to be part of a wider problem with the Government which seems to be trying to take control over the internet. You only need to take a look at the UK’s white paper on “Online Harms” released last month. http://archive.is/3MuDH
Or the Investigatory Powers Bill; in where ISPs are forced to keep a full list of ICR’s (Internet Connection Records) for a year and make them available to the Government if asked. These ICR’s in effect serve as a full list of every website people have visited. Articles appeared about it in 2015/2016 – and there was silence. Hardly anyone spoke up about it. The full list of agencies that can now ask for any UK citizens browsing history (As laid out in Section 4 of the bill) Is as follows:
Metropolitan Police Service City of London Police Police forces maintained under section 2 of the Police Act 1996 Police Service of Scotland Police Service of Northern Ireland British Transport Police Ministry of Defence Police Royal Navy Police Royal Military Police Royal Air Force Police Security Service Secret Intelligence Service GCHQ Ministry of Defence Department of Health Home Office Ministry of Justice National Crime Agency HM Revenue & Customs Department for Transport Department for Work and Pensions NHS trusts and foundation trusts in England that provide ambulance services Common Services Agency for the Scottish Health Service Competition and Markets Authority Criminal Cases Review Commission Department for Communities in Northern Ireland Department for the Economy in Northern Ireland Department of Justice in Northern Ireland Financial Conduct Authority Fire and rescue authorities under the Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004 Food Standards Agency Food Standards Scotland Gambling Commission Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority Health and Safety Executive Independent Police Complaints Commissioner Information Commissioner NHS Business Services Authority Northern Ireland Ambulance Service Health and Social Care Trust Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service Board Northern Ireland Health and Social Care Regional Business Services Organisation Office of Communications Office of the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland Police Investigations and Review Commissioner Scottish Ambulance Service Board Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission Serious Fraud Office Welsh Ambulance Services National Health Service Trust Or even the UK Digital Economy Bill of 2017. I am rather cynical. At the risk of sounding conspiratorial; I think Brexit is a convenient smoke screen for all of this, a nice little distraction, including all of the current PM’s blundering and fuck ups.
So a little history shall we? We’ve always had some kind of national webfilter and I didn’t have a problem with that because it targeted Child Pornography and stopped people from accidentally wandering in on a site back in a time where it was a very easy thing to do, and be exposed to it. I have no problem with that to a degree. It drove child pornography underground, and never wiped it out, but I don’t think that was the intention. I firmly and fervidly agree that we should eradicate child porn, and prevent its access. It is a noble goal. Even if it’s not totally achievable.
But things started changing after 2010 at the hands of the Conservative/Liberal Democrat Government.
At first David Cameron wanted ISP's to implement a child safety web filter at an ISP level that would be an opt-in thing, so that parents could use it could use it to block adult content for their children, and promote applications that could protect devices. This is good because it affirmed that it was the parents responsibility to protect their children, it was more of an order to ISP’s to make tools available for parents to protect their children. I have no problem with that. However it very quickly morphed into “Oh no; this will be an ‘Opt-Out’ thing. So people had to make an ‘Unavoidable decision’ to protect children.” Well I wasn’t happy about this… But I told my ISP that I wasn’t interested and they respected my wishes. Clearly - this hasn't worked either because apparently lots of people have either opted out or bypassed it.
Now they're introducing this Age Verification thing.
The UK has had a firewall of Great Britain installed almost a decade ago now. There was an uproar, but we were told that it will only be used to block sites like Pirate Bay, torrent sites. Originally we were told that this would be an open and transparent thing (As far as I can recall) that would have to be done by a court order… By the following year (2013) hundreds of sites were on it, including non-torrent sites - like TV Streaming sites, MP3 Download sites, etc. By two years after that it encompassed a metric fuck tonne of sites, oh and good luck getting a list of sites that has been blocked. That’s kept secret now as well. So we have no idea what’s censored or not. Some sites that are blocked have an ISP blocking screen that says that this site isn’t available because it’s been blocked by court order. Some sites however don’t show this and show an error message in the browser, but are magically there and online if you use a VPN.
Now they're threatening to start blocking sites that aren't in violation of copyright. I’m sorry but it is not the Government’s job to implement these draconian actions it’s the damn parents of these children be the ones who are responsible for their children.
And we're already seeing what else they're doing in terms of the online space. People getting arrested for jokes, sex stories that they've written, lyrics that they've posted online, expressing opinions on Twitter will apparently get you a visit from the local police (Such as there are only two genders) and so on. I’m not going to lie. I am quite worried about this increasing encroachment on our rights online. There seems to be an increasing curtailment of our rights online, and I honestly think it’s only going to get worse. As they justify the reasons to censor sites, it seems to be getting increasing easier for them to keep doing it which is exactly what I said would happen in 2009 on the Coroners and Justice Act 2009. I don’t think this is going to get better and with the Online Harm’s white paper, I think it’s going to get much worse.
I won’t even go into how AgeID is owned by MindGeek which also owns several of the largest porn sites and porn companies so yeah… We’re not using them. No conflict of interest there…
EcchiDreams has always upheld one of its oldest rules: Section 8 Paragraph 1, we have a zero tolerance towards members who are underaged, and upon discovery they get banned extremely quickly. We don’t want people who are under 18 on this site. We’ve always been responsible about this, and it honestly seems like we’re being punished for doing so, because “It’s not good enough.” I suspect that it will never be good enough for the industry at all.
I think we need a digital bill of rights. Urgently.
Who knows I could be overreacting, but as someone who’s been using the internet since the 90s, I don’t like the direction it’s gone in, and I don’t like the Government’s increasingly draconian laws to attempt to regulate something that they clearly have no idea of how it works.
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By Temaelrin
This topic is for people who don't want to make a topic for something EcchiDreams related. It's for everything EcchiDreams related, but if you think it deserves it's own topic outright then you can do so by clicking/tapping here.
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By Temaelrin
Hello fellow Dreamers,
It's that time of the year again, and this update has been focused on fixing as many bugs as possible, rather than adding new features or changing things. Some of you may already be aware of some of these changes, as I softly announcement them via my statuses, and this acts a sort of "This is what we did this season." This is not as big as the previous "2018: Spring Updates", but there have been a number of changes.
This announcement will cover:
New Staff Site Changes EcchiCredits Club Changes Chatbar (EcchiChat) Changes Official Discord Server Two-Factor Authentication Reminders Semi-Technical: Bug Fixes Known Bugs that Still Exist New Staff
EcchiDreams is continuing to grow beyond our expectation, and as such, we took on new staff earlier in the season. It's with joy that I'd like to formally welcome both @Aura and @Sunstone to our site staff. Furthermore, I'd like to welcome @Kalvoras Vertal (AKA: Shuya) as our official Discord moderator.
Site Changes
We've made a number of updates both in the background and in the foreground this season. One of the main changes in the background is the transition over to HTTP2: this should now speed up the loading of site resources, as well as improve on security a little too, although the site is backwards compatible with the previous protocol. Most browsers happily accept HTTP1.1; although there is a bug for people who use BitDefender, where these browsers will not use HTTP2. This isn't a problem with EcchiDreams at all, as BitDefender does this to every HTTP2 site, thanks to it's "Scan SSL" or "Encrypted Web Scan" feature - which they say is more secure, but ironically they make things less secure when enabled because it disables HTTP2. Geniuses. To find out more information on HTTP2 and what it means, click here to see this infographic.
In addition to this we've also tried to improve the speed and loading times of EcchiDreams, which has been getting to be a noticeable problem - especially if there are 20-30 people online at the same time - due to how resource heavy the site is, especially with the likes of EcchiChat. However these teething problems have been resolved for the most part, and everything is starting to run more smoothly again.
EcchiCredits
In the last update, I touched on an exploit with reactions for EcchiCredits, which you can click on and see in the article posted next to this text titled "2018: Spring Updates". But to basically summarise the problem: this exploit would essentially break the EcchiCredit economy, by allowing a group of friends to like and dislike each other's statuses. This would add the EcchiCredits to the accounts each time it was done, and not take them back if the content was unliked again.
The developer of the original application had gone AWOL with there being a massive exploit that had been known about for quite some time; some people on the developers site had pointed this out way back in February, with some pointing it out in December of last year, and the developer had done absolutely nothing about it since then.
When the exploit was independently found on here; I was able to find out who abused it, and to what extent, and deducted the ill-gotten gains manually. The feature was also disabled due to this.
However, this has now changed. Another third-party developer (the one who made the background software behind the EcchiStore, which was originally two different applications made by two different people) has basically stepped in and introduced the features of the first developer to his application, which is properly supported and a well trusted source of our advanced development needs. He realised this problem and had already taken steps to preventing it, after he realised that telling the first developer was going nowhere.
So TL;DR, what does that mean for us?
Well I'm happy to announce that FINALLY reputation for EcchiCredits is back online, working, and not exploitable. The new developer is reliable, so should a problem like this crop up in future, and I cannot fix it, we can be confident that the developer actually will.
Club Changes
There has been a minor change to the amount of clubs that dreamers can open. Previously it was set to four universally; however after receiving feedback from certain Dreamers, we've changed this up very slightly. Now it is dependant on what user group you're in, so it gives yet another (albeit small) incentive to our premium dreamers. Currently it is set to the following:
Dreamers: Six clubs. Gold Premium Dreamers: Eight clubs Platinum Dreamers: Ten clubs. This can increase universally (like +2 on each one), or in part (like +2 on just Gold and Platinum), later on, depending on how the clubs continue to evolve. To clear up yet another misconception: no, you cannot pay for premium membership with real life money; you pay for it via Ecchi Credits in the EcchiStore, which you get as a contribution credits. The reason there are limits is pretty self evident: we would rather have quality over quantity and, if for whatever reason a club owner falls inactive completely, then the "damage" is rather contained.
Chatbar (EcchiChat) Changes
As you would have been aware, we've recently changed our chatbar software (EcchiChat) from Cometchat, a company that I can no longer recommend to anyone. As I announced here; we were in the middle of an active licence with them that entitled us to receive updates for their software, which we were also allowed to host on our server. This privilege cost us around $64 a year; reasonable eough in my opinion. Rather unexpectedly, this company suddenly changed their pricing and ceased to support the software on hosted solutions. It gets worse...
Cometchat now wants $299 a month ($3,588 a year) for the same functionality we had before at $64 a year, and we were no longer allowed to host their latest software. They "have to host it", which means all messages sent are stored on their servers and not protected by the EcchiDreams Privacy Policy; this is absolutely unacceptable. Considering the software was extremely buggy and practically non-functional 'out of the box', and required lots of intense and heavy modification just to get it to integrate properly with the forums, most of the testimonials on their site at the time of writing were written way before this change happened, and they're claiming big name sites use their software - of which there is no evidence when you look up their sites. You can see why we dropped this like a hot potato...
Sketchy business practices aside, I realise that "They're a private company and can do what they like" in regards to pricing; so I will say that "And I can choose not to accept it and move on to a better provider", which is what I did. Instead we're now using a US based solution that allows us to host it on our own servers, and unlike Cometchat; it actually works.
Official Discord Server
EcchiDreams now has an official Discord Server, which you can only join by linking your Discord Account up with EcchiDreams via this link here. In the past we had an unofficial one set up by @Kalvoras Vertal (AKA Shuya); however, it became very apparent that a closer integration with EcchiDreams and the Terms of Service was required. You don't have to come and join us, but you are welcome to. It's still very much a work in progress; but it's mostly up, and we're happy to take suggestions.
Two-Factor Authentication Reminders
Currently only one Dreamer who isn't staff has activated Two-Factor Authentication; this isn't good. You can find out how to do it here. We've added little reminders to sensitive areas of the site (for now), that will nag remind you to set it up when you enter it for the first time. This includes:
Managing Authorised Devices Changing your Password Changing your Email Address You can absolutely choose to opt-out, but we'll try one last time to advise against it with the following warning message. If you click on OK, the site won't mention it again to you:
Semi-Technical: Bug Fixes
We have made the following bug fixes since the previous release:
Changed: Moved the signout button towards the bottom of the navigation menu on mobile devices, due to the amount of times people were voicing their completely valid feedback that it was too close to the notifications/EcchiText buttons. This was a design oversight on the UI menu, and whilst it's not perfect right now, we'll look at continually improving it. Thank you. Fixed: All Cometchat related/caused bugs - Fixed by ditching Cometchat completely. Fixed: A MySQL Table limit bug when entering a description for a Gallery Image, which prevented roleplayers from entering more than 65,535 bytes (including formatting), which either presented a strange error message, or simply cut off the text. We also told IPS about this bug and they've included it as a standard fix in their latest IPS Suite release. Fixed: Rare bug with Avatar Upload that would cause a (ERR_NO_CONTENT) failure when uploading. Fixed and Improved: Performance of the Activity Stream has been enhanced. Fixed: Registration is now scrollable on mobiles. Known Bugs that Still Exist
Sometimes there is a menu overlap with the new position of the Logout button and some menu elements on mobiles. We're working on getting this fixed and has become a top priority for us. When buying a lottery ticket, or really doing anything in the EcchiStore, it seems to automatically redirect you to the homepage. Which is annoying. Premium Memberships brought from the EcchiStore still don't appear to be working properly. Whilst they're actually usable this time, they're expiring, even though they shouldn't be. We can still manually promote people to Premium Membership status upon the purchase of a Premium Membership, so it's not so much a problem as an annoying bug. We hope to have these fixed by the Winter Updates (2018), and we apologise for the inconvenience.
Source: けこちゃ
For many of us in the northern hemisphere it's been way too hot to be cooped up indoors roleplaying and the like, so I thought a nice picture of a cat girl with a water gun might cool some of us down a little. 😄
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By Temaelrin
Hello fellow Dreamers,
As some of you might remember, EcchiDreams had a number of updates around the end of April and the beginning of May. However, due to my ill health, I was unable to make an announcement on the number of changes that had happened. Firstly, I want to thank absolutely everyone who came out in support of me during my run of bad health and encouraged me to get better, these messages warmed my heart and I am happy to say I am much better today. Although there are some long term (and potentially lifelong) secondary things that were picked up on during my hospital visit, these are not life threatening, and are absolutely manageable; as the saying goes - "I'll live." This is why this announcement is a little delayed compared to previous ones; but that just means I have a few more things to talk about. This is a fairly large announcement, but quite a lot of it is stuffed with pictures, so thanks in advance for reading.
Before I begin, I want correct two common misconceptions:
EcchiDreams is not just a roleplaying community; it's actually a lot more than that. Roleplaying is one of the many things that we focus on, of course, but it's not the only thing it is. We welcome both roleplayers and non-roleplayers, the latter of which take part on the forums, or just come for the generally friendly atmosphere. I'm not happy about the harassment that they've been getting from (the extreme minority of) people who do roleplay, essentially telling them to get off this website because they don't belong here. One even went as far as to tell the original creator of the website that she shouldn't be here because it was just for roleplaying. EcchiDreams isn't solely about sex, nor does the name imply that. Ecchi doesn't mean sex; it means perverted. Yes, that might be sexual, but not necessarily. Roleplayers that do not want to roleplay sex and only sex are just as welcome here as those that do. EcchiDreams is not a sex website, and we've never, ever - not ever - said that it was. We say it's an adult website. By category alone, any adult is allowed to join. There are a number of non-sexual topics here as well, and I encourage you to have a look around and get a deeper understanding of what our site is about. If you are getting messages like "You shouldn't be on this site" and so on, please feel free to quote the above and link to this article... and laugh it off. In no particular order. 😀
This announcement will cover:
Important URL Changes Profile Improvements Expandable Profile Covers Reputation Activity Premium Feature: Video in Profiles Premium Feature: Customisable Background in Profiles Roleplayer Preferences and Private Roleplay Status in Profiles Better/Improved Emoji's EcchiMeta Ease of Use Updates Staff Wanted! Dreamer Protips Complete Your Profile Choose Your Own Forum Index Layout 🇪🇺 GDPR Compliance Terms of Service Clarifications Coming Soon: EcchiCredit Lottery Semi-Technical: Bug Fixes Known Bugs that Exist Important URL Changes
There have been two major URL changes in regards to the Private Roleplayer's Bulletin Board and the Roleplayer Preferences areas of EcchiDreams; you will need to update any links you have going to your postings in these areas to reflect the new URLs. I have updated the guides to reflect this, but if you find a link that hasn't been fixed, please report it to us and we'll issue you some EcchiCredits for your troubles. The two new URLs are as follows:
Private Roleplayers Bulletin - https://ecchidreams.com/roleplayer-services/private-roleplayers-bulletin/ Roleplayer Preferences - https://ecchidreams.com/roleplayer-services/preferences/ The reason why I have changed this is because it was erroneously under the 'Dashboard' URL which it shouldn't have been, this was only highlighted on the dashboard updates (see Ease of Use for more details), as it was in the Roleplay Dashboard which has been merged with the Community Dashboard.
Profile Improvements
There have been some minor changes to the profiles on EcchiDreams that you should probably be made aware of, although I have alluded to it in some statues already.
Expandable Profile Covers
For desktop users: if you click on a person's profile cover, you can enlarge it to see the full picture; as demonstrated below. This will work on mobiles, if you're in Desktop Mode and your screen resolution supports it; due to the animations and the limited nature of mobile processors and graphics processors, it might be laggy. However, on the desktops we've tried it on, it's fluid and fast. It's not really anything to scream from the mountaintop over, but it's a neat little feature that came with our recent update to IPS 4.3. This is compatible with most, if not, all desktop resolutions too (tested on 1080p and 4K displays).
Reputation Activity
Reputation Activity is a good way of keeping track of the total amount of reputation given and received. It is accessible in your profile, as well as other Dreamers profiles. Under "Community Reputation" click "See Reputation Activity" and the profile interface will change to show you your or their reputation activity; it's pretty simple and straightforward, which is the best way to keep things.
Premium Feature: Video in Profiles
As you can see with the above screenshots, in their profiles, premium members will have a new button next to "Edit Profile" called "Profile Video", where they can embed either a YouTube video, their Twitch Stream, or a Vimeo video. The following URLs are accepted with "UniqueID" being the Unique ID of the video; for example for YouTube a Unique ID can look like this '_Qe9O90cD80'.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/UniqueID https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/UniqueID http://player.twitch.tv/?UniqueID https://player.vimeo.com/video/UniqueID It will then embed the video above the "Community Reputation" and, if you have any, your most liked content ribbon.
Premium Feature: Customisable Background in Profiles
Similarly to the Video in Profile above, this is another feature for premium members. This allows you to customise your profile background. Halfway through writing this announcement we got this feature fixed, by making the profiles which have a custom background have a slightly transparent appearance, somewhat like EcchiDreams during the beginnings of my Administration here, where we had a very "Glass" like theme.
Roleplayer Preferences and Private Roleplay Status in Profiles
Thanks to one of the many suggestions written by @Aurafox1, as part of our Ease of Use updates there is now a location within the Edit Profile where you can attach your Roleplayer Preferences directly to your profile, where a link will then appear. If others have filled out this information, it will appear on their profiles, where, if you're logged in at least, it will be visible when you visit their profiles. It is a great idea that allows people to easily find your link.
Better/Improved Emoji's
Remember when clicking on that little smiley face in the text editor would take 10 to 20 seconds to load the Emoji's...? Or up to 30 seconds on a bad day? Then, in the last update, where we reduced this to 4-6 seconds?
Well, I'm happy to report that the time it takes to load them today at least was... Drum roll please... 0.76 seconds. Furthermore, you can skip the whole button entirely and just opt to call up the emoji you want by pressing ":", minus the quotes, which changes and updates depending on what you type in; and yes, you can click/tap on them to auto complete it and insert the Emoji. Tap? Oh yes; this works on both desktop and mobiles, as seen below:
Desktop:
Mobiles:
EcchiMeta
*shameless self plugging time*
EcchiMeta is a new club to discuss everything relating to EcchiDreams. It was already privately in the works (under a different name) when @Whoreo suggested it, but he's got the credit of the title. I believe there was going to be a discussion that talked about the statistical odds of the 'Small Mystery Box' in the EcchiStore, which is now available to everyone. EcchiMeta is also now where the Suggestions, Comments and Feedback topic is.
Ease of Use Updates
There have been a number of changes across the site as per the suggestions brought up by @Aurafox1, who was a major help in identifying the problems that he had when he first joined the site, and that we think a number of people might have had too. We absolutely want to help make it easy to browse, use, and to understand. So we listened, and we've made quite a number of changes.
Dashboard
The Dashboard is a Navigational Helper that puts the most common links to the most common areas of EcchiDreams on to a desktop/mobile friendly page with icons, similar to a desktop or app screen. It's designed to be an almost foolproof navigational tool, which was created in response to the navigational nightmare that EcchiDreams can be, was released on the 24th January 2016 (two years ago), and had never been updated ever since then. It used to be separated into two categories: the Community Dashboard and the Roleplayers Dashboard.
I am happy to announce that this has been overhauled greatly, and that the community and roleplayer dashboards have been merged into one. There are also a number of new icons that reflect some of the new features EcchiDreams has to offer. Oh, and the broken links have been repaired.
Homepage
These were relatively small tweaks in the grand scheme of things, really. Things like including links to the forum index and club roleplays under personal, the welcome header, and moving our picks down to make room for forum topic lists, with links in the block headers as well to ease the navigational pains. A lot of people don't realise that there is more to EcchiDreams than what it appears. We've also added the latest images uploaded to the gallery block too.
Staff Wanted!
We are currently looking for staff (as of writing), and if you're a pretty well established member of the community then you can apply below. It is of course completely voluntary, so if you're not big on having more responsibilities and no pay, then this is not for you. But I want to explain the process and will attempt to do so, as we don't often ask for new staff.
What happens after you fill in the form is:
The current staff look at it, discuss where the strengths and weakness would lie, and how we can apply that to the team. We set it aside; and will do the same for the next one and the next one and so on. On the first of July, we (the current staff) will then discuss and vote. The ones that make it will then have to read through the Staff Policy Agreement; a set of rules that apply just to the staff members in addition to the Terms of Service (that extra responsibility I mentioned earlier). If they agree, they'll go on to a staff meeting where we can teach them about the tools they will have, and to essentially train in how to use them, and so hopefully they'll get a feel of how we work as a team, and how to work independently if no other staff member is online. After that they become a provisional staff member for six months, before becoming a full staff member. The ones that are 'rejected' (to lack a better word) will be informed. Please don't be offended if you are rejected. Chances are you'll be considered later, or if we run an application process again you'll be informed in advance. Lastly, and there's no better way of saying this, but there is a chance that some applications will be rejected almost immediately. Silly applications, or ones that aren't filled out seriously, or even ones where the current staff believe that this is definitely not for you, or if you have previous experience with us that ended... shall I say... in a less than stellar manner.
Dreamer Protips
We have introduced Dreamer Protips, which can be viewed at the top of the homepage and the bottom of the sidebar of the club directory. We're looking at introducing it in other places, perhaps at a later date. We, at the time of writing, are currently asking the veterans in the community (or even someone with an interesting protip to bring up) to post up their ideas in return for EcchiCredits (if your suggestion is used) over in EcchiMeta. It doesn't have to be roleplay pro-tips, but quick, brief tidbits; for example, something that you didn't know about the site, that you found out through exploration and discovery or what have you, and you think it's of value to other Dreamers, or people who are new, then by all means - share it. 🙂
A Protip that has been suggested by a member of the community will have a small 'flag' and a star within it that you can hover over with your mouse, to pull up a 'Hover Card' of their profile. Furthermore, you can click or tap on it to open up their profile.
Complete Your Profile
Complete Your Profile is not a brand new feature; it's something we've had for a month or so now, but it's been reworked slightly into six easy steps. The idea of this feature is to say after registration; "Hey! There's a few more steps to complete that you might want to fill out!". After all, no one wants to fill out a long complex form when they're registering. To register, you have to complete a sheer basic form that includes what username you want, password, and date of birth, unless you use Facebook/Google Connect, or Steam Login (also new).
The steps are:
Date of Birth:- Mandatory. All Dreamers must be over 18, if you're discovered to be under 18 you will be banned instantly with no chance of appeal, as per Section 8 Paragraph 1 of the Terms of Service. Be sure to fill out this information carefully. Upload an Avatar:- Avatars are personalised images that appear next to each post that you make on the forum. You can use an avatar image to make your posts stand out more from other members that have posted in a topic. Upload a Profile Cover:- Make your profile your own, and customise it with a profile cover. Your Roleplayer Preferences:- You will need to create a Roleplayer Preferences form; you can then attach the URL here. This will then appear in your profile allowing people to easily find your Roleplayer Preferences sheet! Complete a Signature:- This appears at the bottom of your posts in the forums. Consider putting in a link to your Roleplayer Preferences or something, as every time you post on the forums, this will appear: free advertising for your Roleplayer Preferences! 🙂 Complete "About Me":- Give something for visitors of your profile to read. You can even embed your favorite music from YouTube in here if you want, and link to your Preferences, Clubs, and other such areas. It is your space to write about you. You can skip the whole thing; or skip steps 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 individually, if you so choose.
Choose Your Own Forum Index Layout
This is just a quick one, but we've introduced a new mode when it comes to displaying the forum index: there's the traditional "table" mode, and a new "grid" mode. At this moment in time we have no intention of forcing the decision one way or the other. At the top of the forum index next to "Start New Topic" there are two buttons; one is four lines (this represents table mode), and one with four squares (which represents the grid mode). See the underlined green section for the button location to get an idea of what each mode looks like below.
Table mode:
Grid mode:
🇪🇺 GDPR Compliance
EcchiDreams was pretty much compliant with this new directive before it even became a thing; go figure. But, my personal and political opinions aside, we're implementing more measures to make us even more compliant to the new GDPR monstrosity. Our Privacy Policy already outlines the cookies we use, and cookies are sent securely. You have no doubt gotten many emails saying "you've no doubt gotten many emails about this already from other websites...". Yeah... we're not doing that, and from conversations I've had with the ICO about this, we're not required to, because we've always asked for your consent for this. Here are the ways we are compliant:
You can change the frequency of emails you get from EcchiDreams. If you're getting way too many emails from EcchiDreams you can tone this down via your Notification settings; you can opt to receive them on a daily or weekly digest. You can even fine tune what goes into the email, or what you get notified for, as well as sign up for, and opt out of, community news and information easily. You can learn more about this here. We've updated our privacy policy to include more information about third party cookies. It is already against Staff Policy (and always has been) to tell Dreamers about another Dreamer's account, email address, and/or other personal information not publicly available on the forums from that Dreamer themselves. Dreamers who are not validated (those that have not confirmed their email address) are automatically deleted after three days. Being signed up to the newsletter has been turned from Opt-Out (tick box on registration) to Opt-In. Not that we send out these emails often. And so on... We might have more information on this at a later date, but until then we are taking steps to ensure compliance, which means you're probably going to see a consent cookie bar soon... Which is something I've been trying to resist for the last few years; but I promised to keep my opinions, political or otherwise, quiet in this announcement.
Terms of Service Clarifications
We have made some clarifications and modifications to the Terms of Service; specifically in regards to Section 8, Section (, Section 11, and Section 21. We have also greatly updated Section 18. Please familiarise yourself with these sections, if you've not done so already.
Coming Soon: EcchiCredit Lottery
We will be introducing an EcchiCredit Lottery in the next few months. This will allow you to gamble away small amounts of your EcchiCredits in the hopes of winning a larger amount of EcchiCredits. There will be a reward for matching 3 balls, 4 balls and 5 balls (and of course the Jackpot). Currently it's in development (Testing Phase), and we've found a few problems that we're trying to iron out. We hope to bring this system out by August/September. You can pick your own numbers (6 balls) or do what's called a "Lucky Dip".
As par the course it'll be called, perhaps no surprise to anyone: EcchiLotto.
Yes I know; our Marketing Department is absolutely genius. I wonder how they come up with all these innovative names? We should double their funding from zero. 🙃
Semi-Technical: Bug Fixes
This is a new section that I will add to the end of the update announcements if there is anything worth mentioning. It's a list of bugs that have either been fixed, or that we know about and have been "worked around", waiting for a fix (see known bugs that still exist).
Fixed: There was a search bug that was found when searching for keywords in the Roleplay Preferences area, that would cause any link you click on to say that it didn't exist. Fixed: There was a security flaw, which on rare occasions, sent out emails that were leaking the URL of the Administrator Control Panel for the forums; this prompted a major security alert when a Dreamer tried to log into it with their username and password - which obviously won't work. Nothing was breached, and the ACP was moved. With no help from the dreamer who tried to log in with their credentials, we were able to track down exactly what happened, and why, and reported it to IPS, as the flaw originated from them. We're going to take further action on protecting the ACP Folder from unauthorised access, but obviously those actions are are classified. Obviously. Fixed: The Roleplayer Preferences Link on the forums index and on the footer, for some inexplicable reason, went to my personal Roleplayer Preferences location. Why? I have no idea. I have a feeling my browsers Autocomplete Form was responsible, but I've been unable to reproduce it. Instead it's just been fixed. Fixed: The Roleplayer Preferences Link on the Homepage in the Welcome Header was fixed, as it went to the old one. Fixed: For some inexplicable reason (again), there was a hilarious limit set on EcchiTexts: 10 per day, 60 per minute... 🤔 If the maths doesn't follow for you, don't worry; it didn't follow for us either. We were very confused. This just goes to prove that some bugs, even outside of games, are funny. Fixed: A bug in the EcchiText Security feature that scans for malicious code prevented certain EcchiTexts from being sent out. This system was broken during the server move, and was subsequently repaired. Fixed: The profile field of Roleplayer Preferences appeared on the Registration Page; which it shouldn't have done, for obvious reasons. This has been removed, and is editable after registration when it should be. Known Bugs that Still Exist
There was an exploit identified by @Casey, who tested it with @Sunstone in a small scale test, regarding reactions and EcchiCredits. As a result, the EcchiCredits for Reactions has been removed until further notice, as the developer of the system has gone AWOL and we're not sure where he is. What happened was if you gave someone a "Love" reaction for example, the person who got it would get a hundred EcchiCredits. That's fine. That's how it should be. However, if you took that love react back (removed it), they'd retain that one hundred EcchiCredits. That's not quite how it's supposed to work. What's worse is if you gave then a love react again on the same post, they'd get another one hundred EcchiCredits, totalling it up to two hundred. That's definitely not how it's supposed to work. Take that back, and give it to them again - three hundred total. And so on and so forth.
This is not good, so the system has been disabled for now. Instead we've doubled the amount of points you get for posting, and soon (although not yet at the time of writing) this will apply to the Clubs too.
Source: つくし - Tsukushi Akihito
I picked this because it had a very spring feel to it. I love the colours and it uses quite a wide range of them too. When I was picking out images, @Neptune commented on how cute it was; so I decided to go for it. I believe it's based on, or from "Made in Abyss" and it's drawn by Tsukushi Akihito, whose work you can view more of through the above link.
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By Temaelrin
Hello fellow Dreamers,
This year has barely begun and already we're working hard to improve the service for everyone here at EcchiDreams. Firstly we all hope you had a wonderful Christmas (Or holidays) and a Happy New Year. This update was focused mainly in the back end, which would affect the stuff you see, although there isn't that many feature changes... That's coming in the Spring Update.
I also want to address the new influx of Dreamers that have found themselves making an online home here at EcchiDreams; Welcome to EcchiDreams! Thanks to you all, and some of our veteran members alike; we achieved 50 online Dreamers in the space of 24 hours; and for a small site like ours with next to no advertising budget, this is a big deal. We hope EcchiDreams continues to grow, and that you stick around. EcchiDreams has come a long way, and we hope that it continues attracting like minded roleplayers who want to RP and have fun.
This announcement will cover:
Server Side Updates EcchiStore and EcchiCredits (¢) EcchiChat Server Side Updates
As part of our effort to increase the site's snappiness (speed) and decreasing response times (time you wait for a page to load, or even change when you click on something) we've made, what we feel to be a major breakthrough. This is why we wanted to go offline for 2 days, to get this done and to cover any possibility of the server completely crapping out. Not only did the server not "crap out", even once, but the updates went uncharacteristically and disconcertingly smoothly! I might be biased, but I've noticed an immediate speed improvement already.
Take for example the Emoticons (Emoji) when making a post; when you click on that smiley face in the text editor, it used to take 10-20 seconds for it to load when hardly anyone else was on the site, 30 seconds to a minute on a busy day. This was untenable, and no doubt others had noticed this too. But since the update, it took between 4 to 6 seconds. It's not perfect - yet, but that's a massive improvement. Pages seem to load much faster, although we have no official metrics yet (because the sites we use to monitor those things can't see our site whilst it's offline), so when the site is online again I will be posting some information down in the comments, comparing the before and after.
We very much hope that this makes everyone happy, including Dreamers who use mobiles, which has been especially noticeable on. I won't get too technical about it, but this should help with the influx of new Dreamers we've been having, so please let me know what you think - does the site feel faster to you? Do pages seem to load quicker, does it respond better?
EcchiStore and EcchiCredits (¢)
Before the Big Update on EcchiDreams, we had a feature called EcchiCredits and EcchiCash. EcchiCredits was the currency you earnt by contributing on the site (making posts, etc), and EcchiCash was where you could spend your EcchiCredits to change your display name (your username), your title, get premium membership, and items for your profile (like 'Dolls', or 'Cookies'). However, after the Big Update we pretty much lost most of this, due to the fact that the applications we used were no longer being updated by their third-party developers. And for a long time (nearly three years), EcchiCredits has been stuck in limbo, not useful for anything and barely collectable. Crippled, essentially.
[The Currency Symbol for an EcchiCredit is: ¢ ]
Not anymore.
I am happy to announce that it's coming back, it's not quite at the glory it was in the olden days, but we're a massive step closer today than we were a few weeks ago, at the very least. Last week, I put out a sneak-peek update (slipped it under the radar, whilst no one was looking) and made a major improvement to the EcchiCredit system, that allowed you to bank EcchiCredits and earn them again, which people are starting to notice. Some have already asked me: "How do you get EcchiCredits?", "How much do you get?" and so on... Well, I'll tell you here. Of course, these costs might be subject to change but at the moment, they are:
All Dreamers start out with ¢1,500 as a welcome to EcchiDreams gift. You get EcchiCredits just for logging in; you get an amount daily. At the moment it is ¢20 a day. Which if you're on every day, that's ¢7,300 a year - just by visiting once a day. In addition to this you also get ¢20 every week as long as you log in at least once; adding ¢1,040. In addition to this you also get ¢100 every month, as long as you login at least once; adding ¢1,200. So in total, if you're on every day you can earn ¢9,540 a year, by pretty much doing bugger all other than logging in. You can get EcchiCredits (10% a Year) by storing your monies in your bank account. You get ¢10 for making a Status You get ¢5 for replying to one (With exception to the Sandbox Forums 🙃) you get ¢10 for making a topic on the forums You get ¢5 for replying to a topic on the forums (with exception to welcoming new Dreamers in the introduction forums; which is ¢10) If you're the topic poster, and someone replies to your topic, you also get ¢5 (on the forums) Commenting/Reviewing Images posted using the Gallery, either by the Gallery or Clubs - ¢5 (At this time you do not get EcchiCredits for posting images.) You get EcchiCredits for reporting bugs! Depending on Severity (decided by the technician responding to the ticket) - please note the last three are so rare, there has only been one report of a major security-flaw caught by a Dreamer, and that was before my Administration (and I've been here 5/6 years). Low Severity: ¢100 Medium Severity: ¢250 High Severity: ¢500 Severe Severity: ¢750 Critical Severity: ¢1,000 Minor Security-Flaw: ¢2,500 Major Security-Flaw: ¢5,000 Critical Security-Flaw: ¢10,000 Reviewing/Commenting on Roleplayers via Preferences, Private Roleplaying and even the News Articles - ¢5 When someone reacts to your post: : ¢50 : ¢100 : ¢75 : ¢75 : ¢10 : ¢10 And so on... Making EcchiCredits is really not that hard; check out these fine Dreamers who've earnt a fair amount. Can you overtake them? As for the EcchiCash Shop - we've brought a basic version of it back with a different name; The EcchiStore. It doesn't have much in it right now: as I said, it was going to be a starting point that I hoped we could actually work on and expand over the year or so.
Right now it has two things for sale:
Change Dreamer Title - That little title that is usually under your display name. Yep! You can change that. ¢1,750 Change your Name - Change your display name at any given time. ¢2,500 The staff are already going through some ideas of what to include with the store when we can, so we're open to taking suggestions and such. We decided against most of the items that come with the shop, such as "Steal another Dreamers Reputation", because that's likely to start arguments that frankly none of us want. There were other things that were a problem too, such as "Reset Warning Points", which is understandable from a "Paying a Fine" point of view, but at this time none of our 'Non-Bannable' warning points are permanent; they self expire after time anyway. But we would have liked to have done some kind of profile items, stuff that is just stuff and has no meaning or effects other than it's just stuff.
EcchiChat
Just quickly here... The EcchiChat system has been updated: it's had a number of bug fixes and layout tweaks, yet it still somewhat looks the same. It should also be slightly better in terms of performance.
And that's pretty much it. Please leave a comment below as I will read them.
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Source: Ensemble Stars!
I don't believe this was done by any artist in particular, but by the company itself as CG. I wanted a character of some description sitting on a pile of Gold, to celebrate the EcchiCredits coming back as well as the EcchiStore and my Image-Board Lurks didn't fail to please. Apparently this image is from Ensemble Stars; which I believe is a mobile trading card game (That you can download from Google Play / Apple App Store) and has had a novel and manga made for it and has an Anime show in production for it. I'm not paid to sell it, so if you like the sounds of it, by all means check it out, if not, don't. It's your choice.
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