My statement regarding recent events on EcchiDreams...

This probably isn't going to age well, because I think with what's going on in the world right now, we're experiencing some very frayed mental states after being locked down for so long and having lives changed because of pandemic. Now; I realise that this is an extreme minority of people that is causing the majority of the problems, so if you're just trying to do your thing, then please carry on, and I am sorry that this post was necessary. Who knows, this post might have absolutely no meaning in a years time and we'll all look back on it and say "Ah yes, that was a bit of an embarrassing period, oh how we've gotten better since then. I don't even know why I hated X." Ha. One can hope.

I know that Aura has put up a status in regards to some of the recent firestorm that's been going on here over the last few days, yesterday. It's honestly quite well worth the read, because he's right on quite a lot of points, especially when it comes to issues of what's being posted on here. There are other statues made by other dreamers on the various subjects that I will be covering in this, and people who have posted replies to those statuses that I want to address directly as well. But this has been building up, and there's a few things I've noticed over the last month or so. 

Firstly; we are all supposed to be adults, but we are also all human, and all make mistakes. Not a single one of us can claim that we're perfect, unless it's perfectly imperfect. It is a shame that no one has apparently read my recent news article where I said:

Quote

...It is extremely important right now, in a time were we must remain apart, that we must come together in spirit. Now more than ever, we need to bring comfort and love to help and support each other. 

EcchiDreams is absolutely here to escape from what's going on in the real world...

Read more: EcchiDreams Newsletter (April 2020)

Political Activism on EcchiDreams

EcchiDreams should not a place where you do your political activism. Should doesn't mean that it's against the rules, and absolutely not allowed by the way.

Politics has become so highly charged and polarised over the last decade and it's not showing signs of stopping this trend any time soon. If you are one side of the political spectrum and you're doing your political activism here, you can expect someone on the other-side to do their political activism on here too, and this is where things are going to go tits up very quickly, because seldom can one side respect another sides personal or political views and not get branded every buzzword under the sun, "Racist, Sexist, Cuck, Simp, Facist, Commie" etc, etc... Even what might seem like a politically neutral or a politically universal statement can be twisted into proof that you're an X, Y and Z. Which is extemely unfortunate, because everyone is going to have different opinions or view points. Just because it doesn't match up to yours or your purity tests, doesn't mean that, that person is sub-human or not even worth talking to. Just agree to disagree and move on.

As I keep saying: We're not going to stop you from discussing politics here on EcchiDreams, however my advice is to do so in EcchiTexts or something. Whilst political opinions are allowed to be discussed openly by nature of Section 15 (Freedom of Speech; so long as it doesn't violate the universal rights of another person) just be aware of what you're getting yourself into by sharing your political views, and that other people on the site might not want to hear them, for one reason or another, or have opposing views that they're going to share... If you can't take it, don't dish it out, but ultimately that is your choice to make, not ours to make it for you. And I stand by that. 

I do not think it's feasible to outright ban political discussion on EcchiDreams even if I "personally" wanted to, which I don't despite how divisive it is and how it's causing more problems than it's worth because just about everything can be turned into a political matter. Political activism that bullies others no matter which side of the political spectrum you're on isn't really against the rules on the face of it, but don't expect it to be tolerated (on a social level) here. Free Speech does indeed have social consequences, yes, but to start an harassment campaign on the other hand is against the Terms of Service. If you can't handle it, ignore the Dreamer in question and move on. Stay ignoring them and don't use it as a shield to hurl abuse and harassment at them, we will be working on the Terms of Service to cover this in future.

Note to those who have been a victim to this: Due to the nature of our Terms of Service, we can't retroactively punish people for a rule that didn't exist when the offence was committed. Which is why we are trying to work on this as quickly as possible. 

I will also say that we've had a number of reports about political stuff being posted in statues, but we're not going to do anything about it. At the end of the say what people post in their statuses, is their business, and it's allowed so long as they're not actively calling for the violation of someone or a groups universal rights, we won't do anything about it.

Free Speech on EcchiDreams

We prided ourselves that we've had free speech on this platform for a long time, and that people have been able to say what they want (So long as it isn't a violation of someone elses universal rights) and they've chosen to use this to spread positivism and happiness without being compelled to. Compelled speech is not free speech, that is you being forced to say something that you don't think is true, as if you don't have a free-thinking mind, and that to me, can be just as bad as censorship, because you're not allowed your own opinion, and you have to say what the other person wants to hear because of their sensibilities and apparently yours can go fuck itself.

You're not going to agree with everything you read on here, hell I don't agree with half of the things that goes on here, especially when it comes to roleplaying certain subjects, or certain political opinions that are spouted as gospel, and if you stray from that path you're a heretic that must be struck down. 

Free Speech doesn't mean freedom to post what you want without social consequences, even if it doesn't violate the rules. But there's a fine line between voicing your disagreement (Which you have a right to do) and harassing that person for it (Which you don't have the right to do).

There are options if you don't like what you're reading and you don't want to cast your opinion:

• Roll your eyes, stop reading and move on. 
• Literally ignore them.
• Ignore them through the ignore system (https://ecchidreams.com/ignore)
  • Although I am aware that it doesn't block their statuses from appearing in the activity feed. The mitigation for that is to make your own activity feed that you have a bit more control over what is on it and what isn't, you can block statuses from appearing on it for example full stop (https://ecchidreams.com/discover/?do=create) or create an activity feed containing content of people you follow only. 

If you want to post your opinions, then again be aware of what you might be getting yourself into, and feel free. If you're respectful and courteous and the other person descends into insults and chaos, everyone will see that and it will say more about that person than it does about you.

Or set up a blanket policy for yourself that you won't talk about certain subjects, I do, and I try to stick by it nowerdays. For example, I am religious, yet I don't feel the need to constantly bring it up and tell everything to seek the path of the divines and all that jazz. 

However you want to deal with it, is ultimately up to you, but please recognise when the right time to pull away is.

Roleplays in Statuses

The same thing I said about political posts applies here too: we've had a number of reports about people roleplaying in statues, but we're not going to do anything about it. At the end of the say what people post in their statuses, is their business, and it's allowed so long as... you get the point. I don't personally like it, but my feelings on the matter doesn't matter, because it's not against the Terms of Service, and just because I'm one of the Community Administrators, and I don't like it, it doesn't mean I'm going to stop it.

I would *personally* prefer that roleplays were done in the designated areas, but that's not going to be enforced. If you prefer roleplaying in your statuses then be my guest, I guess.

However don't rail topics on the forums with it, especially where it's not called for - such an example is the Lets be Honest about Sex topic where I actually moved a lot of that and other off topic posts to Ecchia's Collection of Off-Topic posts. To which I issued a polite notice and have been happy that it's not happened again.

Now; I completely understand the argument of not wanting to read scat stuff. Personally I think it's absolutely fucking nasty, but I rather think that when someone says (And I am literally quoting here):

Quote

"You toilet awaits." He said and opened his mouth wide.

That it really doesn't take a big brained genius to figure out where that's going. If you're uncomfortable with it, then it's probably best to just leave them to it, and ignore it. Individual replies as far as I am aware don't appear in the activity feed, unless it's under the direct status and even then it's only the last few replies, so I really don't see the problem here.

We did once have a system before the clubs where roleplays took place in forums where if you were doing a side story you had to tag the subjects that would be touched upon such as (For example) Rape, Drugged, BDSM, etc. Or if it had particularly extreme content to state it in the opening post "This topic contains: Scat - if you don't want to read it, don't.", for example. 

This is a little difficult with statuses, granted, but not impossible, and again - not enforced. 

I would also ask for some consistency, if you're going to bemoan someone from doing X, and yet when its your friends that are doing it, you don't utter a single word... That, that comes off as extremely hypocritical and therefore it shouldn't come off as a surprise when you're called out on that. I've seen this happen about four or five times in different areas this year and I figured it was right to put this in here. 

Inconsolable Disagreements with Other Dreamers

We are not always going to see eye to eye, we're a wide range of people from a very wide range of different backgrounds, we have everything from people who are unemployed to people who work in professional careers on here. I know of Dreamers who in their day jobs they're solicitors, programmers, doctors, police and security, fire fighters, business owners and so on, I also know that there are a few who work retail like supermarkets, fast-food chains, and so on as well as people who are unemployed and both looking and not looking for work, disabled and otherwise. I've found that some of you are on some kind of autistic spectrum, or have some other mental issue that affects you, but none of this... Not any single difference I've pointed out is an excuse to act like an absolute narcissistic arsehole and cause other people, trouble. But at the same time I would ask that everyone is mindful of this. 

It's therefore not difficult to realise that a number of people here are going to have wildly different political views, and some even polar opposite. It's my experience here that most people are either Centrist in their views, or more right-learning, but there are also more left-leaning people and (I say this from a very centrist point of view), outright far-left and far-right views, although the latter two are very fringe on here. 

There is also going to be a wild difference of opinion on what is and isn't acceptable. What is and isn't acceptable is largely laid out in the Terms of Service, it's not perfect - because it was created by humans who aren't perfect. But we work on it, and update it as and when it's absolutely required, and we generally inform the users when it's been updated and what sections have been updated. 

What I don't like seeing is when these differences pop up and people start getting blocked is to then go out of ones way to contact that person that's been blocked to start shit with them and then use the blocking as a shield to prevent them from saying "Excuse me, could you not contact me anymore, please?" We're going to be tweaking or putting into policy ways of dealing with this abuse as I stated earlier, but it's going to take us a little time. If you don't like another Dreamer to such an extent, then ignore them (Either literally or by the systems in place) and put them out of your mind. Otherwise they're living rent-free in your head, which is not good for you or your mental health. 

We are all here because we have something in common. Just because we don't agree to everything doesn't mean we can't have fun in the one thing that we have in common. I wish we could just leave our differences with each other at the proverbial door, and just get on like adults, but increasingly it's becoming apparent that not everyone seems to be capable of this which is why these systems are in place.

Miscellaneous

Some other things that I wanted to point out that don't need entire paragraphs:

• You are not allowed to ban specific people from posting on your topics, and I don't know where the idea that you could do this has come from. Even if you've told the person to stop contacting you, and they post on your topic to take part in the topic without addressing you, that's perfectly allowed under the Terms of Service. 
• Pictures of real life minors are not accepted on this site, or it's discord server. There is literally no excuse why you should be posting up pictures of real life children/teenagers under 18, on this site. Please read Section 18 of the Terms of Service.
• The Tag System is not supposed to be abused to put in your hate towards other people, or enforcing authoritarian standards. The tag system is used to describe the content of which is tagged so that it can be easily searchable, tags that fail to do this will be removed at a staff members discretion. 
• You are not allowed duplicate accounts on here, if we're absolutely sure you're duplicate accounting, we will take action. If we suspect we will be keeping a very close eye on your account(s) and collect evidence. We make this very clear on the registration page, and we also make this very clear in the Terms of Service. The excuse of "I wanted multiple personas and accounts to reflect my different characters" isn't going to wash. Although we do have a feature coming up that will satisfy the apparent demand for this.
• GIFs are not allowed on the Gallery (/gallery/) This is something that is clearly stated in the categories of the gallery. 
• Just because other sites and platforms allow you to do X, doesn't mean we should, could, or do. You should read the Terms of Service. I bet we do things that other platforms and sites don't do. It's not their responsibility to make their platform like ours, and it's not our responsibility to make ours like theirs. Different sites have different rules, and procedures, don't like it? Well, we're a private entity and we can do what we like (Within the bounds of the law) including dictate our own polices, so... yeah. You're free to make suggestions by all means, but when you're caught out on bad behaviour; the excuse, that's been used time and time again of "I'm allowed to do this on (Some other website)." Is not going to wash, has never washed, and frankly it's immaterial. 

Closing Thoughts/TL;DR

Look. I would like you guys to make more of an effort to get on with each other. If you can't do that you should just ignore (or literally ignore) the other Dreamer in question and just move on, don't keep making things hostile after doing so because that's not ignoring them. I'm not going to force you all to play nice, but the time has come where I have to put my open my mouth (Or in this case move my fingers and press a few buttons) to say 'Stop. Enough is enough. Act your age.' We've had a lot of people over the last month deactivate their accounts, and I can see why from the reasons that they've left, and can't blame them. Because it's becoming a very hostile environment, where your not allowed to even voice your opinions on anything without the bullying. Because that is what it comes down to: Bullying. You can disagree with peoples opinions and that's fine, and social consequences and all of that, but at the same time there needs to be line drawn somewhere. If you disagree with me to the point that you want to close your account then by all means do so. But this is not what EcchiDreams is supposed to be, granted it's not supposed to be a safe-space echo chamber either, but why can't we have disagreements and still act like adults? I want to hope that you can do this, but over the last month or so, I'm not so sure that some of you really can, and ultimately... That's disappointing. 

I want things to change. I want things to get better. But importantly, 

I want you all to stay safe and take care. 

Lots of love (Because, yes, I am capable of that), 

Temaelrin

P.s. Feel free to comment on this article, comments are open below as always.