Suggestions

I said it before and I say it again. Staff, please. I besiege you to get your standards straight and make sure you all know them. Then communicate those standards to your playerbase. I think I speak for the majority when I say we are HAPPY to follow your rules... But we cannot do so if we DON'T KNOW WHAT THOSE RULES ARE! Evaluations for user-submitted content needs to be OBJECTIVE and without bias, not subjective and wildly varying depending on which staff member got stuck with Skin/Accent duty today. For example, accents are allowed to cover 30% of the dragon or less. That is an objective, measurable, tangible aspect of a submitted accent. It doesn't matter if you think it's too busy to be an accent when you look at it. The numbers have the final say.
And to throw in my 2 cents, I would say that these objective standards need to account for the fact that in the past there were some skins and accents approved that clearly would not fly today. And you need to account for the fact that maybe 5 years from now a new player will find those old skins and be like "WTH my accent is tamer than that old thing so why is it being rejected!?"

But the big thing here is, the staff needs to improve communication with its userbase. Without it, we're left to our own devices and imaginations. This thread has existed for almost two years and the problem has been slowly but steadily worsening since the site's creation. With no apparent attempt by the staff to even TRY and allay the growing concerns of players. If they won't try to talk with us, how do we know where this will end?
Maybe they going to ban bandages and mummy dragons because "bandages imply a wound underneath"?
Removing the colors Blood and Sanguine from the color wheel?
Abolishing the Bloody Bandages apparel?
Upgrading past Riot of Rot skins to look like they belong in My Little Pony?
Turning Plague flight into the Rainbow Happy Fun flight??
How are we supposed to know where the line is drawn if no one tells us exactly where the line is?

Also, as I noticed (and pointed out in this topic, I think) some time ago, the little sign at the bottom of the main page that proudly proclaimed FR was a T-rated site for ages 13 and up has disappeared. Poof. Gone. MIA. The staff has removed it. I had hoped it was simply temporary, since it disappeared when they were doing a number of art revamps. But it's been nearly a year since I pointed it out and the little rating box has yet to reappear.... Is the staff trying to hide that the site is rated 13+? If not, why kill the rating box that informs people of that fact?

Support.

I also find it more twisted that violence wouldn't have consequences.
And the whole 'blood is omg' attitude probably just grows the overall squeamish attitude towards it instead of seeing it as a natural thing.

[quote name="PlagueMaw" date=2017-07-16 13:47:09] Support. I also find it more twisted that violence wouldn't have consequences. And the whole 'blood is omg' attitude probably just grows the overall squeamish attitude towards it instead of seeing it as a natural thing. [/quote] This. I didn't want to comment again but I saw this post and I agree totally. As adults we should teach young players that 'violence can have consequences' instead 'oh no there's BLOOD!!!'.... I don't get how the second reaction is healthier in any means. I understand this is a game and not an educational site, but we shouldn't encourage such behaviour and freak out everytime there's teeny tiny bit of blood or a long-healed wound shown. If my 2-year-old daughter fall or had cut herself and bleeds, I wouldn't freak out and try to cover her eyes. I would tell her this is alright and it happens in life, so don't be afraid and let's deal with it, clean up the wounds and be strong. Covering up wouldn't solve any problem and would not help them cope with their fear either.

[quote name="hat17" date=2017-07-16 20:20:41] [quote name="PlagueMaw" date=2017-07-16 13:47:09] Support. I also find it more twisted that violence wouldn't have consequences. And the whole 'blood is omg' attitude probably just grows the overall squeamish attitude towards it instead of seeing it as a natural thing. [/quote] This. I didn't want to comment again but I saw this post and I agree totally. As adults we should teach young players that 'violence can have consequences' instead 'oh no there's BLOOD!!!'.... I don't get how the second reaction is healthier in any means. I understand this is a game and not an educational site, but we shouldn't encourage such behaviour and freak out everytime there's teeny tiny bit of blood or a long-healed wound shown. [/quote] This made me think of something that I just want to put out there. One of the main reasons blood seems to be banned is because "Pain and suffering is bad and wrong." And I do think most will agree that suffering isn't exactly fun. But pain? Pain isn't always evil. Pain is how your body tells you "Huston, we have a problem here, so deal with it!" Pain is quite vital, when you think about it. There's actually a few rare real life conditions that cause malfunctions in the nerve cells that transmit pain signals. People afflicted with these conditions are completely unable to feel pain. Now, at a glance, that might sound awesome. Get a paper cut? You can stick your hand in a bucket of hand sanitizer with no burning. Stub your toe? Doesn't slow you down. On your feet all day at work on a hard floor? Your feet feel ready to dance. And no more upset stomachs when you eat too much or eat certain foods means it's party time. But there's a darker side to not feeling pain. Someone who feels no pain might not think to pull their hand off a hot stove, because they cannot feel the burn. A rash could easily make you scratch yourself until you bleed, as you feel the itch, but not the pain of broken skin. And what's one of the very basic questions doctors ask you when you go to the emergency room? "Where does it hurt?" and "How bad does it hurt?" They ask these because the amount, type, and location of pain can provide important clues to what's wrong with a patient. I'm sure many are familiar with the classic symptom of a heart attack as a crushing, weight-like pain in the chest and radiating down the left arm. A normal person with appendicitis, a condition which can kill if left unchecked, will go in complaining of fever and maybe some nausea, along with abdominal pain that likely starts near the belly button and then moves to the lower right part of the belly, and worsens when coughing. Someone incapable of feeling pain would go in complaining of...a fever and maybe some nausea, and the appendicitis may not be caught until it's too late. Because without the pain, the symptoms are so vague they point to a ton of possible causes that all need to be ruled out. I mean... Fever? Without other symptoms to narrow it down, that could be anything from a common cold to cancer! Obviously, pain is not fun. Pain is an unpleasant but necessary natural part of life. It also keeps us from further harm, or from aggravating injuries that are still healing. Of course healing wounds are going to be painful. But that is not "suffering." That's the body saying "HEY dummy, your broken bones are still healing, so sit back down on that sofa and don't go running any marathons just yet!" A world without pain could potentially be more dangerous than a world with pain.

Usually when I hear "gore", I think of "oh **** remember that scene where Negan brutally murdered poor Glen in TWD?" Yeah, that's gore (tip of the iceberg I should say). Not these itty bitty scratch marks or the fact that the skin/accent is mostly red. I understand there's a line, and Glen's death crosses that line, so maybe some blood or for crying out loud, some red, should be okay. These are fictional dragons afterall, they can't die. They don't feel pain.

Someone on here posted a really, really true comment but I forgot which page it was. It said something along the lines of "the staff needs to stop bowing to the small group of users who are having hissy fits" and honestly? I couldn't agree more! If this site is rated T, then it's rated T. Whoops, sorry if certain things offends you. I get that certain things are hard to look at, hell if you break a bone in front of me chances are I'll pass out, but at the end of the day, the best thing you can really do, is look away. Avoid that stuff. That's the tough reality when you're on a dragon game. You know, those fire-breathing carnivores that murder almost everything and anything? Yeah those giant flying lizards.

So yeah, full support.

(Before you get your panties into a twist, I was being sarcastic and that was a joke.)

[quote name="Sharpstar" date=2017-07-17 05:04:04] Someone on here posted a really, really true comment but I forgot which page it was. It said something along the lines of "the staff needs to stop bowing to the small group of users who are having hissy fits" and honestly? I couldn't agree more! If this site is rated T, then it's rated T. Whoops, sorry if certain things offends you. I get that certain things are hard to look at, hell if you break a bone in front of me chances are I'll pass out, but at the end of the day, the best thing you can really do, is look away. Avoid that stuff. That's the tough reality when you're on a dragon game. You know, those fire-breathing carnivores that murder almost everything and anything? Yeah those giant flying lizards. [/quote] This is great. [s]The ones who cry louder (the small % of this site) will get everything they want and have people bend over backwards for them. It's kind of silly.[/s] Anyway, with the recent decline and the fact that I am a Plague member with vampiric dragons, I wouldn't mind just having a [b]little[/b] bit of blood or scars for accents. We can keep the T rating with just a little bit of blood, like the bandages for example. If it triggers you, just ignore it or do your best to move on. Life happens. Blood happens. Scars happen. Why have a flight of decay when you can't really use it to its full potential? In that regard, I support!

[quote name="HondaYori" date=2017-07-16 07:42:05] Also, as I noticed (and pointed out in this topic, I think) some time ago, the little sign at the bottom of the main page that proudly proclaimed FR was a T-rated site for ages 13 and up has disappeared. Poof. Gone. MIA. The staff has removed it. I had hoped it was simply temporary, since it disappeared when they were doing a number of art revamps. But it's been nearly a year since I pointed it out and the little rating box has yet to reappear.... Is the staff trying to hide that the site is rated 13+? If not, why kill the rating box that informs people of that fact? [/quote] No. The site was never rated. The cute lil Swiftwing "rated for drama!" image was merely a fun little parody, a joke. They removed it because it was being confused for a real ESRB rating. Something which might've caused a legal stumble they didn't want to have, I'm sure.

I want to support this but I think it would help if the OP was a bit more descriptive about what they wanted fixed so when the staff see it they can know what's wrong.

I agree with the need for clearly defined rules that are written on the skin/accent guideline page and not hidden on some forum somewhere. This applies to all rules on FR. We have the forum Code of Conduct, the Terms of Use, the Rules and Guidelines and then accent restrictions on top of that. All of these rules are scattered, making them hard to remember, harder to find, and overall less effective than if they were consolidated. In addition, a fair number of these rules are broad, vague, and use uncertain terms. We need everything to be objective and crystal clear.

On the specific topic of skins/accents (deviating away from the usual Plague flight dilemma), I don't understand the fear of religious portrayal on FR. We have players of all kinds of faith positions, and they should be able to say they're Buddhist or atheist or Catholic or a druid or whatever. They should be able to create skins/accents that shows their faith positions with pride. If people can imply ethnic pride, gender pride, sexuality pride, national heritage, or whatever else of a protected class of people through a skin or accent, then religion should be treated the same. If people want to have a LGBT support board, people ought to be able to have a Hindu support board too. Being a Christian is no more/less as offensive as being asexual or autistic or anything else. But on FR, the vibe I get is that any threads will disappear if someone mentions a faith position. Heck, I even fear for my account just by saying "I believe Religion X." And I don't understand all the fear. Because some people will be "offended"? Some people are offended by women's rights and black rights. That doesn't mean we hide women's rights or tell blacks to keep it hidden. So, as long as it is done respectfully, people should be able to show their religious pride through skins and accents. A dragon wearing a cross necklace is not an offensive thing, and if someone is offended by it, it is their problem, not the religious symbolism. We should not accept and breed intolerance on FR, whether that's for gender or culture or disability or even religion.

All of these "hidden rules" make things very difficult for players to follow and create an atmosphere of unease. Artists need to know what is acceptable and what isn't in clear-cut terms. Forum goers need to know the rules clearly with nothing vague that can be re-defined by different mods. Everything ought to have an objective, measurable standard. These things should not be on a whim. In this case, skin/accent designers need to have a measurable way to know where the line is. Then the staff needs to be trained to make sure everyone follows those guidelines and not "oh, this skin passes because Staff A happened to be in a good mood that day, while this nearly identical accent fails because Staff B is stricter." And all these rules should be written down in one location that is easy to find and not hidden in a forum post a staff mentioned back in winter 2016.