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So when is someone going to start a Sex-Positive Blogging Platform? These communities have always been marginalized by generic hosters - why not make one dedica

So when is someone going to start a Sex-Positive Blogging Platform? These communities have always been marginalized by generic hosters - why not make one dedicated to the content? Ohhh, right..... the advertisers.

iamdave 8y ago
Fetlife.com it already exists (plus other features, granted).
- smelendez 8y ago
  The difference is FetLife is 90%+ sex. Tumblr has sex, memes, libraries posting cute pictures from old books, cat gifs and everything else.
  - iamdave 8y ago
    The difference is FetLife is 90%+ sex. I think you'd be surprised at the amount of people who are on Fetlife and aren't looking for sex but rather enjoy the kink community, are photographers, or content creators of other types (the blogging feature for example gives you the option of treating/tagging posts as blogs or as "erotic fiction", catering towards that particular wing of the sexually creative types). Hence my statement of (plus other features, granted) in the original comment. Sure, it's oriented towards the Kink crowd but Kink != explicit sex.
- peterwwillis 8y ago
  It's not a blogging platform, it's a badly implemented Facebook clone. It's also private, making it difficult to collaborate or spread content, and has terrible search functionality. The only thing you can do is look at their global viral content feed and hope something that isn't just bondage or idiotic rants pops up. It also trends strongly towards kink, and white heteronormative sex, which excludes a huge portion of the Tumblr lgbtq+ spectrum.
  - iamdave 8y ago
    I apologize in advance for the wall of text but I felt compelled to dispel a serious misunderstandings of the Kink community and by extension Fetlife from your comment here (though I think getting into the idiosyncrasies of the kinky community and lifestyle might be a wee bit too far off the rails/topic for the discussion of tumblr providing a platform for those interested in adult content). Sure, while Fetlife might not be a "blogging" platform like Tumblr or WordPress is, the functionality of the site as a community shouldn't be dismissed as a viable alternative for tumblr refugees just because it isn't dedicated to periodical columns the way WordPress is even while the platform has a versatile and quite heavily used blogging feature. It also trends strongly towards kink Yes. It does. That's the point. They advertise it as such or try to convince you of anything otherwise. . They don't sell you anything else. That's entirely who the community was built for, it's the entire purpose of the site. The very first thing you see when you go to the website is: FetLife is the Social Network for the BDSM, Fetish & Kinky Community. So yes. That's exactly the point of the site. But I also made sure to add, that among other things, the site is a pretty good and welcoming community for artists of many types: painters, drawers, photographers, writers, it can be many things to many people who want to trade in, and interact with 'adult content' despite the headline viewers see before even logging in or creating an account of their own. But again, as I said in another comment in this subthread: kink != sex and to be earnest in discussing the affair, it's probably helpful to divorce one from the idea that kinky material == sexy material. Some people find pleasure-and it doesn't have to be sexual pleasure, it could entirely be psychosomatic in controlling what another says and does as a dom or domme. Conflating the two only sets back the entire discussion IMO. Further, this part has me raising an eyebrow and sorry if I've missed your point but: and white heteronormative sex, which excludes a huge portion of the Tumblr lgbtq+ spectrum. How? Not to be a contrarian on the subject, but as a person of color, my own experiences with the site can be surmised the way a lot of people surmise their experiences with many sites like reddit, twitter, et al: pick the communities/subgroups you want to interact with, ignore those you don't. So how does Fetlife as a platform "trend towards" white heteronormative sex? Just curious because the platform, best I can tell over the last five years as an active member allows the user to choose what groups they involve themselves with, and what people they involve themselves with and which groups they don't. If you're a person of color, looking to interact with polyamorous people who enjoy rope play, there's a good chance a group exists for it, and if not there is nothing stopping you from creating that. If you're a white person who wants to interact with non-poly people and are looking for just plain-jane sex with other white people, there are groups for that too. Best I can tell, Fetlife enables you as a user to find and interact with all sorts of individuals who fit your specific theme/motif of "pleasure" however you define it, and places no limitations on those who exist outside of however we decide to define "normative" on a given day. Is it possible the experience you speak of has less to do with the platform and more the groups you've chosen to subscribe to and the people you've chosen to interact with?
chimeracoder 8y ago
> So when is someone going to start a Sex-Positive Blogging Platform? These communities have always been marginalized by generic hosters - why not make one dedicated to the content? Ohhh, right..... the advertisers. It's impossible to do that legally anymore, because these platforms will always be used by people who do sex work (whether or not they are using the platform for sex work). As of March of this year, the criminal liabilities are so massive that there's no way to operate a sex-positive platform at scale. That's why we're seeing Tumblr and (as of yesterday) Facebook move towards these draconian anti-sex policies.
- ssijak 8y ago
  You know that you can run and host websites from outside of US, right?
  - chimeracoder 8y ago
    > You know that you can run and host websites from outside of US, right? The liability that FOSTA and SESTA impose is very "contagious" - it applies not just to the people running the website (e.g. Tumblr) but can extend to anyone that does business with them as well, if that business is deemed necessary enough to the core function of the site. It'd be very difficult to run any sort of sex-positive blogging platform at scale without, at some point, doing business with someone who has enough of a presence in the US to be exposed to liability under FOSTA and SESTA. Even Cloudflare had to terminate the account used by Switter, a Mastodon instance for sex workers, because of FOSTA.
    - drdeadringer 8y ago
      > It'd be very difficult to run any sort of sex-positive blogging platform at scale without, at some point, doing business with someone who has enough of a presence in the US to be exposed to liability under FOSTA and SESTA. What happened when you tried?
      - chimeracoder 8y ago

iamdave 8y ago

Fetlife.com it already exists (plus other features, granted).

smelendez 8y ago
The difference is FetLife is 90%+ sex. Tumblr has sex, memes, libraries posting cute pictures from old books, cat gifs and everything else.
- iamdave 8y ago
  The difference is FetLife is 90%+ sex. I think you'd be surprised at the amount of people who are on Fetlife and aren't looking for sex but rather enjoy the kink community, are photographers, or content creators of other types (the blogging feature for example gives you the option of treating/tagging posts as blogs or as "erotic fiction", catering towards that particular wing of the sexually creative types). Hence my statement of (plus other features, granted) in the original comment. Sure, it's oriented towards the Kink crowd but Kink != explicit sex.
peterwwillis 8y ago
It's not a blogging platform, it's a badly implemented Facebook clone. It's also private, making it difficult to collaborate or spread content, and has terrible search functionality. The only thing you can do is look at their global viral content feed and hope something that isn't just bondage or idiotic rants pops up. It also trends strongly towards kink, and white heteronormative sex, which excludes a huge portion of the Tumblr lgbtq+ spectrum.
- iamdave 8y ago
  I apologize in advance for the wall of text but I felt compelled to dispel a serious misunderstandings of the Kink community and by extension Fetlife from your comment here (though I think getting into the idiosyncrasies of the kinky community and lifestyle might be a wee bit too far off the rails/topic for the discussion of tumblr providing a platform for those interested in adult content). Sure, while Fetlife might not be a "blogging" platform like Tumblr or WordPress is, the functionality of the site as a community shouldn't be dismissed as a viable alternative for tumblr refugees just because it isn't dedicated to periodical columns the way WordPress is even while the platform has a versatile and quite heavily used blogging feature. It also trends strongly towards kink Yes. It does. That's the point. They advertise it as such or try to convince you of anything otherwise. . They don't sell you anything else. That's entirely who the community was built for, it's the entire purpose of the site. The very first thing you see when you go to the website is: FetLife is the Social Network for the BDSM, Fetish & Kinky Community. So yes. That's exactly the point of the site. But I also made sure to add, that among other things, the site is a pretty good and welcoming community for artists of many types: painters, drawers, photographers, writers, it can be many things to many people who want to trade in, and interact with 'adult content' despite the headline viewers see before even logging in or creating an account of their own. But again, as I said in another comment in this subthread: kink != sex and to be earnest in discussing the affair, it's probably helpful to divorce one from the idea that kinky material == sexy material. Some people find pleasure-and it doesn't have to be sexual pleasure, it could entirely be psychosomatic in controlling what another says and does as a dom or domme. Conflating the two only sets back the entire discussion IMO. Further, this part has me raising an eyebrow and sorry if I've missed your point but: and white heteronormative sex, which excludes a huge portion of the Tumblr lgbtq+ spectrum. How? Not to be a contrarian on the subject, but as a person of color, my own experiences with the site can be surmised the way a lot of people surmise their experiences with many sites like reddit, twitter, et al: pick the communities/subgroups you want to interact with, ignore those you don't. So how does Fetlife as a platform "trend towards" white heteronormative sex? Just curious because the platform, best I can tell over the last five years as an active member allows the user to choose what groups they involve themselves with, and what people they involve themselves with and which groups they don't. If you're a person of color, looking to interact with polyamorous people who enjoy rope play, there's a good chance a group exists for it, and if not there is nothing stopping you from creating that. If you're a white person who wants to interact with non-poly people and are looking for just plain-jane sex with other white people, there are groups for that too. Best I can tell, Fetlife enables you as a user to find and interact with all sorts of individuals who fit your specific theme/motif of "pleasure" however you define it, and places no limitations on those who exist outside of however we decide to define "normative" on a given day. Is it possible the experience you speak of has less to do with the platform and more the groups you've chosen to subscribe to and the people you've chosen to interact with?

chimeracoder 8y ago

> So when is someone going to start a Sex-Positive Blogging Platform? These communities have always been marginalized by generic hosters - why not make one dedicated to the content? Ohhh, right..... the advertisers. It's impossible to do that legally anymore, because these platforms will always be used by people who do sex work (whether or not they are using the platform for sex work). As of March of this year, the criminal liabilities are so massive that there's no way to operate a sex-positive platform at scale. That's why we're seeing Tumblr and (as of yesterday) Facebook move towards these draconian anti-sex policies.

ssijak 8y ago
You know that you can run and host websites from outside of US, right?
- chimeracoder 8y ago
  > You know that you can run and host websites from outside of US, right? The liability that FOSTA and SESTA impose is very "contagious" - it applies not just to the people running the website (e.g. Tumblr) but can extend to anyone that does business with them as well, if that business is deemed necessary enough to the core function of the site. It'd be very difficult to run any sort of sex-positive blogging platform at scale without, at some point, doing business with someone who has enough of a presence in the US to be exposed to liability under FOSTA and SESTA. Even Cloudflare had to terminate the account used by Switter, a Mastodon instance for sex workers, because of FOSTA.
  - drdeadringer 8y ago
    > It'd be very difficult to run any sort of sex-positive blogging platform at scale without, at some point, doing business with someone who has enough of a presence in the US to be exposed to liability under FOSTA and SESTA. What happened when you tried?
    - chimeracoder 8y ago